Solar cooked corn

Yummy! I just finished cooking, in my homemade solar cooker, two ears of sweet corn for about 35 minutes. I included about 4 oz. of water that had been pre-heated to about 200 F in a black ceramic mug. The temperature inside my GraniteWare 3 qt. pot (inside an oven bag) was 210 F within the first 10 to 15 minutes. The corn is awesome and tasted better heated this way than in stove top boiling water.

My first homemade solar cooker

This is my homemade solar cooker built based on a variant design of the CooKit solar cooker. It was built with aluminum foil, water based non-toxic project glue, and a 48"x36" school project cardboard display board like this one (of course any cardboard or wood or even plastic with some rigidity will work). It took me within an hour to make. More information about the CooKit solar cooker and variants can be found here. In my initial test this week I filled a black ceramic coffee mug with 8 oz. of room temperature water (70F) and placed the mug (along with a thermometer in the water) into a plastic bag (not a high temperature oven bag -- I did not have any yet, I do now). Then, I placed this into the center of the solar cooker on a sunny day at about 2pm. Within about 20 minutes the water was at 150F (pasteurized). Within another 10 or 15 minutes the water was up to about 210F (just under boiling) and the plastic bag was melting. I have not yet tried more cooking experiments with this cooker as we've gotten a lot of clouds and some rain in the past few days. I am planning more testing of this cooker including more water heating, cooking some dinner rolls, bannock bread, maybe some eggs, and other things...maybe some of my corn.

Using Solar Power Generators

As I have mentioned earlier, these so called "solar power generators" are small solar power systems and are NOT designed to power anything and everything just because they have AC outlets on them. Additionally, it is always better to use 12VDC powered items because DC-to-AC inverters waste power doing the conversion from DC to AC. An added bonus to using DC is that appliances are typically designed to use less power so they can be used safely in vehicles and not damage your battery or alternator. With this in mind, I advise everyone using small solar power systems to use them for powering DC appliances as much as possible and use AC appliances as little as possible.

To find 12VDC appliances think like and shop like a boater, RV camper, trucker, etc. I've linked to a couple of sites with appliances along these lines in my Useful Links section. Anyone with a Solar Power Generator should probably spend the $25 to $30 to get a 60 to 120 watts max. DC mini toaster oven like this one. Which can warm, cook, and pasteurize water (if needed). Pasteurizing water kills 99.99% of pathenogens and requires about 150 F (no need to boil).

Now when it comes to powering a computer, I recommend a low power notebook or netbook computer. I also recommend not using the power brick (as they call them) which is a transformer converting AC to DC. If you use this power brick to power your computer from your battery bank of your solar power generator you are converting DC to AC and then AC back to DC. Both of these conversions waste power. That doesn't sound too smart. So, go online to eBay or elsewhere or to Radio Shack and get the proper DC power adapter with an output of the appropriate DC voltage, current capabilities, and plug connector for your computer. This is far more efficient. The same goes for your cell phone and other electronics, get those DC power adapters!

Solar Power Generator Systems

Here are the systems I have put together to try out solar power as a means to power some things during power outages and maybe even on typical normal days (when viewing the images keep in mind, for scale, that the battery pack units are about the same physical dimensions -- about 15" wide). Note that small solar power systems cannot handle large power drawing appliances and they are not intended to be used for this. You do NOT want to try or expect to be able to cook much with a small solar power system or do much cooling other than very small coolers that have low power draw because they do not use refrigeration compressors, but these do not maintain typical refrigerator range temperatures well either.

These small solar power systems are intended to power radios, lights, low power TVs and DVD players, power/charge personal electronics (cell phones, MP3 or MP4 players, etc.) and batteries, computers (lower power desktops or nettops, notebooks or, even better, netbooks -- I'll address low power PCs some other time), small fans, security systems, etc.

The following types of appliances are HUGE power drawing beasts and will NOT work well or at all on small solar power systems: ovens, stoves, hot plates, microwaves, air conditioners, large fans, refrigerators, larger kitchen appliances, hair dryers. It is math, investigate the power an appliance draws and determine for yourself what would happen if you tried to run a certain appliance on a small 20 to 30 amp-hour battery through a 400 or so watt inverter. These things CAN be run using a solar (or wind) powered system, but such systems have HUGE battery banks and inverters and cost $5,000 to $20,000, while these systems shown below cost only hundreds of dollars.

