Functional Sustainable

Kitchens

Cathe’ Fish
 Criteria
Affordable
Eco-safe
Energy-efficient techniques
Appropriate to location
Build it ourselves
Uses recycled as much as possible
 Permaculture
Different Cultures
Appropriate
Worldwide
 Northern Hemisphere

North South

Summer Cool Winter Sun

Porch
Porch
Summer Kitchen Winter Kitchen

Solar Cooking Kitchen

Greenhouse
 Kitchen Location

East
South
The Problem

The Solution
 Two Billion People Rely on
Wood for Daily Cooking Fuel
 Two Billion People Rely on
Wood for Daily Cooking Fuel
Two Billion People Rely on Wood
for Daily Cooking fuel

women and children cannot travel alone- raped

Indian Women walk for wood
 Guatemala Family
– cook on open fire
– Use 30 pieces of wood
every day
– Choice:
 $25.00 month buy firewood
 Walk 2 to 5 kilometers to
harvest wood every 3 days
 One Half World

• Cook in open fires

• Two million people die a year from smoke
• more than malaria and tuberculosis combined
• nearly as much as H.I.V
Two Billion People a Day
Walk for Water
Children walking for wood or water
up to 7 hours a day
Farms 1/5 of farm organic-
not enough dung
Solutions
Why Learn Sustainable Kitchens

 For Yourself  For Your

Community

 For Aid Work  Personal

Experience
Is Best Teacher
 Solar Energy
for Kitchen

Ambient temperature
Insolation
Average Sunshine per day January
Average Sunshine per day April
Functional Sustainable Kitchen

Cooking with the Sun

– Keep house cool in summer
– Best tasting food
– Easiest way to cook nutrient dense foods
Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole
Solar Cooking Int’l
Can Sun Really Cook Food
Regularly?

YES
Bolivia
Massai
Stir fry
Solar Fish
 Do Not Cook

-pasta
 Solar Cooking:
Under-utilized World Technology
Darfur refugees in Chad
$2 day
 Benefits of Solar Cooking

 Consumes no fuels
 Replaces wood
– No loss of trees & habitat
– No loss of soil and watershed
– Wood short supply now
 More Benefits of Solar Cooking
 Eliminates work
– No daily search for firewood
– No risks to women and children
– Frees time for other activities
– No need to stir food
– Helps to liberate women
 More Benefits of Solar Cooking

 Frees up valuable space

inside home for other uses
 Moving cooking outside
 reduces heat and smoke
buildup in home
How to Solar Cook
 #1 Question:
How Hot Does it Get?
3 Basic Cooking Temperatures
°C °F
Pasteurization 66 150
Minimum 82 180
100 212
121 250
Foods Don’t Burn 150 300
177 350
204 400
232 450
C F
Minimum 82 180
6
Pots or Jars
How Long Does it Take?
Practical to Cook with the Sun?

• Farmers
• Workers
• Families
• Permaculture Designers and
Instructors
 Solar Cooking Tips
by Barbara Kerr

Get the food on early.

Don’t worry about overcooking.
Most Food Does Not Over Cook
Must time or put in late:
– Green vegetables
– Cookies
– Cakes
– Breads
I Don’t Use Clock
6
Reflectors or No Reflectors

Higher Temps Not as Hot

Must be refocused Focus once
Timed Not timed
Attended Unattended
Wind Blows Down No wind problems
Re-focus beneficial early morning or
late afternoon but not necessary.
Global Sun Oven
sold most in USA

“It didn’t work”

360 to 450 Degrees
Moving Reflector Cookers
Solar Cookers Work with
Double Glazing
 Must Have Double Glazing

1. Glass outer container

2. Double pane glass
3. Baking bag
 Barbara Kerr Test Lab
Solar Cooking Pioneer

Her designs used around World

– 1. First Cardboard Solar Box Cooker
– 2. First Collapsible Panel Cooker
– 3. First Solar Wall Oven
 Build It Yourself

solarcooking.org/plans
 3 Major Types of Solar Cookers

1. Solar Panel Cooker

2. Solar Box Cooker

3. Parabolic Cooker
1. Panel Style

2. Box Style

Cardboard or Wooden

3. Parabolic
 Build It Yourself

solarcooking.org/plans
 Solar Cooker Plans Translate to:
‫ ﺍﻟﻌﺭﺑﻳﺔ‬:Indonesia, Melayu, Česky,
Deutsch, Ελληνικά, Eesti, Español,
,‫ﻓﺎﺭﺳﯽ‬, Français, ,‫ברית‬
ִ ‫�ע‬हन्द,
ִ
Italiano, Kiswahili, 한국어, Kreyòl
ayisyen, Lietuvių, Magyar,
Nederlands, 日本語, Polski,
Português, Русский, Română,
Shqip, Suomi, Svenska, Tagalog,
ţ ğĂ, Tiếng Việt, Türkçe, Հայերեն
1. Panel
Style
 So Many Panel Cookers
Backpacker
Barbara Kerr’s Original Cookit
Cook It: 250 F
Folds Small
Cook It
After Lunch: Build a Cook It
2. Box
Style
More Solar Boxes Cookers
Collapsible Box Cooker
Build Simple Solar Box Cooker
Haiti
Africa

