Mangos, Brownies, Plantains, OH MY!

Power of the Sun, Solar Cooking in the Congo 1:1

This summer Cloud 9 Workshop harnessed the power of the sun using a solar oven. The oven was purchased as part of a broader effort to improve the village living conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Read more Here.

First step, experiment and practice cooking foods commonly used and found in the region. Who wants brownies? Ok, brownies are not commonly found in the Congo but are oh so delicious baked in the sun! They were a success, 100%. Now we’re onto a more practical staple of the region, rice. It should be easy enough. It’s rice after all, just add water. After a few rice soups later, still no luck. It’s time to put our thinking caps on.

At last success! Can you believe it was a simple fix of removing the lid that did the trick, who knew? So now we have brownies and rice. I’d say we’re set but the experiments didn’t stop there. Our intensely sunny days lent themselves nicely to solar cooking. In one day we managed to cook, rice, white bread, brownies, corn bread, eggs and purified water. We also successfully cooked meet stew, greens, mango crisp, squash and plantains.

The sun oven is now on its way to the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa. I’ll share an update as soon as I hear more. Stay tuned!