480 Watt AC, 28 Amp-Hour, 60 Watt/4 Amp Solar System

• 60 watts 15 VDC solar panel array (4 x 15 watts) -- about 4 amps at full power
• 7 amp max. DC Solar Charge Controller
• 480 watt (continuous max.)/600 watt (5 min. max.) AC inverter, 28 amp-hour portable battery pack/jump starter (with built-in AM/FM radio and 5 watt light), includes built-in 2.5 amp max. DC charge controller for charging from AC outlet (or DC source), 12 amp max. charge/discharge current through DC accessory socket
• Can attach 1 or more external batteries to unit using jumper cable attachment to increase available amp-hours

* * *

400 Watt AC, 19 Amp-Hour, 30 Watt/2 Amp Solar System

• 30 watts 15 VDC single solar panel -- about 2 amps at full power
• 7 amp max. DC Solar Charge Controller
• 400 watt (continuous max.) AC inverter, 19 amp-hour portable battery pack/jump starter (with built-in 5 VDC USB power port, AM/FM/NOAA radio and LED light), includes built-in charge controller for charging from AC outlet, 5 amp max. charge/discharge current through DC accessory socket
• Can attach 1 or more external batteries to unit using jumper cable attachment to increase available amp-hours

Garden results: Sweet Corn

Easy to grow. Have had no real pest problems. At least one ear had a baby ear inside with it. If I had known, I would have let the double ear go for at least another week because the younger ear was not good to eat (at least as far as I was concerned).

I grew only ten corn stalks (about six feet tall) in a small landscape area in my front yard. I wish I had grown ten times more!

AMAZING taste. Fresh, blanched, or however prepared. 'nuff said.

Garden results: Turnip

FACTOID: Turnips are in the cabbage family.

Turnips take about two to three times as long as radishes to mature, about 8 to 9 weeks. Of course they are quite a bit larger and have a different taste and texture. I've harvested one batch of turnips (purple tops) this season while they were a bit on the small/young side because I wanted to taste fresh young turnip roots. I can tell you they were sweet and juicy. Unbelievable compared to the often over mature and/or wilting (non-fresh) turnip roots I normally find in grocery stores these days. I have a new crop still growing. This time I have purple tops and red rounds both growing. One set of purple tops got too hot during a warm weather week in July and seem to have stopped growing. However, the other set of purple tops (planted alongside the red rounds) are growing fine. Turnips are more likely to get attacked by pests than radishes, as they are a large sweet root which is also a bit softer than a radish root and don't have that radish sting. I have run into a little bit of a problem with slugs/snails and even small ants attacking turnip roots. A bit of slug bait takes care of half of that and growing in a good size container rather than the ground seems to have remedied the ant issue. Just like it's cousin the radish, the leaves are good as greens. Just as with radish roots, turnip root skin is also easily peeled. I do not know what turnips are like that go to seed, as I have not had any do so.

FACTOID: A type of turnip called a "rape" is grown for it's seeds to make cooking oil out of, canola oil to be exact. Until a couple months ago I had no idea canola oil was from turnips seeds! (Rape may be more of a kale. I've never grown it.)

Garden results: Radish

FACTOID: Radishes are in the cabbage family.

Radishes mature quickly, so they are fun to grow and a few seeds may be a good addition to any survival pack (along with some seeds of other fast growing crops). Though they are not something I normally seek out to eat, I enjoy eating them out of my garden. The typical radishes mature in only 3 to 4 weeks and so you can have many plantings and harvests per season (Spring and Summer). Additionally, there are Fall/Winter varieties too, though they tend to grow slower. There are several things to say about radishes.

• One thing I discovered is that at least some plants do not like growing near radishes. Tomato plant growth gets stunted, the leaves get spotty and your tomato fruit yeild is reduced. So far, this is my only personal experience with this issue. I do not yet know of other non-complimentary situations.
• Many pests do leave radishes alone and so they are sometimes used around other plants to keep pests away (as are onions). Though I have encountered the occational leaf eating small green caterpillar. Caterpillars do love cabbage greens afterall. On the plants I had that went to seed, something did enjoy some of the pods as well. But, I have not had a single pest attack my radish roots.
• Another thing to be warned of is the distance between radish plants. If they are too close together they will not even begin to produce the large edible root you want, instead they quickly bolt (send up a flower stalk). In this situation they seem amazingly like an entirely different plant.
• Along with the mention of bolting, an interesting thing is not well known by many people. The seed pods produced by radishes that have bolted and gone to seed are very edible and are like a one to two inch uniquely flavored and very juicy/oily green bean. There are even varieties of radishes grown specifically for their seed pods/green beans. These are typically called rat-tail radishes and produce longer pods of six or more inches (some supposedly up to 12 or more inches).
• I found the inital two sprout leaves (pseudo leaves) of radish plants are tasty amd juicy when plucked before they dry up, additionally the regular leaves are also very edible and some people use them as salad greens. They are fuzzy on their under side, this is not pleasent to some people but for those that like steamed or otherwise cooked greens, I am told radish greens are fine.
• Thus the radish plant is entirely edible and fast growing. The only exception to this would be woody roots from going to seed or becoming too old and the stiff and woody flower/seed stalk (bolt).
• Flavor of radish root varies with age and watering routine. I have grown some that tasted nearly the same as a turnip and some that were sweet and some had a mild radish sting while others a very strong radish sting.
• For those that do not like radish root skin, I found fresh radish roots are fairly easy to peel by hand (like you would an orange).
• Radish roots store well in cool environments (like a crisper bin in the refrigerator, a proper root cellar, or even in a water tight container kept in a cool stream/river/lake), and last even longer if the greens are cut off.
• I found radishes to be easy to grow in pots/containers.
• Claims of larger sizes (over 1.25") seem to be inaccurate or my larger varieties just would not grow to their expected sizes due to being grown in containers. I'll be trying the 2 to 4" varieties in the ground next time. I have not yet tried growing the *very* large Asian varieties.

