Rocket Stove

          Since there are times when the sun doesn’t shine and since there are times when I want to make a dish for the sun oven that requires browning meat or something first, I asked my husband to make a rocket stove.  A rocket stove uses a small amount of fuel, wood, that can even be sticks or other trimmings from your yard.  We live in a National Forest area with lots of downed wood available so it seemed like a good fit for us.  

          There are a lot of rocket stove plans and instructions out there on the internet but most are confusing so my husband just took a general look at them and built his own.  Many call for the use of #10 cans and smaller fruit and vegetable cans but these are only good for a few uses.  Some people build larger ones and encase them in clay for both heating and baking.  We decided to go with a 5 gallon metal can and 3” used metal stove piping.  My husband feels that 4" would be better.  He also put a used stove grate on top and even painted it.  It looks good, but even better, it cooks fine. 

          The first time we tried it out the fire was too hot and I had bacon and eggs in about 2 minutes.  Since then we’ve learned a few tricks. 

Trick #1: have all ingredients ready and at your side.

Trick #2: learn how to manage the fire by pushing and pulling the wood in and out

Trick #3: use cast iron and be prepared to clean the soot off the bottom.  It will be a mess.

          For the 4^th of July we cooked Sloppy Joes.  Food takes on that campfire taste because of floating ashes etc.  Be prepared for that.  It is easier to cook on than an open campfire, takes less wood, is cooler, and since we set it on a stump, is easier on the back.  When I cook on the open campfire I have to bend over a lot more, get more smoke in my face and use a lot more wood.  The rocket stove is far nicer.

          Since it was so hot here on the 4^th, I appreciated not having to heat up the RV by cooking inside it.  I do consider the Rocket Stove and the Camp Ring to be mostly for emergencies although I am using them a lot this summer because of the heat and wanting to be comfortable cooking with them.  In a real crisis it would be too stressful to be learning to cook with a new and difficult method on top of everything else.  Our visitors, including some grandsons, really loved the way we were cooking.  It kept everyone entertained!  Bon a’ petit!  

Alternate Cooking Methods

          One of our goals this past year has been to learn alternate cooking methods.  Sure, we have a propane cook stove in the RV and a propane camp stove but both rely on propane.  This is a concern as we live in an area that is prone to being cut off.  Avalanches, roads sliding off the mountain, wild fire, bridge failures (we have very old bridges and a lot of them) etc, all can disrupt propane deliveries.  Hence our concern as we like to be able to eat on a regular basis.  Storing food isn’t enough, we need to be able to prepare it as well. 

          Last year we purchased a solar oven.  Originally we intended to make one but then we attended a presentation by the owner of Sun Oven.  They can be found at www.sunoven.com.  This company is great and their product is wonderful.  My husband carefully looked it all over and decided that this was far better than any of the designs we’d looked at because of the rubber seal.  The guarantee is fantastic: 3 meals a day, every day for 15 years.  Can’t beat that!  So we purchased one and have enjoyed learning to use it.  The only caveat is Don’t use it in the wind!  We lost a good beef stew that way and had a little cleaning up to perform.  We are working on a tie-down system of some kind that isn’t too hard and makes sense. 

          There are different ways of using it.  You can track the sun and keep the temperature close to or at regular oven temp or you can position it where the sun will be generally within a time frame and let it go like a slow cooker.  Either way has produced great results for us.  It is also the best herb dryer that I’ve found.  It is fast (so don’t leave it too long) and the herbs retain their color (and their vitality) better. 

          For the 4^th of July we cooked an apple pie.  This was a first for us.  My brother and sister-in-law had canned the apple pie filling and we were waiting for the perfect day and reason and by golly, the 4^th was it.  I left it for two hours and rode to town and came back to a beautiful apple pie!  And it was good!!  Can’t get better than that and the best part was: no heat in the RV and no monetary outlay for fuel.  Free fuel!!!!  Yeah, gotta love that!

          For cloudy days, we have a Rocket Stove that my husband made.  We made Sloppy Joes for dinner that night and that came out great as well.  I’ll detail that adventure another time.  We also do open fire cooking in a fire ring; sort of Dutch Oven type cooking. I’ll write more about that later.  In the meantime, start thinking about what alternative cooking methods you need. 

                                                                   Baking beautifully

                                                                       Proud result!