Fruit and veggie juicing and growing sprouts in my van.

May 12, 2010

Here is a short video that shows how I am currently making fruit and veggie juice in my van, using my Vitamix blender, a pure sine power inverter, a deep cycle battery and some foldable solar panels placed on my dashboard.

If you are curious about how one can operate kitchen appliances in a vehicle, this video may help you.

Also, now that a friend of mine has installed an excellent, powerful 12-volt fan/vent in the roof of my van, which keeps my van relatively cool all day even in Miami weather, I want to see how I can resume growing my own broccoli sprouts, this time in my van, using my EasyGreen Sprouter sprouting machine. The EasyGreen Sprouter is on the lower shelf in the picture on the left.

The EasyGreen gently sprays and rinses the sprouts. Just add a little sunshine. The 12-volt fan/vent in the roof of my van opens up wide and lets the sunshine into my van.

I am continuing on my path toward becoming more and more self-sufficient.

When it comes to boiling water to thermos-cook rolled oats or quinoa, for example, I am using either a rice cooker with a stainless steel interior powered by a power inverter and a deep cycle battery, or a small propane stove (with windows opens and ceiling fan at full blast for safety reasons: carbon monoxide).

Boiling water with the propane stove literally takes about 1 minute. I then pour the water and food into a stainless steel thermos and let the thermos do the cooking overtime. Energy efficient, cheap and a time-saver.

But I want an even more earth friendly/sustainable way to boil water: I am looking into making a solar kettle which will sit on the dashboard of my van while I meditate. It will have to be made of stainless steel or glass as plastic would contaminate the water. I will report back soon on the best way I have found to heat water using nothing but the sun.

May 14 update: so far the method that works best for me is using a black stainless steel water bottle (NOT a thermos bottle!) with car sun reflectors, sitting on my dashboard. Using this method, water inside the stainless steel water bottle gets heated to about 160 degrees.)

solar kettle heats water to 160 degrees

Today I had a salad at the internet cafe where I spent the day working. I got "home" to my van late in the afternoon, and the water in my solar kettle was 160 degrees.

I just poured the water into a thermos containing rolled oats and stevia.

By the time my meditation is over, the oats will be cooked and I have used nothing but the power of the sun.

"Amrita-Kana" (Droplets of Nectar)

I am fortunate that every morning, before meditation in my van, I get to read a few paragraphs of the "Amrita-Kana" (Droplets of Nectar). It helps me remember what is truly important in life. Jai Guru Dev.

I encourage you to look into the "Amrita-Kana" (Droplets of Nectar). No wait, that's not what I meant. Let me try that again:

I encourage you to throw your television set off your balcony right this instant and spend your TV-watching time instead looking into the "Amrita-Kana" (Droplets of Nectar). That's what I really meant.

Marc

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