Wanderlust - An Old Fart's Perspective

Bernard Solar Panel Cooker

Part 4 of 4

Bernard Solar Panel Cooker - A neat little device for solar cooking can be made from trash or made up for longer use with plastic mirrors, a couple sticks (pencils), a black pot, some small flat rocks or sticks, and an oven bag. A pic of one I made for backpacking use is above. I just put a beverage can there as an example--use a darkened pot or can. At the bottom of this article is what it looks like packed up and there is another pic of it folded out without pot. The pot should be flat black. A sooty pot or beverage can will fit the bill. Even a can with a dark sock on it would work—just not as well. Flat dark color is what you want. Shiny dark will reflect some light away and you want the pot to absorb as much heat as possible so it can transfer heat to whatever it is you’re cooking. You need to put the pot into an oven bag and blow some air into the bag before sealing. Place the bag and pot on some kind of trivet. A couple rocks or small sticks will do—you just need to keep the pot off the bottom mirror. The reason for the bag is to act as an insulator and to keep breezes from cooling the pot. An oven bag is ideal but you could use whatever clear bag you can find—the thicker the better. Theoretically this cooker will get things hot but you can’t bake a cake in one. I have, however, baked a biscuit (I believe Brits call them “scones”) in mine on a really hot sunny day. I know what you’re thinking: “how often can you scrounge nice shiny plastic mirrors from the trash?” Well, not nice shiny plastic mirrors but a reasonable substitute is only as far as the nearest trash container or two. First, look at the dimensions at the link for the Bernard Solar Panel Cooker for an idea of the size of the items you need. Then, scrounge some cardboard and a few potato chip bags with the shiny mylar interiors. Open up the bags. Now you have your mirrors. Cut the cardboard into the appropriate size and attach the mylar shiny side out onto the cardboard by cutting some slits in the mylar and putting the tips of the cardboard through them. Place the cooker in a manner that the three mirrors at the top of the “T” shaped cooker (“T” shape when it’s flat and not upright) face the sun and adjust the end piece (bottom of the “T”) to get as much light reflected on the pot as possible. Use sticks to keep the mirrors in place. Readjust periodically to keep the most sunlight on the cooker. You can use this to heat up any food you find or purchase. Or you can use it to heat up water in which you’re dissolving, say, a chocolate bar for poor man’s hot chocolate. Keep in mind that a solar cooker uses sunlight as the fuel so you can (and I have) cooked using solar on very cold, but bright, sunlit days. If you can find a windshield sun screen made of Reflectix, you can make a solar funnel cooker. You don’t really need to do the glue thing, just suspend or place your pot at the bottom of the cooker with the plastic bag (oven bag is best but remember you’re scrounging from the trash). One advantage of solar cooking is that you will not cause yourself undue trouble by starting a fire in the city—authorities discourage that sort of thing. Try solar cooking out. It’d be a great school project for your kid or for the kid you happen to be but won’t admit it. Keep it in mind for emergency use.

Food – Hopefully soup kitchens will be set up if there is a city-wide emergency. If not, try houses of worship first. Then try to make a bargain with a restaurant owner to do menial labor for a meal or two. I am a Type II diabetic so I keep emergency food around all the time—pocket or pack. One emergency item that won’t melt is the Datrex Emergency Food Bar. Typically you have to buy a pack with at least eighteen bars in it. Each bar is individually wrapped and is about two hundred calories. They keep well (don’t melt) so I carry some in my vest/pack. I’m also fond of Clif and other protein bars which don’t take up much room. Most folks can go a few weeks without food but we diabetics must have something each day. If you can’t get a restaurant manager to hire you, try begging for a piece of bread or something. You can also do like a hobo during the Depression and knock on doors offering to do yard work for a meal. Try to look your best so the first impression is probably that you're trustworthy. If that doesn’t work, try dumpster diving. There is a community of dumpster divers in Berlin, for example, who keep connected via social media with updates on locations of food just thrown out that they go out and retrieve. They don’t buy any food at all out of principle. Yes, it would work but be cautious on that because there may be a reason something was discarded. Check the food carefully or cook it more in your solar panel cooker.

Miscellaneous Thoughts on Emergency Urban Survival - You’re going to have lots of hours to while away the time so you will have time to do these things. I wrote this series on emergency urban survival not to scare folks but to plant in their minds something to fall back upon should an emergency arise during travel. If there is an emergency, you don’t have to despair, lie around, and cry “woe is me.” Get busy and improve your situation. Keep in mind, it’s only temporary and things will get better. Now, back to regular posts.