Solar Cooking
We are serious about solar cooking! We have 20 years experience with it and use it as a primary cooking technique. And we have developed a class to give the full solar cooking and passive solar design experience. Everyone throughout the Southwest should know how to do it. Here are some resources to help you get started.
Solar Wall Oven
We have been making these out of salvage materials and using this design for 15 years. Actually two of our ovens are the same ones Amanda made in 1997. It can live outside. You just need to repaint it regularly. We recommend this as an everyday low maintenance cooker that can cook dinner while you are out at work. Thanks Dale Montague for volunteering his professional skills to create these construction plans so we can offer them free for everyone! Click here for the Solar Wall Oven Construction Plans.
Sunpower Cooker
We have been using this parabolic cooker for 4 years or so. It’s become an essential part of our sustainable kitchen. We don’t know what we would do without it now. It can get to 400 degrees! We often use it in conjunction with our box style oven. It’s great for heating things fast. But you have to watch it, because burning can easily happen. These are made in Arizona and they are totally worth the money. You will never have to pay for fuel and maintenance just involves tightening bolts once in a while and cleaning your oven with a soft cloth. Amanda wrote the users manual you will receive with the oven. This Sun Chef Solar Cooker is discontinued, unfortunately.
The Sunplicity Solar Cooker is made in France and has been highly recommended. It is also a parabolic cooker but is portable.
This cooker seems similar but we have not used it:
The Solar Cookit is lightweight and great for traveling. CooKit.
Look here for information about solar canning.