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Question from Ellen Camblo, Newton, Mass.
Question: Greetings from Mass. I have heard a lot
about cooking what the sun. Please tell me about it -- does it
really work and what do I need in order to do it? Mr. Solar:
Ellen, you know the sun is a very hot spot in the universe and there
are several ways for you to use this heat. Of course one is to cook
your meals with solar power as we do many here on the Do It you can
see Fran using our Solar Cooker in the catalogu section in the Appliances area. (Of the web site). In order to use the sun to cook you need to  have some form of heat focal collection. The simplest way to do this is for you to make a box using any material and enclose the inside with aluminum foil so when you point the box towards the sun it will become hot. Then you can add a pot for your food that you wish to cook. You can increase your temperature of your homemade cooker simply by using mirrors instead of the aluminum foil and therefore reduce your cooking time. There is a powerful four quarts conical 3' diameter reflector that focuses the sun's rays on a cylindrical axis solar cooking stove o on the market that is very simple to operate. It has a galvanized sheet metal reflector coated with reflective film and a sturdy steel gambols with feet. We have mounted ours on a 2" pipe mounted in concrete so that we do not have to take it in after use. We have found that cooking with a solar cooker greatly improves the taste of the food. Fran and I really do not understand why. As an experiment we have cooked potatoes four different ways, in our oven, in our pressure cooker, in water and in our solar cooker. The potatoes were all from the same batch and we all definitely realized a much more earthly taste with the solar cooked potatoes than those cooked any other way. We have also found that meat as well as other foods does definitely taste better in our solar cooker, why I really do not know. If any of you readers have had the same experience, please write us and let us know and what you think the reason is for this -- thank you. Another definite advantage of having a solar cooker is that should your power go off then you will always have hot meals, as long as we have sun on our planet. Charlie Collins, a man who walks his talk, can be contacted at Box 852 La Verkin, UT 84745 or visit his web site at www.mrsolar.com |
