Alternate Power Sources---Wood Cook Stoves

If your power will be out for several days or weeks or months, do you have another way to cook? The solar oven is great when you have sunshine, but what about weeks of heavy fog (which we get in the valley every fall and winter), or weeks of rain or snow clouds? You might be interested in a wood cook stove. This is different than a wood stove to heat your house, although you can cook on the top of those, too. There are new and used wood cook stoves available; you just need a way to get the smoke outside, and to make sure the walls and floor are protected against the heat. Around 1900 some wood cook stove companies started adding a propane tank for an alternate way of cooking. They also made propane cook stoves called ranges.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to cook and bake using a wood cook stove? Sharon explains why she loves to cook with wood here. My Mom and Dad had a wood cook stove about 30 years ago (it was in a house they bought) and they cooked on it and also baked in it. The only complaint they had was that it heated the house up too much in the summer. They live in Idaho, an hour below the Canadian border, so it is snow country. They still have a wood stove and use it in the winter, especially when the power is off.