I always love learning about ways to use less energy and so I am very excited to share Solavore Sport, a solar oven made by Solavore, LLC. Incidentally, this product is also manufactured and shipped from St. Paul, MN. <3
Anne Patterson started Solavore, LLC in 2015. It is a certified women-owned social enterprise, which is committed to the manufacture and global distribution of 100% fuel-free clean cooking technology. This product was designed by the engineers from 3M.
Surprisingly, light from the sun packs 1,000 watts per square meter. Solar energy converts energy from light into solar heat. With Solavore Sport, light enters the oven and the dark items, like the black plastic interior and pots, absorb the light and transfer it into heat. The clear lid allows heat to enter the oven and holds it like a greenhouse would. The lid is double layered with an air space between the two layers and this works like added insulation.
Along with the obvious benefit of solar energy being clean, it takes longer and slow cooking tends to keep foods moist and tender. This slow heat helps break down the complex carbohydrates in the ingredients used for cooking and helps them enhance the overall flavor of the meal. When solar cooking, you do not need to add water to your food because you don’t tend to lose water like with other cooking methods. Also, food rarely overcooks or burns in the Solavore Sport.
The lid rests on the collar, which helps seal the inner chamber of the solar oven. Between the liner and housing is a layer of closed-cell, air-filled foam insulation to help keep heat in and cold air out. There are holes in the corner like pictured below to fasten the optional reflector to the Sport.
Clips (three on top and three on the bottom edge) are in place to help keep the lid on if in windy weather. The clips can help hold in more heat too.
So, what do you get when you buy the Solavore Sport? Solavore Sport comes with an oven thermometer so you can keep track of the temperature in the oven, a SportWAPI for water pasteurization, manual, and two 4 quart pots that are made of enamel on steel.
I also received optional reflectors. They are great to use when you have sun that is only hazy or have partial clouds. They also help when you start late and need an added bump to your solar cooking day.
Solavore Sport may be used to make the following:
- Bake cakes, breads, and cookies
- Pasteurizing water. Solavore’s SportWAPI is used to indicate when water has been heated enough to kill harmful microbes (pictured above).
- Roasting nuts
- Cook fresh vegetables without needing added water. Canned veggies can be cooked with most of the liquid removed and frozen are done without adding water.
- Bake apples or plantains
- Cook eggs
- Cook meats without added water or oil. A whole chicken and pork spare ribs can be done in 4-6 hours with good sunshine.
- Cook barley, corn, millet, oats, quinoa, rice, wheat, and even pasta
- Dehydrating food
The temperatures of Solavore typically range from 210º – 260º F. Food will start to cook at 180º F. The Sport maxes out at 300º F . Check out the recipes on the Solavore website at www.solavore.com to learn more about what the Solavore Sport can do for you.
With cooking in a solar oven, the picture below is my first attempt with the Solavore Sport. I forgot how cookies wouldn’t spread on their own with a lower temperature for cooking so you do want to flatten them. We have had a lot of clouds and not much seeing the sun over the last few weeks so I haven’t had a great opportunity to do more experimenting with the Solavore Sport. 🙁
I think it will be great to try again in January when the days start getting longer and it seems like we get days of more sunlight again in Minnesota. The Sport even works well when placed in a snowbank! If you live in a high altitude, the Solavore Sport will not get as hot as at sea level due to the reduced boiling point of the water in the food.
I was astonished by how light the Sport is. It weighs nine pounds when it is empty. The dimension are: 27 1/2″ long x 17″ wide at the lid x 12 1/4″ tall at the back. Solavore Sport is great for campers, bikers, or any lover of the outdoors. I look forward to it as an alternative to grilling during the summer months at home to not heat up the house and to take along when camping.
There are no sharp edges or open flames on the Sport to worry about when kids are around and it even makes a great hands on science lesson. 🙂
When a Solavore solar oven is purchased in the developed world, it helps fund a Solavore Sport somewhere in the developing world where an open fire is still the main kitchen appliance. Over 20,000 Solavore Sport ovens have been sent out to 60 countries. The benefits that Solavore Works, Solavore’s corporate social responsibility program, brings to communities in the developing world include:
- Respiratory health: freedom from common diseases such as pneumonia, which kills more than 3 million people a year around the world due to indoor cooking fires
- Water pasteurization and food dehydration
- The removal of one of the main causes of deforestation in the developing world, the continuous chopping of firewood
- Savings in energy expenditures, which can range up to 25-50% of a family’s budget
- The ability for girls to attend school rather than spend their days collecting firewood and venturing further and further away from home to do this
- Increased income generation, enabling a woman to sell the excess food that she bakes or dehydrates in her solar oven
The Solavore Sport retails for $239.00 and the reflectors add about $65.00 or you can buy them together for $287.00. To learn more about Solavore, please visit www.solavore.com.
Disclosure: I was sent a Solavore Sport and reflectors for this review. No other compensation was received for this post. The thoughts and feelings expressed are my own.
