Welsh Mountain Biking with the EcoZoom Versa Rocket Stove

Back in the Autumn our EcoZoom UK Distributor recently took his Ecozoom Versa rocket stove on a mountain bike trip to the damp trails of Wales, spending a few days riding with friends and cooking up warm replenishing meals. If you live in the UK or Europe and are interested in ordering an EcoZoom stove please contact Stewart at ecozoom.uk@btinternet.com.

Wales is the spiritual home of mountain biking in the UK, it has world class, purpose built trails. It’s always a pleasure to get out into those hills for some fresh air and calorie crunching bike action. The trails are remote and it’s possible to park up a few camper vans close by and enjoy some local wilderness at its best.

Welsh weather is a unique and heady mix of sea and mountain influence. Facing the Irish sea, rain features most days and is often torrential. Strong winds can clear the clouds giving the sun a much appreciated cameo part. Autumn is a great time to experience this fresh climate but you have to come prepared.

With this in mind we headed out last weekend into a doubtful weather forecast and I took along my Ecozoom Versa rocket stove to give it a shot amid the gloomy forecast. Mountain biking is a high energy sport and excessive calories are needed to keep you going and to keep warm. This translates into a morning fry up and gallons of tea in preparation for our ride.

We set up the Zoom Stove on a log and got a fire going. I’d taken a bit of dry kindling to start the cookstove, but quickly moved on to wind dried sticks out of the damp forest. Bingo! A steady hot blaze got us right up into the mood and a day of swooshing singletrack ensued, mightily fueled by an EcoZoom rocket stove.

That evening we were able to pull into a lesser known beach front spot. A stunning place under a full moon but with strong winds due to the exposure. A camp fire was out of the question as the sparks would have gone everywhere, and would have kept us looking for new wood all night.

The Versa on the other hand was in its element. Set up on a camp table between a couple of vans acting as wind breaks, the controlled fire (from bleached driftwood) kept us cooking and warm right through the evening.

With gas camping stoves or spirit burners outdoor cuisine is usually a quick fuel saving boil up of some carbs (eg packet rice), followed by a cup of tea, then bed (to keep warm).

With the Ecozoom Versa cooking style you can be bit more luxurious……. fuel never runs out. You can spend a while in food preparation. We made a delicious green Thai curry using stir fried vegetarian ingredients, and simmered in coconut milk to perfection. Cooking for hours, it gives time for a very leisurely and well deserved beer.

Afterwards I even managed to get a hot water bottle into my sleeping bag…5 star luxury! Thanks to the little packet of heat that is the Versa rocket stove, a real fire can be at hand.

After another EcoZoom breakfast and full day of riding on the Nant Yr Arian trail, I was just about cooked. Fully fed, fueled and fatigued, Wales had worked its mountain bike magic once again.

I’m really happy to commend the Ecozoom Versa rocket stove for its morale boosting support to a great weekend.  As a base camp warmer in a damp, cold place, it’s a winner all the way!

email EcoZoom UK at ecozoom.uk@btinternet.com if you have any great stories of using your Zoom stove out in the wilds.

Biomass alongside wood and charcoal is a fuel option for the Zoom Versa named for its versatile performance. In reality biomass includes a wide range of materials that can be burnt to cook food. Of the 3 billion people without access to modern fuels maybe 60% use biomass to cook and these people exist at the poorer end of that spectrum.

Biomass itself is often gathered from local environments thus depriving the area of organic compost.

In turn this can contribute to soil loss, erosion and poor harvests.

Ecozoom rocket stoves are fuel efficient cookstoves that can give fuel savings of 60% over a regular three stone or unimproved fire. Smoke emissions can be down 70% – reducing indoor air pollution and preventing respiratory health problems. These savings can make a big difference since family members can spend less time gathering biomass. The children who often carry out this activity might spend more time at their studies, or be exposed to less danger from wild animals or slavers.

Out here in the UK things are a bit different and Zoom stove users mainly burn wood and charcoal when camping out or for real fire cooking on the patio at home. We wanted to see for ourselves how a Zoom Versa handled biomass so we set up a mini science study last weekend for a try out.

