Our first pizzas ready for the hungry masses
Amidst all of our timber framing work, we have been chipping away at our cob oven construction. In fact, we deemed it ready enough for a big ol’ pizza party this past week. The oven needs some finish plaster, but why wait? It proved to be a real workhorse, as April and I churned out about 50 pizzas (really, we lost count) for a big group of 40 people at the Clear Creek Festival grounds.
April gets ready to lay another fire brick for the oven hearth
Preparations for our 2014 Cob Oven Workshop this year begin with building yet another completed oven ahead of the start of the course. It’s no fun if we can’t offer an earthen oven demonstration and pizza party as part of the class, and the oven that we’ll build over 2 days needs quite a bit of time to dry out before it can be used. Of course, this first oven will be used beyond our class this year, namely by the proud new owners for their various theatre events. We’re making nice progress on this oven and we’re patiently waiting for things to dry as we go along. Here’s hoping this is just the first of many ovens we will build in Kentucky!
Mixing up the first batch of Kentucky cob!
This week it feels like we’ve hit a special milestone. On the one hand, it’s an oh-so familiar feeling, but then again it’s so new and exciting! I sunk my feet into our first batch of Kentucky cob a few days ago. I’ve mixed hundreds of batches of cob by now, but they’ve of course all been made in our former home of Missouri. Mixing up this cob in Kentucky is another little landmark along our path to arrival and settling in here.
Towering timber frames and hot pizza pie… oh my! (Sorry, that was a weak attempt at poetry.) But hopefully it paints a colorful picture of our upcoming natural building courses this year in 2014. Our full schedule is up, and we’ve added a Timber Frame Workshop and Cob Oven Workshop to our offerings. Both of these classes are in our new and beautiful location of Berea, Kentucky. Specifically, these two workshops are being hosted at the Clear Creek Festival grounds, home to an incredible arts & music festival and a developing off-grid homestead.
Perhaps you’ll join us this summer in raising an old school timber frame pavilion? Or building an outdoor oven with cob?
A particularly bubbly pizza gets topped with fresh basil during our pizza party
Our latest group of Cob Oven Workshop students departed last week with full bellies, new oven building skills, and with a greater glimpse of life in an intentional community. These 3 day workshops are very fun for us, and I foresee planning more for the future. Can we pull off doing a few in 2014? I sure hope so…
Each time we build another cob oven, I learn something new. The same applies to when we go to actually use the oven, as well. Our pizza is slightly improving every time. Mmm..
Applying the finish clay plaster to our cob oven
Busy busy busy. It seems like the story of our lives doesn’t change very much. I have lots of catching up to do. But as I sit here and avoid work for a mere moment, let me share this recent photo of our finish clay plaster application to our outdoor cob oven. Smooth clay plaster looks amazing, but I think it looks its finest right after it goes on. It’s like literally putting icing on your walls (or oven, or whatever you happen to be plastering). Love it. One day, I’d love to get some more serious training on how to do clay plaster on an expert level.
I hope to have a brandy new outdoor cob oven how-to written up soon, not to mention make a few updates about the state of Strawtron, our straw bale house we’ve been chugging away on. We also have other big news coming down the pipes. Keep posted, as always.
Baked bread fresh from the cob oven
A few short days ago, our first Cob Oven Workshop came to an end. The workshop was filled with mud, fire, and a whole lot of fun. Thankfully, our participants agreed! Folks got down and dirty as we built an oven from the hearth upwards. We learned all about how to make a good batch of cob, using natural and recycled materials effectively, plastering, how to fire an oven and make good use of the ample heat it provides, and lots more. We sure did eat extremely well, too.
Here are a few nice testimonials from just a couple of our lovely people from the inaugural workshop:
The first fire in our new outdoor cob oven
In preparation for our Cob Oven Workshops, we did a “test” pizza party over the weekend. Over 20+ pizzas, 4 loaves of bread, 2 pans of zucchini bread, 2 cookie loafs, 1 pan of brownies, and 1 roast duck (homegrown!) later… I’d say it was a success. The oven was still holding over 200° 18 hours later! Wowzers. This is why I love outdoor cob ovens: they are extremely easy and cheap to build, you can take serious advantage of lots of heat to cook delicious food, and it’s an awesome social experience to gather around the oven while pizzas are flying out. An outdoor oven has all the right ingredients.
Homemade wooden pizza peel ready for action
This week, I remembered our nearly finished outdoor oven is almost useless without a certain few tools. Unlike a conventional oven, you don’t just pop open the door, throw on an oven mitt or two, and take out your food. The best and most exciting part of baking in a cob oven is sliiiiding pizza and bread in and out with a pizza peel, a long handled paddle for transferring food in and out without burning your fingertips off in a 800°+ cooking environment. So I decided to take a couple hours to make a wooden pizza peel with a piece of oak I had sighted earlier for the purpose. Here’s how I made it.
Building another and better outdoor cob oven
It’s been several years since we have been without an outdoor cob oven at our disposal, and I have dearly missed having it around! The original “$20 pizza oven” that we built back in 2009 had to be “moved” since it was in the way of drainage work that needed addressing around Gobcobatron.
But at last, the time has come. In the coming week or two, we intend to build another outdoor pizza oven, better than the last. The time, we have a proper shelter to shield it against the elements (see above!), and we’ll be making several other modifications for creating a lean, mean pizza baking machine. Er… it’s actually kinda big, and distinctly un-machine like, but whatever.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This blog is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. Since 2012, we’ve been hosting Natural Building Workshops so you can learn essential skills to build your own natural home.
