Gene Bethke: Solar Oven Partners Shipping Cookers To The World

Gene coordinates the shipping of a box cooker made up of components from shops around the Dakotas. Boxes of five cookers each are loaded for shipping to Haiti, Seirra Leone, and the Navajo Nation. The cookers hold three 4-quart pots or a pot and a double-loaf bread pan. Gene gave me a tour of the Raymond South Dakota plant with many insights into what makes a good cooker, and the challenges of promoting overseas.

[@SolarCookingGermany]

Here's an idea for a super low-cost solar oven that requires almost no skills: Make it from paper mache. It has good insulation and you can shape it into any form you want. Either make slabs that can be put together or use a mold. Paint the inside black and add a glass front. You could also use papercrete, that's paper mache + cement.

[@SolarCookingMuseum]

Good idea, what would you do to make it last in high humidity countries? Or, like in Minnesota where we have really dry air winters but high humidity summers? I imagine papercrete would last longer, how vulnerable is it to moisture?

[@SolarCookingGermany]

@@SolarCookingMuseum I have no experience with that yet, my first test sample still needs to dry, but I'm thinking of waterproof paint.