Carrot Fire Starter Bundles

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Just because it’s cold enough to have a fire in the fireplace, it doesn’t mean you can’t start celebrating spring with a basket full of carrots.  These carrots are made of grapevine with fresh rosemary greens  - toss them in the fireplace under your logs for a quick start, or leave them in a basket close by.  Either way, the smell of rosemary will make the house smell great.

MATERIALS

Grapevine garland

Rosemary (or lavender, or pine, or sage - you get the idea)

Twine

STEPS

Cut the garland into two pieces, roughly 24” long and a few shorter pieces, roughly 4’ long.

You’ll find that garland is often held together with little pieces of wire, if so, remove them.

Lay the two long pieces on top of each other and fold them in half.

Tie the twin in a knot around the folded point and wrap it around a few times.

Work your way up the bundle wrapping as you go.  As you go up, don’t pull as tight, so the grapevine tapers out, like a…uh….carrot.

When you get about half way up, take the three smaller bundles you cut and nestle them inside the longer pieces.  This will give the user part of the carrot a little more girth.  Continue wrapping until you get to the top and tie off the twine.

Take a handful of your rosemary and insert the stems inside the top of your carrot.

Use a pair of clippers to trim up the top of the carrot to get a nice edge.

Now make a few, tuck them into a cute little basket near the fireplace and while you dream of the warm days to come, you can toss them in to help start the fire on those cold final days of winter.