Solar Cooking

Summertime outdoor cooking usually means lighting up your propane fueled BBQ grill or setting fire to some charcoal briquettes. A great alternative would be to harness the energy giving off by the sun. This would be solar cooking.

Why should one try solar cooking? One reason is that you don't have to pay for any fuel. The sun will provide it for you. Another reason is that most solar cookers are portable. You can take them camping with you. Some other reasons include that nutrients are more preserved versus other cooking methods and you don't end up risking overcooking or burning the food. You can also use solar cookers to pasteurize water for drinking. You also don't have the risk of starting unattended fires with solar cookers, which means you can take it to areas that have fire bans like I have here in Colorado.

There are many types of solar cookers you can choose from or even make yourself. The most common are box cookers, panel cookers, and parabolic cookers. Each have their advantages and disadvantages.

If you want to learn more about solar cooking, check out these links:

• The Solar Cooking Archives


• Solar Cooker on Wikipedia


• Instructions for a Solar Oven at Re-Energy.ca


• Pizza Box Solar Cooker


• PathToFreedom.com's Project Solar Oven

Solar cooking is fun and you can learn how to survive without using expensive fuels. Give it a try.