"Self-sufficiency does not mean 'going back' to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food that is organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings... and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully." John Seymour ~ Self Sufficiency 2003

Saturday 19 February 2011

Free from the Sun

Having been on the farm for three days of the past week, my solar cooking has been limited to the following:

A perfect Lentil Loaf which I served with Solar Rice and a portion of my Solar Tomato Sauce....

Solar baked Lentil Loaf
...two batches of 3 loaves of the most delicious Ultimate Solar Bread... (only two from the first batch lasted long enough to be photographed)


Ultimate Solar Bread
...potatoes - for mash...

... ostrich bangers to go with the mash...

... a large bowl of Solar Baked Beans...

... Quiche Lorraine with a fresh garden salad...

...and tomorrow I plan on cooking a whole Honeyed Chicken with Scalloped Potatoes - and team that up again with a fresh salad straight from the garden.

I would prefer to have some sort of refrigeration on the farm - then whatever we have as leftovers can be stored safely.  As we do not have a freezer there yet, I am hesitant to schlep along my solar oven - it is quite bulky, and I need the boot space for, amongst other things, all my little lemon trees grown from seed LOL - anyway we tend to barbecue most of our meals there at the moment. 

On our trip last weekend I took a small solar baked fruit cake for one of our farm neighbours.

Solar baked Fruit Cake
Oh, and before I forget, I have not managed to embed a pdf link on the side panel of my home page, so I have created a page "Intorduction to Solar Cooking" which contains a link to the pdf. 

8 comments:

  1. Delicious, creative, beautiful... heaven!

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  2. Jane and Ginger - thanks - your compliments are such encouragement :-)

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  3. What incredible food. The ostrich bangers and lentil loaf really sound interesting. I love what you have done with the PDF, do you mind if I add a link to it under the "Make Your Own" section on my blogs sidebar?

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  4. Mr H - sounds boring, but they really were delicious.

    I'd be honoured if you'd add a link on your blogs' sidebar. Thank you.

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  5. Dani, thank you! You may not think you're a solar cooking expert, but gosh, you've been able to get a whole lot farther than the rest of us. Did I tell you that I found a solar cooker to make from some previous links you provided? It'll need to be summer cooking, but definitely doable for some experimentation.

    Like Mr. H, I'm going to add a link on my blog sidebar. Can't decide if it should go under food or homesteading. :o

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  6. Leigh - would love to see your solar cooker when it's ready. Only tips I can give you for that is to ensure that the internal walls are insulated and that the glass (for the lid) is preferably double glazed, but certainly toughened safety glass - won't be cheap, but for safety sake more than worth it.

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Thank you for taking the time to comment - it makes my day and removes the "loneliness' of sitting at my screen blogging supposedly to myself ;) I try and reply as quickly as possible so please forgive me if sometimes my response is delayed.