I'm not a "let's see if we can do this with flint" Gal. I want my fire to light, first attempt. And I'll admit... I've doused it with charcoal fluid if my attempts sputtered to make that happen. With these, it starts, ecologically soundly, *every* time.
Shop at: ifyoucare.com (I found at Fred Meyers)
The bag says it all - this is a product you can feel good about in your camp box.
These little cubes, kindling, a crumpled newspaper - FIRE!
It takes only 2-3 of these little cubes to start a fire, and I've never had them fail. They are comprised of vegetable oil solids and FSC wood (Forest Stewardship Council) which means the wood is from forests that are certified to be responsibly managed in compliance with the rigorous environmental and social standards of this organization. Read more here: fsc.org and check out the website for more great ecologically responsible goods ifyoucare.com
I crumple a few sheets of newspaper, or brown paper grocery bags... tuck in 2-3 cubes around the fire on those; then add kindling in a "tent" over that; and light the newspaper right next to the cubes. The cubes keep the fire going long enough to fully ignite the kindling.
From there, I add some smaller-large pieces of firewood, and when it's really glowing, a nice big long-term log. Then I just breathe in that wonderful campfire woodsmoke smell, one of my favorite scents in the world, and settle down with a book and a cup of coffee, and voila - Happy Place.
This bag was about $9, and will start about 24 fires. I have a morning AND evening fire when there are no burn bans, so this bag will cover 6 weekend camping trips.
That's a pretty great value for all of the pleasure a quick-starting campfire affords.
