Firewood?

Do you have enough to last through the winter?  If you need a load, give me a call.

The End of Summer

With only a few more weeks of the farmers market left summer is quickly coming to an end.  I will continue to have charcoal available out of the barn.  Call or email to arrange a time to pick up a supply for your fall and winter grilling.

Pictures of the Process

Loading the board scraps into the 55 gallon drum.

Cutting the slats to feed the kiln.

Making little ones out of big ones.

Setting the outer drum over the 55 gallon drum.

Turning the whole assembly on its side.

Getting ready to turn the assembly over.

Unloading the kiln.

The sorting and bagging table. All the small pieces and dust fall through the grate before it  is loaded into the bags.

This is the final product.

Back in Production

Material for the new retort kiln 

Working on the lid.

The raw material which will be the charcoal.

The inner drum (upside down) is loaded with the oak board cut offs. The outer space is filled with small resaw slats from a pallet plant.

Lighting the kiln.

The first burn.

New technology for 2012

The first charcoal kiln "Old Smokey"

Finished charcoal fresh from the kiln

In 2011 I made seven batches of natural wood charcoal with "Old Smokey". This contraption produced great charcoal for me while I had it in operation.  The advantages were that it could produce a large amount of charcoal per firing. The kiln did best with long small diameter pieces of wood which helped save work when gathering and loading. The disadvantages was its efficiency. I averaged about 150 lbs of marketable charcoal out of 1000 lbs of wood.  When firing this kiln you had to dedicate at least 12 hours to the operation. The last and greatest disadvantage was the amount of thick nasty smoke it produced during the firing.

For the 2012 season I am developing some new technology (for me) in my production. I will be using a smaller retort kiln that once loaded and fired will be mostly hands off. The new kiln will produce 30 to 40 lbs of charcoal in 3 hrs from 130 to 150 lbs of wood  Best of all the new kiln will be mostly smoke free!

I will post pictures as I construct and begin test firing the new retort kiln.

The end of the 2011 markets

Guest appearance at the Lynchburg Community Market

Meeting friends and neighbors at the Nelson Farmers Market

My little helper at the Nelson Farmers Market

One of the few raining mornings at the Nelson Farmers Market

I had a great first season selling charcoal and other grilling/smoking products at the Nelson Farmers Market.  I am looking forward to another great market season in 2012.  See you all soon!