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| Dinner's ready! |
According to Brenna Goth of Green Valley News, Marilou Johnstone of Green Valley Arizona, has become somewhat of a solar chef, cooking almost every meal outdoors thanks to our abundant sunshine. Goth explains, “Johnstone has an outside room next to her pool where she keeps a solar oven, two solar panel cookers and a stove-like parabolic cooker. She brings them outside in the mornings and cooks during the sunniest — and hottest — part of the day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.”
Sounds good in theory, right? But what can she actually make with her solar cookers? Johnstone says she can make pork chops, ribs, pasta and spaghetti sauce, garlic bread, and even cake! Will it taste as good, though? “People say it tastes better cooked in the sun," Johnstone says.
Other than taking a little longer, Johnstone says solar cooking isn’t much different than using regular methods. Johnstone notes, “An egg takes about 15 minutes to cook on a solar panel cooker while pasta can take between 30 minutes and an hour. Standard food safety is still important and cooks should check the internal temperature of meat before eating it.”
Aside from being a phenomenal way to cut back on energy bills, Johnstone is also cutting back on the use of fossil fuels, which greatly helps our environment.
Interested in giving solar cooking a try? Here are a few tips from Johnstone to help you get started:
“For people interested in trying solar cooking, Johnstone recommends starting with a solar panel cooker. Solar cooking appliances are readily available online but more simplistic models can be built using household items such as cardboard and aluminum. Solar ovens cost about $300 while parabolic cookers can run around $375. Panel cookers are a less expensive investment, says Johnstone, who purchased hers online for about $33," says Goth.
If you feel like you’d still need a little more help after getting your solar cooker, there are resources in Arizona available to you. Goth suggests contacting "Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture, an organization focused on sustainable food production in Southern Arizona [for] solar cooking demonstrations and competitions every year.”
Tell us: Have or would you try solar cooking?