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Save energy with a delicious meal cooked by the sun

It could be the world's best kept secret: solar cooking.

Of the many time we've done stories or told others about using the power of the sun to cook, the response is usually, "What?" and then, "Wow!"

Set your food outside in a solar cooker and let the sun do the work.

"It's like a crock pot," Paul Barth, a volunteer with locally-based solar cooker international, said. "It's long and slow and it saves money and energy and it's fun. I think if more people saw how easy it is they would do it."

Barth is the local guru of solar cooking. He's been using various solar devices for 30 years. Whatever you'd put in your oven or crock pot in your kitchen, instead, put the covered food in a solar cooker and forget about it.

"I'll put the food out in the morning before work, the sunlight comes up around 10 and you come home around 5 or 6 p.m., it's still really warm or hot and you eat it," Barth said.

The basic solar cooker is called a 'Cook-It' and sells for about $40. That easily pays for itself by not using electricity to cook, or the air conditioner to cool your kitchen. The 'S.O.S. Cooker' is about $200, and that's what we have a half-chicken and veggies in.

The giant solar box oven can house several pans of food, and that's about $300.

Bon appetit... thanks to the sun!

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