For all your apocalyptic cooking needs...

My wife and my neighbor have been on a real "let's get ready for the apocalypse" kick lately, so when our Urban Farm magazine arrived with an article touting the virtues of the solar oven, my wife pounced right on it.  Using the sun to cook a meal sure sounds like a neat idea and I hadn't heard of it before other than the old adage about frying an egg on the pavement in the summer. 

Solar ovens come in all shapes and sizes from the do-it-yourself version to the $300 prefabricated model (personally, I'll pass on that one).  Under the right conditions, or apparently even less than ideal conditions, you can cook actual real food at 325 F or even higher, basically for the entire time the sun is out.

In literally 15 minutes, she had transformed a couple of cardboard boxes, some black spray paint, aluminum foil, and clear glass from a picture frame into something that looked as if it had the intent to cook something. 

Now the big test... insert a thermometer, point it toward the sun, and wait.  Upon further review, the weeks surrounding the winter solstice may not be the best time to try solar cooking.  The temperature only got up to about 90 F inside the box, but that is pretty impressive considering the outside temperature was right around 50 F.  My wife has already identified some inherent design flaws in her solar oven v.1.0 though, and I'm sure this is not the last we will see of this apocalyptic appliance.  I expect my neighbor to try something similar soon, only probably on a more commercial scale.  Stay tuned!