The short answer is: a cheap and easy way to cook a variety of dishes using the Sun's energy as the heat source. It works in a very similar way to a slow cooker.
A solar cooker is basically some cardboard (recycled from a cardboard box) cut to a certain pattern and covered in tinfoil, which is then placed in direct sunlight. You mix your ingredients in a black pot with a lid on top, then put this inside a sealed oven bag and place it inside the cooker. A few hours later (how long depends on what you cook, sometimes it may be only half an hour) you have a delicious meal that hasn't cost you a cent in gas or electricity and if you are in a warm climate you haven't made your house a few degrees hotter by using the stove or cooker.
My husband bought our solar cooker about a year ago(you can make your own and I will post links and give tips on this) and last Summer it was just a novelty. We cooked a couple of things, they tasted okay but back in the cupboard it went.
Over the following year we became an energy conscious household, in Perth where we live the cost of power has gone up tremendously over a very short period! It's also been quite hot this Summer and as we don't have refrigerative air conditioning, the thought of cooking over a hot stove was kinda unbearable.
After googling some specific solar cooker recipes and getting some tips from a great series on Youtube we turned out some very tasty meals that were also very easy and quick to prepare (quick except for the cooking times that is!)
In this blog I'm going to provide a bunch on information on the pros and cons of this cooking method, provide a list of what you need, do an FAQ, plenty of useful links and then on a more regular basis provide the recipes for what we've actually cooked and eaten along with photos and a rating for the effort involved and how good or bad the food tasted.
The picture on this blog is the exact same kind of cooker we have but you can make your own. We found the bought one slightly more efficient (quicker) but a homemade one does definately work, I'm not trying to sell anything on this blog!
Solar cookers are being used a lot in places where people can't afford fuel to cook with or where the water is undrinkable and needs sterilizing, mainly India, China and Africa. Well, I say let the first world cotton on to a great idea, especially places like Western Australia where we get so much sun we don't know what to do with it!
Here is a link to a site on the Solar Panel Cooker pictured which explains in more detail how it's being used in impoverished areas http://geographyfieldwork.com/SolarCookers.htm
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