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22-01-2011, 19:26
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: San Diego, California
Boat: Pearson Triton 28 (1960)
Posts: 180
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Anyone Tried Using a Solar Oven ?
Gudday!
I'm not some hippy-crack-pot but has anyone tried using a solar oven for cooking while cruising?
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22-01-2011, 20:43
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Bellingham WA
Boat: 17' faering Ironblood, building 34' schooner Javelin
Posts: 305
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Not while underway, but it is a very simple, cheap, effective, but slow way of cooking your food. Cardboard box, some tinfoil and a glass lid and you got it.
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22-01-2011, 20:48
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: San Diego, California
Boat: Pearson Triton 28 (1960)
Posts: 180
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Yeah I used them as a kid when camping, thinking of trying it while cruising.
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22-01-2011, 20:49
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: San Francisco Bay
Boat: Fantasia 35
Posts: 1,251
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yes -- it is called a solar panel + inverter + microwave...
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22-01-2011, 21:05
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Port Ludlow Wa
Boat: Makela,Ingrid38,Idora
Posts: 2,050
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whoo boy!!
I could make more heat rubbing two sticks together up here in this wet.
Todd
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22-01-2011, 21:23
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#6
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Northern NSW Australia
Boat: Custom
Posts: 749
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Some friends of mine are the distributors for a product that would be great:
Solar Cooking Ovens | Honeycomb Valley
__________________
James
"I get knocked down but I get up again" eventually.
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22-01-2011, 21:36
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 9
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Wow. Really like the idea. I'd try it. Just plan the right amount of time for cooking and do other stuff 'round the boat. Certainly something you wouldn't have to watch too closely.
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23-01-2011, 03:10
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: abbeville la
Boat: seawind II Patience
Posts: 541
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Neat looking little oven but choked on my coffee hen I say the price,marc
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24-01-2011, 08:26
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#10
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Boating writer, book author
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: On the Go
Boat: Various
Posts: 752
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I have a Sport SOS from solarovens.org. It's a group that sells ovens and uses profits to send free ovens to developing countries where waterborn diseases are a big killer. The units come with a special tester so users can know when water has been raised to a safe temperature. Shipped to a US address, cost is about $100. It's a serious unit, a far cry from the aluminum foil rigs we used in Girl Scouts. It is sturdy enough for years of careful use and comes with a temperature gauge and two black enameled, lidded pots that absorb heat well. You can cook two, two-quart items at once so it's great for soaked beans plus , say, cornbread or a cake. It weighs under 10 pounds so it's easy to wrestle in and out of storage areas. On the minus side it's quite bulky, best for a boat that has a lot of easy-access storage space for lightweight items. A lot depends on how much sun you get. You also have to tend it, making sure it's always aimed for the best beams. An optional accessory is a reflector that adds even more bulk in storage but raises heat faster. If you're swinging at anchor, tending takes more attention than if you're at the dock but even there, you must pay attention to the passage of the sun as well as the interior temperature to make sure it doesn't cool off too much or get too hot. Bottom line: a boon to cooks who have time, motivation and stowage space as well as a spot on deck that is left open to the sun. One big disadvantage in the tropics is that nobody eats until after sundown, so dishes may need reheating on the stove. The enamel pots go easily from solar oven to stovetop or oven. To stow the unit I slip a couple of big pillow cases over the plastic window so it doesn't get scratched and the enamel pots also need protection to keep them from banging around.
__________________
Janet Groene
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24-01-2011, 08:42
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: New Bern NC
Boat: Searunner 34 Trimaran
Posts: 1,660
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Well, I am an old hippie, and proud of it... although never called a "crackpot" as well.
Back in the day... There was a good book called "Cruising the Farm" with do it yourself designs for both solar cooking and drying of food. I'm sure it is out of print, but these days it seems that everything ever printed is available, if you know where to find it. My copy is deep in storage somewhere...
Good luck, Hippie crackpot
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24-01-2011, 08:58
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#12
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 2
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Keeping solar cooked food hot until after sunset
Re Janet's comment about the need to reheat food for evening consumption: There is a zero energy way to solve this problem on your boat or anywhere else. It's called "retained heat cooking" (google it for more details, diagrams and photos). I use it on my boat all the time when I solar cook. My solar cooked evening meal is usually done around 4 pm. I take it (still steaming away in its black pot, wrap it immediately in a black plastic garbage bag (which can be used over and over again for this purpose) and stuff the whole package into a wicker or plastic basket, a cardboard box, or just in a corner of my boat. Wherever I put the pot, I surround it on all sides inside its container (including top and bottom) with at least six inches of insulation (blankets, pillows, old clothes, towels). The plastic bag ensures that your insulation won't get wet or dirty if a little liquid spills during this process. Close your container so that the insulation is secured tightly around your pot of food (you can also stack one pot of food on top of another). You will be amazed when you open it three hours later and it is still steaming hot and moist.
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24-01-2011, 09:13
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#13
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Gabriola Island & Victoria, British Columbia
Boat: Cooper 416 Honeysuckle
Posts: 6,933
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Johnson
Well, I am an old hippie, and proud of it... although never called a "crackpot" as well.
Back in the day... There was a good book called "Cruising the Farm" with do it yourself designs for both solar cooking and drying of food. I'm sure it is out of print, but these days it seems that everything ever printed is available, if you know where to find it. My copy is deep in storage somewhere...
Good luck, Hippie crackpot
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You can call me a "flower child in a cracked pot". Unfortunately I don't have the hair to prove it.
Do you remember the author of "Cruising the Farm". Unfortunatly my web search for that phrase didn't turn up anything useful.
__________________
“We are the universe contemplating itself” - Carl Sagan
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24-01-2011, 09:31
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Jun 2010
Boat: Tartan 30
Posts: 1,548
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It's "Sailing the Farm" by Kenneth Neumeyer.
Highly recommended. Here's the ( Amazon Link)
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24-01-2011, 09:42
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: New Bern NC
Boat: Searunner 34 Trimaran
Posts: 1,660
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Hummingway... Forgot the author's name. It was in the "books for sale" section of Multihulls Magazine for many years. (70s)? It was particularly useful for us Wharram & Searunner multihull types, who set out to "Seastead", which I managed to do for 15 years. Where I cruised, the reality turned out to be more "land acquired food" than the concept, but with the right skills, in a really remote part of the Pacific, it could be a viable way of life. Many parts of the book were useful nontheless... like growing sprouts. You can have fresh greens where ever you are, by constantly growing sprouts onboard, in gallon jars. They then comprise the majority of every salad, and are REALLY healthy food. ETC...
You might try an inquiry in the "Trimarans, Especially Searunners" forum. There may be some ol timer, willing to part with their copy of the book?
BTW, I don't have much hair now, but 36 years ago...
M.
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