Solar Cooking Archive and Blog 2Day by day and week by week solar cookers log
This great writeup was submitted by Erik Burton of Kauai, Hawaii.His comprehensive efforts at making several homemade solar cookers and his documentation of the experience.comparing portable solar cookers on Kauai.
Florida Sunday, September 12, 2010: (Daytona Beach) Colorado October 2, 2010: (Paonia) California September 25, 26, 2010: (Ukiah)
Where: California Center for Sustainable Energy
Texas Friday, August 27, 2010: (College Station) Saturday, August 28, 2010: (College Station)
San Diego Solar Cooking Meetup group. August 7th 2011 Family Solar Day at Jacks Pond Berkely, CA Sacramento, CA Wednesday, August 25th, 2010: Sunday, August 29, 2010:
Friday, August 13, 2010: (Hastings)
Greetings to all, Again we would like to thank all of those who participated in our solar cooking write-up/essay/story contest for our Solar Oven Giveaway.We had a slight delay in determining the winners due to some time and schedule conflicts with our judges, but we have now come to a final decision with regards to the winners and would like to announce them here if we might. I have to say though, that in order to make it fairer and more impartial I chose to allow the final decisions have their basis upon the grading/rankings of our three impartial judges. In view of the fact that this website is the sponsor of the contest and since I also know many of the participants through the Yahoo group, as well as personally, I decided to maintain impartiality and not have a determining voice in the vote. There were many great submissions to our contest and we would invite all of you to visit our pages where the stories/essays are located if you have not had a chance to read them. http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/solar_cooking_articles.html and http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/free_solar_oven.html * A note before announcing the winners; we have decided to sponsor another contest of the same fashion and design and would invite all who would like to participate to do so. Participants are allowed to submit more than one entry per category. * * One other note: Solar Cooker/Oven winners from this round will not be eligible to win again the Solar Ovens/Cookers in the next round of judging, but can be eligible for many of the consolation prizes. Solar Oven/Cooker Winners: Story/Essay/Write-up Category -Recipe/essay Category Again thank you to all who participated and we invite everyone to try again for a chance to win a solar oven/cooker in our new and currently running contest…the more solar cookers out there the merrier! Nathan Parry Solar Cooker at Cantinawest
California SUN OVEN Cooking Essentials Seminars in California. Conducted by Paul Munsen, President of Sun Ovens International Friday, June 25 9:00 AM Century 21 San Vicrnte Room Contact: Dan Wise (760) 994-5670 Friday, June 25 2:30 PM ABC Solar Hermosa Beach, CA 90254 Contact: Erick Orozco(310) 373-3169 Saturday, June 26 10:00 AM Honeyville Farms Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 Contact: Lexine (909) 243-1050 Monday, June 28 10:30 AM through 7:00 PM Mission Bay Contact: Doug Hoover 858-518-6590 *********** ************ ************
August 6-8, 2010:
Sunday, July 11, 2010: Solar Oven Workshop-
Saturday, June 5, 2010: (Woodstock)
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Paul Munsen of Sun Ovens International, manufacturers of the Global Sun Oven will be in Utah and Nevada for three weeks doing seminars and demonstrations on solar cooking and the Global Sun Oven. There are more than twenty locations scheduled giving people the opportunity to invite friends to come out and learn all about solar cooking and how it can help the family budget as well as the emergency preparedness aspect. Thursday April 22 Saturday April 24 Monday April 26 10:00 am Tuesday April 27 7:00 pm Wednesday April 28 10:00 am 2:30 pm 7:00 pm Diana Sinclair 3701 E Riviera Avenue Las Vegas, NV Thursday April 29
7:00pm Friday April 30
7:00 pm Saturday May 1 10:00 am 2;30 pm Tuesday May 4
12:00 pm 6:30 pm Rowland Way Chapel
Wednesday May 5 7:00 pm 931 S. Main St. Logan, UT 84321 Thursday May 6
10:00 am 2:30 pm 7:00 pm Friday May 7 2:30 pm
7:00 pm Saturday May 8 10:00 am 3:00 pm Tuesday May 11
10:00 am 85 N 100 W Ephraim, UT 84627
Evening Wednesday May 12
2:30 pm 7:00 pm
Thursday May 13
7:00 pm Friday May 14 6:30 pm 1211 N Main Street Logan, UT 84341 Saturday May 15
10:30 am Macey's of Providence Claudia Bracken
1:00 pm 931 S. Main St. 435-752-6230 Logan, UT 84321
April 24, 2010:
Sunday April 11th, 2010: Saturday April 17th, 2010: Tuesday April 20th, 2010: April 21st and 22nd, 2010: Thursday April 22nd, 2010: Saturday April 24, 2010: Saturday May 1st, 2010: Friday May 7th - Sunday May 9th, 2010: Saturday May 15th, 2010: Sunday May 23rd, 2010: Friday May 28th, 2010: Saturday June 5th, 2010: June 26th, 2010: July 17th, 2010: ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Texas?
