Jim, thanks for sharing that with us.

Sorta reminds me of Mamaw Smiths way of renewing her cast iron skillets. I live on the Tennessee River in Knoxville and every year, the TVA draws down the water several feet to prevent flooding in the valley due to spring rains. During the winter period, we always clean the beach area of logs, limbs, tree limbs we have collected from trimming and other reasons and pile them on the beach. It usually results in a pile of brush about eight feet tall and about 20-30 feet in diameter. We usually burn it late in the evening and we use the burn to roast weiners, marshmellows, heat chili and various other things which includes a little libation.

Mamaw Smith always puts her cast iron pans in the middle of the fire when it gets white hot. She lets them stay in the fire until it dies down, retrieves the pans, cleans them and seasons them again. It must work cause she has been using the same cast iron pans for better than sixty years.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN