Cooking with a Conscience

Since being back home from Costa Rica I have been pretty excited about being in the kitchen and cooking up new creations.  My use of the stove, oven, slow cooker, and electric frying pan feels diverse, yet the truth is they all rely on one thing: electricity.  Not very diverse.  This made me think of the permaculture farms I recently visited.  Most of these farms have more than one energy source that they use for cooking, while one farm in particular had eight different cooking sources.  Eight!

The most ubiquitous alternative cooking method takes its energy from the sun.  Solar cookers come in all shapes and sizes, but the main functions are to concentrate sunlight onto the cooking surface using reflective materials, this converts the sunlight to heat on the non-reflective cooking surface, and then a glass lid or plastic traps heat inside, making it possible to cook in colder temperatures.  Solar cookers can be used to dehydrate, bake, and cook everything from banana bread to chicken souvlaki.

The sun is also great for making sun tea, a simple method of putting a very clean glass jar (to avoid bacteria growth) of water and herbs (or tea bags) in full sun for 3 to 5 hours.  You can then drink it - hot or cold.  Mmmm...summer in a glass!

Cashew fruit being dehydrated

Solar Cooker

Another common alternative cooking method that many might be familiar with is the cob or adobe oven.  I've mentioned cob before without explaining it.  So what is cob?  Cob is a mixture of earth, sand and straw mixed together.  The process of cobbing is, according to the Cob Builders Handbook, "a process best described as mud daubing", the mixture is "massaged onto the foundation, creating thick load-bearing walls.  It's like hand-sculpting a giant pot to live in."  Or cook in!   Cob can generate some beautiful creations - a cob building or oven can be a work of art in and of itself.

Many of you have probably heard of or been exposed to adobe ovens, maybe for a pizza night on someone's farm, and may be asking what the difference is between cob and adobe.  Well, once again I'll defer to the Cob Builders Handbook, which gives this explanation of adobe: "Adobe is a form of building using unfired earth.  Dirt, straw, and water - the same ingredients as in cob - are made into bricks which are then sun dried and built into walls with a 'cob-like' mortar."  And so, the difference lies in the making of sun-baked bricks vs. not.  Wood, of course, is the renewable energy source used for both cob and adobe ovens.        

Next on the list of sustainable cooking methods is methane, obtained through the use of a biodigester.  I have seen this method both in Costa Rica and on one of the farms I visited in Cuba through the Permaculture Cuba! internship I did in 2010.  In a nutshell, a biodigester anaerobically (without oxygen) breaks down manure, urine, and water over a few days, with help from the natural heat of the sun.  If we're talking about human manure (often called "humanure") then when using the toilet, nothing except these three "ingredients" go into the toilet - this means toilet paper must be disposed of in another manner, such as composting.

Cob Washroom connected to biodigester

The two products of a bio-digester are sludge and methane.  Sludge is a watery substance containing nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and small amounts of metallic acids.  It is a fabulous fertilizer.  93% of potential pathogens die off before leaving the biodigester; however to ensure no pathogens are being transferred to your crops and food, you should compost the sludge first.  The gas coming out of the biodigester at the farm I visited in Costa Rica was 65% methane and 35% carbon dioxide with a few other trace gases.  Methane is a low-pressure gas, which required the farm to create a modified stove with larger openings than the traditional propane stoves used in the country.  It is the farm's goal to completely eliminate their dependency on propane through these other sustainable methods of cooking.
            

Water is applied for 15-20 seconds afterward -
This is a necessary part of the process

The farm also brought in cow manure from a near-by farm,
which it put through its biodigester

The farm also had one stove that was run on used vegetable oil.  This was quite fitting as I had recently made a friend who traveled from British Columbia to Central America in a school bus powered by used vegetable oil.  What an adventure!  To use vegetable oil in a vehicle, the vehicle must run on diesel and the oil needs to be filtered.  There is a lot of information out there for doing this, though not so much for using using vegetable oil as an energy source for a stove.  But it can be done!  On the right of this photo is the methane stove.  The stove on the left is using used veggie oil.


Next in the diverse field of sustainable cooking methods is the Rocket Stove.  The rocket stove is an efficient alternative to traditional open fire cooking methods.  These stoves are designed to burn small pieces of wood very efficiently and thus cleanly.  Rocket stoves are being adopted in some developing countries and refugee camps because they are relatively inexpensive to make, require very little fuel, and emit less hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.  This means they are accessible to those with little to no income, require less travel to gather firewood (usually a women's job that is not only time consuming, but in some areas quite dangerous), and is healthier.

