#15

Preparedness #14 -03/22/09


Last week we summarized some of the preparations that we have discussed over the past months. All week I kept reminding myself not to forget cooking facilities. When the time came to print, I forgot to put it in anyway. But, maybe it is better since we did not talk about it enough in the first place. Just like the importance of water, if you don’t have a way to cook your food, it won’t be of much use to you. I mean, how appetizing will sprouted, uncooked rice, beans and wheat be everyday of the week. True, you could put honey on it for a treat. Imagine a treat after F.H.E. of sprouted lentils in their own soakwater with a little honey! Yum.


Anyway, we have been advised to keep a few months of fuel to heat our homes and provide for cooking. In our communities, it is against the rules to store flammable or ‘dangerous’ chemicals or fuel. I think we are able to keep some propane which would be an excellent idea, especially to have a fair amount of it. Please remember to have more than just your BBQ to cook on. A hot plate would be good as well as an oven. These items are a bit pricy and you will have to save for them, but again, don’t go into debt for them. You would be surprised how often things like that show up at Deseret Industries or garage sales.


In the mean time, it may be time for us to learn how to make and use a solar oven. Doing this could be great fun for a family or even a ‘senior’ couple. (Who would that be anyway?) It is not that hard and if you want to hear a preposterous claim, solar ovens can be coolers too! Just imagine that; pointed away from the sun, the heat of anything in the ‘oven’ is reflected into space which is very cold and absorbs the heat from the material in the ‘cooker.’ Yea, I know I will have to prove that one; which I fully intend to do-(for myself as well as you!)


Sister Shannon Condie put me on to a solar cooker that can be made from a cardboard box, aluminum foil, some glue and a wide mouth canning jar. Oh, and a 2” piece of a 2X4 and a couple of plastic bags and black spray paint. These cookers were developed at BYU in the Physics Department by Dr. Steven E. Jones. Either Sister Condie or I will have one of these to display hopefully in the foyer or in an approved place. Maybe we could put it outside with a whistling t_a kettle in it to demonstrate its effectiveness.


Anyway, these cookers are especially good here in St. George because of the relative intensity of the sun and the few cloudy days we have. They work optimally at a U.V. (Ultraviolet) index of 7 or greater and today it is 6 – even in the early spring. If you use the canning jar with the lid tightened down, you will build pressure in the jar almost like a pressure cooker, which will cook the food faster. Most things can be cooked in 1-2 hours. Maybe this would be a good project for some of the members of the ward to make some of these for those who cannot make them. More importantly, we need to learn how to cook with them and then help everyone, including the kids, learn to cook with them. No, it, like the microwave, would probably not be a good place to dry off the kitty. But, you can cook all grains, meats, and even bake bread in it. It is somewhat like a crock pot cooker in that it is slower than a conventional oven, but it will probably not burn the food. It depends on how big you build it. I tend to want some drama so I will probably want to build a big one, so you may see me looking a little crisp after I get it going. For those on the Internet, below is the link to the BYU web site where the instructions are available to print. Have fun and let me know how it goes. This unit can be folded up and stored in a relatively small space and it might be a good idea to have a couple of them – one in the car and the other in the house.


Do make them now and use them for some meals so you are comfortable with the whole idea. In order of importance, I think this is high on the list of preparedness items. Here it is: http://solarcooking.org/plans/funnel.htm


The garden will probably be ready this week. I will be calliing to set up an appointment to select a plot at the garden.


gv3grant@gmail.com 435 628-2739 http://rupreparedgv3.blogspot.com