Community Cooking in Australian Community Gardens: the Integration of Solar Thermal

This Q&A Panel Discussion webinar, hosted by Costa Georgiadis, will explore important aspects of Australian Community Gardens including their history and their evolution in a rapidly changing world which is presenting new and varied challenges - but also opportunities. So join us in an interactive conversation as we unpack:

• the history of Community Gardens including the place of cooking - and what exactly do we mean by "cooking"?

• food insecurity and how Community Gardens can offer a path forward at the community level

• what is solar thermal cooking - including the pros and cons - and what has been the historical uptake in Australia?

• the latest international developments in solar thermal cooking including scale and optionality

• how solar thermal cooking could integrate into Community Garden cooking strategies

The panelists bring a diverse range of experience and expertise to this discussion and include:

• Naomi Lacey (Director, Community Gardens Australia)

• Russ Grayson (Founder, Community Gardens Australia; PacificEdge)

• Stan Cajdler (Sizzling Solar Systems)

• Wendy Wales (Wonders of Nature Solar Ovens)

• Rachel Lowe (Bush Edge Homesteading Australia)

• Varun P Singh (Solar Thermal Energy Research Group, Stellenbosch University, South Africa; UPES, India)

BIOS

Naomi Lacey

Naomi is a permaculturalist who is passionate about promoting healthy food systems, sustainable lifestyles and cultivating community. She helped to establish the first community garden in the satellite city of Palmerston in Darwin and is a past President of peak body, Community Gardens Australia, and a current Director. Naomi was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 to learn about and from community garden networks around the world. Naomi believes that community gardens provide valuable spaces in which to cultivate sustainable lifestyles, healthy food systems in our cities as well as the associated social and wellbeing benefits.

Russ Grayson

Russ Grayson is a Tasmania‑based journalist and sustainable development practitioner with experience in grassroots international development, permaculture, urban food systems,  community engagement and outdoor education. His work supports locally‑led food security initiatives in the Solomon Islands and the Southwest Pacific. In 1996, he founded the Australian City Farms and Community Gardens Network which later transitioned to Community Gardens Australia.

Stan Cajdler

Stan, alongside his wife, Jane, actively promotes the use of solar cooking aides in Brisbane, Australia. Known as Sizzling Solar Systems, his group's main emphasis is on designing, constructing and using solar cooking devices thereby passing gained knowledge on to others, including at schools, clubs, libraries and festivals. The group does not manufacture or sell cookers but encourages and supports people in making their own from new and recycled materials. Stan and Jane have chosen a sustainable lifestyle with an ethos of leaving a small footprint utilizing material recycling and repurposing whenever possible. With an engineering and drafting background, Stan enjoys researching and extending his solar thermal experience to eco-friendly spinoffs and designs.

Wendy Wales

Wendy is a retired science teacher, activist and conservationist and has lived in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, since 1995. She is known for her community contributions and passion for instilling a love of the environment and learning to students at Muswellbrook High School. Wendy has held a long time interest of solar thermal cooking, incorporating it into science classes and started her import and solar cooking demonstration business “Wonder of Nature Solar Ovens” as a retirement project.

Rachel Lowe

Rachel and family have lived a sustainable lifestyle on their property in the Dandenong Ranges, in Victoria, for over 15 years. Rachel regularly shares how they garden, harvest, preserve (canning, dehydrating, freezing), ferment, solar cook, produce our own energy (biogas and solar), raise livestock, and much more. They are passionate about sharing their skills, knowledge and learnings accumulated over the years, as others have shared with them.

 
Varun P Singh

Dr. Varun Pratap Singh is an assistant professor and industry-academia coordinator in the mechanical engineering cluster at UPES, Dehradun, India, and associated with the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, specializing in solar thermal energy research. Dr. Singh started working on solar thermal technology during his undergraduate studies continuing his passion in his postgraduate degrees. In his current academic role, he is responsible for industry-academia integration to provide solutions to the real-life challenges of design, product development, operations, automation, and the application of new technologies to the real-life problems and challenges faced by industry and society.

This Panel discussion is a contributor to the 2026 Earthwide Solar Cooking Festival and Conference (Sept 12-30).