In the line of fire were three types of biomass: pine cones; corn husks and dry animal droppings.

OK I was a little apprehensive about the third, but as a fuel its the real deal for developing world cooks. This was from wild Exmoor ponies, with no odour and basically just straw, so gourmet biomass, so to speak.

A hot fire is the key to rocket stove efficiency – trapping and burning up the smoke before it gets in your eyes. Having set up our test stove at a local park barbecue spot we warmed up the combustion chamber using wood.

Then we tried each fuel in turn timing how long it took to boil one litre of water.

Its not easy cooking in a UK bbq area, people use throwaway barbecues full of accelerants and strange chemicals – they really stink and seriously undercook food. We’re in the clean burning and natural camp, and smoked nobody out. We kept a good fire going, and here are the results from our test:

Pine Cones – these burn for ages, and really well. The scent is pleasant. 1 Litre water to boil: 6:55 mins

Exmoor Pony (& Trap) – burns with fury but doesn’t last long. no odour. 1 Litre water to boil: 7.30 mins

Corn Husks – Burn slow, didn’t really work to boil the water fast. 1 Litre water to boil: 8:20 mins

The cookstove gobbled up the fuel and there was very little ash left in the stove, its clear that biomass is a serious option for a Zoom Versa rocket stove and a fun experience.

Learning to cook on a Zoom stove

It was a pleasure learning about these fuel types and we got an idea of how people in the developing world might be cooking right now. We didn’t check how these fuels might work in an open fire as this would be too smoky – even for a London barbecue place. I’ll be collecting pine cones for this purpose in future; corn husks – why not?; pony power?….. lets face it, you can efficiently burn any dry biomass in a Zoom Versa. Unlike bottled gas or smokey barbies, your fuel is abundant and its everywhere.

Author Stewart MacLachlan EcoZoom UK

Note: We didn’t use the Power Ring – the times would be reduced up to 25% if we had.

A British Beach Trip With an EcoZoom Versa Rocket Stove

In crisp, clear autumn weather we were able to get out of town and down to the southern coast of England for a few days of country walks and beach cooking on an Ecozoom Versa.

Our destination was a friend’s seaside caravan near the Dungeness lighthouse – facing Dover’s white cliffs across the bay. We’d suffered our worst storm in years and some areas were still counting the cost with fallen trees and debris in many places. This was the calm after the storm. The weather was perfect for getting out and about. We headed down the board-walk at the beach and set up for breakfast. Our backdrop was the English Channel and the shingle beach which was covered in starfish and sea life thrown up by the storm.

Apart from the beach front scenery and a light quality popular with artists, Dungeness is famous for its nuclear power station. It’s kept safe from storm’s by an artificial shingle bank maintained by tipper trucks. Albert Einstein called nuclear power an ‘expensive and dangerous way to boil water’, fortunately for us we didn’t need any power and could fire up our Ecozoom Versa using just driftwood. Cheaply and safely we got the espresso coffee cooked and set up the breakfast bonanza.

The locals don’t touch the shellfish in these parts, but the fresh fish is to die for. We bought freshly caught sea bass fillets from a fishermen and combined them with eggs and bread all cooked on the beach under a solid blue sky. Outdoor cooking at its finest!

On our way back to the sea side caravan park we stopped to look at an interesting piece of low-tech World War II archaeology – ‘the listening ear‘. The concrete ear was designed to tune in the sound of incoming hostile aircraft, of which only two were built before they were superseded by radar.

EcoZoom rocket stoves are a robust, low-tech solution to some of the world’s most pressing problems. Similar to the listening ear, we hope our rocket stove technology supersedes the primitive cooking methods of over 3 billion people in the world.

They also have direct usability here in Britain in all kinds of ways. A caravan by the sea is a home from home for many people in the UK during the warmer months. Most caravans use expensive bottled gas for cooking, and this restricts the options for recipes. Cooking inside a smaller space will create odours and can be uncomfortable on hot days.

The low key ‘footprint’ of the  ecological Versa rocket stove is perfectly suited to a pleasant caravan park environment. The contained combustion chamber sends out the right message – that this is a controlled scaled down fire, unlike a campfire which can be hard to control in wind.

