Charcoal Making – a traditional, cyclical story

This time, our Ranger Roundup comes with a bit of a twist, as our Rangers have been turning their winter conservation work into something new for our shop.

This year, we are making our own charcoal here at Stanwick Lakes, using entirely traditional methods. We will be selling lumpwood charcoal for people to take home for their BBQs, as well as artist’s charcoal for those who want to get creative.

Head Ranger Carol Nunn explains more about how this traditional, cyclical process works:

Stanwick Lakes is a 750-acre nature reserve and the team of four Rangers manage the conservation work across the whole site. In the winter months, this is large-scale vegetation management, including tree felling and planting, cutting willow, removing scrub and the like.

This year, we have been making use of the timber that was collected and stored in the winter season by making it into charcoal, both for home BBQs and for artists, using entirely traditional methods in a charcoal kiln.

The wood is carefully stacked in the kiln by hand in a very specific way before it is ignited and then, later, starved of oxygen to remove moisture – a process known as pyrolysis. Charcoal burns hotter and cleaner than raw wood, and our charcoal does not contain any contaminants or accelerants.

We also include a secured tin in the stack of timber. Inside the tin are lengths of willow that are sourced on site and stripped of bark, the traditional product for artist’s charcoal. This enables us to make two types of charcoal at the same time.

All of the timber we use is sourced on site, chopped on site and processed on site. We are delighted to be able to make use of it in this way.

We have a very low or no carbon footprint, the timber is sustainably sourced and all proceeds go directly to the Charity to support the work that we do.

This year we will be selling lumpwood charcoal for people to take away for their BBQs at home and artist’s charcoal for those who wish to get creative.

One of the first people to test our artist’s charcoal was team member Jaz, who was excited to put her artistic hand to the product. She has already been busy creating some lovely pictures of the Heritage Gardens using these natural products, and we think the results are rather special.

It’s a great example of the cyclical approach we take to managing Stanwick Lakes: the Rangers’ conservation work produces timber, which can then be transformed into something useful, creative and sustainable, with the proceeds helping to support the Charity and the work we do here.

Keep an eye out for our new charcoal in the shop, and perhaps you’ll be inspired to give it a try yourself!