Sunny times...

I have found the perfect summer and winter spot to set up my SunCook solar oven - on the wooden deck outside our bedroom Happy Doors.  The side wall protects it from being blown away by the wind, and it is not too far from the kitchen - certainly no steps to have to carry boiling hot pots up...

The perfect sheltered spot for my solar oven

It's become so normal to use my solar oven that it's been a while since I last posted what I have cooked in it.  So I thought I'd share a few - just a few - of the goodies that I have cooked in my solar oven this summer...

Solar baked Christmas cakes

Firstly, I made our Christmas cakes again - not only for the family, but for every neighbour in our area :)  I think I made 14 in total LOL

RMan seriously enjoys a solar roast chicken...

Solar cooked whole chicken

...which literally falls apart when it's cooked.  All the liquid you see in the pan is the goodness that has come out of the chicken - absolutely no water was added to the pot.

Solar cooked chickens are so tender that
they just fall apart.  All the liquid in the
pot has come from the chicken -
concentrated goodness that makes an
excellent instant gravy

I love that my oven is big enough to fit not just one dish in, but two or three, depending on what I am cooking.  Here I made a pot of ostrich mince sauce for spaghetti bolognaise, beetroot, and a pot of tomatoes, from the garden - I always keep a pot of cooked tomatoes in the fridge - to make a quick sauce, add to a soup, or to blitz up into a dipping sauce.

Here you can see the pots as they went into the oven... 

The oven is large enough to multi-task -
beetroot, tomatoes and a pot of
ostrich mince sauce for spaghetti
bolognaise

... and here are the finished products :)

Cooked by the sun with no hassle

Following my honesty policy on this blog, I have always maintained that it is not possible to burn anything in the solar oven.  And, as far as pots of food, that stands true.

But recently we experienced a heatwave.  At 5.22p.m. in the afternoon it was still 38oC outside...

The temperature outside at 5.22p.m. was
38oC ...

...(and thanks to our double glazing) it was a comfortable 27.5oC inside the house.

Thanks to our double glazing, the temperature
inside at the same time of day

I had placed some halved tomatoes into the oven earlier to make sun-dried tomatoes.  I was so comfortable inside that I clean forgot about the tomatoes, and they burnt!

Oh no!!  My sun-dried tomatoes are burnt to
 sinder...!

To a crisp!  As you can see on the thermometer, the temp inside, even with the lid propped open, was at almost 150oC - at 5.30p.m.!!!

A peek at the thermometer - and this is with
the lid propped slight ajar to allow the
tomatoes to dry...

Far too hot to sun dry anything...

So, lesson learnt.  If ever I sun dry anything again, I must keep my eye on the internal temperature.  Until RMan gets round to making me a solar dryer, that is...

That is very high on my wish list.  Very, very high LOL

Protecting my solar oven from any welcome rain

I love my solar oven - I reckon you all know that :)

But, RMan and I aren't necessarily getting younger, and having recently discovered that I have an early touch of arthritis in my right hand, shoulder and knee, I am finding it more and more difficult to move heavy things.

And, at 13kgs (22 1/2 lbs), picking up the solar oven from where it sits at ground level in order to bring it indoors is not the most comfortable experience.  In addition, having it cluttering up the floor in our open plan lounge / dining room has been irritating - and dangerous at night.

Now, the instructions told me that my SunCook solar oven is not waterproof and should not be left outside in the rain.

The cover closes onto the inner lip

 This is because the cover closes onto an inner lip...

The inner lip slopes down towards the glass oven lid

 The inner lip slopes down slightly to the glass lid / oven door...

And below the glass oven door is the heat seal
which is loosely glued to the interior reflecting
walls of the oven and the inner lip which the lid
closes onto

And the glass lid / oven door sits on the heat seal below the glass.  The heat seal is not fixed in a waterproof kind of way, so any liquid (in this case rainwater) will seep into the insulating lining of the oven.

And, as I discovered when I accidentally left the oven outside one rainy day a few weeks ago, sodden insulation does not encourage maximum heat within the oven, because it seems as though that sodden wetness affects the temperature one can achieve within the oven...

Follow instructions, Dani.  You know that... :)

Ahem - I didn't!

So, after managing to successfully drain out the excess water, I had to come up with a solution as schlepping the oven indoors after every use is completely unnecessary...

