Blissfully simple homestead that inspired & taught me PART 3: solar cooking, free refrigeration, wild foods
Solar cooking, free refrigeration cooled just by the night sky, sun drying food, & other integrated strategies preserving & providing food without power – all reduce need for electricity; so David and Pearl’s $600, 480-watt, used solar power system provides ALL their 128-ft2 (11.9-m2) home’s electricity needs. Wild food harvests and celebrations – Cascabel’s annual community mesquite pod milling with mesquite pancakes and waffles with prickly pear syrup that inspired a 15-year annual mesquite milling and feast in my neighborhood just north of downtown Tucson.
Brad Lancaster tours David Omick’s and Pearl Mast’s inspiring homestead in Cascabel, Arizona.
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CHAPTERS
0:01 Intro
1:07 Cooking with the sun for free in a homemade solar oven
8:00 How to cook at night – propane camp stove
8:20 Solar-powered electrical induction hot plate as another option for cooking during the day
10:24 DIY 480-watt stand alone solar electric system using used PV panels & one 100-amp-hour battery
14:51 No-power refrigerator that gets all its cooling from night sky for free
17:39 Ways of minimizing need for refrigeration
19:18 55-gallon (208-liter) steel drum pantries storing canned food
19:49 Solar food drying system
23:04 Cascabel’s wild mesquite pod millings with mesquite pancakes, waffles & prickly pear syrup
25:33 Mesquite millings and wild food celebrations in Tucson, inspired by Cascabel
28:46 More resources
Filmed in Cascabel, Arizona December 20, 2025
Average annual rainfall: 10.28 inches (261 mm)
Elevation: 3,200 feet (975 m)
Latitude: 32.29˚ N
DAVID & PEARL’S WEBSITE
https://www.omick.net/
DAVID & PEARL’S solar ovens
https://www.omick.net/solar_ovens/solar_ovens.htm
DAVID & PEARL’S gardening
https://www.omick.net/garden/garden.htm
DAVID & PEARL’S food preservation and storage
https://www.omick.net/food_preservation/food_preservation.htm
DAVID & PEARL’S native wild food harvests, processing, and recipes
https://www.omick.net/native_foods/native_foods.htm
ADDITIONAL SOLAR OVEN / SOLAR COOKING RESOURCES:
GoSun
Very efficient solar ovens made from vacuum tubes – I have/use/love their Solar Grill
https://gosun.co/
Sun Oven International, Inc.
They make the Global Sun Oven®
www.sunoven.com
Solar Cookers International
A great organization/resource for making and using your own solar oven.
www.solarcookers.org
NEIGHBORHOOD RAIN-IRRIGATED NATIVE FOOD FORESTRY
https://dunbarspringneighborhoodforesters.org/
MULTI-USE NATIVE PLANT DATABASE FOR SONORAN DESERT
https://tucsonnativeplants.com/
MEADOWS HAMMERMILL #5 used for Tucson mesquite millings
https://pleasanthillgrain.com/meadows-hammer-mill-5?srsltid=AfmBOore-JNIfdhjx5NJJJuGddAAIQzJ8NBYmzWpY6Rshv_MOZSUFiS7
Eat mesquite and more cookbook
https://desertharvesters.org/Sys/Store/Products/332482