Vickey McDonald

This sounds very interesting. Not sure they would work in my area. We have several months with little to no daylight. And often cloudy, cool and rainy summers.  We do have a few solar panels, not much output for a good portion of the year, unless we happen to get a good summer with a lot of sun.

Un Chad wrote:Is anyone familiar with these?

https://hydrosolar.ca/products/vacuum-tube-solar-collector-srcc-certified-xianke-xkph58-complete-with-manifold-frame-tubes-and-30-frame-kit

I used to instal them for city homes but I thought they would really be better used in a situation like you guys are chatting about. Heat the ground deep in a greenhouse or the slab floor. These solar tubes work amazing in the cold as long as the sun shines

I'm in a small rural community. We serve our own community which is a tourist area in the summer. We also cover the villages on either side of our community and the edge of a second on one side as well as a remote community that is only accessible by 4 wheeler, train whistle stops combined with 4 wheelers, and depending on the time of year, snow machines. So basically we cover four and a half communities. I have worked as a volunteer and for some time in different paid positions as well as being a client. So I have seen the local Food Pantry from many different perspectives.

Many in these communities are elderly, widowed or retired or a combination, work seasonally, or move here with no idea how they will support themselves or their families. There are very few year round jobs within these communities.  And there are of course, also those who prefer not to work.

During covid we were a drive through Pantry as we have a very small building. Everything was prepacked and handed out as you drove around our building. Before covid and after the restrictions were lifted folks can come inside. We have one area where you check in and the federal commodities are given out, the next area we call our non-reg room. It is for foods and other items that are not federally regulated. Then we have a produce area where we offer fresh produce. In all except the Federal commodities clients are allowed to choose whatever they wish. In the Non-Reg area there is a specific number of items based on household size. The produce room you are allowed one of everything we have. When we receive produce in bulk we often bag it ourselves into family portions.

We have programs our director has implemented that I have never heard of anywhere else. She was a grant writer at one time and has used that knowledge to write and apply for grants for many special programs. These programs range from a kids pantry at our local high school as we have many homeless kids in our communities who are basically couch surfers who spend many knights sleeping on different friends couches.  We also have bagged weekend foods that kids at the elementary schools can take home on the weekend to help supplement  them while they are not receiving school lunches and such.

There is another program that allows us to deliver food (as they would get if they came to the pantry) to seniors and disabled clients. This program also has arranged with out local transit service for a shuttle ride to pick seniors up and return them to their homes for a hot lunch which is served every Tuesday at our local Senior Center, weather permitting.  And a third section of this program which provides breakfast vouchers to a local restaurant for Senior on that part of the program who are not part of the lunch program. All of these are designed to not only provide food for our seniors and disabled who qualify but also to help with isolation. It gets them out and around other folks and has resulted in many friendships and connections that may not have happened otherwise. Many of these seniors went for weeks without seeing anyone except possibly our Senior delivery driver (A position I held at one time.)

We also have a "community" garden at one of the local churches. Though it is not the type where folks in the community have space in the garden. It id where we grow food to be passed out to the community through the food pantry. The pantry volunteers and director built it, plant it, weed, water and harvest it. We have four- of the 12X20 foot portable greenhouses which we grow hydroponic produce in. (My husband and I do most of that one) and all the produce is handed out to the community through the food Pantry. That one is off grid as there is limited water and electricity available to it. (Uses a method called "Kratky system".)

We do get donations but as we are over an hour away from any larger cities, we don't get that much compared the the food pantries in the closest city or in Anchorage. Many folks in our communities live off grid with no running water or electricity.

Our director has also gotten grants for firewood, heating oil and fuel cards. Many folks in our areas need help with heating fuel or fuel for their generators.

During the holidays we have special Thanksgiving and Christmas boxes that are given out in addition to the regular monthly foods folks can get twice a month from the Pantry.

On normal days, we frequently don't have enough volunteers, but we find ways to make things work. Often the director or her assistant will end up doing our shopping and some is even done online through places like Amazon business. If they are shopping it means going either into the town an hour or so each way or into Anchorage which is about 2 hours drive each way. They also frequently help hand out food in the pantry, or at the summer lunch programs we run at the libraries in  a couple of the communities.  At one point we also tried a mobile pantry as many did not have their own transportation.