57cm Weber braai cover

The SunCook's footprint is 59(l) X 56(w) X 29cms (h).  And the Weber braai cover is to fit a 57cm braai.  Obviously, I deduced, it will be slightly larger than the braai.  So I purchased a cover at our local Co-Op, rushed it home, and tried it on for size.

My waterproof solar oven :)

A perfect fit :)  Slightly baggy, but rather that than too tight.

I'm not too sure if the seam of the cover is that waterproof, so I am angling it away from that vulnerable part of the oven, and tucking the excess bit of the cover under the oven so that it can't blow away.

Now - I can happily leave my oven outside on the patio where I use it.

"Mr Golden Sun, please shine down on me..."

(The above title above is taken from the lyrics of the Barney & Friends song "Mr Sun")

I've been feeling under the weather for the past couple of weeks.  Dunno what it is, but I am constantly tired.  So tired, all I want to do is sleep.  Me - sleeping during daylight hours????  I've given it some thought and come to the conclusion that perhaps it is just my body spewing out what it had to absorb last year.  What with the financial strain we experienced, then the sale of our home of 18 years, and the packing up, and the living on a building site for 4 months, part of which was during winter, and then the unpacking, plus preparing for, and hosting, house guests over Christmas, I guess it feels it has cause to protest.  So, in the past couple of weeks I've given in to it when it required.  No point in pushing it beyond it's limits - it's the only body I have LOL

But - one less strain I can share is this.

Sun drying tomatoes in my SunOK solar
oven

My SunOK solar ovens have finally arrived.  No thanks to DHL nor SA Customs, but that is a l-o-n-g story of ineptitude, and inefficient and totally unprofessional service and I won't bore you with it.   Suffice it to say that they are finally here, and I can now take a deep breath :)

I am so excited to be able to share the experience of cooking with the power of the sun.  And nothing but the sun.  Cooking in an oven in which food cannot burn.  Where the food prepared in it is full of the goodness of that food, and has not evaporated in the excessive steam of normal cooking procedures.

After filling the orders which were placed last year I have a limited number of units left from this consignment.  I have imported both the Tropical model which looks like the pic below...

... and the Premium model.

Premium model

Both can be used in South Africa.  However, with the added side mirror and the little sundial on the Premium model, one is able to capture more of the sun's power, and also pre-position the oven thereby doing away with the need to re-position it during the cooking process.

If you are interested in becoming less reliant on Escom, of preparing healthier meals for your family, and reducing your eco-footprint on this planet, then a solar oven is just what you need.  Not one kilowatt hour will be used, nor charged for, whilst you are cooking in a solar oven.  There is sometimes a small amount of stove top preparation, but compared to the energy guzzling electric or gas stove, it is minuscule in the grand scheme of things.

Please - contact me on : dani at ecofootprint dot co dot za and I'll be more than happy to let you have the details of how you can acquire one by return e-mail.

And then soon perhaps you'll also be discovering the joy of making solar cooked bread, and biscuits, and cakes, and soups, roast chickens, lamb, beef and hams, vegetables and desserts.  Even sun-drying excess produce from your garden.  It's so easy in a solar oven.

Mouth-wateringly tender, tasty and healthier food.  I kid you not.

Solar assistant

Firstly, Happy Thanksgiving for yesterday to all my American followers - I hope that it was a wonderful day for you all.  I think it is a very important tradition, and one which the rest of the world should follow - giving one day a year to recognize, and count, your blessings and taking the time to express heartfelt thanks for.  However, turkey is, in my book, a strictly Christmas meal, so I don't know if I could cook one for Thanksgiving and then another on Christmas day... LOL

Talking of Christmas, we have finally had some days which were suitable for baking in my solar oven.  I need really sunny days, as I don't want clouds drifting over and dropping the temperature inside by even 10 degrees.  Other food - it's not so critical, but baking...

Mandy - standing guard over the box which
teases her with smells and (eventually)
tidbits :)

My helper, Mandy, MKids dog, which we are looking after for him, has been carefully guarding my oven, just waiting each time for me to use it.  She does love the scraps that come out of it... :)
So, with the good weather, I have spent the last couple of days making solar baked Christmas cakes in my solar oven.  Yeah, I know it's a tad late, but I hope the fruit cakes will have enough time to mature before Christmas.  I couldn't have attempted it whilst the builders were here...

