Yes I do realise first of all, that the pictures I’m using here do not feature a tripod cooking stand but a six fold tripod like contraption made up of sticks and branches with some rather simple yet impressively  effective binding also made from branches holding it together near the top. However, until I come upon the correct terminology for this marvellous piece of cooking equipment, I shall refer to it as the tripod. Either way, tripod or sixta-pod or whatever kind of bushcraft pod, I am desperate and I mean desperate, to make one of these and get cooking in the outdoors.

I’ve always had a love for cooking and eating outdoors, but despite having so many books on the subject of wild and camping cooking etc… I haven’t managed to get myself organised to do it yet. This I’m hoping to remedy in the next few weeks and I’m really excited to get started.

I’m thinking of a outdoors adventure with the children where we can set up our tripod and get cooking!

These pictures I took when I was in the Arctic in 2020 with a group of fellow  adventurer’s learning bushcraft and survival as taught by a fantastic group of ex-elite forces soldiers from both the UK and Sweden. I have very happy memories of that time and especially so as during this particular exercise we were learning how to set one of these tripod’s up with natural materials around us as well as a small amount of survival equipment – metal hooks and chains for suspending the cooking pots and stainless steel purification buckets. The process of setting up these tripods out of branches is called lashing (hence the title) and is either done by binding with string or paracord or by using a three holed metal plate to slot the tops of the branches through.

As you will see from the pictures, we were melting snow and boiling it to purify it so we could drink and cook with it. For trying to replicate this experience at home, I’ve come to the conclusion it either floats your boat or it doesn’t. There’s no point trying to explain to the wilfully uninterested, the joy one feels at melting your own snow in order to make a cup of tea or get washed. Being staunchly in the boat floated camp, I’m torn between my perfectionism demanding I assemble my tripod with only sturdy sticks and branches and my impatient side wanting to buy a metal one in the meantime to ensure there’s no more delay in my outdoor cooking project! Whichever I do decide to go for, it won’t  be long before I’ll have something bubbling happily away.