Solar cooking after weeks of rain

I want to begin with a huge public thank you to Federico who built a beautiful cart from upcylced materials for the newest, largest, heavy solar oven. I am so grateful to move it out of my apartment, to store it outdoors so I do not have to navigate stairs while carrying it.

Now it can be easily pulled around the garage area to the current sunny location (just like a cat)

Also, thanks to Jimmy who made his shop and welding skills available to Federico for this project. They both kept it a secret from me until it was ready.

I am so happy with it and hope it will make it easier for others to cook with the sun, too.

After several weeks of cloudy – often rainy – days I decided to binge cook on a sunny day before the afternoon high winds set in.

I put the homemade “fig” solar cooker and the reflector solar cooker in the more protected courtyard. They are both light weight and may blow away in the wind.

Solar cooker on left roasted 4 lbs of carrots, 2 lbs at a time. Solar cooker on left roasted 3/4 lb chicken livers for our resident cat.

Below, the Global Sun Oven roasted a few lbs of chicken on a layered bed of onions and celery. While the oven was still hot after I removed the chicken, I baked a sun-oven appropriate version of Rhian’s g.f., vegan carrot cake. Optimal solar cooking time is 10 am – 2 pm and it was after 1 pm when I was ready to bake the cake. I put it into a wide pan instead of a loaf pan to hasten the baking time. That work-horse oven heated to 350 – 375 degrees.

Last year I taught a few solar cooking/ diy solar cooker construction workshops. I haven’t planned any for this year, yet. Interested people may contact me.