I manage to fit three cakes into the oven at a time - in different sized and shaped pots - mostly round, for that is the traditional Christmas cake shape, but I have also made some Christmas cake "logs".  Baking your Christmas cake in the solar oven is really the easiest way of baking a Christmas cake - it won't burn, and, if you get busy in the garden, and forget the cakes for an extra half-an-hour, no damage is caused to the cakes - well, nothing that an extra dose of Brandy wont sort out LOL

One of the six that I have baked so far - Christmas
gifts and one each for the kids.  Still three to go...
Moist and delicious - the smell filled the room
as I left them to cool on the wire rack.

The recipe I use for my solar Christmas cake can be found here, under the Bread, Biscuits and Cakes Recipes.  It's a pity that I wont / can't give Mandy a taste of the Christmas cake - damn, they smell sooooooo good :) 

To all those who follow my blog and who have ordered a solar oven from me - I am still awaiting arrival confirmation from DHL - I promise I will be in touch as soon as I hear something.  Thank you so much for your patience, and again, my sincere apologies for the delay...

Anyone for solar?

B-i-g news.

I have been given distribution rights for the solar oven I use - the Sun Cook® which is manufactured by SunOK in Portugal.

And - because of that - I can now offer a Sun Cook® solar oven to anyone in South Africa who would like to own one.

I am so thrilled - I am passionate about my solar oven, and, if I can share the joy - what more could I ask for?

There are two Sun Cook® models available - the Premium and the Tropical.

SunOK Premium model

The Sun Cook® Premium has an additional side mirror and a small sundial, but it is intended for use in the Northern Hemisphere where the sun's angle is not as ideal.  I (finally) received the Premium model, but have only used the side mirror attachment once or twice.

The Tropical model -
it has the same specs as
the Premium model, but
excludes the side mirror
and sundial

So, I am recommending, and stocking, the Sun Cook® Tropical model.

I can, however, order the Sun Cook® Premium, if you require it - but there will be a delay of 6 - 8 weeks from order to delivery.

If you live in the Southern African region and you are interested in lowering your eco-footprint, Escom power costs, creating delicious and nutritious meals, please - drop me an email to:

dani @ ecofootprint . co . za (copy and paste to your mail programme and remove the spaces :)

and I'll give you the costings.  But, I guarantee you won't find it cheaper anywhere else, because I am not in it to make a huge profit like others, I just want to share the passion / pleasure / lower electricity bills :)

Oh, and by the way, I'm including a free CD copy of my "Introduction to solar cooking.pdf" and "Free from the Sun" solar recipes with every solar oven purchased.

Choc cherry biscuits cooking in my Sun Cook® 
solar oven :)

Stone Ground Flour

A couple of weeks ago I finally made it to Eureka Mills during their working hours.  Being roughly 20 kms from the farm, I am delighted at the convenience of their mill.  They are the only flour millers in South Africa who grind their flour in the traditional manner using stone wheels.  And they do not add anything to their flour by way of preservatives or chemicals.

As they state on their webpage:

"Who would farm with old methods of crop rotation and gentle aerating of the soil?  Who would start a slower grinding stone mill.  Who would bake in a stone oven to make bread in the slow time honoured manner to extract maximum benefit out of the efforts of mother nature?  Who would buy these products even if they seem so much more expensive and somethimes "inconvenient"?

The answer is enlightened farmers, millers and consumers."

As you enter their mill there are huge bags of waste lining the side of their forecourt.  This "waste" is sold to farmers to feed their livestock.

Bags of chaff and bran, destined for the
local farmers livestock

Inside the mill it is understandably dusty, and very noisy - the friendly workers are employed 5 days a week, so every minute of those days the mill is pumping out flour.

The two grinding wheels are situated behind
the safety guard

Can you see the two wheels on the machine?  It's hard to believe that they are able to produce the quantity of flour that they do, merely by grinding grain between tow stones...

Detail of the two stone wheels in action

This is a close-up of one of the wheels they no longer use - they have made a garden feature out of it - clever appropriate recycling :)

I came away with enough flour to bake my own bread, give to DD and also as a gift forour town neighbour for looking after our house whilst we were away.

They even gave me a brochure that I could scan so that you, too, could read all about them :)

Front and back detail of the Eureka Mills flyer

For those readers who do not live near Swellendam, but who would like to purchase the best flour available in this country, they have a list on their website detailing the retail outlets where you should be able to find Eureka Mills flour.  For those who who do not reside in this country and are unable to purchase preservative and chemical free flour, Eureka Mills are even able to offer export of their flour overseas.


