Cooking with our solar oven

A week ago we attended the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, and while there were a lot of high tech presentations and exhibitors, there were also some low tech products, such as solar ovens. One in particular caught my eye, and the price was perfect -- only $85! This is another one of those things that has been on my 'to do' list forever.

You can find plans online to make a solar oven, and I even tried to convince Jonathan to make one for us back when we were homeschooling. He turns 22 next week, so that was quite a few years ago. Anyway, you can see how long I've wanted a solar oven. Basically you can use one to cook outside with nothing more than the heat of the sun on those horribly hot summer days.

We've had our oven for a week now, and we've made ...

meatloaf

brownies -- twice

and roast with vegetables, as well as bread. Of course it doesn't work on cloudy days, but then cloudy days are not so hot. Here are a few more pictures, so you can get a better idea of what it looks like.

Our oven was made by this company, but the design is new, and it is not for sale yet on their website.

There is definitely a learning curve when it comes to using it. You can't just set the timer for 30 minutes or whatever the cookbook says because the heat in the oven is based upon the position of the sun and whether or not any clouds happen to come past. The heat is usually between 250 and 300 when it is pointed straight at the sun. After we've used it some more, I'll be posting information on my Homegrown & Handmade blog about how to cook with a solar oven. Overall, however, this is so easy. It is another one of those things that makes us say, "I can't believe we didn't do this sooner!"