I brought two DIY solar cookers to my cat-sitting gig in “THE VALLEY”. Because they are so portable, and because this home has every modern convenience + solar panels, it’s a cheap thrill to do something low tech and hands on.
How portable are these cookers? The five pieces of poster board form a 14″x14″x1/2″ packet!
Or, you can fold it like a fig and invert it into a shopping bag.
The neighbors gifted me some freshly caught tuna and I had butternut squash from LA EcoVillage garden. I always use a meat thermometer when cooking fish or meat. The covered pan is wrapped in an oven roasting bag to trap heat.
Despite the warped pasteboard edges of the cooker on the right, a pot of cabbage was well cooked.
Solar cooker tip: Don’t expose the poster board cooker to moisture – not even over night dew – because the edges will curl. After a few days under heavy books, they resumed their former shape. At the EcoVillage, when I store the cookers outdoors, I wrap them in plastic.
Solar Cooker Demonstrations: It is my intention to plan a solar cooker demonstration to fund raise for Solar Cookers International and for the LA EcoVillage, so stay tuned for that announcement.
I want to begin with a huge public thank you to Federico who built a beautiful cart from upcylced materials for the newest, largest, heavy solar oven. I am so grateful to move it out of my apartment, to store it outdoors so I do not have to navigate stairs while carrying it.
Now it can be easily pulled around the garage area to the current sunny location (just like a cat)
Also, thanks to Jimmy who made his shop and welding skills available to Federico for this project. They both kept it a secret from me until it was ready.
I am so happy with it and hope it will make it easier for others to cook with the sun, too.
After several weeks of cloudy – often rainy – days I decided to binge cook on a sunny day before the afternoon high winds set in.
I put the homemade “fig” solar cooker and the reflector solar cooker in the more protected courtyard. They are both light weight and may blow away in the wind.
Below, the Global Sun Oven roasted a few lbs of chicken on a layered bed of onions and celery. While the oven was still hot after I removed the chicken, I baked a sun-oven appropriate version of Rhian’s g.f., vegan carrot cake. Optimal solar cooking time is 10 am – 2 pm and it was after 1 pm when I was ready to bake the cake. I put it into a wide pan instead of a loaf pan to hasten the baking time. That work-horse oven heated to 350 – 375 degrees.
Last year I taught a few solar cooking/ diy solar cooker construction workshops. I haven’t planned any for this year, yet. Interested people may contact me.
The garden has been so responsive to the rains that we gardeners are working hard to keep up with the growth and overgrowth. Check out some of the abundance:
Below: Peas were reluctant to germinate this year and required 4 re-plantings. The ones that sprouted flourished. I usually eat 1/2 of the daily harvest while I’m picking them, and we still have plenty to share with neighbors. While the pea vines begin to decline, the Fava (broad) beans are maturing.
I love growing Romanesco broccoli because it is so beautiful. Unlike the broccolini that preceded it, it won’t have side shoots, so that is the cost of beauty. Next year we’ll grow them simultaneously for abundance and beauty.
I can’t say enough about the efficiency of planting sweet potatoes and potatoes. Cut one into several pieces, plant each piece and each piece may yield 1-3 lbs! We harvested sweet potatoes in late fall and we started digging potatoes mid- March.
Eggs cook faster in a solar oven than in the cooker. I haven’t got the knack of predicting whether they will be hard or soft cooked, yet, so I just try one & decide whether or not to let them cook longer.
place the eggs you want to cook in a cardboard egg carton
remove the top of egg carton
put carton in solar cooker or solar oven
after temperature reaches 212℉, continue cooking until you think they’re done the way you like them.
I was introduced to this Tromboncino heirloom squash at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. It reminded my so much of a sleeping cat that I had to buy one. That resemblance made it harder to slice!
I’m making chicken soup, a comfort food for my visit with my Aunt Annie tomorrow. She’s 105 years old, lives alone in an area west of San Diego and mostly looks after herself. This visit was originally scheduled to celebrate her recent birthday, but, her last son died last week, our visit is just to be together. This soup has to be special because it may be our last meal together.
Yesterday, in the solar cookers, I made chicken broth with lemongrass (from garden) and wakami (not from garden), roasted chicken livers (for auntie and the cat), and roasted carrots. Today I roasted the skinny part of Tromboncino on a bed of onions with a little turmeric and cumin seeds, and made chicken bone broth. It was fun to have all of those cookers working at one time. I’ve been usurping any piece of furniture around here that will hold a cooker! Ideally, I’d like help to put wheels on a few for the heavier ovens.
