What’s in the ground:

I hope everyone is keeping up on your succession planting. People tend to plant their garden and think that they are finished, but a garden is a process, or better yet a cycle, for every plant you take out you need to put one in. So as the “excessive heat” warning sets in Philadelphia, it’s time to get that lettuce out of the ground. It will be almost impossible to grow. A good heat resistant green to put in it’s place is spinach, especially baby spinach. Try it and keep those greens going.

What’s going on in sustainability:

So for this installment, I thought I’d take a break and take an amazing tip that was just too enjoyable to pass up. This past weekend was Mr. Rob Berliner’s birthday and in true West Philly Fashion, we celebrated with a garden party and an accordion all of his friends collectively bought. Below is the genius of John Branigan, former bass player, who made the most interesting dish at the party.

“I’d heard about solar ovens for years, and had checked out plans, but never got around to constructing one. So when I made plans to be at Rob’s birthday party, held outside in the middle of June, I figured it
would be a great opportunity to do some solar cooking. Solar Cooking International hosts a website with reams of information about all types of ovens, recipes, and techniques. http://solarcooking.org/plans/

“I chose to build the basic “minimum” box oven design as my first solar oven project. It uses readily available materials, and cost me less than ten dollars (with enough leftover material to build another). I
had a couple of empty beer cases in the basement, picked up some aluminum foil, white glue, and a Reynolds oven bag (for turkey cooking). In less than a few hours, I was able to assemble the oven completely. I’d recommend using bigger boxes to catch more sun and create more heat, but this one worked!

“I put four large (organic, free range, never frozen) chicken breasts in a dark-colored, four quart covered pot with an onion, plenty of garlic, fresh cilantro (from Rob’s garden, no less), and a bottle of chipotle barbecue sauce. The oven sat in the sun from one o’clock to about seven, slow cooking the four pounds of meat. I monitored the temperature with a meat thermometer, and it was cooking at 160 degrees. I shredded the cooked chicken before serving, and, all modesty aside, it was fantastic! I’m thinking that a pork shank braised in beer and herbs (from my garden this time) is next on the solar oven menu. Might as well take advantage of all this free energy surrounding me every day.”

A side note, he was at my house at noon getting it ready for dinner at 7. It was great. Until next week, this is the note from the urban homestead.