It was a perfect night for burning the brush pile. Thursday’s heavy rains had diminished to a very light drizzle. The pile is a collection of trimmings and fallen branches. This year we had two huge sections of trunk from an old apple tree that I took down in the spring. We had to use some dry cardboard and dry wood from the shed to get the fire started, but there was no danger of starting the woods on fire, which is always on my mind when burning anything in the yard.
After a while we had a roaring blaze. As the fire died down we cooked a collection of fall vegetables in the hot coals, just like we were camping. We baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, sweet peppers, and butternut squash. Judy coated the veggies with olive oil and wrapped them with cooking foil. We placed them on the hot coals, and in less than an hour, we had a delicious meal. The peppers were a little less than exciting and probably could have used some seasoning, but everything else was scrumptious.
The next morning the fire was still smoking. Anneliese and I have been working the remnants of the logs to try to get most of them burned up. We now have a pile of ashes, which are a good source of potassium. When the ashes are totally cold, I’ll carry them to the compost pile and work them in.