Nowadays, the use of clay stove with firewood as its fuel in Minahasa highland is declining. Gas and electric stoves are the more popular choice for cooking because they are cleaner and do not emit thick smoke.
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| Claystove in Minahasa highland |
However, this may change if the price of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) and electricity become expensive again. LPG is fossile fuel. People may return to clay stove if they cannot afford to buy LPG. A homemaker needs three to five pieces of wood to cook rice, vegetables, and to fry fish for lunch. This is considered far cheaper than buying kerosene. Unfortunately, the smoke released by wood stove will be harmful to users' health if they don't install proper chimney or exhaust pipes.
Homemakers in Minahasa and other towns in Indonesia are asked by the government to replace their kerosene stoves with LPG stoves. Actually the price of a 3-kilogram LPG tank is quite cheap but the cost of transportation to remote villages makes it expensive. Farmers who live near agricultural land and forest where firedwood is in abundance, continue to use wood as household fuel.
When firewood is not available, it can be substitute by coconut shells. Coconut shells are the side products of copra. Copra is the dried flesh of coconut which contains high percentage of edible oil. The soaring fossil fuel price has also triggered bio-diesel development using coconut oil as the raw material. So, coconut oil will not only be used as cooking oil but also as diesel oil. In the past, most of the the overstock of coconut shell was not used for biomass fuel. They are considered as waste. Villagers were reluctant to sell the shells to a factory because the cost of transport is high. Now, they use these shells as cooking fuel.
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| Sonder - a small town in the highland of Minahasa |
The design of clay stove is very simple. It is moulded from clay in a hollow box shape. One, where pieces of wood are inserted is rectangular whereas the other where the flame heat the cooking pan is circular. There are two clay stove producers in Sonder village, Minahasa. More clay stove producers are expected to grow in other villages of Minahasa regency. A clay stove is sold for Rp. 80,000 rupiahs (approx. 5 US dollars)
Wet clay stoves, coming out of the mock-up are dried under the sun. Sometimes, a producer of clay stoves covers his products with plastic sheet when the sun ray is too hot in order to avoid cracks in them. The clay stoves are also covered when it rains as seen in the picture.
More clay stoves used by the villagers will be better for the local economy. The money spent by every household to buy wood, coconut shells, and clay stove, will only circulate within the villages instead of flying out to oil exporter countries. When more money circulates in the villages, the economic activities of the people will accelerate in spite of the oil crisis.
In most remote villages in Minahasa of Indonesia, the use of clay stoves is still common. Every household has at least two in their kitchen whereas in towns and cities across the Indonesian archipelago, most households use kerosene stoves. Below is the photograph of Kompor Hock, the most popular kerosene stove in this country. As you can see, they are made of aluminum with fuel tank installed at the bottom of the stoves. Clay stoves are not popular in big cities due to the size and lack of wood as fuel for cooking. In addition, housewives in the city prefer to have spotless kitchen with electrical or gas stoves installed in them.
How to get to Minahasa highland
Visitors who are interested in exploring the natural beauty of Minahasa highland need to fly to Manado city which is the main gate to Minahasa.
- Route 1: Fly from your country to Singapore. After that they can continue their trip to Manado city by flying with Scoot Air.
- Route 2: Visitors can fly to Jakarta which is the capital of Indonesia. After that the flight to Manado city can easily be done using one of the domestic airlines such as Garuda, Lion Air, Batik Air and Citilink.
- Route 3: Fly from Sorong city to Manado city.
- Route 4: Fly from Denpasar Bali to Manado city.
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| Flying to Manado City |
| Hotels |
Guiding Service
If you are interested in traveling to Minahasa of North Sulawesi and want me (Charles Roring) to organize your trip and guide you, please, contact me by whatsapp to: +6281332245180 or by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com
by Charles Roring
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