Not Sun Starved

Sun Citian uses Arizona heat to cook dinners, desserts
Mitchell Vantrease/Daily News-Sun
July 12, 2007 - 10:40AM

The summer Arizona sun can burn skin and melt tar, but in Roberta Maguire’s back yard the rays brown bread and simmer stews.

Mollie J. Hoppes/Daily News-Sun Roberta Maguire of Sun City likes to use her solar cooker, especially during the hot summer months.

Using a solar oven this week, Maguire baked a blueberry pie, sweet potatoes and a stew with the help of an outdoor solar oven.

“It’s the novelty of it all that makes me want to use it,” she said.

From pot roasts to bread, Maguire has prepared a number of meals and even hosted a dinner party using the outdoor oven.

“They got a kick out of it, because it was the talk of the whole evening,” she said with a laugh.

Mollie J. Hoppes/Daily News-Sun Roberta Maguire cooked this stew in her backyard solar oven Tuesday. Although it takes longer to cook, she doesn’t miss the heat from using her kitchen oven during the summer. Monday, she cooked a raspberry pie in the oven.

For a decade, Maguire has used a solar oven that she’s borrowed from a neighbor.

“He’s only here three to four weeks out of the year and I saw his oven,” she said. “I wanted to buy my own, but he told me to use his when I wanted to.”

Maguire’s oven heats to 350 to 400 degrees, depending on the sun. If it’s overcast, the temperature crawls up to a toasty 200 degrees.

Solar ovens have been used for years to bake, boil and steam food with the power of the sun. The ovens are considered safe, nonflammable and portable, coming in all shapes and sizes.
Originally, solar ovens were built by people in their homes but now companies manufacture them.

John Ferrara, a friend of Maguire’s, said he remembered reading an article in a sports magazine about a home-built solar oven, then he noticed she had her own.

“I came over to show her the one in the magazine, and she had this one,” he said. “It’s something different and special.”

For Maguire, solar ovens won’t take the place of conventional ovens, but she is hooked on what they can do.

“If I ever give this one back, I’ll go get my own because they’re wonderful,” she said.