We Are To Be Stewards Over This Earth

by DC Garrett
(Kaysville, UT)

Click on each photo



Homemade solar cooker/oven and my results

We Are To Be Stewards Over This Earth

DC Garrett
Kaysville, UT

About five years ago...no, this started much longer ago than that, it started when I was a very young boy. I have always been aware of the environment and the cycles of life. Growing up in the late 70's and living through the energy crisis of the 80's made a big impression on me.

My humble beginnings started with a small discarded home satellite dish covered with aluminum foil propped up against a brick just to see what temperatures I could get. My first solar cooked meal from it was a cheese sandwich...kind of soggy :-) I also use this cooker to try and heat water stored in a black antifreeze container for showering. All went well until the container fell over on the grass leaving a pocket of air between the plastic and it melted a hole in it. :-(

Since that first attempt we have built two parabolic cookers, one large cooker made from a PrimeStar satellite dish covered with aluminum tape and a smaller one from the original dish covered with stainless steel tape. Both have stands that allow them to be tilted at the proper angle to the Sun

The cooking stand for the large dish comes from a discarded PC case which I modified with a piece of mirror polished aluminum so that the heat can be reflected to the bottom of the pot giving it an even surface area to distribute the heat.

My next project will be a solar oven to make breads, cookies, cakes, etc...Happy Cooking!



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Greetings DC,

Thank you very much for sharing your ventures into the world of solar cooking.

It seems that you are quite handy making and creating with commonly available materials and that your solar cooker creations have been very productive. If done right, and given the proper attention to detail most people discover that many homemade solar cookers can be as effective and efficient as many of the commercial solar ovens/cookers.

The experiences and upbringing that you cite of your youth ring a familiar bell with me, it sounds similar to those values and principals that brought me on my path to where I am today and involved with solar cooking and other related endeavors.the path that brought me to solar cooking