Arizona April 16-17: April 24, 2010:
Oregon March 27, 2010: July 23-25, 2010: Great time, sold lots of stuff. Seemed better than ever. I really like the camaraderie of the event, everyone knows it's special and you can feel it throughout the weekend - everyone is there to network, learn and have fun. My favorite annual event. - SolWest exhbitor
Hello Nathan! I decided to modify the sun oven to see what kind of additional power I could generate. Wow! I can't believe it registered 448 degrees this morning at 11:15 am, with a UV index of only 2. I included a few pictures for you to enjoy. Let me know what you think. Chris Rapp
What: Solar cooking Demo & Potluck When: Sunday, November 15, 2009 9:00 AM Where: Sabre Springs Park 12650 Sabre Springs Pkwy Click here for more info. San Diego Solar Cooking Group November 15, 2008 I came upon a blog the other day that had a mention of Solar Cooking, and of course it piqued my interest and subsequent investigation. The solar cooking exploits were interesting enough, but as I read further my interest became more than casual as I started to see much more than just a journalistic description of a cooking adventure. The blog/site was a heartfelt narrative of a Swedish Girl, named Esther Garvi, and her life as a long term volunteer in her parent’s non profit Sustainable Living project called the Eden Foundation in Niger Africa. I was quite inspired by her outlook on life and her motivations and interests. I am therefore recommending Esther’s blog not only for the great solar cooking narratives but also for the great charitable aspect associated with her, and the organization’s efforts. *You can learn some great solar cooking tips from Esther as she experiments with the native foods. Eden Foundation
I had known that Ed was a solar cooking advocate and, as one can understand, that is what caught my attention. I am somewhat skeptical when it comes to famous people and their motives and reasons for doing things, but I will have to admit I was impressed with Ed's track record, motivations and with his manner and nature in regards to promoting and educating people on his views and stance on the environment. I found in him a model of how people should educate others and promote their views and opinions about what they believe in. Though I may not agree with all of his political views I do agree with what he has accomplished and is doing when it comes to his exemplary "green" lifestyle. Read all about him in the following article:
Ed Begley Jr. at Sundance Film Festival 2007 
March 18, 2009 Global Sun Ovens International President, Paul Munsen will be in St. George, Utah on April 4th 2009 in conjunction with St. George City and Dixie State College"s Community Education Program Class on Solar Cooking. He will be spotlighting the Sun Ovens International initiatives to bring solar cooking to not only third world countries but also to increase its awareness and use in developed countries such as the United States. The Sun Oven has gained an increasing presence here in the United States among outdoor enthusiasts, preparedness organizations and alternative energy seekers. Mr. Paul Munsen will also have one of their Global Villager Sun Ovens for the public to be able to observe in action. The Villager is the largest commercial solar oven manufactured and is designed to be used by communities and large groups to provide cooking ability for many dozens of meals at a time. The VILLAGER SUN OVEN® is the only manufactured commercial solar oven in the world. Over 1,200 meals a day can be cooked or hundreds of loaves of bread can be baked powered by the sun. Ovens are growing in popularity and are currently used in more than 40 deforested counties in a variety of applications. Come join us at 12:00 PM in the Vernon Worthen City Park in St. George, Utah for a very enlightening day of solar cooking and learning. March 21, 2009
Everyone stated that they were so excited to have found such a class and they had been waiting anxiously for it to start.They also mentioned that they had friends and acquaintances that could not make it this time, but would be registering for the May and June classes. About ten of the participants I found to have already owned solar cookers, more specifically the Global Sun Oven, and only one had even used their oven.The rest were there to learn how to use them because they were too intimidated or too afraid to "test" it without having any idea how they worked. They figured that it was a good thing to have as part of their emergency preparedness supplies just in case they might have a need for them though they were not sure how to use them. My family (wife and four kids) came and helped me with the class;helping with everything from set up to take down of all of the equipment, preparing the food for cooking, taking payments for registration, explaining things to the participants and helping me to keep an eye on the food and the cookers. We had all five of our solar cookers, as well as a windshield reflector panel cooker, to make sure that we could cook all of the food with ease.We had our Tulsi oven, the SOS Sport oven, two Hot Pot cookers, our parabolic and the home made panel cooker as well as our brand new Global Sun Oven; fresh out of the box. We decided to do a recipe that is popular with all; and that was our Taco Soup, as well as solar cooked (steamed) broccoli and cauliflower and Wheat Bread with butter. We prepared all of the food ingredients at the park except for the dough for the wheat bread, which I prepared just before heading to the class site. I mixed the dough at home and put it into the bread pans and then put them inside of a Coleman cooler, thinking that they would stay somewhat cool and therefore not rise (proof) as much until I was ready to cook them.When I got to the park I found my bread dough quite inflated and actually over proofed.I opened the cooler and added