Gold Leaf Institute wants to share the power of the sun with remote South African villages.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

STARKS – Some Farmington-area residents are embracing the sun and bringing their pots and pans with them.

They hope to share the power of solar cooking with remote villages of South Africa.

They gathered at the Mission at the Eastward in Starks to test nine solar cookers built of cardboard and tinfoil.

As water bubbled and boiled and brownies baked, it was easy to see a bright future in the power of the sun.

It started last year when Eileen Kreutz and Dr. Paul Floyd saw a slide show presented by Farmington resident Dory Dickman at the Golf Leaf Institute, a senior college at the University of Maine at Farmington. The college is run by members over the age of 50 who seek intellectually stimulating activities to enhance knowledge and appreciate social interaction as an opportunity to build new friendships. The institute has 170 members.

In the slide show, the two saw photographs of women hunched over with piles of sticks tied to their backs. Dickman explained that firewood was scarce outside of Alice, South Africa, where the photos were taken, and that women often had to walk several miles in the hot sun just to get enough wood to cook dinner.

Several months later, Kreutz was teaching a class at the institute about renewable energy when Floyd brought in a solar cooker, a flash of light went off in Kreutz’s head. She realized that South Africa was the “perfect place” for solar cookers.

This summer semester, the two teamed up to teach a class called Solar Cookers and Cookery. In one two-hour session, the class of seniors constructed 10 solar cookers.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, fuel wood shortages affect 2 billion people. Solar cookers can be a gleaming solution. They are already used widely in India, China and other parts of Africa.

Aluminum foil or shiny gift wrapping is placed over cardboard panels, which surround the cooking surface. Depending on clouds and weather, solar cookers can heat food or water to 250 degrees.

According to Floyd, it takes twice as long to cook a solar meal than one in a conventional oven. Even water can be purified in a solar cooker, taking about 20 minutes at 150 degree to pasteurize the water and kill human disease pathogens, he said.

The solar cookers constructed by Gold Leaf Institute will be shipped to Alice, South Africa, where a South African student attending a Mission at the Eastward camp and her father, who is active in the Rotary Club in Alice, will distribute them to outlying villages. Kreutz and Floyd are hopeful they’ll get orders for more. They are also sending instructions on how to assemble the cookers with their first shipment.

“Being able to heat water and purify water is at the center of this problem. “

“I think it will be a blessing,” Dickman said.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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