Today I added the ramen noodles (millet/ brown rice) that we now stock in the bulk room.
I also experimented with peanut butter, almond meal, date cookies, (lower left). That’s it- just 3 gf, vegan ingredients! I plan to bake them again at the Saturday solar cooker workshop – and sneak in a little sweetener.
Ambient temperature was low 90s when I decided there might be enough sun breaking through to try cooking in the pre-heated sun oven: 1/2 lb. ham, 2 fish fillets, 2 chicken legs, 2 large sweet potatoes and green beans. I don’t recall what time I began, but by 1:45 pm voilà
in which I nap too long and try to crank up the temperature in the cooker
After a bike ride and lunch, I napped while the veggies were roasting. My plan was to roast chicken next, but it was 3:30. Is that too late? I spread 2 brined chicken thighs, seasoned with lemon & oregano over a bed of onions, cumin seeds & lemon grass; put the pan in a roasting bag and onto a metal rack in the cooker, (to let heat circulate under the pan). I pegged two halves of a large roasting bag across the cooker opening: 285° on the pan’s lid and digital in chicken probe = 156°.
Day 10 – Can the cooker temperature increase enough to roast an undelicate “delicata” squash?
At the farmers’ market yesterday I bought what appeared to be a delicata squash on steroids. When I tried to slice it this morning I discovered that, instead of the delicate, edible skin of a delicata, it had the rind of a gourd. I wanted to make a bean-boat, so I scooped out the center, flipped the lids of two cans of organic Goya beans* -and the cats appeared in a nano second.
Winter squashes need 400° + to bake.
• How close can we get?
• Will slow cooking compensate for temperature?
At 10 am I did the same routine as yesterday: pan in roasting bag on metal rack, covered cooker with roasting bag.
T = 310° when I returned from bike ride at 1 pm – and squash was cooked. (Taste is bland, not like delicata!). (Did I mention that there was only 1 farmer and a lot of misc. vendors at the NoHo Farmer’s market.)
Bike ride side note. Used my new telescope to watch cormorants feed their “babies” in their nests high in the trees at Sepulveda Nature Preserve.
for the Solar Cooking Workshop on Saturday, Aug. 27. If you can’t make that one, we’ll plan to channel the rays again in Oct., and maybe Tea and Solar Treats in Sept.
Product placements are part of my effort to demonstrate cooking with easily accessible food.
Our August 27 solar cooking workshop attracted attention from Luther Krueger who hosts Saturday Solar Cooking Brunches in Minneapolis, gives s.c. demos across the state and interviews solar cooks around the country. He says, I think what you are doing is really up at the top for getting the message out–and DIY cookers are soon to be a big focus of my ….outreach efforts.
to the Saibaba Ashram, Maharashtra, India where an enormous solar cooking system produces thousands of meals daily and saves nearly 220,000 lbs of cooking gas per year;
to refugee camps and villages where solar cookers reduce the need for kerosene, charcoal and dangerous wood-gathering forays for cooking and sterilizing drinking water.
I’m on a solar cooking sabbatical
People asked me about solar cooking on camping trips and solar cooking for unhoused people so I brought these DIY solar cookers, made by Sage and me, to my cat-sitting gig. I’m challenging myself to use these cookers in lieu of gas or electric appliances as often as possible because the yard here has all-day sun.
Solar cooking is easy. It’s very forgiving: it doesn’t burn food.
That said, there are some foods- like these chicken thighs and grains – that will sit happily in the heat after they’re safely cooked.
Other foods, like these veggies – want to be monitored a little closer if you want them crispy.
I searched for some quick cooking vegetarian/vegan protein and found this line of “riced” products made from chickpeas & lentils.
Ready to channel the sun?
Get your Eventbrite ticket to join Sage and me on Saturday, August 27 at the LA EcoVillage, as we cook and bake in 4 varieties of solar cookers. We’ll demonstrate how to make a simple cooker and have low cost DIY kits available for purchase. Limited to 12 participants including youth at least 10 y.o.
