Introducing the Solar Oven

(Survival Manual/ Food & Water/ The solar oven)

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[My Global Sun Oven: Set up in the yard, currently cooking a whole chicken, bakes excellent home-made bread, boils corn, makes stews…Mr. Larry]

A.  Benefits of solar cooking
Pasted from: http://www.sunoven.com/sun-cooking-usa/why-use-it/benefits-of-solar-cooking
•  Cook for free:  Bakes, Boils or Steams Any Kind of Food with the Power of the Sun – No Fuel Needed!
•   No learning curve: Create your favorite recipes as you feast upon natural sun baked treats!
•  Just like your home oven: Reaches Temperatures of 360° to 400° F!
•  Totally Safe – No Danger of Fire – Never Burn Dinner Again!
•  Versatile – Easy-to-use, Portable as a Small Suitcase!
•  Satisfaction Guarantee: If you are not completely satisfied with your SUN OVEN® you may return it within 30 days of the date you receive it and you will receive a refund. [Offer from the Sun Oven website]

Cooking in a SUN OVEN® is easy, fun, natural, and nutritious, while helping the environment. SUN OVENS® are ideal for everyday use in your back yard, at picnics, while camping, or in the event of a power failure. They can help keep your house cool in the summer by keeping the heat from cooking outside.

Even though it is called an oven, food can be baked, boiled, and steamed at cooking temperatures of 360° F to 400° F. There is no movement of air in a SUN OVEN®, allowing food to stay moist and tender and flavorful. Sun-baked roasts are tastier and more succulent, and sun-baked bread has unparalleled taste and texture. The aroma of food sunning itself in a SUN OVEN® is sure to please your senses.

Temperatures in a SUN OVEN® rise slowly and evenly, allowing complex carbohydrates time to break down into simple sugars, emanating subtle natural flavors. The even temperature of the SUN OVEN® prevents burning, so you do not need to stir your food while it is cooking.

There are two ways to cook in a SUN OVEN®. If you refocus the oven to follow the sun every 25 to 30 minutes, cooking times and methods will be very similar to cooking with a conventional stove or oven. Or a SUN OVEN® can be used for slow cooking, much like a crock-pot. You can prepare your dinner, put it in the SUN OVEN®, point the oven where the sun will be approximately halfway through the time you will be gone. Leave, and come home to a tasty, slow-cooked dinner. If you run late, there is no need to worry; the SUN OVEN® will keep your food warm, moist, and fresh for hours.

VIDEO LINKS: (Page with 10 brief videos showing the use of a Sun Oven:
http://www.sunoven.com/sun-cooking-usa/how-to-use#whatis

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YOUTUBE (Jack Spirko of “The Survival Podcast” cooking a roast on the Global Sun Oven)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSHL39DMD9k&feature=related

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Explanation of the Global Solar Sun Oven’s Function: 
•  The Global Sun Oven® will quickly reach temperatures of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit!!!
•  When the Global Sun Oven is focused in the sun, the interior of the oven is heated by the sun’s energy.
•  Panels of polished metal flare out above the oven and direct the suns rays into the oven chamber where the heat is trapped, much like the heat captured when windows of a car are closed.
•  The black surfaces on the inside of the oven capture and transform the sun’s energy into a radiant energy wave length that cannot escape the oven chamber.
•  Direct and reflected sunlight enters the oven chamber through the glass door. It then turns to heat energy when it is absorbed by the black inner-shell and the levelator device.
•  The light energy absorbed by both the dark surface, and thick steel walls of the The Global Sun Oven Roasting Pot, [or other dark pots], and the oven’s dark interior is converted into longer wavelengths of radiant heat energy. Most of this longer-wavelength radiant energy cannot pass back out through the glass, ensuring more efficient cooking.
•  Food will not stick or burn… because the      solar heat is radiated throughout the cooking oven and does not come from a single direct source; no hot spots created by harsh burners or heating elements.
•  Food does not even have to be stirred – PLUS the Sun Oven is an excellent tool for boiling water. Cooking times are about fifteen minutes longer than with conventional ovens.
•  The oven will generally reach its maximum temperature as it is being preheated. The temperature drops slightly when food is placed in the chamber.
•  Note: The Sun Oven works even in subzero air temperatures, as long as the sun is out, the oven will capture the sun’s energy and cook as if it were a tropical day. The oven will heat up quicker on clear, low humidity days.
•  The Global Sun Oven is equipped with a built-in levelator device, an inner shelf that pivots to always keep food level and avoid spills while the oven is being refocused. The levelator is easily removed to make cleaning easier – or expand the baking area!
•  The four mirror finished anodized aluminum reflecting panels fold in and are easily secured with a heavy-duty strap. Convenient suitcase style handle allows for hassle-free handling – rugger construction,compact size, and low weight make transport or storage a breeze!

