Updated
March 12, 2001
Solar Cooking
With no shortage of sun in The Gambia, solar power seems a good option for cooking, especially as collecting wood for fuel has removed much of the countries timber.
Cookery
Home
Ingredients
Utensils
Techniques
Recipes
The Cookit cooker is shown here constructed with its
wing points placed through the 12cm slots.
Food is placed in a dark container, which is then put in a clear cooking bag
For rice, try 1 cup of rice to 1.5 cups of water, lightly salt and cook. Using this method we estimate approx 1 hour, but will confirm this after some field experiments.
WWW
Diagrams are from the Cookit
website
I was delighted to get an email from a GTS supporter - unfortunately NOT a member, who travels to the Gambia to carry out his hobby of flying micro lights. He kindly took photos of the Brufut compond from the air, gathered information about Maddox Microlights and tested a solar cooker.
Microlighting costs about the same as in the UK - £70 an hour for flying or being trained, but the weather is so near to perfect, making it an ideal place to fly and with roads that jolt you every few moments its comfort and speed commend it.
Back on the ground he tried out a very simple but effective cooker made of cardboard and aluminium foil. The 'Cookit' Foldable cooker was developed by Roger Bernard from France and Barbara Kerr from the USA, with additional work from members of 'Solar Cookers International'.
The cooker (shown above) has been tested in the States and with refugees in Kenya - where its performance, low cost and convienience were confirmed.
Made from cardboard, with foil stuck on the inner surface it is quite cheap to construct and lasts for quite a long time
It cooked a pan of rice in 2 hours - not instant food, but with a performance better that a slow cooker this very cheap light weight equipment, is capable of reducing the consumption of very scarce wood used all over The Gambia and providing a hot meal by the heat from the midday sun.
The cooker is able to bake bread, stew vegetables and meat or fish, we will be trying it out ourselves on our next trip.
5 Top