In addition, on their website they also provide a couple of recipes using their flour - how neat is that :)  Now - all I need are some sunny days so I can use their flour to make a loaf or two or more of my Ultimate Solar Oven Bread :)


Friendly, helpful millers who make a visit to their mill an occasion and a pleasure - just like visiting your corner store in the old days.  S'funny how much the personal touch can influence one, and encourage one to buy more LOL

Solar baked Christmas cake

Last Saturday was predicted to be sunny and warm, so I woke up all keen and eager to make my (belated) Solar Christmas Cakes in the solar oven.  The weather in Cape Town has not been conducive to solar oven use apart from the one hot sunny day we had a week or so ago.  A windy, cloudy and sometimes wet Spring is lingering, and summer is still hovering in the sidelines.

But, on Saturday morning everything went well - I even had all the necessary ingredients on hand LOL  I awoke to a blue sky, and ignoring the wind, for that doesn't affect the performance of the solar oven, I got down to making the cakes. I tripled the recipe...

... and I scored 6 more egg shells in which to plant seeds...

In order to use the empty egg shells as
seed trays, the trick is to open the egg
shells as close to the  pointed end as
possible - that will allow for more sand in
the empty egg shell :)

... and found a small patch of sunlight on our wooden deck where I could place my solar oven to preheat.  In winter this deck is in complete shade.

Check out that little patch of sky at the
back - it looks promising, doesn't it :)

The cakes merrily baked away - this is after 20 minutes.

But, I think I got excited too soon.  One-and-a-half hours into the baking the clouds rolled over!  I gave the cakes a prick test, and there was still wet dough in the centre.  Damn!  What am I going to do now?  Can I afford to waste all these ingredients, and start again on another day...?

Or, should I switch on my (electric) oven and complete the baking process in that?

I decided on the latter.  But, idiot me, I placed the cakes in the oven whilst it was warming up - I didn't want to lose any heat from the mixture during the oven heating stage.  And I clean forgot that the oven heats from the bottom element and the top grill element - guess it is a year-and-a-half since I last used my oven - I can forgive myself for making such a stupid mistake.  But the result was that the tops of the cakes were burnt - some worse than others.  I tried waiting for the cake to cool down and "slicing" off the worst of the burn - and again forgot that fruit cakes need maturation time in order to mature and firm up.  Crumble, crumble, crumble... :)

Drat!  And I wasted 3/4 - 1 hour of electricity trying to salvage my cakes.

So I had to toddle off to the shops early yesterday morning in order to purchase more ingredients so that I could make a new batch of Christmas cakes - I'm also baking one for NGirl to take home with her, for RSon and for our two staff members as well.

I scored another six eggs shells - plus RMans
shell from his breakfast :)  From RMans shell
you can easily see how close to the top I break
the shell

I had a clear blue sky - and the photo below shows the cakes in their final hour of baking.  It was 26oC outside and 160 - 170oC in the oven.  Perfect:)

The other cakes won't be wasted though.  We don't normally make (or eat) Christmas pudding, but there is nothing to stop me from using one from the 1st disastrous batch in a fruit cake trifle :)

Here are the cakes as they continue their baking without their lids...

And here are the finished products :)

Now I'm happy.

And I am even more (if possible) convinced that my solar oven is the only way to cook!

Moist, heavenly smelling and perfectly baked :)

And serious solar cooking is once again on the menu in Cape Town - YAY!

Now, the rest of my Christmas preparations will have to wait until we get to the farm...

A short visit

On Saturday afternoon, we are nipping off to the farm for a short visit.

Why?  Well, we've purchase two more 130Ah deep cycle batteries and we want to install them onto our solar panel system in our Green Power room.  We left the freezer connected to the two batteries we currently have installed.  I have a feeling that they may not have been enough...


And - they guy who sold us the batteries confirmed what I had read when I was researching connecting solar panels, charge controller, batteries and inverters.  Yeeha!  I LOVE it when that happens.


When one is connecting the charge controller to the batteries, the positive wire enters at one end of the battery bank, and the negative enters at the other.  This is to prevent the first battery from being charged and discharged more than the others - the second battery, in this first diagram, which I wrote about here, is in danger of being a "dump" battery - i.e. neither fully charged nor discharged.

