101 The Basics,  Glamping,  Glamping Guidance,  My Secrets,  Outdoor Cooking,  Outdoor Cooking Guidance

How to Reuse Old Corks as Fire Starter

I can now finally answer the question, What should I do with all of these leftover wine corks? While browsing Pinterest the other day, I came across a brilliant idea to use wine corks as fire starter. I saved it to my Pin board Glamping – Need to Try, wondering if it would be another Pinterest Fail, but alas, it was not.

  • First, take an empty, sealed container. A mason jar works well.

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  • Fill it with your selected corks.

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Don’t overfill. They expand and you’ll have trouble getting them out. 

  • Grab some rubbing alcohol at the drug store. 90% is recommended, but this is what the store had and so I went with it.

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  • Fill her up!

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  • Slip the jar lid back on and store it in the pantry for a few days, giving the corks time to absorb all the booze.  (I let mine soak a week, but you can do 3-4 days.)

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How handy is this jar to throw in your campout bag?

When it’s time to start the fire, open the jar and grab a few corks.

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Mine were all bloated and crammed together, as you can see, so getting them out required some maneuvering.

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Place them in your desired fire location. Here, I’m using a metal cylinder in my grill. If you’re building a campfire, you can place them at the base of the fire underneath your kindling.

Next, add the “kindling.”

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My kindling here is an old shopping bag.

Seriously, what does it say about me that I have shopping bags and wine corks laying around the house?

  • Next, I turned the cylinder over so I could fill it with coals.

 

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  • Then I filled the cylinder with coals.
  • If you’re using these corks on a campfire or don’t have a cylinder, simply stack the corks, kindling, and logs in that order.

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  • Then, light the kindling.

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  • Light it good!

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  • Almost at once, your corks and kindling should ignite and the corks will sustain a flame.

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Go little corks!

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  • Watch it burn.

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  • At this point, turn the cylinder over and dump the coals into the grill. Wear a mitt so you don’t burn yourself. Make children and pets stand back.
  • If you’re using these over a campfire, just watch ’em burn and add logs as needed!

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Parfait!

Now you’re ready to grill burgers and roast marshmallows. The only question left is, What do I do when I run out of wine corks? 

I think I have some girlfriends who can help me with that…