SunPod

listen to episode 269 (approx. 17 minutes)

This is the last interview I had recorded at the CONSOLFOOD2020 conference in Faro.

Jean-Jacques Serra worked for some decades at the solar furnace in Odeillo in the South-West of France. With his large parabolic mirror of 45 kW power he researched the behaviour of materials at very high temperatures which can only be reached by concentrating sunlight.

Not far away from there, in Sorède, there is the home of the “Friends of Father Himalaya Association”. They have build a replica of a solar furnace that a portuguese priest, whose nickname was “Father Himalaya”, had constructed at the beginning of the 20th century. Jean-Jacques Serra is a member of this association and tells us the story of Father Himalaya and the replica.

Links:
Association des Amis de Padre Himalaya
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

listen to episode 268 (approx. 33 minutes)

Prof. Elmo Dutra Filho was caught by the solar cooking virus many years ago, when he experienced that the simple CookIt panel cooker was able to boil water.
First he focused on parabolic cookers, but after a workshop with Prof. Celestino Ruivo five years ago he was convinced, that this cheap cooker is the better device for the poor people in the favelas.

The community had paid for his studies at the university and now he found his way to give this back to the community by teaching poor people how to cook with the sun.

And he gives his best to make solar cooking more popular in Brazil as almost nobody there uses solar cookers.
Elmo told me his story after the CONSOLFOOD2020 conference in Faro in January 2020.

Links:
Elmo’s website Fogão Solar
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

listen to episode 267 (approx. 36 minutes)

Right from the start solar cooking had one big problem: how can we cook when there is no sunshine? Many people around the world have their principal dish in the evening and this raises the question: how can we store the heat we have collected during the day?

Prof. Antonio Lecuona-Neumann from Carlos III University in Madrid tells us in our interview how he tries to find answers by researching phase change materials and photovoltaics. And as a professor of thermal engineering he has the rare gift of being able to explain complicated topics in a simple way. You may find this out in this episode.

Links:
Prof. Antonio Lecuona Neumann at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Papers
CONSOFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

listen to episode 266 (approx. 23 minutes)

In 2015 I had published my first interview with Prof. Celestino Ruivo from Faro in Portugal.
A few weeks ago after the third CONSOLFOOD conference on Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing in Faro I had the opportunity to speak with him again. Celestino is the founder and host of these important gatherings of the solar cooking family. In this episode he shares his view on the conferences and on solar cooking in general.

Links:
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing
My first interview with Prof. Celestino Ruivo

listen to episode 265 (approx. 21 minutes)

At the CONSOLFOOD2020 conference in Faro I met Luther Krueger from Minneapolis in the US.
In 2004 Luther started his way into the solar cooking world by reading the book “Cooking with the Sun”, written by Beth and Dan Halacy. After that he built his first five box cookers, and almost from the beginning Luther began collecting all types of solar cookers. Meanwhile his hoard is so voluminous, that he is thinking about setting up his own museum.

Two years ago Luther started bringing together his experiences of his day job with the Minneapolis police department, where he works as a community organizer helping neighbourhood groups work out crime prevention strategies, with his passion for solar cooking and began to host solar brunches in his back yard.
In this episode we can hear his impressive story.

Links:
Solar Brunch Guide for the Big Blue Sun Museum of Solar Cooking
Luther Krueger at the Solar Cooking Wiki
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

Episode 264 hören (ca. 23 Minuten)

Im Januar 2020 war ich in Tamera im südlichen Portugal, einer Lebensgemeinschaft, die sich selbst als Heilungsbiotop bezeichnet, und dort ein Zentrum für Friedensforschung und -ausbildung betreibt. Dort lebt seit etwa einem Jahr Felix Hediger, der im Grenzbereich von Kunst, Technik und Grenzwissenschaften die Phänomene des Lebendigen erforscht und Wasserpumpen konstruiert, die ganz anderen Prinzipien folgen als herkömmliche Pumpen. Felix sieht einen Paradigmenwechsel kommen, der dazu führen wird, dass wir die Welt aus der Perspektive der Lebenskraft betrachten und verstehen, als Ergänzung zum heutigen Materialismus, der versucht, alles aus der Materie und ihren Wechselwirkungen heraus zu erklären.
Bei einer Führung durch seine Werkstatt hat Felix uns verschiedene Experimente mit dem Lebenselement Wasser vorgeführt, in denen es beispielsweise um organische Formbildung, Wirbelbewegung und Rhythmus geht. Ich fand das so inspirierend, dass ich Felix spontan um ein Interview gebeten habe, und in den folgenden 22 Minuten nimmt er uns mit in seine Welt der Naturerforschung in der Nachfolge Viktor Schaubergers.

Links:
Künstlermensch Felix Hediger
Tamera

listen to episode 263 (approx. 19 minutes)

Andrew Wilson from Perth in West Australia joined us at the CONSOLFOOD2020 conference in Faro where he made two presentations about his experiences with solar cooking.
In our interview Andy told me that it was Celestino Ruivo, whom he had seen on TV, who inspired him to build his first solar cooker a few years ago.

Since then he has constructed several cookers, and in his presentation Andy Wilson showed us some pictures of his self-made parabolic dish of 1.8 m diameter and told us about his attempts to bake pizza in it.

Link:
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

listen to episode 262 (approx. 22 minutes)

Ivan Yaholnitsky grew up in Canada, and in 1987 he went to Lesotho in Southern Africa where he started working as a high school teacher. One year later he built his first solar cooker. I met Ivan at the CONSOLFOOD2020 conference in Faro, where I was lucky to hear his inspiring story and see his solar parabolic trough cooker which his wife uses every day to bake bread.

Links:
Bethel Business and Community Development Centre
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

listen to episode 261 (approx. 27 minutes)

One important new topic at the CONSOLFOOD conference in January 2020 in Faro/Portugal was hybrid cooking, what means that classic solar box cookers are combined with electricity. I met David Chalker, president of the Sun BD Corporation and the most important pioneer in this field in the US, two days before the conference. He had imported hybrid ovens, the so called “Tulsi”, from India in 2004 already, and some years later he invented the SunFocus® and the UGLI® Solar Oven by improving the Tulsi in many details.
David tells us his story and shares a lot of his deep insights and the whole solar cooking family should listen to him.

Links:
Sun BD Corporation
CONSOLFOOD – Advances in Solar Thermal Food Processing

listen to episode 260 (approx. 31 minutes)

Last week we performed the third CONSOLFOOD conference about solar thermal food processing, and there in Faro in South Portugal I had the chance to record several interviews with some living legends of the solar cooking family, which we will hear in our next few issues.
Today I begin with Pat McArdle who tells us in her own words how she was inspired to use solar cookers during her work as an American diplomat in Northern Afghanistan in 2005, and about her activities in the following years.

Link: Pat’s YouTube channel