What have I been growing?

This year I have been introducing myself to urban gardening. I live in a house which faces SW and has minimal freedom to plant a garden in an optimal sun exposed location (which would include a south or southwest area of my yard (meaning the front or side yard)). Now in an emergency period I could rip out my lawn and garden in these locations, but right now that is not a good idea. Of course I could garden in my back yard (better security and no neighbor complaints) but it does not get the best sun exposure. However, next spring/summer I do plan to experiment with some gardening in the back.

So, this year I began planting a little later in the spring than I should have. I planted a few things in landscaping areas in my sun exposed front and side yard and a few things in pots/containers ranging from 6" pots, 24"x6" window planters to faux half wine barrel style large planters. I placed these on my front porch/patio (which is fairly small).

Here is my list of what I planted (non-hybrid preferred), many of which were chosen for small size and some for short harvest time, others don't meet my small or fast criteria but are either necessities (Onions) or are curiosities (Kohlrabi). As you can see some are not typically grown in home gardens.

• Radish -- cherry belle - champion - purple plum - german giant - crimson giant
• Turnip -- purple top white globe - red round
• Kohlrabi -- white vienna - purple vienna - superschmelz
• Carrot-- parisian market - little finger - babette [hybrid] - bolero [hybrid]
• Onion -- pacific pearl - sweet spanish yellow utah jumbo - red globe - copra [hybrid]
• Tomato -- early girl [hybrid] - oregon spring
• Lettuce -- prizehead - black seeded simpson
• Sweet Corn -- early sweet casino [hybrid]
• Pea -- little marvel (bush/dwarf)
• Bush Bean -- dragon tongue #
• Lentil -- green (from bulk bin at grocery)
• Chickpea (from bulk bin at grocery)
• Potato -- Kennebec #
• Strawberry
• Garlic -- hard neck and soft neck
• Melon -- {attempting some watermelon and musk melon, not worth mentioning yet}
• Spinach -- {crop failure, not worth mentioning}

Regarding TV shows "The Colony", "Survivorman" and "Man vs. Wild"

Now, just to start off with here I want to say this: I enjoy watching these shows. I learn something from each show. It may be how to make a fire or a shelter a certain way, how to climb down a small cliff with vines, how to not do something stupid Mr. Grylls does, or how to make a wood gasifier. Here are a few complaints about these shows that have been on my mind (besides Mr. Grylls' stupid and dangerous behavior at times).

Regarding "The Colony"...

• Why is this show set in a setting of an industrial park with tons of industrial equipment and such around? How realistic is this? Why not show how a small neighborhood or apartment/condo community would come together to divide up duties, make life as normal as possible where they live, provide security for themselves and survive?
• Why not address the reality of guns existing in such an aftermath situation and the proper use and concerns associated with weapons and mauraders (rather than gawking, food throwing monkey like raiders)?
• Why not address troops (domestic, UN or otherwise) trying to force their will upon an unwilling group of survivors?

In general...

• Why is the issue of dealing with human waste never addressed (other than the basically urban situation on "The Colony", which goes as far as "good thing the toilet flushes!")?
• How about some basic sheltering in place and some real homesteading type educational programming?

Welcome to my online notebook.

I'll be using this blog to post thoughts, information and details about various issues and topics regarding things such as survival, self-sustaining (self-reliance and self-independence) concepts and experiments, projects, etc. I may also include news information and perspective that I feel is important.

In general, I have an interest in creating enough personal wisdom to know I could live a comfortable and productive life on my terms and without undue dependence on corporate entities and government services. To these aims I have, for the past year, been gardening vegetables (imcluding some unconventional crops), building and using small solar power systems, creating home-made solar cookers/water pasteurizers, planning for low power use living, building "bug-out" packs, camping and more.

I welcome and hope for discussions in reader comments.

Again, welcome!