Beautiful Earth Kitchen in Wanathavilluwa

Beautiful Earth Kitchen

This is a great kitchen made completely with Earth (matti in Sinhala), Not only is it eye catching it is cost effective and very functional.  The kitchen was built by Mr. Dayananda and his wife Sumana by themselves. Mr. Dayananda's wife runs a medium scale plant nursery out in Wanathavillu (on the old Mannar Puttalam road). You may notice that Mr Dayananda is using one of the two or three many efficient ways of cooking with firewood (clay 1950-1978),

a) The double clay stove (CEB Two-pot Stove or the Clay Sarvodaya Version. 

b) Rocket Stoves:  Downside the wood needs to be chopped into small pieces. I have not seen one in SL. Does not mean there are none around. 

We/I use the double stove, readily available all over the country for around 150-250 LKR. It really cuts down on the firewood use and can have two pots being cooked at the same time. Unhappily I rarely see households using the double stove in this part of the country. The women walk half or more kilometer (depending on economic status) and gather firewood even though this area borders jungle. Thats because the village proper, is urban in the sense there are very few trees/firewood within the village.  Some villagers have have even commented after seeing the double clay stove why I bother. Yes some of those houses will have 50K sound setup or 30K flat screen TV, but not a 150-250 LKR stove that will cut down on firewood usage.