Solar and mental reflections while LA Eco-village kids bake with the sun
To accommodate a wide variety of dietary preferences & needs I bake gluten free, vegan food for demonstrations. Here’s one of many that I have adopted from Rhian
▢60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
▢200 ml (⅘ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
▢2 tablespoons lemon juice *
▢8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener) ( i used 4 Tbsp)
▢1 teaspoon vanilla extract
▢Pinch salt
▢150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) **
▢150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
▢2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
▢¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
▢100 g (1 cup) fresh blueberries ( i subtituted mulberries)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). I preheated sun oven for 1/2 hr.
Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil). (We melted it in sun oven)
Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry. (Mulberries were wetter than blueberries so no extra liquid was used).
Add the fresh blueberries (mulberries) and fold in gently, to make sure you don’t crush them. (Mulberries crush!)
Transfer the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tin.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean. (about 90 min. in sun oven on clear, sunny, hot day).
Tastes best when fresh, but keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Why demonstrate a few puny worms munching on food scraps when we’re going to show off our 3 bin hot composting system?
Because building a DIY worm bin from discarded material aligns with 3 of our Core Values:
Celebrate and include joy in all our endeavors. I feel a rush of joy when resources “magically” appear after I envision a project. And I enjoy the magical transmutation of food scraps into rich humus.
Take responsibility for each other and the planet through local environmental and social action.
It doesn’t get much more local than plunking your food waste into your own worm bin
a DIY worm bin is pretty cheap, and
easier to fit into small spaces – indoors or out – than a large composting system.
Learn from nature and live ecologically. (Worms help us) gain a better appreciation of the intricate balance and interdependencies in nature…inviting us to tread more gently upon the Earth, says Mary Applehof, Worms Eat My Garbage.
2 bay leaves (from bay bushes in front of Terraces)
1 tsp. sea salt
Peppercorns (optional)
Boil vinegar, bay leaves, salt & pepper. (This year I boiled vinegar in sun oven). Cool. Pack seeds into clean pint jar & pour cooled vinegar mixture over them. Store several weeks before using them.
Pizza topping: combined with crushed garlic and oil.
Nettles – the plant you love to hate!
If you’re not dressed for success – long sleeves, socks, long pants and gloves – you may be painfully introduced to nettles. I try to keep them pruned from paths, and let them grow in less traveled areas. Young plants are among the earliest greens to emerge and I enjoy adding them to soups, so I let them re-seed themselves. They can be used to make fertilizer and they help composted material break down. Chickens and other birds are said to deworm themselves by eating nettle seeds. Fibers from nettle plants are used for making rope and are spun into a silky fiber. (Who knows when we may need to harvest nettle fibers?).
Shameless Commerce Division
Sage & Springer, Solar cooker and Garden guides, invite you to explore the water-wise, integrated vegetable and flower gardens, with over fifty fruit trees in our eco-village urban oasis. We’ll demonstrate various composting methods and offer optional composting participation. When the walk-about concludes, we invite you to socialize with us over a solar baked snack and garden-herb tea.Eventbrite tickets
I usually select a few of last season’s sweet potatoes to grow “slips” for the next season’s planting, but the ones I selected this year haven’t sprouted. I was on the verge of buying slips when I noticed sweet potato leaves in two areas of the garden, so I dug really deep and retrieved pieces of last year’s crop that had sprouted. I carefully cut off slips that had a few root hairs and re-buried the potato to see if the rest of the sprouts would develop roots. I harvested 10 slips and planted them. Sweet potatoes grow very well here and I usually harvest 2-5 lbs / plant. Spaced a foot apart and with the foliage staked, they lend themselves well to the practice of vertical growing that conserves space in our urban gardens – and, exposes them to more sunlight in the partially shady areas that I steward.
Rumor has it – and purple tongues confirm – that the kids are enjoying the harvest. Sage and I baked mulberry muffins (vegan, gluten free) in the sun oven. We plan to serve them at the above Solar cooker demonstration.
Backstory to caption: Mulberry roots broke through plumbing pipes and invaded neighboring gardens. Adding insult to injury, mulberry foliage shades those gardens, so many residents are unhappy with it. An arborist from TreeCare,LA recently advised us about strategies for coping with it. We’re waiting for the implementation costs of said strategies. Stay tuned to see if we’ll have mulberry muffins in 2023!
