For a real wilderness feast, the green-wood grill is a great approach. This cooking method consists of a rack of fresh live sticks or branches, set up with a fire underneath. This grill acts very much like a metal cooking grill, and you may be able to get several uses out of your sticks before they begin to burn.
These sticks can be supported in different ways, and you can build the grill in any size or shape that you like. Square, rectangular, and triangular shapes are popular, and these can range in size from tiny to huge. I have built several massive grills over the years, the largest of which held enough food to feed 70 people. To build your own, an easily adaptable construction method involves stakes or small posts that are driven into the ground to hold the rack.
Cut four stakes, 1 yard long, each with a side branch at the end. Whittle a point on the end that doesn’t fork, and drive these into the ground about 8-10 inches. Set two stout green wood poles in the forks, and lay a rack of green sticks perpendicular to the poles.
Maintain a nice bed of coals and low flames to grill your meats and vegetables to perfection. I love roasting sweet corn this way, just as people have for centuries.
And if you’re looking for a grill with greater stability, try a tripod grill. Lash three crosspieces to the outside of a large tripod and then lay your greenwood rack on top of…
