I brought two DIY solar cookers to my cat-sitting gig in “THE VALLEY”. Because they are so portable, and because this home has every modern convenience + solar panels, it’s a cheap thrill to do something low tech and hands on.
How portable are these cookers? The five pieces of poster board form a 14″x14″x1/2″ packet!
4- 14″ sq, 1-10″ sq. posterboard, 4 clothes pegs and a shoelace.
Or, you can fold it like a fig and invert it into a shopping bag.
Invert it into shopping bag
Fold it like a fig
The neighbors gifted me some freshly caught tuna and I had butternut squash from LA EcoVillage garden. I always use a meat thermometer when cooking fish or meat. The covered pan is wrapped in an oven roasting bag to trap heat.
Tuna and squash
Use thermometer for meat or fish
In spite of the cooker’s curled edges, the cooker cooked the cabbage.
Despite the warped pasteboard edges of the cooker on the right, a pot of cabbage was well cooked.
Solar cooker tip: Don’t expose the poster board cooker to moisture – not even over night dew – because the edges will curl. After a few days under heavy books, they resumed their former shape. At the EcoVillage, when I store the cookers outdoors, I wrap them in plastic.
Solar Cooker Demonstrations: It is my intention to plan a solar cooker demonstration to fund raise for Solar Cookers International and for the LA EcoVillage, so stay tuned for that announcement.
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.
Eggs cook faster in a solar oven than in the cooker. I haven’t got the knack of predicting whether they will be hard or soft cooked, yet, so I just try one & decide whether or not to let them cook longer.
Eggs in DIY solar cooker
place the eggs you want to cook in a cardboard egg carton
remove the top of egg carton
put carton in solar cooker or solar oven
after temperature reaches 212℉, continue cooking until you think they’re done the way you like them.
I was introduced to this Tromboncino heirloom squash at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. It reminded my so much of a sleeping cat that I had to buy one. That resemblance made it harder to slice!
I’m making chicken soup, a comfort food for my visit with my Aunt Annie tomorrow. She’s 105 years old, lives alone in an area west of San Diego and mostly looks after herself. This visit was originally scheduled to celebrate her recent birthday, but, her last son died last week, our visit is just to be together. This soup has to be special because it may be our last meal together.
Yesterday, in the solar cookers, I made chicken broth with lemongrass (from garden) and wakami (not from garden), roasted chicken livers (for auntie and the cat), and roasted carrots. Today I roasted the skinny part of Tromboncino on a bed of onions with a little turmeric and cumin seeds, and made chicken bone broth. It was fun to have all of those cookers working at one time. I’ve been usurping any piece of furniture around here that will hold a cooker! Ideally, I’d like help to put wheels on a few for the heavier ovens.
Today I added the ramen noodles (millet/ brown rice) that we now stock in the bulk room.
I also experimented with peanut butter, almond meal, date cookies, (lower left). That’s it- just 3 gf, vegan ingredients! I plan to bake them again at the Saturday solar cooker workshop – and sneak in a little sweetener.
in which I nap too long and try to crank up the temperature in the cooker
After a bike ride and lunch, I napped while the veggies were roasting. My plan was to roast chicken next, but it was 3:30. Is that too late? I spread 2 brined chicken thighs, seasoned with lemon & oregano over a bed of onions, cumin seeds & lemon grass; put the pan in a roasting bag and onto a metal rack in the cooker, (to let heat circulate under the pan). I pegged two halves of a large roasting bag across the cooker opening: 285° on the pan’s lid and digital in chicken probe = 156°.
Boost cooker T with roasting bags & metal rack.Not wanting to ptomaine myself, I cooked chicken in toaster oven, 285° for 9 min. until chicken was probe was 165°.
Day 10 – Can the cooker temperature increase enough to roast an undelicate “delicata” squash?
