Everyone told us that it would take us three seasons to master the Rayburn (our wood fired kitchen range, which also heats our side of the Chateau). Naively we thought that couldn’t be true. How hard could it be to manage?
The first winter we fired it up, we looked forward to its radiating warmth. But the radiators were tepid and we had to feed it constantly with logs. Blasting through the packed log store of very old wood we inherited with the house.
Our second Rayburn winter was an improvement. But I still wore a woollen hat, even inside, from November until early March. We brought logs in by the barrowful, several times a day. With no time to log our own trees we had to buy in wood; seasoned oak, which we mixed with a bit of lime and a lot of pine that we had logged the year before. It smouldered and burned, but it didn’t roar. The radiators were warmer but still not hot enough for me.
This year we met Jean-Marc, who used to manage our woodland for the Chateau’s previous owners. Steadily Jean-Marc has been teaching us about our trees and how they burn. Our woodland is a beautiful mix of charme (hornbeam), frêne (ash), châtaignier (chestnut), chêne (oak), tilleul (lime or linden), sycomore (sycamore) and hêtre (beech).
Oak and ash when properly seasoned burn beautifully long and hot; Sycamore burns well but doesn’t give off as much heat; Lime provides bulk, but barely simmers; chestnut is all fireworks and little flame, spitting and popping without giving off much warmth and beech sparks too but after a long seasoning burns well.
This year the oak is drier and now burns ferociously, warming the kitchen and the radiators easily. We have chopped and stacked more oak and we have hornbeam too and some ash which will be seasoned in time for next winter.
Three years on and this winter we are warm. I haven’t had to wear my bobble hat once. The kittens and the dog vie for the best spot in front of the Rayburn, the kitchen is cosy and tonight a boeuf bourguignon is slowly stewing in the oven.
I’ve even tentatively started to decorate for Christmas, weaving ivy along the mantel shelf and lighting the candles against the gloomy winter afternoon.