Sage and I were heat-wave opportunists last weekend as we took advantage of 90-100℉ days to try new solar cooked recipes for future Solar Cooking Demonstrations at the Eco-village. We want to use foods in season as often as possible so we hustled to harvest 8 “end of season citrons” from our aka lemon tree. Combining them with last season’s poppy seeds, we made 16 Lemon Poppyseed mini-muffins and had enough batter to also make a loaf. This recipe called for almond flour which was easy to make in a mini-food processor.
I have been delighted to land on Rhian’s Recipes in my search for new vegan, gluten free recipes. Rhian’s recipes are very easy to follow and have lots of useful tips and information.
Mulberries are beginning to ripen on the Terrace tree, so this evening, Sage & I spread tarps to catch them. Look out for Mulberry muffins next – hopefully on April 23 – our next solar cooking/ garden walkabout.
Dang! I thought DST returned in April, so when the clocks sprung forward last weekend, I realized that I’d have to adjust our solar cooking demonstration plans by cooking some of the food in advance.
No worries. I’ll just demonstrate using the sun to save energy by toasting the cornbread, heating the lentils and cooking the whole grains. We’ll also save time by letting everything heat and cook while we walk about the gardens and work on the compost!
In preparation for this event on Sunday, March 20, Sage and I counted the fruiting shrubs and trees: 26 varieties on the Urban Soil properties! Plus macadamia nuts along the public walkway. While we’ve planted some of these in recent years, we continue to reap the harvest made possible by Eco-villagers who lived here before Sage and I moved in.
Weather permitting, we intend to do this sun-cooking demo/ garden walk-about monthly, so let us know if you’re interested in future events.
There was a greenhouse near where I used to live in northeast CT. It was an occupational therapy training site. Every year they grew freesias to sell at the beginning of February, and the fragrance enveloped everyone who walked in. You couldn’t arrive much past the moment they bloomed if you expected to buy some because they sold quickly to sensory deprived people facing a few more months of eastern winter. (We had a saying: 30 days hath September, April May and November, all the rest have 31 – except February – which has 60!)
I planted the little freesia bulbs last fall and wondered if they could push their way through our hard-packed clay soil. Hazzah! they did – and I’m very pleased to have them back in my life. If you’re walking through 117 front gate, say howdy to them & give ‘em a sniff.
Hartley and I conceived this impromptu Thanksgiving potluck the morning of and we had these meals ready to eat by 12:30. I was eager to test the newly acquired SunTaste solar oven from Portugal.
It was partly overcast and chilly that day, so those are very impressive solar cooking times.
February ’22 -Gotta’ practice cooking food in 90 min. or less for the launch of our Solar Cooker Demonstrations beginning March 20, 2022
Lentils – presoaked overnight – took too long in the round pot but cooked in 90 min. in the small roasting pan.
Grains in 90 min. or less:
Rice (pre-soaked)
Quinoa, Millet, Amaranth
Polenta with corn, coconut and okras
Beans – I’ve cooked them in the Global Sun Oven but mostly left them there all day. Will try again when sun is stronger to see if they will cook in 90 min.
Now it’s your turn! Want to see how simple it is to cook without fossil fuels? We’ll demonstrate each of the Solar cookers pictured in this blog beginning Sunday, March 20, 2022, 9:30 – 11:30 – and, if El Sol cooperates, we’ll eat what we cook, so bring your eating wares! Want to know how to sign up? Stay tuned – we’re working on it.
Let’s resume this cliff hanger from the previous post
TA-DA! Words can’t begin to praise Kurt and Nils for how skillfully and amicably they work together. Their creation is so beautiful I don’t want to get it dirty!
Soak the earth-floor of each bin.
Finished compost left in the old hot compost system was spread on the bottom of each section and soaked to create moist conditions for composting critters.
Sort garden waste into green and brown piles, max. 1/4″ diameter & 18″ long.
Let greens dry before adding to compost because there’s enough green from kitchen scraps to make a 2:1 ratio of green to brown.
Add a layer of reedy stems – breathing tubes – if you have them.
Layer dry – brown – leaves & stems
Collect vegetarian food scraps
Add food scraps & spread them out.
Cover with another brown layer, rinse out the food bucket & add water around the pile.
If you made a mess when you added garden waste, please sweep it.
Now you have composting bragging rights. When we left off composting last year, we were processing at least 2000 lbs – 1 ton – of food scraps per year. We have more people living here now, so I bet our numbers increase.