Incorrect way

The following diagram is the correct way to wire up the batteries (to solar panels), if you are running them in parallel, in order to increase the storage capacity:

I hope the diagram is clear enough to understand...?  

Correct battery connection in parallel - for increased
storage capacity.  If you want increased voltage,
then you should connect the batteries in series.

But, again, please check with your local expert before taking my word for it.


It's a bit of a b*gger - Tuesday is a public holiday here (Women's Day) and Wednesday is my birthday LOL  Such a pity we can't stay on the farm until then and, by taking Monday and Wednesday off, have an extra long weekend... but I guess I mustn't be greedy - I did have my birthday there last year :)  So, either we'll be back on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday evening...


And they're predicting very cold weather with heavy rain, and snow on the mountains this weekend - so I will be able to see how effective the new ceiling is whilst I have the Dover stove merrily keeping the kettle permanently on the boil / heating up the room / cooking our food.  As I'm anticipating that the sun will be in short supply I plan to bake a loaf of my "Ultimate Solar Bread" or a loaf of Beer Bread, in the Dover stove, and I also plan to try out a (Dover oven) "Snuggy" bean bag using pearl barley :)


Whatever is successful, or isn't - you'll have to wait until I return to find out :)

Solar irradiation map

Definition of solar irradiation : rays which are emitted by the Sun. (www.science-dictionary.com/definition/solar-irradiation.html)


If you've ever wondered how effective a solar oven would be in your area, there is now global map available on-line.


This is the map for Southern Africa:

For other Global maps please go to: http://solargis.info/doc/71

The maps of Global horizontal irradiation (average sum 2004-2010) for Africa and Europe are available to download here. SolarGIS database is the source of solar data represented on the maps.

The maps are free for public use, their reproduction and adaptation is authorised provided the following source is acknowledged:  SolarGIS © 2011 GeoModel Solar s.r.o.


At the moment SolarGIS don't seem to have maps for the US of A, Asia or Australia/ New Zealand - perhaps you could contact them to query?  (They are based in Slovakia.)


Alternatively, from this site I found this map:

World Daily Solar Insolation Map.

This map shows the amount of solar energy

in hours, received each day on an optimally

tilted surface during the worst month of the year.

But, to give you an idea of what the first map means - we are in a 1700 - 1900 kWh/m2 area (on the second map we are in the 4.0 - 4.9 or Zone 2 range) and I have no problem reaching temperatures of 200°C (400°F) in my solar oven in summer.  Unfortunately, I am unable to give you temperatures in winter as our (town) garden only receives approximately 1½ - 2 hours of sun - right at the bottom of our garden.


On the farm - I don't know at the moment, but I should be able to tell you by the 20th July - RMan shares his birthday with Mr Mandela, and he (RMan, that is) has decided that he'd like to spend it on the farm :-)  Although Mr Mandela is very welcome too...


So, if all goes according to plan, I will be schlepping the solar oven along.  Reckon it will be a very interesting experiment.  Discovering just how much I can use the solar oven in winter will be a b-i-g plus for our off grid life...

Solar recipe book - take 2...

Okey dokey - have signed up with a new bank, got all the gumpf from PayPal, sorted out all the hiccups, so here we go...

Solar baked biscuits

You can now purchase the solar recipes through PayPal LOL

Solar baked beans

Happy days...

Solar baked fruit cake

To purchase please go here.

Solar recipe book

At last I have finally worked out how to publish my solar recipe book "FREE FROM THE SUN".

Ultimate Solar Bread

After months of fruitlessly searching for an e-book publisher in this country, I have decided to publish in an e-mail-able .pdf format (now that is a business opportunity for anyone out there...).

Greek Chicken

The e-books will be sent through email as a PDF. As soon I recieve notification of your payment I will email the e-books to you. This will be within 24 hours of your purchase, unless I am on the farm, in which case I will e-mail them to you as soon as I return :-)

Solar Lasagne

For all those who are interested in details on how to purchase "FREE FROM THE SUN" please click here.


Once you have registered with PayFast you will be able to pay via your credit card or via Ukash.


Happy solar cooking... :-)


Please Note:  I have used PayFast for a couple of years for the sale of my Magic Seeders and find them to be a professional, responsible and reliable site.  However, your registering with them is at your own risk.