Green Options » solar oven

Last Seasonal Strawberry Fling: Streusel-Topped Pie in the Solar Oven

Lisa Kivirist — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:42:38 +0000

I confess, I’m slow to change. At least when it comes to cooking. A devout recipe follower, I measure my cups and teaspoons and follow recipe direction as if they were sent from above.

Until this week, when I finally took our new solar oven out of the box. We bought this Global Sun Oven last winter to use at our farm and B&B, Inn Serendipity, with all good intentions. No plug in required, just open it up and heat up and bake.

Which is where I got stuck, as I would not only be cooking out of my box, I’d be cooking out of my kitchen. But my husband, John, helped by setting it up for the first time, conducting a mini-science project that even our seven-year old could handle of angling it to garner maximum solar gain. I had one of my new favorite pies ready to stick in the oven (“Strawberry and Rhubarb Streusel Pie” – recipe below), and took it outside instead.

Restorative Resolutions for 2009 and Beyond

John Ivanko — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:44:41 +0000

With a campaign tag line, CHANGE WE NEED, President-Elect Barack Obama and a large portion of the American population should have some rather meaningful New Year resolutions for 2009.

For many of us, as we review the financial carnage of 2008 and the dismal outcomes of poorly conceived foreign policy decisions on the part of the George W. Bush Administration over the course of his term (practically rubber stamped by the majority of Congress), we are looking forward to the New Year, a new start, and a renewed sense of hope.

Among the first steps, before we usher in the New Year, is a New Year’s Resolution. But unlike years past, will we embrace the responsibility, sacrifice and curtailment so necessary in these times of climate change, ecological collapse, peak oil and the economic hardship experienced by so many, caused in a large part by our debt-based, growth-on-an-infinite-planet obsessed approach to capitalism? Or do we just try to refinance our house one more time, to take advantage of the latest Red Tag Sale?

Here’s some restorative resolutions for 2009:

Stop being a consumer: Let’s get back to an era, as imperfect as it was, where we were citizens or people, instead of being nothing more than consumers.
Break our fossil fuel addition: Our fossil-fuel-based luxuries and lifestyle are coming at a dire cost to the planet (if not, also, leading to unprecedented exploitation of people to provide those goods or services at cheap prices). Plus, there’s a good chance that fossil-fuel-based energy is going to get a lot more expensive in the coming years. Let’s cut fossil fuel use out of our lives like we might cut a cancer out of our bodies. Renewable energy is in abundance around us, so why not embrace the sun, one of my “Strategies of Abundance for ecopreneurs“.

Solar Energy Used to Heat Gaza Strip Ovens

Amiel Blajchman — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 19:23:02 +0000

They say that necessity is the mother of all invention. In the Gaza Strip, due to the restrictions placed by Israel, one Gazan engineer has developed a solar oven that uses the abundant supply of sunlight to cook food.

Solar Ovens Provide Alternative to Cooking with Wood in Rural China

Jeff McIntire-Strasburg — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:20:18 +0000

OBI President Bill Horan demonstrates a solar ovenMost of us in the developed world don't think a lot about the source of fuel we use for cooking: unless there's a power outage, we can turn a knob or press a button, and we've got the heat we need. If we've got a gas stovetop, we don't even need the electricity! We know, of course, that people in the developing world generally aren't this fortunate, and wood-gathering is a necessary part of the food preparation ritual. But what do people in poverty do if wood supplies start to run low because of deforestation, desertification, or just a simple lack of usable wood?

In Gansu, China, a region that receives little rainfall and has no trees, a very old technology has provided a solution: the solar oven. The concept of using a curved mirror to focus sunlight, and the heat it provides, has been around since the ancient Greeks; relief and development agency Operation Blessing International has purchased and installed over 200 of these ovens (made from concrete and mirrors) in Gansu. The program has been so popular that the organization has just released funding for 200 more in the region. According to Operation Blessing president Bill Horan,

"In Gansu, like in many other poverty-stricken regions around the world, firewood is as precious as water. There are virtually no trees here, and so little rain, that the only bath most people take in their whole life is on their wedding day. These solar ovens are based on ancient technology and they are eco-friendly - a totally renewable energy source."

OBI is considering taking the program to another devastated region of the world: the Darfur region of the Sudan, where the organization operates several refugee and relief camps in partnership with a German charity.

We Westerners tend to associate "technology" with the latest devices: computers, cell phones, renewable energy installations, etc. This simple, time-tested technology, though, looks like just the thing for impoverished people around the world. And, even with the high carbon emissions associated with concrete production, this looks like a pretty climate-friendly alternative, too…

Operation Blessing International
Wikipedia: Solar Cooker
Video: Operation Blessing in Gansu, China (Windows Media format)