My husband and I also grow food at our place for the pantry. Last summer we planted 100 heads of leaf lettuce each week for the pantry in addition to whatever produce the pantry received from the state food bank or donations. This year we plan to put the lettuce in one of the hydroponic greenhouses along with the cucumbers, mini cabbage, summer squash, and tomatoes we manage for the pantry and growing some other foods that take longer to mature at our place for them.

Hope this gives some ideas for anyone interested.

This is a fantastic thread to stumble on! Now we need to get it active again. There is so little information available for those of us growing in the "FAR" north.

Happy to see there are some other Alaskan gardeners and others in extreme temperature or low winter light areas. We are in the Talkeetna area (South Central Alaska) not as warm as Palmer but not as cold as Fairbank or Delta Junction areas.

Would love to hear from anyone who has built a walipini in Alaska, or hugelculture beds, or heating a greenhouse with RMH and such. Hoping to add a RMH/Stove when we add the addition (my new kitchen) to our cabin. But also grow as much of our produce and fruits as possible here. Not looking to grow all winter but would love to extend our growing on both ends of the season.

As others have mentioned the sunlight is a major issue, but if we could add even several weeks to either or both ends of the season it would be a blessing. Hate having to wait so late to start things in our small cabin for lack of space or to have to toss things that are doing well, because we have run out of time and the cold temperatures came early.

Thomas Rubino and Cristobal Cristo, thank you both for the information. Sounds like we need to rethink our plans and figure out how to incorporate two stoves instead of trying to combine everything into one stove.  In some ways that makes the separation of the heat source and our cold room we are building a bit easier.  Thank you again for your help.  

My idea was for something I could bake in without it tasting like wood smoke, as well as having a cooking surface on top that got hot enough to use a 30 quart pressure canner and even better if it could handle that and a 21 quart at the same time.

We have a camp wood cook stove that we don't use. Our thought is to take the cast iron cook top off it and use it for the top of the rocket stove. Being able to incorporate the mass when we are not necessarily cooking is our hope using the bypass.

If we use the batchbox and leave the bypass open in the winter the extra heat may be useful for heating the house, but it sounds like not as good for cooking, except on the surface when pans could be moved to a cooler area of the stovetop.

Just hoping to find a setup that would not require two different stoves in our place which will take a lot of room.

We will be starting on our house this spring. Wanting to add a walker style cook stove and/or a batch stove style. My husband wants it combined with the mass for heating the house with a way to close off the mass when we don't want to heat the house up, but just use the cooking portion.

My question is about the oven insert, or actually two questions.
Where can you source the oven insert?
Would it be possible to use the oven insert from a propane cook stove?

Most of what I have seen as the inserts are fairly small and if they have a rack there is only room for one. I do a lot of larger items, half or 3/4 sheet cake size and wondering about cooking on the holidays... large turkeys, multiple pies and cakes, large batches of cookies, breads etc. The small oven box would take me weeks of cooking to get the same amount ready.

Anyone have a solution for this issue?

This is good to know, I'm in South Central Alaska and would very much like to grow peanuts. I grew up in the South and one thing I really miss is a good boiled peanut.

We live off grid and freezer runs on a generator run several hours a day. So we often have the same issues of things freezing to the walls and floor of the freezer. We are planning to add some of the thin foam board insulation to put a layer around the sides and bottom of the freezer then put everything back in.

Might be worth a try. Or even some of the Reflectix insulation used the same way.

I love sourdough and will definitely be backing if the timing is right for my social security check. I have to pay bills first. Nice to see the loaves are not the dark brown burnt looking bread so many are proud of because the crust is so crispy. I have never liked the look of those.

Would love to see a golden brown sandwich loaf. Something to show it doesn't "have" to be the dark, crispy crusted round loaves and that you don't need a big cast iron dutch oven to bake good sourdough bread.

Liv Smith wrote:

Luetta Robinson wrote:Hi Paul,

Since you're coming this direction, how about visiting Alaska?? We'd love to have you here! Rocket Mass Stove Heaters would be a great topic.

Luetta

Alaska, as good as it sounds, is a little far. Paul is willing to drive 7 or 8 hours from his Montana home.

Let’s see what he has to say about it, though!

Liv- I agree. Would love to have him come to Alaska. Not sure what area your in but there are plenty of us here who would love some time with his knowledge. I bet just out here in the upper valley we could come up with at least a dozen.