Solar Muffins, upside-down tomates

Latest solar fare:
Banana Crunch Muffins, loosely based on this recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Banana-Muffins-with-a-Crunch/Detail.aspx?src=etaf


sun-tanned delicious!




And finally the time has come to harvest from the Upside-Down Tomato experiments! Out of the 4 i planted, this is the only plant that appears healthy. The other 3 produced a few tiny tomatoes but their branches have dried and withered.

It was affirming to hear that many other folks who planted the UC-82 variety were also met with a disappointing, flavor-less tomato crop. The seeds were gifted to us by a local agricultural co-op, a sandinista program i would guess, that collaborates with the university to provide ag-info, workshops, seeds, and probably much more. We recently attended a lecture on zompopos (leaf-cutter ants), an ingenious insect that farms its own mushrooms (!!) and often destroys coffee crops in the process. The little einsteins harvest chunks of leaves and haul them back to their underground fungus farm, then feed on some bacteria or micro-organism that lives on the mushrooms. In Costa Rica there are eco-tours offering hikes to see leaf-cutter ants in action! Admittedly, it is cool to see a long line of them trekking back to the nest, the slices of bright green leaf seeming to herald the arrival of a medieval ant calvary.
In the lecture i was very impressed at the the organic approach to managing the pest, including the application of neem oil and the value placed on understanding the zompopo life cycle.

Back to the dangling tomatoes: as far as UC-82s go, these were not bad! Good color, typical square-ish shape, slightly juicier than the in-ground crop.

All in all, i'd say it's not a bad idea if you lack ample garden space. Otherwise......they weren't worth the precarious balance act of watering on a stool.

solar oven lovin'

Despite the discomforts of squinting, profusive sweating, heat exhaustion, and sunburns, the blazing sol de nicaragua has redeemed itself to me by generously cooking, toasting, and baking my food!
Solar Ovens are SUCH a GOOD IDEA! Not that i hadn't heard of them before, but i had not ever observed the simple miracle of cooking with the closest star to our planet. Solar chefs boast of a special sun-infused flavor achieved only through solar cooking and sure, maybe that's true. i haven't noticed yet and i don't really care because i am fascinated and grateful enough that my food is being COOKED just by leaving it out in the sunshine!!!
First try was plain old rice--2 cups agua, 1 cup rice + 2 hrs in the oven--which turned out mostly cooked, the top actually too crunchy and dry.
Next, keepin it fairly simple--baked potatoes.
Here they are raw, awaiting solar oven lovin

The whole contraption is ultra-simple--a box painted black on the inside, a plexi-glass door, and shiny reflective panels all around. Lots of people make their own. Cooking pot and lid should also be black.


i gave the taters about 2.5 hrs.....during which time, being the goddess of contradiction that she is, look where Zaya chose to retreat from the scorching sun:

classic.

As peak sunlight hours waned, i gleefully served buttery *star* baked potatoes, my gas tank no less full than before and the kitchen blessedly cool without the oven's suffocating heat.


For my next trick,

Sun Toasted Granola

1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup honey
1/4 stick of butter, melted
1 cup chopped nuts--i only have cashews
1/2-1 cup dried fruit--raisins are all i could find around here, though i dream of dried berries
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 pinch sal

Los Ingredientes


Start with the liquids, mix 'em up



Add dry



Mix it all up



Spread onto a greased cookie sheet, or if your solar oven is a small square, spread onto aluminum foil inside a skillet



Catch some rays, though i think 2 hrs was a tad too long


what more can i say: Sola Granola!