some ice packs to the bottom to retard the growth and set my Sport oven up to pre heat as quickly as possible in order to cook the bread. Meanwhile we set up the rest of the equipment and proceeded to brown the ground meat with the Parabolic solar cooker while the rest of my family helped prepare the other ingredients by opening cans, cutting vegetables and such. The day started out clear, but within a short time high thin clouds were starting to move in, which caused us some concern in regards to how we would be able to handle cooking with an overcast day. I guess there is not much one can do though, when it clouds up, it affects your ability to solar cook where ever you may be. Luckily the clouds held off until about the last hour of the class and most of the food was cooked and available for the participants to eat. The high clouds caused our last loaf of wheat bread to have to remain in the solar oven longer than normal, but it still turned out fine in the end. By the time we were ready to pack up, the clouds were thick enough that none of the cookers could achieve much in the way of heat. All in all the event turned out very well. Everyone enjoyed the food, asked lots of questions and the participants were anxious for the second class the following Saturday. I guess We'll have to pray for more sunshine for our next class.
________________________________________________________________ March 28, 2009 Today was a perfectly sunshiny day, you couldn't have asked for more ideal conditions. We arrived at the park at our usual time to get things set up and ready for the class. I was a bit apprehensive today because I had selected a menu of brined chicken, baked potatoes, and baked cinnamon apples and realized the day before that I may not have a large enough capacity to cook all of the items in a timely manner, even with as many solar cookers as I have.I then started hoping that some of the class participants would bring their solar cookers in order to help out with the load. In the end only one brought her Global Sun Oven with an apple crisp dessert that she was looking forward to cooking, thus I still did not have enough capacity. It wasn't until the class was starting that some of the participants asked if they could purchase some of the Hot Pot cookers that I sell and they would gladly employ those cookers to help cook the large amount of food.They were anxious to do so in order to "break them in" at the class so that they could have help and guidance for their first time. The gal with the apple crisp (Terry Young) left her dessert cooking while she ran off to take care of some things before class started.The Global Sun Oven (GSO) needed only twenty minutes to preheat up to 325 F before placing the dessert in the GSO in the black enamel covered cooking pot. In the meantime I filled the covered pots from the Tulsi oven with scrubbed potatoes and set them inside the oven to begin cooking.I was concerned because I had to fill the cooker with a larger than normal amount of potatoes, which is not good when you are solar cooking with only a limited amount of class time.I knew they would not cook fast enough in order to be eaten at the end of the class at 2:00 PM, but we needed to at least start them and hope for another cooker to show up. I found myself in the same predicament with the chicken also, not enough cooking capacity, so I filled the SOS Sport with two full pots of brined chicken thigh and leg quarters and one of the Hot Pots with the same and hoped for the best. The other Hot Pot we filled very full of sliced fresh apples, cinnamon and sugar, knowing that it too was over loaded. Boy did I need another solar cooker or two. I had always prided myself on having quite a large capacity and ability when it came to my solar cookers, but I was not prepared for so many class participants with this particular menu that I had chosen; food items that require more time than most to cook properly in a solar cooker. As I mentioned earlier, some class participants that had wanted to purchase cookers, helped us in our little predicament by putting their brand new solar cookers to work. We proceeded to divide some of the ingredients from the overfilled cookers into the new Hot Pots, which allowed the food to really start heating up faster. A few remaining pieces of the chicken that we had not been able to place in the other cookers in the beginning, were fried in a frying pan on top of the parabolic solar cooker allowing the smells to waft through the air, which then attracted the attention of passersby in the park as well as a couple of dogs.The onlookers were quite impressed to see frying chicken made possible by just using the power of the sun. (Note: It is best to use a deep pan when frying on a parabolic...too much grease splatters onto the panels of the cooker, making for a big cleanup job afterward.) When frying on a parabolic one must constantly attend to and turn the food so as to not burn it. After my two oldest children finished with the chicken I had them pop some popcorn on the parabolic cooker, which gave us two bowls of popcorn to pass around to the class participants during the instructional period. They found this quite amazing and of course wanted to know how to get a hold of a parabolic also. The lady (Terry) who had brought an apple crisp , took the dessert out of the GSO after about an hour and a half where it had been cooking at 350 F the whole time (Those Global Sun Ovens are great) and she shared it with the class, after which we put one of the pots of chicken from the SOS Sport into her GSO to let it finish cooking there. The Sport was then able to reach a higher temp more quickly with only one pot of chicken.The chicken was cold and the pots overfilled, thus causing the Sport to "struggle" a bit with reaching higher temperatures. This would not have been much of an issue if we had had four to six hours to