Waitangi Day in New Zealand

I have been making this rocket stove - and now that it is finished I have used it to cook on a few times already!!  Today - a public holiday - Mr Schick came round at lunch (he missed the inaugural fire lighting ceremony) and shared in some 'light' lunch.  Basically we had whatever you can put on a skewer and - well - grill it! yummy!  Then we sat and chatted for a while! All in all a nice relaxing way to celebrate New Zealand's Waitangi day.




From up top = two skewers cooking away and yes there is a lot of heat coming out from the chimney stack!






Front on - (ok forget the crappy paint job) timber goes in on the top shelf - fresh air feeds the fire from the bottom - brings a new meaning to the words - "Fire in the Hole"  Cooks very efficiently




  


Even mamabear got in on the action and managed to NOT flambé
her marshmallow.  (hehehe last time the heat was so intense that after 3 seconds her marshmallow caught fire!!)

 Left overs - and Max got the occasional treat too

Rocket stove gets first fire lighted

The Rocket Stove - invented by Larry Winiarski - so simple and efficient! It was developed with Africa in mind, as it uses far less timber (by about 2/3rds less) to burn for the same amount of heat! That is a labor saving device for the local woman - as they do not have to go and collect timber from miles and miles away - and then of course carry it back to the hut.   Any how - after some Youtube-ing on the subject matter I came across a version of a rocket stove I thought I coud easily do as well.  Yes well - first stop - finding the right fire bricks! After many phone calls I found eventually a place in Invercargill that makes them - long story short - I got them from a sub-retailer in Rangiora - only 25km's away - so went and placed a order.

http://www.youtube.com/16 brick rocket stove

Larry Winiarski rocket stove making video


From there it was a small step to collect a special fire hardened insulating plate and then I got lucky. A special friend made me a metal box - just perfect fitting. Spray painting / buying Cement, etc etc - cutting a long story short eventually I got a fully made Rocket Stove.  So I invited said friend and others for a first firelighting Ceremony that involved (naturally) cooking.  Once it got going there was almost no smoke - so that is more environmentally friendly! In fact such was the clean burn of the timber inside the Rocket stove, that on the inside of the chimney stack there was no soot at all- nice and clean white bricks!!


After the first fire lighting and the intial burn settled down we put on the top a golden syrup tin full of cold water.  The 500ml liter got boiling in less then 8 minutes! Not bad really all things considered. 



 Coming back to Africa - seeing it uses less timber - it saves the local forests. There is a company in America that makes and sells them commercially and for every one unit sold, it donates one stove to the local African community - very commendable.  One can cook more then just straight of the heat - I used it the other day like a BBQ grill and if you put on a hot plate (leaving enough gap for the air to get under and out of it) you can fry etc anything. Very versatile, I'd say.  Indeed I also used my Wok on there successfully one evening.








Roasting Marshmallow. Unbelievably how much heat there is coming from there.  In fact Mamabear managed to burn her marshmallow in less then 3 seconds, unless you keep it turning over and over.







Oddly enough the couple who helped with the manufacture managed to avoid the camera all night. Stitch here seem to enjoy the occasion despite the drizzle and the "refreshing " nature of the evening. 

 

Rocket stove

Ah yes - I made a rocket stove,  after someone mentioned a Jiko stove for efficient cooking ---->   jiko stove

Well one search led to another and before you knew it - I was hooked

rocketstove

www.youtube.com/rocketstove
www.youtube.com/larger rocketstove

 Here is my first model - hmmm actually it is the second - the first model was a crappy quicky --just to prove to myself I had the know how and tools to make it happen.  This "first" proper working model is made from old soup tin's.  It is amazing how little wood it uses and how hot it gets for cooking.  The saving of the Forrest principle was a major selling point in making this - as is the fact that maybe one day I may make one with the Scouts for them to use!!
I didn't leave enough of a air-gap so it still smokes at the entry point.  Other then that it worked brilliantly.  I then got the firebricks to make a bigger more permanent model - just in case and also just for fun!!  I will let you know later how it worked out!!

 

Boiling 3 liters of water!  Tea time!!