For the 12 years I’ve known her my friend Edie Farwell has been an enthusiastic proponent of a type of oven powered by sunlight. She’s on the board of Solar Cookers International, an organization that’s been promoting the use of homemade solar ovens as a way to save fuel, reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, and cook great food since the 1970s. These cookers are particularly important in third-world countries where firewood is scarce and heat from the sun abundant. I’d seen pictures of the gizmo, and the idea that a couple of cardboard boxes, some aluminum foil, and glue could effectively cook good-tasting food seemed unlikely. But three summers ago I agreed to build one and check it out.
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The next morning I cut up potatoes and peeled garlic cloves, placed them in a pot I’d painted with oven black, drizzled olive oil over them, and sprinkled them with salt, pepper, and fresh sage. Then I carried my happy-hands-at-home project up to the tar roof of my two-flat.
I stared at it for a bit and tried to think if there was anything else I needed to do. My only remaining task was to leave the box the heck alone, but this didn’t feel like enough. I wanted to stir, smell, adjust, taste. I wanted to be involved in the process. I climbed downstairs, but every ten minutes I was back up on the roof to see what was happening. Other than the needle escalating on the thermometer, there was nothing to see but a cardboard box that once held Florida oranges. In less than 30 minutes the temperature had shot up above the highest mark on the meat thermometer, 190 degrees. From the position of the needle, I guessed it was at least 200 degrees inside the box.
Yeah, but people liked the Crock-Pot for a while–and it required you to prepare the meal in the morning and let it simmer all day, which is much the way I use the solar oven.
The staff and board of Solar Cookers International has a conference display that shows two women cooking: one stands over a stove, slaving away, stirring, steam billowing into her face, while the other sits by a swimming pool reading a magazine with her solar box cooker in the background.