let the chicken slow cook, but this was not the case with a two hour class. Around the finish time for the class we checked the different cookers to see which were farthest along. The first pot of chicken that was ready was the one in the GSO, followed by the chicken in the Hot Pots as well as the first cinnamon apples, which were slightly crisp due to such a late start, which, nevertheless were well received by all who tasted them. The Potatoes were not quite finished due to the large amounts in the cookers, so many of the class members took them home to finish cooking them any way they wished, as well as some of the last chicken that still lacked some cook time. This experience showed all of us that in most cases and under most circumstances, solar cooked food, especially large amounts, needs to be allowed to cook long, slow and even, just like a crockpot. This is the ideal way to get the best results out of your solar cooked foods. _____________________________________________________________ Here is a news link from a TV station in Salt Lake City showing the Global Sun Oven along with some other bits of information. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5845295 _________________________________________________________________ < Visit from Paul Munsen of Sun Ovens International We have had a very busy and eventful day full of solar cooking, education and entertainment. Paul Munsen, President of Sun Ovens International, manufacturer of the Global Sun Oven participated in our class along with the presence of the giant Villager Global Sun Oven. The large villager was a sight to behold and a marvel to watch in action as it easily cooked several trays of cookies all at the same time and with no effort at all. The day turned out perfect, starting with completely blue and cloud free skies and abundant sunshine, although the temperature was a little bit cooler than normal due to a storm the previous day that came from the cold north. We arrived at our normal time of 10:00 AM to start setting things up for the class and Paul arrived at the same time to get the Villager and the rest of the Global Sun Ovens set up and preheating. We heated water on our parabolic and in the one of the Sun Ovens in order to have hot chocolate, cider and Pero available for the early arrivals and any others that might want to fight off the chill of the morning. We had some other visitors for our event that traveled many miles just to be on hand for Paul Munsen's lecture and to see the largest solar oven in the world. Jackie Harsha, came all the way from Phoenix Arizona along with friends of hers that live not too far away in Las Vegas. Jackie is the Author of a great solar cooking recipe book called Heaven Sent Food. All of the recipes were personally tested by her and some close friends and cooked up in her own solar cookers. I asked Jackie to bring her books to the class to show to the class and event participants so that any who were interested might purchase a copy...she sold everyone of the solar cooking recipe books she brought with her and could probably have sold even more. We also had visitors from towns further north of St. George...Cedar City, Utah and also Provo, Utah along with some others from the Las Vegas Area. Our menu for the class was determined to be a simple offering due to the fact that we would have more people than usual on hand. We decided to do foods that were quick and easy and that we could offer in larger quantities to whomever should stop by. We chose Hot Dogs, Little Smokies, Chocolate Chip and Sugar Cookies, and also had some carrot cake brought by Terry Young, who again, was "rarin" to cook one of her own recipes in her GSO. We got the class started right on time at 12:00 PM and while I introduced Paul Munsen and shared a few thoughts of my own, my wife and children took charge of baking the cookies in the giant Villager Sun Oven as well as getting all of the Hot Dogs into the smaller Global Sun Ovens. Paul had five GSOs as well as two more brought by class participants, so we had more than enough capacity to cook as much as we wanted quite rapidly. The Villager maintained a constant temperature of about 350-375 F the whole time we were using it. Some to the smaller GSOs were cooking between 350-400 F. and produced two nice carrot cakes, lots of "hot" hot dogs and little smokies and plenty of hot water. Paul Munsen spoke for about half an hour about the Villager and where and how they use it, along with the charitable work that Sun Ovens International is doing around the world. He spoke about the smaller, family size, Global Sun Oven and how Utah is the leading state in the nation; in fact the world, for Global Sun Oven purchases. Over a third of the company's February sales came to Utah, thus a big part of the reason that Paul was here in Utah to promote the GSO and to show the Villager Sun Oven. The Class thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and also being able to watch the Villager in action. There were many passersby in the park who could not help but to stop and inquire about the solar ovens and solar cooking. I am including some links to the locally conducted newspaper and television interviews so that you can learn even more about the event. The day and the event turned out perfectly in every way, with even more solar cooking enthusiasts determined to implement all they had learned into their own personal solar cooking efforts. Also you can visit our photos page for many more photos of the event at April 4th Solar Cooking Class _________________________________________________________________ Utah, Milford We had a very successful solar cooking demonstration at the Milford High School Alternative Energy Fair on Monday the 20th of April We were one of several booths/demonstrations on hand at the Third Annual Milford High School Alternative Energy Fair and Electric Car Race. Several