 Product Benefits:
• Perfect for crock pot style cooking while busy or at work
• Superior cooking; virtually every food tastes much better!!!
• Captures the nutritional benefits of all natural cooking
• Bake breads, casserole, etc – without heating up kitchen!
• Facilitates enhanced cooking worldwide – from ice fishermen in Minnesota baking their catch on a frozen lake, to desert dwellers in Kuwait baking lamb – from women in rain forests of Africa who can’t find wood to cook with – to deer hunters in North America who love moist venison – Sun Oven cooks!

 Product Features:
• Cooks with the power of the Sun – no fuel needed!
• Uses source of power that never fails – the energy of sun
• Cooks any foods – no special recipes are required
• Reaches temperatures of 360 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
• Levelator inner shelf pivots to always keep food level
• Levelator easily removed to expand the baking area
• Built in leveling leg on back allows for easy sun tracking
• Rugged construction – built for years of trouble-free use
• Strong plastic case – both durable and easy to clean
• Outer shell made of a highly durable ABS plastic
• Reflexo specular finish reflectors plus tempered glass door
• Reflectors made with mirror finished anodized aluminum –  will not oxidize, rust, or corrode
• Black inner shell is formed from aluminum coated with non-toxic, high temperature powder coating
• Coating is baked on and does not emit any toxic fumes – like other industrial paints or coatings
• Oven interior is double-walled and lined with thick batt of non-toxic fiberglass insulation
• Gasket that seals the oven chamber is made from patented material specifically designed to withstand UV radiation
• Gasket forms an air-tight seal to hold heat in while preventing out-gassing from building up in the oven’s chamber
• Stained wooden bezel made of milled kiln dried hardwood
• Reflecting panels fold in and are easily secured with strap
• Carry it anywhere – as portable as a small suitcase!
• Convenient suitcase-like handle – weighs only 21 pounds!!!

OPTIONAL: Black Graniteware, oval-shaped roasting pot; 3 Quart, This black ceramic-coated, all steel roaster is perfect for use in The Global Sun Oven®. The 3 quart size is ideal for most meals using solar cooking, and fits precisely inside The Global Sun Oven with maximum use of interior oven space. Roasting Pot dimensions: 9 3/4 x 5 3/4.
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B.  Emergency Food Preparedness by using a Solar Oven
http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/emergency_food_preparedness.html

When natural disasters or unforeseen events occur, you know that being physically prepared for an emergency with backups and reserves of food, water, power and shelter is usually the difference between security and peace of mind, or uncertainty and possible tragedy.
We realize of course that conditions within any locale at any given time may not be favorable for using a solar cooker.
Stormy, cloudy and violent weather will most surely make it difficult, even impossible to use a solar oven. But, as everyone knows, these conditions will not always be present; in fact they are usually very short in duration.
The resultant effects of events such as; power outages, tornadoes, storms and such usually leave many hundreds and thousands without the basic necessities that are so common and vital to our customary standard of living; these usually include power, clean water, shelter, food and medical care.
A solar-powered oven can address several of these emergency needs in varying ways and with great results.
•  Clean Water, a most vital resource, can become contaminated through a variety of disruptions or compromises to the culinary water system in a city or town of any size and sickness can result because of it. Boiling water to remove the impurities is the best and most common way for individuals faced with such conditions, but not always are there means available to do this. Without electricity or other fuel sources it would be impossible to obtain the heat levels necessary to boil water. But with a solar cooker you can easily purify enough water to meet the drinking needs of the average family. In fact is, it is not even necessary to bring the water to a complete boil since you can sterilize the water by merely pasteurizing it, thus increasing the amounts of water that can be purified in a day.
•  A solar oven can also be used to sterilize other items as well, such as medical instruments and cooking utensils. In some third world countries where there are epidemics of grain infestation, solar cookers have been used for sterilization of various grain staples.
•  A solar Parabolic Cooker can be used to pressure cook as well as do pressure canning and even run a solar water distiller with the right parts and equipment customized to a parabolic cooker.
•  Solar ovens can be used for such needs as warming or drying clothing articles, drying fruit and vegetables (at ventilated lower temps) melting wax for candles, beekeeping wax melting. And a solar parabolic cooker can be used for warming the body and hands in cold weather as well as warming/heating pipes for air and water heating.
•  The foremost reason for including a solar cooker amongst your emergency supplies is of course; to be able to cook your food when there are no other means available of doing so.

*VIDEO LINK (16 videos: a variety of solar ovens and their uses):
http://www.solarcooker-at-cantinawest.com/solar_cookers_videos.html

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