The inner workings of the Rocket stove

Rocket stove in action - making hooch

A similar stove that an intern was in the process of fixing while I was there, is the Justa Stove, another efficient alternative for cooking indoors that is being widely adopted in Central America.  It is said to remove 100% of wood smoke and produces 35-85% less green-house gas emissions.  From what I understand it has similar technology, using the elbow shape.  I wasn't able to get any pictures of my own of this one, since it was under construction, but here are some pictures that may help you differentiate it from the rocket stove.

Finally, the last sustainable cooking method in my long list is the bio-char stove.  Bio-char really can and should be a topic onto itself, but here I will just give a quick overview.  Essentially bio-char is charcoal used for agricultural purposes that is created through a pyrolysis process - this means to heat biomass in a low-oxygen environment.  Once the process has begun it requires no external inputs and burns clean.  Aside from the bio-char, this process captures gases (H2, CO, CH4), which are the fuel for the bio-char stove.  The benefits of bio-char are numerous and I will save these for a future blog.

I'm sure there are even more sustainable cooking methods out there, but these are the ones I have encountered in my travels and during my research.  The beauty of all of these methods is that they are inexpensive and easy to build for the DIY crowd.  I hope you found them inspiring!

Cilantro growing in bio-char at CATIE

Growing Global Citizens

The walk to my home stay

Increasingly we as a global society have become more interconnected and mobile. Globalization has enabled the cheap and efficient transfer of people, products, and information around the globe in ways that none of could have imagined a few decades ago.  It is because of globalization that I found myself amongst a group of interns, volunteers, and students from all over the world in a town not big enough to be named on any Costa Rican map or tourist guidebook.  In fact the town's first and only public pay phone is barely 5 years old.

The town, while quite small, is home to a handful of educational and family-run farms that host volunteers, interns, and university classes learning about tropical agriculture and environmental sustainability.  As you can imagine this transient, affluent, and international presence has impacted the community, both positively and negatively, causing some farmers to re-think their volunteer and internship programs.

You may be wondering what could be wrong with bringing in tourism and therefore money into a small, rural community - especially at a time when many small, rural communities are disappearing.  It's really quite simple.  Many of the volunteers and students who come through town are short-term stays.  One week to one month.  They want a different and meaningful experience...but they are on vacation and still want to party.  Late-night partying impacts the community through noise, drunken trysts between locals and foreigners, and the perpetuation of a drinking culture, which sometimes results in cases of alcoholism and domestic violence among the local population.

On the other hand, the money that comes through these farms is dispersed quite far throughout the community.  University classes, although staying at one farm, will gather and eat at the local restaurant, they will pay for tours to visit the other farms in the area, and even treat the students to a "cultural experience" by sending them to a home stay for one night - giving local women a source of income.  Interns and volunteers also support the local store, restaurant, and bar.  The fees paid to the farms for their stay are dispersed in the community through the procurement of food items and other goods and services needed to keep the farms and volunteer programs running.  These farms are part of the existing community, they are not trying to create their own.

The ever-changing menu and quote of the day

1 of 8 sustainable cooking methods on the farm

Communal Eating Area

And yet, as I volunteered and spent time at this last farm on my itinerary, I couldn't help but ask the owner if it was his initial goal to create an intentional community.  On this particular farm, I could feel and see the community spirit that so many farms I had visited over the past weeks were seeking.  But it was not his goal.  His concern was the original community that he and his family had moved into.  He talked about how their program had evolved over the years in order to counteract the negative impacts associated with the volunteer program.  The internship commitment has increased over the years, from any length of time, to 3 months, and now to 6 months.  This time frame gives people a chance to take ownership of their temporary home and therefore responsibility over their actions - both on and off the farm.  It also gives the farm a chance to teach about global citizenship.

Awesome Cobb Creativity

So what does it mean to be a global citizen?  Surely, the sheer act of travel alone does not qualify one to become a global citizen.  Instead it means understanding that we are all connected and that our actions impact those around us.  A global citizen takes the initiative to educate themselves about the world, especially the places they visit, appreciating the diversity found in humanity.  A global citizen works towards environmental sustainability and social justice, taking responsibility for their actions and those of society.  A global citizen participates in community, both locally and internationally.   

The long-term internships and conversations have made a difference.  

Projects are not abandoned by the departure of a volunteer, instead they are documented and maintained.  Interns play football with the locals at the community field.  Everyone knows where things go and takes initiative to make sure things get done.  A library has been built for the local residents by the farm over the last three years.  People have fun and the bar is frequented, but with discretion.  Interns are keenly aware of global issues, building practical skills to sustainably affect change at the local level.  Despite their temporary residence, interns are thinking long-term, designing and planting food forests for a future harvest they most likely won't taste.

The library just opened 2 weeks ago

The exterior of the library

The library will be dedicated to Spanish books

Or maybe they will, since at this farm people seem to come back year after year, becoming part-time (and in some cases full-time) residents of the farm and community.  I don't blame them.