High Schools participated with their own student built electric vehicles in an hour long track race, the focus of the event of course, alternative energy solutions. In all there were about four hundred people in attendance, as well as the State Governor, John Huntsman Jr. We were able to set our display of six solar cookers and ovens up right on the event field, and offered all event participants samples from our solar cooked array of goodies. We opted to cook simple foods in order to be able to offer a sample to so many people. We chose hot dogs, smoked sausages, peanut butter cookies and solar parabolic popped popcorn, since these are easy to cook and sample in small portions. Even the Governor tried some popcorn and sausages before he had to go into the school; where he was to sign some legislation concerning alternative energy initiatives for the State of Utah. I will have to admit that the solar cooking booth was the most popular at the event...food does seem to attract attention. ______________________________________________________________
Saturday May 9th 2009 Solar Cooking was one of many Scout themes at the annual Scouting Expo, held each year in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. This is one of many expos held by the Utah National Parks Council of the Boy Scouts of America and there was fun and adventure for all on hand. We were invited by the Scout troop that my brother has been associated with to come and do a solar cooking demonstration as part of the overall expo. My family and I hauled all of our solar cooking gear, which we use for our solar cooking classes, to the small community of Mt. Pleasant Utah, and we were able to shine some new light onto a subject that most people had heard only very little about. For our demonstration we decided on some simple fare, something that would cook easily and would also be feasible to sample to large amounts of people. We cooked up sliced hotdogs, chocolate chip cookies, solar cooked popcorn and also hard boiled eggs from our homemade $5.00 solar panel cookers Some of my own extended family members were on hand to help us out and to also see for the first time; solar cooking techniques in action. Needless to say, our booth was a big hit and attracted a lot of attention since people become so intrigued and fascinated by the knowledge that one can cook all kinds of foods with just the power of the sun. We had to deal with some high thin clouds for part of the day, nevertheless the solar ovens performed well and people were able to see and experience the results of the cooking, despite the less than ideal sun intensity. The clouds finally cleared out for the last hour and a half and then the ovens really jumped in temperature and we were able to cook even faster, as well as continue popping popcorn on the parabolic; to the delight of the kids as well as adults. Many people inquired as to how they could also get started with solar cooking for their own personal and family needs and many scout leaders were determined to add solar cookers to their own store of troop supplies and gear for the upcoming summer camping season. The demonstration was very well received and was carried out with precision and efficiency, which garnered for our booth the; "Proficient Award" Blue Ribbon, presented by the local council of the Boy Scouts of America. Utah, St.George Thursday May 28th 2009 Today was to be a different kind of solar cooking demonstration than we normally put on. Our demonstration was to be held at a rehabilitation center for the infirm and aged.The place is located here in St. George, and is known as Kolob Care and Rehabilitation.And the way I ended up at the facility doing this solar cooking demo, was due to a good friend of mine, Jackie Harsha of Phoenix Arizona. Many within the solar cooking circles are probably familiar with Jackie and also with her excellent book of Solar Cooking Recipes. Jackie has a good friend who is staying for a while at the rehabilitation center and she very much wanted to have us come and do a demonstration for her and the other residents. Jackie and her friend,Janet Gordon, arranged the time and facilities in order to be able to present our solar cooking demonstration and on the day before the event Jackie Flew into Las Vegas and to the home of a friend who let her borrow her two Hot Pot cookers and her Sport Oven and then the next day she drove the two and a half hours from Mt. Chareston NV up to St. George. I and a former member of one of my solar cooking classes, Joyce Lee, arrived early to the facility in order to set everything up and to have all of our cookers preheating so that when Jackie arrived we could start cooking all of the Mango Cheese Cakes right away, in order to refrigerate them and then start on the rest of the menu. Our menu would consist of Cheesecake, homemade white bread, blueberry bread, corn on the cob and Pork medley served over rice. Jackie arrived a bit later than anticipated due to traffic and distance, but we had the ovens ready and when she arrived she whipped together the cheesecakes and we promptly placed two in the Tulsi, two in one of the Sport ovens, one in the Global Sun oven and one in another of the Sports. In the meantime we planned out the schedule for preparing and cooking the rest of the food through out the day in order to have all ready for the 4:00 PM serving time. Throughout the day many of the residents came and watched us in action and also the solar cookers as we baked, boiled and stewed the evenings meal that; they as residents, would soon be able to sample.Most of the residents had to move with the aid of wheelchairs, walkers or some other kind of assistance, so we had to lower the solar cookers from the tables where they were located in order for the residents to see the blueberry bread, cheesecakes and the corn on the cob, cooking away in the sun. As the day progressed