We put on an awesome demonstration in the Living Green Village 2018 at Celebrate Mesa in April.
Celebrate Mesa is a large, annual community festival in the City of Mesa, Arizona, USA. Turnout for this year’s festival was expected to top 8,000 people.
Living Green Village 2018
The Living Green Village 2018 is a section of the festival dedicated to education on environmental and sustainability issues, such as clean water, clean air, recycling, saving trees, gardening, solar energy – well, you get the idea. And, of course, there was us. Now I like to think that we are the star of the show, but Mother Nature’s Story Telling booth, the Tree Hugging booth, and the Natural Honey booth – as well as many others – looked very popular as well.
It was an absolutely perfect day for an outdoor festival. The sun was shining brightly, the high temperature was only 75°F (24°C), with just a very light breeze. The Living Green Village 2018 was crowded with festival goers.
Solar Cooking
This year I displayed eight different types and models of solar cookers. And I cooked in all of them. People hung around waiting for samples and they were not disappointed.
Brownies baked in the All Season Solar Cooker, and the Sun Flair.
Brownies were also baking in the Solavore. Biscuits baked in the windshield shade cooker. Next, a large jar of pinto beans cooked in the CookIt. Everyone was intrigued to see the beans boiling in the jar. I always take the windshield shade and the CookIt to show that solar cooking is possible even with low cost, low tech equipment.
A beautiful chicken roasted in the SunOven. Many people were inspired to get their own Sun Oven – or to get theirs out of the garage – and give this a try.
And did you notice the Sun Tracker working away keeping the Sun Oven focused? Many people noticed and had questions about it too.
I cooked potatoes in the GoSun Sport, but unfortunately, missed getting a photo. The potatoes cooked fast and disappeared off the the sample tray even faster.
The SolSource was the big show stopper. We grilled sliced kielbasa. People crowded around for a taste. One young mother gave her baby boy – about a year old – a piece of the kielbasa. He put it in his mouth and before I could even give the mother her sample, the baby was holding out his little hand for another piece 
And of course, I put another piece right into that little open hand.
We also kept the crowd entertained by demonstrating how hot the SolSource was by lighting paint sticks on fire. It is amazing to me how many people still try to stick their hand into that ring – even after seeing the fire demo.
We had a great time showing off these solar cookers. I enjoy promoting solar cooking. I do not get paid by any of the manufactures to promote their cookers. The expense is all my own. By the end of the day, we were so exhausted that we fell into our chairs and didn’t move for the rest of the day.
Looking forward to next year.
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