Fire as a tool: Fox Haven workshop teaches using fire to bake bread and make glue

Aug. 8—About a dozen participants tore off pieces of yellow bread dough in a plastic bag and spread it around their maple tree branches at the Fox Haven Farm and Learning Center on Sunday. They went to a nearby small, dying fire and started pitching their sticks in the ground to where the dough was hovering close enough to bake but far away enough that it wouldn't burn.

Though no flames were present, one could feel the heat of the former fire from two feet away. And the scent of baked bread quickly filled the air.

"You can't put a timer on these things," Jason Drevenak, an instructor at the farm, said.

Drevenak taught a class at the Jefferson-based learning center Sunday afternoon, taking participants through the story of fire and how people used it as a tool for centuries. He also gave attendees the opportunity to learn how to make and use some of those tools.

Fire was necessary and present in all cultures, no matter where you went, Drevenak said. It's what helped cultures develop, he said.

"You're essentially looking at it through your ancestors' eyes..." Drevenak said.

Sara Hagstrom, 25, is an intern and volunteer at the farm. There's a lot of classes she's interested in, but she took this class specifically because she wanted to know more about what she could do with a bonfire.

"I like camping, and I'd love to, like, know more about what I'm doing and the practical uses," Hagstrom said.

And the bread that was baked over a hearth at the farm was definitely the main event.

But participants didn't just make bread. They also made pitch glue, a combination of pine sap, horse dung and beeswax, which is used as an adhesive.

Drevenak put the three ingredients for the glue in a tuna can and placed them on the hot rocks around the fire. He stirred them with a stick as it all melted, creating a sticky and malleable adhesive.

Drevenak grew up on his family's homestead in West Virginia, he said, which afforded him skills in living self-sufficiently, and was lucky enough to merge his passion with a career. He specializes in tools like his father and grandfather did before him, though he said he prefers tools of a more primitive type.

"I took it further back on the timeline of hominids than anybody else in my family did like with flint-knapping and traditional archery and making birch pitch and things like that, but it was always interesting to me," he said.

For the bread dough, he used a recipe for damper bread — an Australian bread early settlers used — with his own twist. He added spices and herbs such as rosemary and cayenne. Additionally, rather than water, he used beer. What makes this bread special, he said, is that it doesn't have dairy, so it can't spoil.

Daphne Yin, 33, works in Washington, D.C., looking at conservation and management of forests. She came to the class to learn more about fire since it's related to what she does.

She thought the class would be more related to making fires, but she was excited about cooking. She also got into baking during the pandemic, so to see it being done outside of an oven was a neat surprise, she said.

She also said she liked how Drevenak took the time to lay the foundation of fire in cultures. She feels a lot of workshops skip over the foundation and jump into skills, but Drevenak brought together traditions with intention.

"I really appreciate that he's giving credit to the different cultures that he's drawing his skillset from," Yin said.

Yin's husband, Faraz Usmani, came along for the fun of the class. It wasn't a usual way to spend his Sunday, he said. He put a piece of what he called "A+" fire-baked bread in his mouth.

"On this hot, Sunday afternoon, a little bit of bread and just, like, listening to somebody talk about fire, it's pretty good," he said.

Follow Clara Niel on Twitter:

@clarasniel