Gnibouwa Diassana with several of his

solar box cook cookersers and a
painting he made depicting the
question: After using the last tree to
cook the last food hat we will do?
Jordan
3. Parabolic
Parabolic
Boils Water
Uganda
Appropriate Technology
Parabolic
Auroville, India
Solar Steam for cooking
 Barefoot College, Rajastan India

alternative learning institution

“barefoot professionals”
poorest of the poor
study indigenous and traditional skills
– access to
 drinking water
 ag water
– rainwater harvesting
– alternative housing
– solar energy generation
Solar cooking? broken
450 F
Construction: 17 days
Cost: $200
Yearly Cost of living:
$200 a year
Barefoot Carpenter
Alok in Delhi India
Finished Solar Cooker
Culturally Appropriate
Centre for Rural
Technology in
Nepal

2 more
"The solar wall oven is the
ultimate convenience
and my choice whenever
I'm not testing other
models.“

Barbara Kerr
Paul Funk Solar Wall Oven
No Reflectors
Cooking from Inside the House
SOS Sport: 210 to 260 F
reflectors: 300 F
 20 oz

68 20-ounce recycled pop bottles = 1 SOS Sport

- post-consumer PET
-largest injection molded part
SOS Solar Sport with reflectors
Easy to Use
 Year Round Solar Cooking
Solar Sport Oven
www.solarovens.org

Summer Winter
Solar Cooker Stacking Functions
1. Pasteurize baby bottles
2. Stop infestations in grains and dried foods: ½” thick
layer on cookie sheet, in oven for 10 minutes, stir, 10
more minutes
3. Stop mold and mildew.
4. Make juice: put fruit in metal colander in dark pot
5. Decrystalize honey
6. Melt wax for candles
7. Heat compresses for sore muscles or injuries
8. Sanitize diapers, sanitary cotton pads. Wash, rinse, put
in pan with dark lid for one hour.
9. Pasteurize ceramic garden pots & kill weed seeds, mold:
put in oven for 20 minutes or 150º.
10.Homemade pet food.
11.Cold storage in winter
When The Clouds/ Cold Come
 Dependable Cooking Strategy

Gas, Wood, Electricity or

Rocket Stove Used to Start
Cooking Food
 Haybasket
Retained Heat Cooker
Fireless Cooker
Household Science Rural Schools
Ontario, Canada 1918
Woodrow Wilson House in D.C.
British tank built during 1920s & 30s

Fireless cooker with 3 days rations. Cooking

time varied.
In a 1925 letter
We prepared our dinner in the morning
before breakfast, stowed it away in the
fireless cooker and at night we set the table
and served it.
 Making a Fireless Cooker at Home
Cornell College of Human Ecology 1921
Haybox Principles
 Make Haybox:
cardboard box, newspaper
 Haybox or
Retained Heat Cookers
Use no energy
 Why Women Around World
Love Haybox Cooking
1. Save on fuel
-Very short cook time
-Use your favorite fuel to bring to boil
-Less wood smoke
2. Keeps food hot for up to 24 hours
3. Don’t have to be home
4. Provide hot food
– for children
– breakfast and after school
– when coming home late
5. Cook enough for 2 meals
-leave ½ in haybox to keep warm
6. Keep cold drinks cold
 Culturally
Appropriate
 When The Clouds/ Cold Come
Cooking with Wood and Fossil Fuels
 Sustainable Kitchen
and Forest Conservation
Reforestation to increase supply of trees

Fuel-efficient stoves to reduce the demand for trees

 Traditional Cooking Stoves
Utilize only 8 – 10% of potential wood energy
90% of wood wasted = more deforestation
Rocket
Elbow
 Rocket Stoves – EcoLenca

Dr. Larry Winiarski –

Inventor of the Rocket
Stove

Pedro Franco –
Ceramic Rocket
Stove R & D
Rocket Stove
EcoLenca
Malawi

374# 31#

92%
reduction
in wood
“Aprovecho” Modified Rocket Stoves

very efficient wood cooker

– uses 1/10 the wood
– outdoors, fireplace, greenhouse
– backpacking
Build it yourself
-all recycled parts
Better Heat
Transfer

No Soot
Rocket Stove
 Add a Skirt
 Spacing
– 2cm
– ½”
Ethiopia MIRT Stove
 Henya Stove
Kamangu Village, Kenya
 Justa Stove

