JOHN DAY – During the current hot streak the age-old question – “Is it hot enough to fry an egg?” – seems relevant. But for Mark Gerboze of Vancouver, Wash., the answer is an easy one.

Gerboze can not only fry an egg, he can grill hamburgers and cook corn all without lighter fluid, charcoal or a grill.

Gerboze is one of a growing number of “solar cooks” who gathered at the fifth annual Sol West Renewable Energy Fair in John Day over the weekend. People from several western states attended the fair, which began as a way for those interested in renewable energy to talk to vendors and garner information about setting up their own systems.

Workshops ran throughout the weekend, offering advice about everything from rain water harvesting to financing a solar home. Fifty-five vendors offered everything from books about renewable products to ready-made solar and wind power systems.

Solar cooking demonstrations offered up delicious evidence of the success of solar ovens and the skill of the solar chefs.

These gourmets use no fuel other than the radiation waves from the sun to cook just about anything imaginable in ovens that range from what look like metal bread boxes to larger dish-type cookers.

Gerboze’s five-foot solar oven was manufactured in Germany, and when positioned correctly can provide enough heat to broil anything – even the cook.

“It reflects 90 percent of the sun that hits it so I have to wear sunblock while I cook,” he said.

Gerboze admits he once accidentally melted the plastic coating on his fence when he stored the “oven” too close to the chain link in his back yard. The oven is shaped similar to a television dish and is made of dozens of mirrored aluminum slats hooked together.

Gerboze became interested in solar cooking while attending the Renewable Energy Fair two years ago and hearing a presentation by Jennifer Barker, renowned solar cook and organizer of the event. Gerboze said he was initially interested in developing a solar steam engine but quickly changed his mind after seeing the ovens in action.

“I watched Jennifer and knew that was what I wanted to do,” he said. “But I wanted a big one; this one is five feet across and comes from Germany. They do make them six feet across.”

For one Grant County woman, the fair provided the perfect backdrop for a camping vehicle equipped with solar-powered appliances and lights that harkened back to car camping trips in the 1940s and 50s.

Sue Newstetter of Mt. Vernon is a surveyor by trade and a camper by avocation. She is also an ardent admirer of the Teardrop camping trailer.

“I am crazy for Teardrops,” she said. “I’m obsessed with them. I remember seeing them when I was camping, and I fell in love with them.”

For the uninitiated, the “teardrop” is a small, lightweight camping trailer with a rounded front that slopes to the rear. It contains just enough room for a mattress, small chair and storage area in the front, and a complete kitchen in the rear. It’s unique design allows the back hatch to open and also serve as a canopy for the kitchen area. Or as one enthusiast put it – “a bed equipped with a lunch counter – towable by any car of the day.”

The trailers have been an American fixture since 1920 but were at the height of their popularity in the 30s and 40s. Now the little trailers are making a comeback, helped along by High Desert Designs, Inc. of Hines.

The company is manufacturing an updated version of the classic little trailer, and they sought out Newstetter after hearing “there was a woman up in Grant County who is nuts about teardrops.”

She finds the trailers sell themselves and almost lost one virtually in the middle of camping trip while attending the teardrop annual get-together in Shasta, Calif., this spring.

“A guy came up from San Francisco and saw it,” she said, and wanted to buy it right there. But he ended up coming all the way up to Hines and taking it back with him to San Francisco.”

Newstetter said the company is open to input from customers and aims to make a first-class product tailored to customers’ demands. She has been attending the fair since it began five years ago and was instrumental in adding the solar option to the trailers, she said.