Last weekend community leaders gathered at Gadra Community Centre to learn more about cooking with alternative energy sources.
Last weekend community leaders gathered at Gadra Community Centre to learn more about cooking with alternative energy sources.
They were taught how to make their own solar cookers, rocket stoves and hot boxes. Among the eager students were members of the Californian Rotary Club and the Kirstenbosch Rotary Club. The course was scheduled to end on Tuesday but the participants were such fast learners that it ended two days early.
According to Zukiswa Ngcete, administrator for Gadra, this is the first time a project of this sort has been held in Grahamstown.
The main aim is for community leaders to plough these skills back into their communities. The solar cookers were created by students working for the Rotary Club in California. A solar cooker is an oddly-shaped, fold-up mechanism which is covered in foil.
Saturday kicked off with a practical lesson on how to make one of these contraptions. After everyone had successfully built their own cooker it was time to head home and return for round two on Sunday.
Staying true to tradition, everyone cooked their Sunday lunch with their own solar cookers. The food is placed in a cast iron pot which is then placed in a plastic bag with stones at the bottom.
The bag is then put into the solar cooker where the sun does the rest of the work. The sun’s rays are an integral part of the cooking process. When the shadow falls close to the edge of the cooker, it is the correct temperature
for cooking. They started cooking at 11am and by 2pm they were eating their naturallycooked Sunday lunch. The group then moved onto learning how to make rocket stoves. Ngcete explained to Grocott’s Mail how this is done.
“You pile 20 bricks on top of each other but leave a little space open for the wood.” After the stove is built you can start a fire and cook away. The rocket stove works like a brazier; the type of fireplace that people make out of an old oil tank.
The only difference is that the rocket stove is much safer. “The bricks don’t get hot so it’s safe around children,” says Ngcete. The logical query would then be: what happens when the sun doesn’t shine? The answer is simple. You make a hot box.
A hot box is two continental sized pillows filled with polystyrene balls. It works with the same concept as a slow cooker. You boil your pot for 30 minutes and then put it on one pillow, using the other pillow to cover it up.
Ngcete says it’s so convenient and safe, “you can leave it there and go to church and by the time you come back your food is done”.
So do these alternative energy cookers really work? According to Ngcete, it all depends on your perspective. “I believed in it because I ate the food that was cooked with the solar cooker,” she said.