Our cooking on the caravan park was fun and allowed for great times outside breathing fresh sea air. It was a couple of days well spent with some great memories, food, and fantastic opportunities for outside cooking – thanks to the Zoom Versa Rocket Stove.

The Isle of Skye is the jewel in Scotlands crown with some world class mountain backdrops.

With this in mind we packed an EcoZoom Dura to support an attempt on the infamous Skye Ridge Traverse.

This is a two day, sustained high level scramble with much climbing, and lightweight mountain equipment is required. Lets be clear, the ridge is no place for a wood burner – there’s no wood or water up there for a start. It was down at the base camp harbour where our EcoZoom Dura came in really useful.

Wood is often in short supply on the treeless Scottish peat bog, but this no problem for a zoom stove as you don’t need much. The Dura was used for hours and rocked out some great cooked breakfasts, including porridge. It was essential to pack in the carbs as calories would be limited on the climb. Buckets of tea were happily imbibed by all comers and as usual the stove worked as a focus and centre of attention – burning through all the pesky paper wrappers to avoid leaving pointless litter.

But the stove came into its own in a particularly Scottish way and any summer visitor to these parts knows about the  Highland Midge

The Scottish Midge casts a long shadow over the Scottish tourist industry. Known as the ‘crofters revenge’ since  crofters were cleared from the land for sheep leaving it un-drained and boggy. Perfect breeding ground for insects and the midges come in biting swarms that blacken the sky. They are attracted to the CO2 in our breath, so there’s no escape

EcoZoom cookstoves burn dry wood very efficiently with up to 70% less smoke, since it gets mixed with the flame and re-burnt due to the rocket effect. This gives a 60% reduction in the fuel used to cook food.

But with a little clever ‘reverse-engineering’ (i.e. damp wood) it was possible to smoke them little critters out and chase them off down the glen. It worked a treat when required and allowed for a bit more peace and reflection prior to the challenges ahead. And what a view!

Two days later we emerged from the mountains having had great weather and the best experience, grateful for all the support we had to complete this lofty Scottish classic and in need of some celebratory local malt.

It was great to get the opportunity to test the stove out as a base camp facility here and I can fully recommend an EcoZoom rocket stove for use in the Highlands – for both food and also to keep troublesome midges at bay without the hassle of a regular campfire.

Ecozoom Dura rocket cookstoves are simple, durable and burn wood for fuel, they are soon to be available in the UK.

How to traverse the Skye Ridge

Photos and story by: Stewart MacLachlan, EcoZoom UK

ECOZOOM HIGH EFFICIENCY WOOD, BIOMASS OR CHARCOAL ROCKET COOKSTOVES  

DEPLOYED AT ANTIFRACKING PROTEST SITES

April  – Anti Fracking : This  is  about  long  term  sustainability

Anti-Fracking protesters at the Daneshill (Nottingham) and Upton (Chester) Anti-Fracking sites have deployed clean burning and efficient ECOZOOM UK rocket  cookstoves for fossil fuel free cooking on site and to keep gas bottles out. John Oulton of Chester Green Party donated an Ecozoom ‘La Mera Mera’ cookstove (pictured) to the Upton site, recently covered by the BBC. John said that it made no sense to be making tea for visitors and journalists using bottled methane gas at an anti-fracking protest site. Ease of use of the ECOZOOM UK high efficiency wood, charcoal and biomass cookstoves, and their low emissions have made them a clear choice for site welfare. The cookstoves quickly became the focus for the sites with visitors able to learn about alternatives to gas use for cooking.

To avoid using fossil fuels and un-renewable power sources we must show alternative options. Ecozoom rocket stoves provide options and lead the way for efficient use of renewable fuels. They are used across the world where fuel sources are limited and can easily cope with fuel supply disruptions to keep you cooking.

ECOZOOM UK COOKSTOVES ARE CONFRONTING BOTTLED METHANE GAS USE  

–  FOR SPORT, RECREATION, PATIO COOKING & CAMPING.

http://www.daneshill.org  DANESHILL

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1394777480782876/  FRACK  FREE UPTON

DEPLETED ORPHAN FRACKING GAS WELL WARNING

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26692050