A Solar Life!

by Joyce Lee
(Utah)

If You ever walk by a blue Ford Ranger in a parking lot with tantalizing smells wafting from the back, You'll know I'm at work or shopping while I cook my dinner.

I began my amazing solar cooking journey a couple of years ago by being really mad at my power bill! During peak summer months it was 300 dollars or more for my little tiny house and I started looking for better ways to manage that.

I found a community solar cooking class taught by an enthusiastic and fun instructor and was hooked! I quickly realized that I couldn't achieve the higher temps I needed consistently to bake a batch of bread every week without buying a commercially made solar oven so I purchased the Sport Solar Oven.
I bake my own hand ground wheat bread and other wonderful goodies often so the sport oven seemed to be what I needed to be able to bake more items at once. Fully loaded I get temps of 280-325 and cooking only one item it can reach 350 or higher.

For a while my husband and I had to share the truck as our only transportation and sometimes I would have to wait for him to get off of work at 6 or 7 p.m. so I would put dinner in the Sport Oven without the reflectors and set it in the back of my truck to cook at crock pot temps. As long as I aimed it every couple of hours it stayed around 200 pretty consistently.

I cook all year round whenever there is sunshine outside. My first thought when I roll out of bed is " will the sun be out good and bright today?" On occasion the clouds roll in and I have to finish cooking on my little butane stove or at home but that doesn't happen very often with good planning!

4 months ago I added a parabolic solar cooker to my equipment so I could extend my solar cooking experience to foods like popcorn, scones, hamburgers and, my favorite white chicken chili .

We've had some adventures learning just where and how far to aim the Solar Sizzler but we get better at it all the time!
Recently I took my cookers to a family reunion where I solar cooked my contribution to the potluck dinner. It was a Yummy blueberry filled Lemon glazed cake and got rave reviews! My goal would be to have enough solar cookers to do a whole meal for a family reunion!
I love harnessing the free power of the sun and will be doing so for the rest of my life!



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Thank you very much Joyce,

Your story goes to show how useful a solar cooker really can be when the circumstances are not always ideal...I too take my cookers along to work and elsewhere if I need to cook while out and about. Yes, even in the store parking lot.

Nathan
Admin.