Comments on: Bless the Sun with Solar Cooking! http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking Jews, Food, and Contemporary Issues Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:20:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Solar panel | Solar Energy | Solar Roofing Panel http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14971 Solar panel | Solar Energy | Solar Roofing Panel Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:59:24 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14971 Solar systems work when sunlight strikes a solar photovoltaic module and excites electrons trapped in the silicon solar cell. Solar systems work when sunlight strikes a solar photovoltaic module and excites electrons trapped in the silicon solar cell.

]]> By: Barbara Lerman-Golomb http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14847 Barbara Lerman-Golomb Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:17:15 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14847 Shev and Amalia- The solar cooker instructions are linked from the blog. The most kid-friendly ones are the cardboard box and pizza box projects. Let me know if you have anymore questions. Barbara Shev and Amalia-

The solar cooker instructions are linked from the blog. The most kid-friendly ones are the cardboard box and pizza box projects. Let me know if you have anymore questions.

Barbara

]]> By: Amalia Haas http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14793 Amalia Haas Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:49:41 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14793 Ditto to Shev's request on instructions for solar cooker construction, particularly kid-friendly ones. Thanks. Ditto to Shev’s request on instructions for solar cooker construction, particularly kid-friendly ones.
Thanks.

]]> By: Pat McArdle http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14555 Pat McArdle Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:34:37 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14555 Rachel, Thanks for flagging the article 'Solar cooking of traditional foods in Western Africa' by Hollis and Reynald Chatelain. It is an excellent example of the extensive training and experimentation needed to introduce solar cooking anywhere in the world. The careful study the Chatelain's have done to determine cooking habits should serve as a model to solar cooker promoters everywhere. Almost two million people in China use solar cookers and almost a million in India. More would be used if governments and international donor organizations were willing to fund the extensive training and follow up needed to successfully introduce solar cooking. The reduction in deforestation, indoor and outdoor air pollution, burns suffered by children and the danger faced by women who must collect firewood and carry it on their heads back to their villages would be dramatic. The female Darfur refugees in three camps in Eastern Chad have made and distributed more than 40,000 solar cookers which are being used by women whose only other choice is to leave their camps and walk for miles into dangerous territory to find wood. You are correct that solar cooking is a hard sell in locations where people can still go out and collect firewood, but those places are rapidly vanishing. There are various types of solar cookers available including parabolic solar cookers which boil and fry at 450-500 degrees F. it appears from the article you cited that the Chatelains have not tried introducing a parabolic solar cooker which cooks as fast as a wood fire or gas flame. It would be interesting to know why they have not tried introducing the parabolic cookers which would allow the women to cook at midday as they always have. It would also be useful if they introduced the concept of integrated solar cooking which would help the people they are working with to reduce fuel consumption no matter the weather, time of day or season of the year. This system combines the use of solar cookers during the day, retained heat cookers and fuel efficient stoves. Rachel,
Thanks for flagging the article ‘Solar cooking of traditional foods in Western Africa’ by Hollis and Reynald Chatelain. It is an excellent example of the extensive training and experimentation needed to introduce solar cooking anywhere in the world. The careful study the Chatelain’s have done to determine cooking habits should serve as a model to solar cooker promoters everywhere.

Almost two million people in China use solar cookers and almost a million in India. More would be used if governments and international donor organizations were willing to fund the extensive training and follow up needed to successfully introduce solar cooking. The reduction in deforestation, indoor and outdoor air pollution, burns suffered by children and the danger faced by women who must collect firewood and carry it on their heads back to their villages would be dramatic.

The female Darfur refugees in three camps in Eastern Chad have made and distributed more than 40,000 solar cookers which are being used by women whose only other choice is to leave their camps and walk for miles into dangerous territory to find wood. You are correct that solar cooking is a hard sell in locations where people can still go out and collect firewood, but those places are rapidly vanishing.

There are various types of solar cookers available including parabolic solar cookers which boil and fry at 450-500 degrees F. it appears from the article you cited that the Chatelains have not tried introducing a parabolic solar cooker which cooks as fast as a wood fire or gas flame. It would be interesting to know why they have not tried introducing the parabolic cookers which would allow the women to cook at midday as they always have.

It would also be useful if they introduced the concept of integrated solar cooking which would help the people they are working with to reduce fuel consumption no matter the weather, time of day or season of the year. This system combines the use of solar cookers during the day, retained heat cookers and fuel efficient stoves.

]]> By: shev http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14492 shev Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:15:45 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14492 Did I miss the actual instructions on how to build a solar cooker? Please tell all - April is just around the corner! Thanks. Did I miss the actual instructions on how to build a solar cooker?

Please tell all – April is just around the corner!
Thanks.

]]> By: Mike Hawk http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14483 Mike Hawk Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:41:40 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14483 Solar Cookers are AWESOME! I want one to tailgate with. Thank you Bye Solar Cookers are AWESOME!

I want one to tailgate with.

Thank you

Bye

]]> By: Rachel Barenblat http://jcarrot.org/bless-the-sun-with-solar-cooking/comment-page-1#comment-14477 Rachel Barenblat Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:57:10 +0000 http://jcarrot.org/?p=4309#comment-14477 I don't want to knock the impulse to cook with the sun, and I especially don't want to knock the desire to aid the women of Darfur, but it's been suggested to me that solar cookers aren't a good fit for African modes of cooking. In much the way that cooking in a crock pot / slow-cooker doesn't provide the same result as stirring a stew on the stove does, cooking in a solar cooker results in dishes turning out differently, and I think it's possible for the whole solar cooker movement to seem like a kind of Western paternalism -- "here, let us show you how to cook," etc. There's an interesting article about these issues here: <a href="http://www.hedon.info/BP26:SolarCookingOfTraditionalFoodsInWesternAfrica" rel="nofollow">Solar cooking of traditional foods in Western Africa by Hollis and Reynald Chatelain</a>. It's about West African cooking, but I think the issues it raises may relate to the Darfur situation as well. I don’t want to knock the impulse to cook with the sun, and I especially don’t want to knock the desire to aid the women of Darfur, but it’s been suggested to me that solar cookers aren’t a good fit for African modes of cooking.

In much the way that cooking in a crock pot / slow-cooker doesn’t provide the same result as stirring a stew on the stove does, cooking in a solar cooker results in dishes turning out differently, and I think it’s possible for the whole solar cooker movement to seem like a kind of Western paternalism — “here, let us show you how to cook,” etc.

There’s an interesting article about these issues here: Solar cooking of traditional foods in Western Africa by Hollis and Reynald Chatelain. It’s about West African cooking, but I think the issues it raises may relate to the Darfur situation as well.

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