Monday, September 13, 2010
Pig Poop?
The more I study earth ovens the more convinced I become that it's Open Season on construction materials, methods and, yes, madness. Madness you say, how so? Well, I stumbled across a blog from England where they are using PIG DUNG to shape the inside of their oven. Don't believe me? Well then, click here and get your scoop on pig poop!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
A tight door
One of the links we've been studying shows a real spiffy earth oven with a real nice tight door. I copied three photos from that online resource to display here. (I sure hope that meets the "fair use" aspect of US Copyright laws!) Anyway, you can read all about this oven yourself by clicking here.
The Earth Oven Project Begins
This blog was born at 8:30 am MST in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It will be the primary documentation for The Earth Oven Project (EOP--pronounced "Eee-OP").
EOP began as an idea hatched on 9/11 of the Year 2010. On September 10, I stumbled into a new, unused terra cotta baking pot at a local thrift store. It was priced at $3.75. However, it had glazing on the bottom of it. I researched online and determine there were VERY high odds that the glaze contained lead and or cadmium. Saturday morning of 9/11, I likewise stumbled into a clay pot cook book at the Idaho Falls Public Library used book sale. I bought this book for 50 cents. Every now and then throughout the day, I sat down to look through this cookbook. Meanwhile, yesterday evening I was charcoal grilling some pork chops and thoroughly enjoying a pleasant early fall Happy Hour in our courtyard. Suddenly,the idea came to me to propose a new PCO to Dear Friend Goatherder (AKA: Brad W.) PCO, by the way, means "Project Challenge & Opportunity." I sent a simple email to Goatherder proposing we collaborate to construct two earth ovens--one at each of our properties in Arizona's Verde Valley. The text of the original email interchanges appear below.
Sunday morning, September 12, I swapped some more emails with Goatherder and then began looking into the subject online. Much to my amazement there are vast resources available to those who wish to begin an Earth Oven Project. The diversity of design, theme, size and materials are mind boggling.
I put up a post on our personal blog about undertaking the idea. You can click here to read it. After writing that post, it quickly became apparent that I would need some mechanism with which to organize and document my thoughts, research, processes and activities regarding EOP. That's how this blog came into being. Blog's are useful for a variety of purposes. One of their best uses is to create a chronological, sequential record of activities relating to various specific topics.
When used in conjunction with Google's Photos, Documents and Site functions, a blog is arguably one of the most efficient online methods for organizing and presenting thoughts any given topic or project.
So, there you have it. We will soon get busy putting various earth oven materials here and on the above three functions. Welcome to EOP!
Cheers, jp
-------------
Here are the original emails that spawned EOP:
Snow Bird to Goatherder:
OK, you once did your projects in the summer. Now it's time to shift them to winter.
Here's the project:
Two earth ovens--one at your place, one at ours. Different designs. More than 2 is OK, too.
The challenge is to get them up and running and baking ASAP and then refine the design.
The opportunity for wine and beer drinking is unlimited!
Cheers, jp
------------
Goatherder's reply:
hummmmm.....
----------------
Next note Snow Bird to GH:
One thing's for certain about the proposed PCO--we both have a lot of open space for various potential permanent sites for the oven(s).
Likewise, we also have access to suitable adobe soil. Meanwhile, we have "role models" nearby in both the Hopi and Zuni communities.
Obviously, we both like to dink around with foodie stuff. One of the many nice things about an outdoor earth oven is that we wouldn't need to build any protection for it (or them). No roof, no windbreak, no nothing. In our case, they have the advantage of being relatively vandal proof as well. Now, yes, I know that such ovens are typically used for production of high carbohydrate foods. However, depending on circumstances and particularly the overall size of the oven and method of firing, etc., they could potentially be used for roasting meats or poultry, baking vegetables, etc. What got me to thinking about the earth oven concept is the clay pot cooking thing. I found a clay pot cookbook for 50 cents yesterday and I have been looking at it frequently since then. A terra cotta pot rather mimics the age old earth oven paradigm. Maybe we could even interest Marsha Foutz into making clay cook pots a winter project for her ceramic students. Yeah, I know, it's a LOT easier to simply fire up teh gas grill and fuggetaboutit but, honest, I think it would be a fun project and highly entertaining and educational.
I once had a book entitled "Lorena Stoves" and you can Google those two words to find out what they are. I've always been intrigued by the Native American earth ovens. I don't think it would all that hard to accomplish. Sooo....please be the devil's advocate and tell me what's wrong with this picture. Cheers, jp
-----------
GH to Snow Bird
___________
Nothing wrong with the plan at all. I like it. I've kinda wanted to build one for years. Remember years ago we talked about this and came up with a Sunset magazine plan for building one. I still like their design and the use of the storage barrel for a form. I found the plans...you might still have them stashed in a folder someplace... http://www.sunset.com/garden/how-to-sunset-classic-adobe-oven-00400000040017/page11.html
GH Followup:
I think this can be overcomplicated pretty easily...regarding the Hopi ovens, I've studied them pretty close and they're actually more stone than earth. Pretty much all stone mortared together with mud..some plastered but most not...Zuni has lots of clay nearby, Hopi not so much.
