First off, here’s a sad reminder of what the oven looked like beforehand.

You can see that the brick arch and chimney had collapsed. You will also notice the house brick which I had placed in the hole which had burnt into the front beam of the plinth. This was always meant to be temporary but I had never got around to fixing it.

The first thing I did was remove  the arch bricks, the chimney remnants and then strip-off the outer-layer of the oven. What you can see below is the inner layer, around which is wrapped  the insulation layer.

I then removed the brick from the charred hole in the plinth beam and fitted a new, fire-proof tile in its place (I used a stone floor tile).

For ages I have wanted to make a wooden former around which to build a new brick arch. As you can see below, I made this out of a few pieces of wood offcuts which I marked-up and then cut with a jigsaw. The arch pattern will allow me to build a much neater arch but also make it much easier for me to make a nice, tight fitting oven door.

Next I fitted the arch pattern/former in place at the front of the oven. This required me to slightly re-shape the front of the oven layer which I did easily with a knife.

At this stage I realised that it might be tricky to remove the arch pattern once the bricks had been built around it, so I added a couple of brackets to the front which could be used as handles. I then built the brick arch using clay:sand mixture as mortar, making sure that the key stone, in the top-centre of the arch was positioned to take the weight of the arch either side of it. This is important, if you don’t do this the arch will collapse under it’s own weight.

You can see below how I then began to backfill the gap between the new arch and the oven using clay:sand mixture.

Another modification I have been wanting to make for ages is to add a ready-made chimney. I managed to get hold of a clay pipe fitting, the front of which I rested on the top brick of the arch and the back which I rested on the solid, oven-layer. I cut a couple of house bricks and fitted them snugly, either side of the chimney, in order to give it extra support and then packed the gaps out with clay:sand mixture. I think it looks rather splendid!

Here’s a close-up of the chimney.

Finally, I rebuilt the outer layer with good old clay:sand mixture and, voila!

Clay oven version 2.0 – done! What do you think?

If I weren’t such a rationale sort of bloke, I might begin thinking that something, or someone is effecting the weather on the days when I run these oven building courses. For it seems, regardless of the prevailing (and forecasted) horrendous weather conditions, that the sun always shines on our happy bunch of oven builders, and this weekend was no exception.

Last Saturday, sixteen people gathered from various places around the UK to learn how to build a traditional clay oven. And work we did. And pizza for lunch we had. And soap was used. And plenty of fresh air was received. And the sun did shine all day. And happy and contented spirits were we all. And life was surely lived. OK, I’m being rather poetic, but I think it’s fair to say that we had a great day.

Happy and contented party of oven builders

Here’s a little time-lapse movie of the day (don’t mention the arch!).

So, here’s a couple of things to consider: 1. If you fancy coming along to one of my courses, the next one to be held at the Sustainability Centre will be on Saturday 14th September; 2. If you are thinking of getting married, and live anywhere near to the site in Hampshire  UK, this is the day to do it if you want a guarantee that the sun will shine for your photographs (don’t quote me on this!!).

Finally, thanks to everyone who came and, as usual, I look forward to seeing your completed ovens.

Best of luck

Simon

PS if you wan’t a copy of any of the photos, email me.

Green Fair 2012

I’ll be there for the first time this year building an oven. Why not pop along and have a look.

This year it is on Sunday 12th May, 11.00 – 17.00.

Entrance is £6.00 adults and £3.00 for kids. You can find more details on the website, here:

http://www.sustainability-centre.org/event_detail.php?id=1

Say hello if you see me (and let me know if you read the blog).

Simon

Don’t try this at home!

Sad isn’t it? I know what you are thinking – “How did he let that happen?” I’m a truly ashamed. I am a bad oven owner! I have neglected my oven and should be reported to the authorities.

