Charcoal briquettes

[Philip Davies]

Thanks, Wizard! I have just made up a second batch. I simmered the plums for twenty minutes, poured it hot into the charcoal/sawdust/pine needle mix adding nothing else except paper pulp, using a power mixer/stirrer in a power drill, as you would to mix plaster. This resulted in a mouldable mass which I shovelled into the formwork, tamped it down with a paddle or pestle, then clamped the ladder in place. I shall leave it now 10 days, but it will come out in complete cakes, that can be crumbled or burnt whole, with or without drought, hopefully not too smoky, but I shall wait for rain. The damsons are in season, nearby, and nobody else picks them. Other fruits may work just as well. Elderberries will be tried next.