Solar cooking skills taught because more Americans struggle to prepare hot food

[Liberal_in_LA]

holy shit. teaching Americans solar cooking and water purification out of necessity?! what's next? How to skin animals for fur? We are going backwards.

Solar cooking a boon to homeless

SAN ANDREAS - For years, Irene Perbal spread the gospel of solar cooking to favelas around Brasilia. The simple ovens requiring no fuel were a boon to families unable to afford fuel, and also reduced deforestation caused by gathering wood to feed cooking fires.

Now, the Mokelumne Hill resident finds she has an eager and willing audience close to home.

Monday, Perbal taught a dozen workers at Mother Lode food banks, homeless shelters and other social service agencies how to glue silver wrapping paper to cardboard and make the reflective ovens capable of cooking meals.

Those workers, in turn, plan to teach solar cooking and other low-cost cooking techniques to the hundreds of homeless families in Calaveras and Amador counties.

Jeannie Hayward, director of The Resource Connection Emergency Food Bank in San Andreas, said she invited Perbal because of the growing number of families struggle to find ways to prepare hot food.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110717/A_NEWS/107170309

[lunatica]

1. Now there's a visionary woman with the right attitude!

She helps people use solar energy to cook and that saves them and the econsystem. Amazing.

[Warpy]

2. My solar oven is great, a real boon in desert summers

when I don't even want to use the stove top because of all the heat it pumps into the kitchen. I bought it for bread and use it for a lot of other things, as well.

[surrealAmerican]

7. You can bake bread in a solar oven?

Wow, I'm impressed. I would have thought bread would need a more or less constant temperature, which could be difficult to achieve in a solar oven.

[Warpy]

9. I went out and bought a Sun Oven

which keeps a very reliable 360 degrees.

It's not fond of wind, however.

[xmas74]

10. I just read an article about baking bread in a solar oven

(I think it was in Mary Jane's Farm but can't remember)

Anyway, they really encourage using the solar oven as much as possible during the summer.

[eShirl]

3. excellent idea

[AndyTiedye]

4. We Did a Pork Roast in the SunOven for 4th of July

[noamnety]

5. Sweet potato fries are in this puppy right now

(At dancing rabbit)

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. wow. High tech one

[noamnety]

19. That one has casters so you can rotate it.

When I got up this morning, they had multiplied. There were about 5 solar ovens in the courtyard - the giant one and 4 little commercial sun ovens.

I don't see it as a bad thing or a step backwards any more than any other type of solar power or green energy is backwards, for whatever that's worth. We're all gonna end up having to do that eventually (excepting the ruling class), but it's what we should have been doing all along. Maybe not for all our cooking, but in the same way that houses have ovens and a toaster and a microwave, we should have had solar cookers in our arsenal all along.

[Bigmack]

6. Great book...

Eleanor's Solar Cookbook
by Eleanor Shimeall
A 93-page book containing more traditional American dishes. Includes a section on canning in a solar box cooker.
Available for $10 + $2/shipping from:

Cemese Publishers
P.O. Box 1022
Borrego Springs, CA 92004

[IDemo]

8. I've got black bean soup about ready in the backyard

I'm using a Solar Hot Pot now, but my old home-built aluminum foil and cardboard model worked nearly as well.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. nice ones.

[Occulus]

11. This is a good idea for everyone who lives in warm, sunny places

I can't imagine far northern climates or places that experience winters would find this terribly usable when it's so cold outside, but it's still a good idea.

A Google search for 'camp solar stove' yields a lot of results, so I guess this is actually a pretty common thing. edit: you can get one of them on eBay for around $30- sold as survival gear. Other models range up past $300 and can even be used for baking.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Liberal_in_LA.

[WatsonT]

15. Here in Texas during the summer the main difficulty with solar cooking

is not to overcook your food.

Just a few minutes on the hood of your car per side is enough to sear most foods. Any more and you are going to be eating char.

[ck4829]

16. K&R

[Little Star]

17. What a nice thing Irene Perbal is doing.

I had never heard of solar cooking before this. It's a good thing!

[FloridaJudy]

18. I need to know how to do this

It's hurricane season here. Even an indirect hit can leave communities without power for days. Now, about refrigeration...anyone selling those African pots that keep things cool for days?

[IDemo]

22. Interesting thing about solar reflectors - they can cool at night

A Utah professor was able to cool water and even make ice using a solar cooker. At nighttime, you point it toward the darkness above and the radiant heat energy is actually pulled from the water or food and directed into the sky, which acts like a heat sink.

http://www.think-aboutit.com/Misc/The%20BYU%20Solar%20Cooker-Cooler.htm

[guitar man]

20. Shit

Here in Oklahoma City today all you have to do is set it outside, just about anywhere was a cooking surface today :crazy:

[The Straight Story]

21. kick - thanks for posting this (nt)