Solar Cooking

Now that the hard work of moving, unpacking and organising is pretty much done I've found the bits and pieces that make up my solar cooker. Given that it's a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in sight here in the HB I decided to try my luck and see what sort of temperatures I could get - imagine my delight when the thermometer got a smidgen over 82 celsius, especially as we're in the middle of autumn!

Summer has been a bust this year so I'm going to pack the solar cooker away until next year when I will dust it off, refresh my memory by perusing http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_cooking_frequently-asked_questions, look up some solar cooking recipes and get stuck in! This is exciting - especiallly now that I know the cooker is capable of attaining a decent temperature. I will also keep on looking for black cooking pots and/or dutch ovens for next summer!

Solar cooking progress

Unfortunately we've not had a great deal of sunshine since I last blogged about solar cooking, or if there has been sunshine it has disappeared fairly early in the day so I have been reluctant to experiment too much foodwise with my home-made solar cooker.

The news isn't all bad however, I have managed to buy a thermometer and do a few trials to find out what temperature the cooker is producing, so far the highest it has reached is 70 celsius (not quite hot enough for cooking I don't think), I am hoping that in February when summer really kicks in and our temperatures reach 30+ degree celsius the cooker will produce hotter temperatures meaning that I will manage to successfully cook and blog about it!

Solar Cooker Evolution

This weekend I decided to try heating water again in the solar cooker but this time with a black container (in this case our trusty wok) instead of a silver bowl. The sun is out but so is a rather cold breeze so I soon found that I needed something to brace the reflector with. Whilst contemplating this need I spied the fish bins which we've to date been using as containers for our container gardens, luckily for me two were unused so I've cleaned them up and used them in my solar cooker design.

I am going to attempt to cook something next weekend although I haven't decided quite what just yet.  

Solar Cooking Potatoes

Today is another day and the weather is gorgeous, blue skies and plenty of sun!

At 8 this morning I realised that we get no sun in the backyard, not for a few hours ergo I couldn't set up my solar cooker, then inspiration hit as I was opening the lounge curtains at 8.35, there's plenty of sun streaming in the front conservatory so that's where I've set up the solar cooker - well at least for as long as the suns shining in there!

Potatoes all roughly the same size have been scrubbed, a stainless steel bowl the same shape but larger than yesterdays experiment has been utilised and an oven bag has been used to cover the bowl.

Around about 10 am I moved the solar cooker around to the back where the sun was starting to shine, it's around about 1 pm now and the potatoes look as though they might just cook through - will update again once they're done (or not lol).

4.15 and the sun has lost it's warmth. The water was hot but sadly not hot enough this time so I have to conclude that this experiment was a failure, but that's ok, I now know that this way isn't going to work so next time I will try a black dish inside a tin foil lined box perhaps? 

Solar Cooker Experimentation

My wonderful husband took our youngest daughter to a school gala where she was responsible for the face painting stall. Whilst there he took a mosey around (as you do) and found a wind shield shade for me for the princely sum of $1.

With a little bit of ingenuity, a few clothes pegs, this site here as inspiration, a box to steady the shade, a stainless steel bowl, a bag with twistie tie and water I had our first experiment (the bag isn't an oven bag but will be next time!).

It was 1.30 pm by the time I was able to get the cooker out into the sun. Condensation was visible fairly quickly on the plastic bag and when I checked the the bowl/water at 2.00 pm the bowl was hot and the water warmer than tepid but definitely not at boiling point.  

Weather wise we've had a slight breeze today and an expected high of 18 °C. Unfortunately at 2.30 pm the sky clouded over so I had to abandon my quest to boil water for a cup of tea. Tomorrow is a new day however and I am going to attempt to boil potatoes for a potato salad.

Notes:

• Before I attempt to cook any form of meat I will be investing in a thermometer!
• I would also like to get a roasting dish with a lid to use as an outside container and then put another container (pyrex?) within the roasting dish on a rack.
• The wind shield shade needs to be braced by cardboard.

Current project - Solar Cooker

Having an interest in alternative ways to do things can sometimes lead to alot of fun, at the moment I am very interested in experimenting with solar cooking. Anyone from the Hawkes Bay will tell you that during summer it gets hot enough to fry an egg - and that's what I'm banking on :)

Now I have taken look at the cost of buying a solar cooker and the only price I've found them for is $500 NZ - gulp, so necessity being the mother of invention I have decided I am going to (over the next few weeks) get together the ingredients to put my own home made solar cooker together using the following as inspiration

http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Windshield_Shade_Solar_Cooker.

I imagine my first attempt will be very makeshift but I do hope to create a decent cooker in the end so that it can be used when we finally get into our yurt!