Experiment #1:
Started the vegetable soup, composed of onion, cabbage, carrot, potato and homecanned tomato juice, stone cold to see if this method would work in a real emergency situation.
Lived to regret this decision.
[album 65561 solar soup 002.jpg]
Here it is at the end of the day. The temperature of the soup was 140 degrees. According to the Crock Pot people, this is sufficient to cook food.
I moved the whole box once during the day and adjusted the lid several times to reflect more sun into the 'oven'. It WAS hot in there. I had to remove the bowl of soup with pot holders.
It may have fully cooked the soup given enough time, but it didn't in the 9 hours it was out there.
After some further research, I think I found out my mistakes. One of them was I should have used a dark metal cooking pot with a lid. Also a dark pan under the cooking pot to absorb more heat is supposed to help.
I am not going to give up.
There WILL be an experiment #2 in the near future. I may add some reflectors on the sides of the box to add to the solar gathering power of my cooker. I will now be on the hunt for the required pots and pans at my local Goodwill store.
People on the Internets SAY it works, they show pictures of it working, so I am encouraged to keep trying.