At the farmers’ market yesterday I bought what appeared to be a delicata squash on steroids. When I tried to slice it this morning I discovered that, instead of the delicate, edible skin of a delicata, it had the rind of a gourd. I wanted to make a bean-boat, so I scooped out the center, flipped the lids of two cans of organic Goya beans* -and the cats appeared in a nano second.
They became polite but disinterested observers as soon as they discovered that the cans were not tuna!Bean boat topped with ginger and remaining scooped squash. Re: leftovers. I love the beeswax cotton wraps – in lieu of plastic.
Winter squashes need 400° + to bake.
• How close can we get?
• Will slow cooking compensate for temperature?
At 10 am I did the same routine as yesterday: pan in roasting bag on metal rack, covered cooker with roasting bag.
T = 310° when I returned from bike ride at 1 pm – and squash was cooked. (Taste is bland, not like delicata!). (Did I mention that there was only 1 farmer and a lot of misc. vendors at the NoHo Farmer’s market.)
Bike ride side note. Used my new telescope to watch cormorants feed their “babies” in their nests high in the trees at Sepulveda Nature Preserve.
for the Solar Cooking Workshop on Saturday, Aug. 27. If you can’t make that one, we’ll plan to channel the rays again in Oct., and maybe Tea and Solar Treats in Sept.
Product placements are part of my effort to demonstrate cooking with easily accessible food.
Hot rocks and patio furniture in lieu of our EcoVillage clotheslines. Back ground, modified DIY solar cooker is trying to bake cornbread. Stay tuned for results on that.
Our August 27 solar cooking workshop attracted attention from Luther Krueger who hosts Saturday Solar Cooking Brunches in Minneapolis, gives s.c. demos across the state and interviews solar cooks around the country. He says, I think what you are doing is really up at the top for getting the message out–and DIY cookers are soon to be a big focus of my ….outreach efforts.
Solar and mental reflections while LA Eco-village kids bake with the sun
Collecting the mulberry blizzard on tarps makes harvesting easier. Why aren’t more people harvesting?Reflectors direct the sun’s heat into this cork-insulated oven. (Made in Portugal using renewable cork). It gets hotter than boiling water, so only adults should put food in & take it out.This collapsible reflecting cooker uses heat proof bowls to create an oven. It’s better for cooking than baking. Why is solar cooker use mainly a science project? Where resources are scarce, many people use a variety of solar cookers – from $5 Kyoto boxes to Solar Cookers International’s projects to cook food, sterilize water and reduce fossil fuel use. Now that many people are working from home, why hasn’t solar cooking caught on? While I try to choose fast cooking recipes to fit into a 90 min. demonstration, when I’m cooking on my own time, I usually food – especially beans & lentils – in the oven in the morning and come take them out at sundown, a little dry, but not burned!Pulling stems & cores from mulberries.Kids take turns to prep, add and mix ingredients, (see end of post for recipe).Muffins at the edge of the oven were a little gooey. Next time, rotate the pan 1/2 way through baking.
To accommodate a wide variety of dietary preferences & needs I bake gluten free, vegan food for demonstrations. Here’s one of many that I have adopted from Rhian
▢60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
â–¢200 ml (â…˜ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
â–¢2 tablespoons lemon juice *
â–¢8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener) ( i used 4 Tbsp)
â–¢1 teaspoon vanilla extract
â–¢Pinch salt
▢150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) **
▢150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
â–¢2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
▢¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
â–¢100 g (1 cup) fresh blueberries ( i subtituted mulberries)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit). I preheated sun oven for 1/2 hr.
Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil). (We melted it in sun oven)
Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla, salt and ground almonds.
Sift in the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it’s looking too dry. (Mulberries were wetter than blueberries so no extra liquid was used).
Add the fresh blueberries (mulberries) and fold in gently, to make sure you don’t crush them. (Mulberries crush!)
Transfer the mixture between muffin cases in a muffin tin.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean. (about 90 min. in sun oven on clear, sunny, hot day).
Tastes best when fresh, but keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Los Angeles Eco-Village 