EOP began as an idea hatched on 9/11 of the Year 2010. On September 10, I stumbled into a new, unused terra cotta baking pot at a local thrift store. It was priced at $3.75. However, it had glazing on the bottom of it. I researched online and determine there were VERY high odds that the glaze contained lead and or cadmium. Saturday morning of 9/11, I likewise stumbled into a clay pot cook book at the Idaho Falls Public Library used book sale. I bought this book for 50 cents. Every now and then throughout the day, I sat down to look through this cookbook. Meanwhile, yesterday evening I was charcoal grilling some pork chops and thoroughly enjoying a pleasant early fall Happy Hour in our courtyard. Suddenly,the idea came to me to propose a new PCO to Dear Friend Goatherder (AKA: Brad W.) PCO, by the way, means "Project Challenge & Opportunity." I sent a simple email to Goatherder proposing we collaborate to construct two earth ovens--one at each of our properties in Arizona's Verde Valley. The text of the original email interchanges appear below.
Sunday morning, September 12, I swapped some more emails with Goatherder and then began looking into the subject online. Much to my amazement there are vast resources available to those who wish to begin an Earth Oven Project. The diversity of design, theme, size and materials are mind boggling.
I put up a post on our personal blog about undertaking the idea. You can click here to read it. After writing that post, it quickly became apparent that I would need some mechanism with which to organize and document my thoughts, research, processes and activities regarding EOP. That's how this blog came into being. Blog's are useful for a variety of purposes. One of their best uses is to create a chronological, sequential record of activities relating to various specific topics.
When used in conjunction with Google's Photos, Documents and Site functions, a blog is arguably one of the most efficient online methods for organizing and presenting thoughts any given topic or project.
So, there you have it. We will soon get busy putting various earth oven materials here and on the above three functions. Welcome to EOP!
Cheers, jp
-------------
Here are the original emails that spawned EOP:
Snow Bird to Goatherder:
OK, you once did your projects in the summer. Now it's time to shift them to winter.
Here's the project:
Two earth ovens--one at your place, one at ours. Different designs. More than 2 is OK, too.
The challenge is to get them up and running and baking ASAP and then refine the design.
The opportunity for wine and beer drinking is unlimited!
Cheers, jp
------------
Goatherder's reply:
hummmmm.....
----------------
Next note Snow Bird to GH:
One thing's for certain about the proposed PCO--we both have a lot of open space for various potential permanent sites for the oven(s).
Likewise, we also have access to suitable adobe soil. Meanwhile, we have "role models" nearby in both the Hopi and Zuni communities.
Obviously, we both like to dink around with foodie stuff. One of the many nice things about an outdoor earth oven is that we wouldn't need to build any protection for it (or them). No roof, no windbreak, no nothing. In our case, they have the advantage of being relatively vandal proof as well. Now, yes, I know that such ovens are typically used for production of high carbohydrate foods. However, depending on circumstances and particularly the overall size of the oven and method of firing, etc., they could potentially be used for roasting meats or poultry, baking vegetables, etc. What got me to thinking about the earth oven concept is the clay pot cooking thing. I found a clay pot cookbook for 50 cents yesterday and I have been looking at it frequently since then. A terra cotta pot rather mimics the age old earth oven paradigm. Maybe we could even interest Marsha Foutz into making clay cook pots a winter project for her ceramic students. Yeah, I know, it's a LOT easier to simply fire up teh gas grill and fuggetaboutit but, honest, I think it would be a fun project and highly entertaining and educational.
I once had a book entitled "Lorena Stoves" and you can Google those two words to find out what they are. I've always been intrigued by the Native American earth ovens. I don't think it would all that hard to accomplish. Sooo....please be the devil's advocate and tell me what's wrong with this picture. Cheers, jp
-----------
GH to Snow Bird
___________
Nothing wrong with the plan at all. I like it. I've kinda wanted to build one for years. Remember years ago we talked about this and came up with a Sunset magazine plan for building one. I still like their design and the use of the storage barrel for a form. I found the plans...you might still have them stashed in a folder someplace... http://www.sunset.com/garden/how-to-sunset-classic-adobe-oven-00400000040017/page11.html
GH Followup:
I think this can be overcomplicated pretty easily...regarding the Hopi ovens, I've studied them pretty close and they're actually more stone than earth. Pretty much all stone mortared together with mud..some plastered but most not...Zuni has lots of clay nearby, Hopi not so much.
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