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November 01, 2005
Cooking Appliances made of Mud
Building a Lorena Stove
Zoe Sylvester & Andy McNamara
We spent a week at Ulrich's Native Species Reforestation as part of the WWOOF program (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms - www.wwoof.org), whereby volunteers can exchange their labor for room and board at organic farms around the world. While here, one of our projects was to build a Lorena stove for the school across the Laguna de Tierra Oscura from Ulrich's farm. A Lorena stove derives its name from the combination of two Spanish words, lodo (dirt) and arena (sand) which are the two principal components of the stove. The benefits of the Lorena stove are that it contains the heat of the fire more efficiently, thereby using less firewood for equivalent heat, and directs the smoke out through a chimney and away from the lungs of the cooks.
A Peace Corps volunteer named Annie directed the project wonderfully. Many Peace Corps volunteers learn this process and she was kind enough to spearhead this project even though it was after her last official day of service. Additionally, Ismael and Emiliano - two of Ulrich's workers - were instrumental in the mixing process.
We
began by building a wood frame to contain the stove while it cured.
Its approximate dimensions were 1.3 x .45 x .3 meters, and the
base was a table raised a .3 meters above the ground. Since the
stove would eventually weigh half a metric ton, it was important for
the table to be strong. We then collected dirt and sand in equal
quantities. The dirt should be clay subsoil and as free from rock
as possible. The soil from the mound of a leaf-cutter ant colonly
works quite well. We used 3 large wheelbarrows of each material
and added 50 kilos of cement. After mixing the dry materials, we
added water until it was somewhere between damp and wet - wet enough to
stick together when pounded, but dry enough that when squeezed no water
seeped out.
Next
we pounded the material into a wooden box using our hands and scrap
pieces of wood. We pounded vigorously to ensure that no air
bubbles were caught in the material. About 5 cm from the top, we
placed scrap pieces of iron in the corners and between the eventual
burner locations to reinforce the material. We completed
compacting the material by standing on wooden boards that we
temporarily placed on top. After smoothing the top with a masonry
shovel we let the material set for an hour and returned to dig out the
holes. We knew the material was ready when our hands left a small
dent, but it was not sticky and could not be punctured.
We
dug out a firebox on the side and two holes measured to the size of the
pots they use at the school. The firebox was 15 cm high and 5 cm
above the wooden table. It connected with the first hole, which
was the same depth. The second hole was more shallow than the
first so that a slanted tunnel so that the heat from the first hole
would rise to the second pot. From the second pot we constructed
a curved tunnel up the chimney. All the tunnels were about the
size of a fist. After construction, a metal chimney should be
placed in the chimney hole and curved so as to direct smoke out of the
kitchen. The holes for the stove were cut at an angle so that the
pots rested down in the holes. Then we wet our hands and rubbed
down the whole thing to give it a smooth and finished look. After
five days the stove was ready to use. As cracks inevitably
appear, rub ash from the fire into them. The fire should be
constructed only in the firebox and under the first pot.
Since our first Lorena stove, we constructed a second stove for another family close to the school. We also tried our hands at an earthen oven back on Ulrich's farm which can hopefully be used to bake the local "Johhny Cakes", which are a white roll made from coconut cream and white flour. The process we followed was Kiko Denzer's and we followed an article in Permaculture magazine to construct it.
We were grateful for the opportunity to learn and experience life on these unique and beautiful islands!-Zoe & Andy
Posted by rick at November 1, 2005 10:15 AM