Need an excuse for another cup of Tea?

 

I've stolen (or borrowed!) this trick from my ingenious mom. She has taught me much and we continue to learn together :-)

We drink tea. Lots of tea! Lots of tea means lots of used tea bags... Mom has always kept the tea bags, dried them out and put them in a jar with paraffin/torch fuel to use as firelighters. This is especially useful when at the River House a long drive from civilisation and fires for breakfast, lunch and dinner preparations (loads of need for firelighters). Buying blitz would get a little ridiculous and the crumpled newspaper and kindling can be challenging :-)


The basic recipe (and you really can't go wrong) is to dry out tea bags - this works well on a baking rack and you can speed up the process by popping them in the oven when you're done baking/grilling anything. Put  these tea bags into a glass jar with a lid that seals. Add enough paraffin/torch fuel to get onto all of the bags (play it by ear - you really don't need much). If the jar is sealed, the firelighters will last a very long time. It might be necessary to add some extra paraffin if they get too dried out or if they don't burn properly. You only need a couple to light a stack of logs and you'll be amazed at how long the tea burns for.

 Please remember that fires should not be left unattended. Paraffin and Torch fuel should be kept out of reach of children, as well as far enough away from your fire that they don't catch fire as they are highly flammable! 

Happy fire-gazing!