the clouds again; as they had for several days, began to form on the horizon and slowly began to increase and spread.But, if this day were like the previous several days, the clouds would become a threat to our solar cooking only later in the afternoon; usually after we were able to finsh our solar cooking. We kept our fingers crossed. The corn on the cob cooked up rather well in the four Hot Pots we had and the blueberry bread (two of them) cooked up great in the Sun Oven and in the Sport.Jackie also mixed up enough dough for two loaves of homemade white yeast bread and allowed them to raise before we placed both round roaster pans in the Sport to let the bread cook. About 1:30 PM we started preparing, what I call Pork Medley, that we were going to serve over white rice.The Pork Medley included small cubed pork roast, sliced apples, sliced onions, cinnamon sticks and...well I did not see the rest of the ingredients since I was busy with other cooking responsibilities, but it looked good. We distributed the pork between all four hot pots and some inside of the GSO.We started cooking the pork about 2:00 PM, and before it had cooked even forty minutes; the clouds and the wind started to cause us some concern and within another ten minutes the sun was behind a big mass of black clouds.Everything else on the menu had been cooked except the pork and so we had to make a decision as to what we could do, whether to even offer the pork and just serve the other finished foods, or somehow find a way to finish cooking the pork. We noticed a large barbecue grill nearby and withing a few minutes had the grill heated and cooking the pork in five black roaster pans. The pork did get cooked, but because of the temperatures and the method of cooking, it turned out drier than it would have had we been able to allow it to slow cook in the Solar Hot Pots. Because the sun no longer shown, we decided to forego the rice and just serve the meat mixture all by itself. Finally at 4:00 PM we had everything finished and the residents were already heading to the eating area where we had already commenced to set up tables with plates and eating utensils. We sliced up all of the breads and cheesecakes, as well as placed the corn and pork on each table where some of the residents were already helping themselves to the cakes and breads. The staff as well as the residents found the food very delicious and commented all around at how amazing it was that foods such as these could turn out so well by just using the power of the sun. Everyone had as much as they could eat and still there was enough left to feed many other people.Despite the clouds and the small outside courtyard we were able to carry out a successful solar cooking demonstration. Utah, St.George Saturday May 30th 2009 First Solar Cooking class of the new course through the Community Education Program sponsored in part by Dixie State College of Southern Utah and the City of St. George. The weather started out perfectly clear today and I arrived at the site in Vernon Worthen Park early today because I wanted to have everything ready and cooking early due to a possibility of cloudy weather in the afternoon as has been the case for the last couple of week. We decided upon cooking whole marinated chickens, mashed potatoes with sour cream, chocolate chip cookies and baked cinnamon apples.The first thing we did upon arrival at the park was to set all of the solar cookers to pre-heat. After about fifteen minutes of preheating, we then cut open the bags of chicken and placed two inside of a medium sized roaster in the Global Sun Oven, which is usually the hotter oven, and one in a round roaster for the Sport Oven and the fourth chicken we placed inside of one of the Hot Pots. We set about peeling two large pans of potatoes and cut them into one inch cubes and left them in water in the meantime. I put my son Joshua in charge of baking the chocolate chip cookies in the Tulsi Oven and my wife and daughter began to peel and cut up a small bag of apples for the baked cinnamon apples that are always so popular with the class. Just before twelve some of the class registrants began to arrive, and as is usual, they start with all kinds of questions about solar cooking, recipes, cookers and a myriad of other related questions. This class has a total of twenty four participants, just under the total of the first class that had thirty members. We spent about an hour in class discussion and then allowed everyone to mingle around the solar cookers; observing the food and the solar cookers while asking and answering many more questions about how to solar cook. While the class was in session my oldest son and my wife took care of boiling the big pots of potatoes on the parabolic solar cooker.It took about twenty five minutes to do each pan of potatoes from start to finish...which amazed all of the students. It never ceases to amaze people at how efficient and efective solar cooking can be by using such a simple object like a solar oven or cooker.With a half hour remaining of the class, the clouds finally started to cover the sun and the wind picked up, but we actually had a finished cooking all of the food and were ready to eat. The Chicken was so moist and tender the meat fell off the bones, the potatoes were flavorful with only sour cream and salt (forgot the milk) and the apples were very tender. Oh, and we also hard boiled two dozen eggs inside of our canning jar and solar reflector panel cooker, which we then offered to any who would like to try their first solar hard boiled egg. As we were eating the wind picked up even more so we had to cut a little short the remainder of the class and start to pack up all of our gear, but by then we had pretty much finished all of the important things. The participants thoroughly enjoyed the first day of class as well as the food.It was a very successful solar cooking class.
