Cooking with 'sipag kalan'
SINCE SHE GOT hold of the stove five months ago, Bella de la Peña has used it every day to cook food for her family in Plaridel, Bulacan.Like many households in the country, her family has stopped using an LPG stove because of the steep rise in the cost of LPG over the past months. [The dealer?s pick-up price of an 11-kg LPG cylinder increased by more than 33 percent from P468-P520 in July 2007 to P644-P700 two weeks ago.]
Rice husks
With her sipag kalan (literally industrious stove), Bella does not spend a centavo for fuel to cook food or heat water as the stove uses ipa (rice husk). She gets a regular supply of ipa for free because her house sits on a rice field in this town some 30 kilometers from Balintawak, Quezon City.
"It can cook rice in 10 minutes,?" she said as she was frying daing na bangus (marinated milkfish) for guests who dropped by her house one evening recently. She uses about a kilo of ipa for cooking rice.
She said the stove could also give her evenly cooked rice.
Just don't press the lever and the rice will be fully cooked. In addition, the flame won't flare up? said Agaton Milagroso, maker of the stove.
Blue flame
Pressing the lever releases embers and enables rice husks from the receiving bin to slide into the outer cylinder to replenish the spent fuel.
Milagroso, 57, said sipag kalan could cook fast because of its consistent blue flame emanating from the inner cylinder.
He attributed this to the continuous supply of air passing through holes on the stove?s outer and inner cylinders.
He said he first thought of the stove as a source of the ?perfect substrate for seedlings? because Bulacan was not a coconut-producing province. Coir is mixed with other organic materials and soil to grow seedlings.
Vegetable grower
Milagroso, who practices organic farming and is president of the Bulacan Vegetable Growers? Association, now uses charred rice husks from the stove as substrate for eggplant and tomato seedlings. The charred husks absorb moisture.
Charred rice husk is rich in phosphorus (an element that plants need for growth) and can be used for controlling golden kuhol (snail), said Milagroso, who had trained in Central Luzon State University on raising eggplant and tomato.
Grandson's birthday
He said his stove could be called ?organic? because users need not buy LPG or kerosene. Neither do they have to cut down trees for firewood.
Milagroso started working on the stove in his welding shop on Feb. 24 and finished it on the same day. ?The prototype is at home [in Malolos],? he said. He first used the prototype for the first birthday of his grandson?for cooking spaghetti and pansit.
The stove costs P1,200 to produce and is sold at P1,500. Employing four people in his shop in Malolos, Bulacan, Milagroso has so far sold more than 200 stoves.
Order for 1,000 stoves
Since July 14, he has been staying in Alaminos, Pangasinan to train people and accredit them to produce the stove.
Alaminos Mayor Hernani Braganza has asked him to produce 1,000 stoves for the town. The mayor has supplied the equipment and materials for the project.
Milagroso, who used to be with the national food and housing authorities before he worked in Kuwait in 1994-1997, said Alaminos would pay him P100 per stove.
Employment
He told Talk of the Town on Thursday that he accepted the project because he wanted to ?help people and generate employment in the town.?
There are plans to produce 200 stoves in Samal, Bataan, and an engineer has inquired about making the stove in Camarines Sur, according to Milagroso.
He is setting up a system to deliver ipa to a growing number of people using sipag kalan in Metro Manila. One is a restaurant owner in Quezon City.
(Agaton Milagroso can be reached at 09236745321.)
How to use the stove
1. Fill up the outer cylinder with rice husks through the receiving bin.
2. Light a piece of paper and place it in the inner cylinder to ignite the rice husks.
3. Place a pot, casserole or pan on the stove to start cooking.
4. Push up the lever to release the charred husks and to increase the flame?s intensity.
5. Refill the outer cylinder as needed.
SINCE SHE GOT hold of the stove five months ago, Bella de la Peña has used it every day to cook food for her family in Plaridel, Bulacan.Like many households in the country, her family has stopped using an LPG stove because of the steep rise in the cost of LPG over the past months. [The dealer?s pick-up price of an 11-kg LPG cylinder increased by more than 33 percent from P468-P520 in July 2007 to P644-P700 two weeks ago.]
Rice husks
With her sipag kalan (literally industrious stove), Bella does not spend a centavo for fuel to cook food or heat water as the stove uses ipa (rice husk). She gets a regular supply of ipa for free because her house sits on a rice field in this town some 30 kilometers from Balintawak, Quezon City.
"It can cook rice in 10 minutes,?" she said as she was frying daing na bangus (marinated milkfish) for guests who dropped by her house one evening recently. She uses about a kilo of ipa for cooking rice.
She said the stove could also give her evenly cooked rice.
Just don't press the lever and the rice will be fully cooked. In addition, the flame won't flare up? said Agaton Milagroso, maker of the stove.
Blue flame
Pressing the lever releases embers and enables rice husks from the receiving bin to slide into the outer cylinder to replenish the spent fuel.
Milagroso, 57, said sipag kalan could cook fast because of its consistent blue flame emanating from the inner cylinder.
He attributed this to the continuous supply of air passing through holes on the stove?s outer and inner cylinders.
He said he first thought of the stove as a source of the ?perfect substrate for seedlings? because Bulacan was not a coconut-producing province. Coir is mixed with other organic materials and soil to grow seedlings.
Vegetable grower
Milagroso, who practices organic farming and is president of the Bulacan Vegetable Growers? Association, now uses charred rice husks from the stove as substrate for eggplant and tomato seedlings. The charred husks absorb moisture.
Charred rice husk is rich in phosphorus (an element that plants need for growth) and can be used for controlling golden kuhol (snail), said Milagroso, who had trained in Central Luzon State University on raising eggplant and tomato.
Grandson's birthday
He said his stove could be called ?organic? because users need not buy LPG or kerosene. Neither do they have to cut down trees for firewood.
Milagroso started working on the stove in his welding shop on Feb. 24 and finished it on the same day. ?The prototype is at home [in Malolos],? he said. He first used the prototype for the first birthday of his grandson?for cooking spaghetti and pansit.
The stove costs P1,200 to produce and is sold at P1,500. Employing four people in his shop in Malolos, Bulacan, Milagroso has so far sold more than 200 stoves.
Order for 1,000 stoves
Since July 14, he has been staying in Alaminos, Pangasinan to train people and accredit them to produce the stove.
Alaminos Mayor Hernani Braganza has asked him to produce 1,000 stoves for the town. The mayor has supplied the equipment and materials for the project.
Milagroso, who used to be with the national food and housing authorities before he worked in Kuwait in 1994-1997, said Alaminos would pay him P100 per stove.
Employment
He told Talk of the Town on Thursday that he accepted the project because he wanted to ?help people and generate employment in the town.?
There are plans to produce 200 stoves in Samal, Bataan, and an engineer has inquired about making the stove in Camarines Sur, according to Milagroso.
He is setting up a system to deliver ipa to a growing number of people using sipag kalan in Metro Manila. One is a restaurant owner in Quezon City.
(Agaton Milagroso can be reached at 09236745321.)
How to use the stove
1. Fill up the outer cylinder with rice husks through the receiving bin.
2. Light a piece of paper and place it in the inner cylinder to ignite the rice husks.
3. Place a pot, casserole or pan on the stove to start cooking.
4. Push up the lever to release the charred husks and to increase the flame?s intensity.
5. Refill the outer cylinder as needed.