• Honduras after Hurricane

Mitch in 1998
• Trees, Water & People
• Aprovecho Research
Center
• Honduran Association for
Development
• in Honduras after
Hurricane Mitch in 1998
 The Justa Stove
Stove design is adapted to local cooking needs –
metal griddle to cook tortillas
Justa Stove Empowers Women
• Removes 95% of toxic &
greenhouse gases from
kitchen
• Reduces respiratory and eye
problems
• Clean kitchen, clean hands,
clean clothes
The Estufa Justa / Eco Stove
Cook with Gas or Electricity?
 Metal Bowl over Cooking Pot
 Reduce energy use by more than ½
SKIRT
 Functional Sustainable Kitchen
Water Purification
Build a Simple Still
My First Solar Water Distiller
 Purified Water Production
Per Square Meter Glass Double Pane:
Winter: 2 liters per day
Summer: 6 liters per day
Increases with Reflectors
Marcos Family Juarez, Mexico

Plans: El Paso Solar Energy

SolAqua Water Distiller
Yes, Sea Water
How It Works
Large Array in Mexico
Pasteurize in Black Pot
Pasteurize in Solar Panel
Solar Cooker Pasteurizes Water
Pasteurize in Solar Oven
Pasteurize with Parabolic Cooker
 E Coli Test

Ground water solar water

source pasteurization
 Heat Needed to Kill Microbes
Microbe Killed Rapidly At

Worms, Protozoa cysts Giardia, 131°F 55°C

Cryptosporidium, Entamoeba
Bacteria 140°F 60°C
V. cholerae, E. coli, Shigella,
Salmonella typhi
Rotavirus
Hepatitis A virus 150°F 65°C

Significant microbial inactivation of these microbes actually starts at

about 5°C (9°F) below these temperatures,
although it may take a couple of minutes at the lower temperature to
obtain 90 percent inactivation.)
WAPI
 WAPI
WAter Pasteurization
Indicator
 Simple thermometer
 Wax melts
 Water reached
pasteurization
 Safe to drink
 Killing Disease causing
microorganisms
Not Safe

Safe
Functional Sustainable Kitchen
Hot Water
Batch Heater
 66 beer bottles attached to a board. The bottles are connected to each other with plastic tubing so that water
flows through them.
three members of his family to have a shower every day.
And more than 10 families in the village have already followed suit and installed their own version
Rocket Heated Shower
 Nick Ritar of Milkwood
Guilt free shower
Heating Water with Compost
Jean Pain-style
Functional Sustainable Kitchen

Refrigeration
 Our Cars
and Our Refrigerators
Fossil Fuel Energy
Sustainable?
 Solar Electric
Sun Frost
Super Insulated
20% energy
Refrigerator with Solar Electricity
 Before Refrigerators
• Mesh Boxes or Cool Boxes
• Cooling Cupboards
• Ice boxes
• Canvas Boxes
 Cool Box
Mesh Box
Many styles
Afghanistan Strawbale
Homestead
Chopping Ice Blocks

-two straight cuts

- cross cut with a
large curved saw
Georgian Ice House
yakh-chāl “ice pit“ Iran 400 BC
natural refrigerator
Moroccan Windcatcher
Ab anbar near Yazd, Egypt
windcatchers in central desert city
Solar Chimney
Cool Pot
 Cool Pot
natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator
 Cool Pot
natural, cheap, easy-to-make refrigerator

--Water evaporates
– pulls heat out
– inside cold
Before: food rot 3 days
Now: last up to 3 weeks
Functional Sustainable Kitchen

Food Prep
Before Refrigerators
1st edition 1993
2nd edition 1997
Dairy
 Dairy Cultures before
Refrigeration
• Filjmilk
• Piima Milk
• Yogurt
• Kefir
• 1000s
• Culturally Appropriate and Acceptable
Butter and Eggs
3 Parts to Healthy Egg
Functional Sustainable Kitchen

Preserving Food
Drying Foods
Canning
 Canning in Solar Cooker
Plums
Sour and sweet cherries
Apricots
Peaches
Apples
All kinds of pickles
Tomatoes by themselves
 Preserving Food without
Freezing or Canning
by The Gardeners and Farmers of the
Terre Vivante, France
 Preserving Food
without Freezing or Canning
Preservation without nutrient loss
Preserving by:
– Ground/ root cellar
– Drying
– Lactic fermentation
– Oil
– Vinegar
– Salt
– Sugar
– Sweet and sour
– -Alcohol
Functional Sustainable Kitchen
Bonus: using plastic bottles
Expensive electricity in Manila:
2 liter plastic bottle for light
 Window farms of
Recycled Plastic Bottle
Tree Starter
Sprinkler, need hose
Old hose recycled for dripper
 Use Plastic Bottles to hand water
trees…drips out slowly
Bury: perennial, annual and container gardens
Above ground: woody plants, shrubs, trees
Roots can break pots
Without the dripper, pour water in,
it drops out slowly
 Deep Pipe Irrigation for trees…
Instead of PVC, use nested bottles
Use plastic bottles for Tree Guards
Soil Scoop
Use plastic bottles instead of
buckets
 Science student Milan Karki
Solar Panel made with human hair