_______________________________________________________________ Saturday June 6th, 2009 The weather is still very volatile and the temperatures are a bit lower than normal for this time of the year, and each day usually starts out mostly clear, but ends up cloudy and windy by late afternoon.This was the case today for our solar cooking class at the park, but we seem to always get just enough sunshine to be able to completely cook the meals we serve to the students. Our menu for today was designed to be easily cooked in a shorter period of time just in case the weather decided to spring a surprise on us.We decided to make our No-meat chili along with cornbread, a white cake and a chocolate cake.The Chili would be served with our homemade fresh salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips, or with hot dogs for those who would like to make a chili-dog. We arrived at our usual time in the park, just after 9:00 AM in order to start things early and to take advantage of the sun, just in case.... We set the Hot Pots out to preheat and that is when one of our students arrived, Sheri Alldredge, to offer her recently purchased solar cookers to help out with the cooking. This was a good thing because now we could divide the chili into three Hot Pots, which would allow for quicker cooking. The no-meat chili was prepared beforehand at home so that we would not have to spend so much time at the class site getting it prepared. We used canned beans and tomatoes to help cut down on prep time.The chili tastes the same as if dry, then cooked, beans were used. We poured the chili into the Hot Pots and then added our little booster reflector panels to the Hot Pot panel in order to add a bit more "oomph" to the cooking process; more of the sun's rays reflected to the pot.We did so in order to cook the chili a bit faster, and it worked great. My two oldest children, Hyrum and Angela set about mixing the chocolate and white cake mixes while the Sun Oven and the Sport were preheating and Sheri Alldredge took care of mixing up the corn bread which would be cooked in our already preheating Tulsi Solar Oven. The four packages of hot dogs were placed into two roaster pans and placed into the Sport Solar Oven and then realized we needed one more oven to cook the white cake in. Sheri offered to use her brand new Sport, in order to break it in, or christen it for its first solar cooking attempt. Normally we would have waited a little longer before cooking the baked goods since they do not take as long and so that the class participants could also be involved, but we dared not risk the possibility of losing our sunshine later on. In fact, even though we had the various items cooking early, the clouds did start to gather, or rather, high thin clouds moved in and caused some of the cookers to start dropping their temperatures due to the fact that they had just had food put into them and were in the process of regaining their prior preheated temps. While the high thin clouds were still causing us fits, the class members arrived and we started the class, hoping and praying for more sun and less clouds, or we would be eating very warm cake batter. As the class progressed the sun began to break through more and more and the cookers began to rapidly rise to more efficient cooking temperatures. The Chocolate cake was the first to finish cooking in the Sun Ovens, followed by the corn bread and lastly the white cake mix, since it was started so much later than the other baked goods. Despite the slow, low temp. start, the sun came back and did a good job of producing very good results with the class meal. By the time the class was winding up around 2:00 PM the chili was bubbling and boiling and we were able to serve all of the food hot and fully cooked. This experience was good for the class participants to be able to see first hand some of the challenges that can surface when using the solar method for cooking ones food, and how one can deal with it appropriately.
June 25th-July 1st, 2009 State of Utah Solar Cooking Challenge, sponsored by Sun Ovens International From June 25 to July 1st 2009 There will be a drawing for prizes at the end of the contest, with two grand prizes in the form of a Global Sun Oven, as well as many other second and third place prizes. For More information and contest rules please visit http://utahsunovens.blogspot.com/
Saturday June 27th 2009 Today was our very last day of the latest solar cooking class through the Dixie State College and City of St. George, Community Education Program. And it was very well attended; finishing up on a very bright and sunny note. This class would also be tied in with the Utah Solar Cooking Challenge that was being put on by Sun Ovens International, manufacturers of the Global Sun Oven. We had several extra visitors for today’s class due to the invite from Sun Ovens International to; “come and participate in the solar cooking class.” Today’s menu was to include baked beans, sopaipilla (Chilean Fry Bread) blueberry quick bread, smoked sausages, baked cinnamon apples and whatever dishes and recipes the students were willing to bring…and several class participants brought some very delicious desserts. We prepared the baked beans and the sopaipilla dough mix before going to the park and then prepared the apples and sausages after arriving at the park. We quickly set up all of the solar cookers when we arrived at 10:00 AM and soon after Sheri Alldredge, one of the students arrived with her Sport Oven and Hot Pot along with a dessert mix she wanted to bake.She called it Carmel Nut Pudding dessert (with raisins) Another student by the name of Jim Sanders brought an apple crisp already prepared in his Hot Pot Solar Panel Cooker and set it out to cook. Soon after, another student, Helena Chamberlain arrived with a recipe she called simply; Pumpkin Dessert. And just before the class started one more of the students arrived with the ingredients for a quick and easy quiche. Because we had so many extra desserts I decided not to make the Blueberry Quick Bread that we had planned. First of all we did not want to overdo it on the sweets and we just didn’t have any more solar cookers available to be able to do the quick bread also. We had the baked beans cooking in two of the Hot Pots and the smoked sausages we had distributed between the Sport and the Sun Oven.A fourth pan of smoked sausages was started in one of the small homemade panel cookers using an oven bag, and as soon as the other solar ovens were finished with the food they initially started with, the sausages were then transferred into the available oven. The apples had to wait a bit until another Hot Pot showed up, and even then we were only able to put about two thirds of them in the Hot Pot in order to avoid overfilling the cooker.We placed the remaining apples in a roaster pan inside an oven bag and use a small homemade panel cooker to also commence the cooking process until another one of the Sport Ovens was available. The first dessert to finish was Sheri Alldredge’s Carmel Nut Pudding dessert and boy was it good. Everyone felt it turned out excellent. The Pumpkin dessert was cooked by placing two loaf pans in a Sun Oven and one loaf pan in the Tulsi.These took about an hour and a half at about 300 F, maybe slightly longer, due to the fact that they were very high in moisture content.But they cooked up well and everyone very much enjoyed the pumpkin desserts as well. I really liked this dessert and I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie either. The ham and Swiss Cheese quiche took about an hour to cook and was quickly devoured… very delicious and very simple to make. The Apple crisp took the longest since it was so large and also it was cooking in the Hot Pot, but the Hot Pot did a good job and it too was a success. We started off our class by cooking first the sopaipilla in a small amount of oil heated on the parabolic. The students were very impressed with how easily and effectively the parabolic works just like a standard stove top. The class was conducted very informally and the meal took place in stages, or rather, as each food finished cooking everyone ate them as they became available, the baked beans and apples being the last to achieve “cooked and edible” status. Baked beans and baked cinnamon apples just taste better the longer you can let them simmer and cook. The class was very successful, weather wise and results wise, and everyone commented on how fun it had been, especially this last one. All admitted that they had eaten a bit more dessert than they had imagined doing so, but it was not often that they got to sample so many different solar cooked confections.
Friday-Saturday, July 17-18 2009 This weekend we really managed to do a lot of solar cooking. We had two different solar cooking demonstrations with two separate church groups where we ended up feeding almost a hundred people some very delicious solar cooked delicacies. The first group we cooked for was done so in conjunction with dutch oven and other methods of cooking, based on the idea of showing how to use a variety of methods for preparing ones food in the event of emergencies or other such special situations. Even though other means of cooking were used, we ended up using about fifteen solar cookers to cook up our most requested, always popular menu of Refried Beans Deluxe,Grilled/sauteed onions, baked cinnamon apples, marinated whole chicken and chocolate chip cookies, along with five loaves of wheat bread that were solar cooked earlier in the day. We always have requests for this particular menu because it is easy to do large quantities and is very fulfilling (filling), especially the refried beans with fresh salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips.And, the enhanced solar cooked flavors always leave a great impression on those who try it. Our church demonstration the following day (18th of July)was based pretty much on the same menu, with the exception of having added fresh broccoli and cauliflower Florettes to the menu. Each day the sun cooperated marvelously, and in fact so well that we were finished cooking about an hour and a half before we were actually ready to eat, so we just turned the solar cookers off-angle from the sun so that they would not cook at such high temperatures, allowing them to simmer until we were ready to eat. The second day we cooked our ever popular apple brined chicken, which always turns out so tender and flavorful, and always receives so many compliments. The whole demonstration was very impressive to those who were seeing such for the first time, and I thought it was quite impressive to see so many solar cookers out in the church parking lot taking advantage of so much energy from the sun, without using on penny worth of human generated electricity.
< August 19th Announcing the arrival of the latest addition to our solar cooker family Cantinawest's "Solar Burner" This is the only commercially available Parabolic Solar Cooker of it's kind available for sale here in the United States. The effectiveness of this solar cooker is quite impressive and at the same time it is a real bargain for the cost conscious consumer. All this in a quality product that will bring many years of use to any "sun loving" solar cooking enthusiast. To find out more about the "Solar Burner" please visit our site pages at Cantinawest's "Solar Burner"
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After a long and cloudy winter caused us to wonder if we would have many individuals even interested in cooking with the power of the sun, we had a larger than expected turnout and registration for the class, over 30 registered participants.
On Saturday the 4th of April we had a special visitor to our solar cooking class in the park in St. George.
We were able to cook four at a time, requiring about two to three minutes to brown up each batch of Chilean Fry Bread.