I can partly justify the state of my oven by blaming the weather. We had a terrible winter in the UK- snow, cold temperatures and rain – lots of rain! Unfortunately  for a large part of the winter I left my oven, normally protected by a tarpaulin sheet, uncovered. Why? Well I don’t really know why, but I did. Anyway, by the time I did cover it up it was too late. The oven was saturated and much of the outer layer had washed away, leaving piles of sand around the top of the plinth. When I finally removed the covers last month I discovered that the situation was even worse – the brick arch had also collapsed, taking much of the chimney with it. Poor oven.

Rather than get depressed about it, now that the weather has improved a little, it’s time to start thinking about what to do to make it better. There are two options:

1. knock it down and start again from scratch, or
2. salvage what I can and repair it.

Having looked carefully at the oven yesterday I have decided that it is salvageable and, with some major work and TLC, can be bought back to it’s former glory, and better. The outer layer is mostly washed-away but the insulation layer is 98% intact while, most importantly, the inside oven layer is pretty solid still (there are a few minor cracks which penetrate through to the insulation layer but these can be patched-up with new mixture).

I stripped off the outer layer (what was remaining came off very easily without damaging the insulation layer) and removed the brick arch. Over the coming weeks I will do the following:

1. build a new arch (a friend is designing a “perfect” arch for me using CAD which will involve cutting the bricks to size).
2. install a pre-made, clay-pipe chimney which will be much more robust than the old one
3. mix and build a new outer layer (and patch the cracks)
4. construct a proper door to fit my new arch
5. construct a permanent roof structure, similar to this one: http://clayoven.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/clay-oven.jpg

I’ll be sure to update you with progress and post lots of photos of the re-development.

To borrow a quote from the Six Million Dollar Man, “Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.” I can’t guarantee a bionic oven, or even that it’ll be faster, but I hope it will be at least better and stronger than the previous one. I shall redeem myself. Watch this space.

No-knead pizza

Here’s a thing. A recipe for no-knead pizza dough from New York baker Jim Lahey who is renowned for his no-knead bread recipes. Now, to be honest I have not tried this technique which requires the dough to be left to prove for a long time (18 hours or so) at a constant room temperature. Partly I think, can I be really bothered to wait that long when pizza dough normally only takes 15 minutes or so of kneading anyway?  It’s hardly overly demanding! However, it is said that doughs made in this way have a deeper flavour (and better crumb and crust if you are making bread). I’m all in favour of slow food so maybe it’s worth a go.

Here’s the link to Jim’s recipe. What do you think?

http://food52.com/recipes/16641-jim-lahey-s-no-knead-pizza-dough

Happy waiting.

Simon

http://www.gwcvolunteers.com/

Mark’s oven is slightly different in that it doesn’t utilise a chimney, oh and it is partially made from elephant poo!!!! If nothing else this is a great example of using the materials you have at hand to construct an oven – great work! I’ll let Mark tell you all about it, and post some photos for your enjoyment.

For some reason I can’t get this old Monty Python gag out of my head: Question – What’s brown and sounds like a bell? Answer – DUNG! [sorry!]

Beforehand Mark said:

“I’m on a game reserve in South Africa, in a continent obesessed with concrete. I’m trying to build a clay oven for pizzas. We have a volunteer programme here at our place. The reserve manager is as obsessed with concrete as everyone else, and has built a pizza oven; I’m trying to build an oven out of local and reclaimed materials for our camp. At the mo we’re making sub-standard pizza in a well below-heat oven. I was a helping run a snowboard chalet last year and we made great pizzas (www.chaletlepalane.com) so this is all a bit troubling. I’d like to use elephant poo mixed with clay as the insulation layer because we have access to a lot of it. We’ve sourced what we can in the way of clay-like material from a natural water hole here which was dry, although in the national park over the road from here they have great clay the locals made pots with 800 years ago; sadly, if i went into the park to nick clay I might end up getting shot. We’ve pulled down some of one of the old farmhouses here for locally made brick, so we are almost ready to start. I’ve been talking about it for three months and want to get into action – there are lots of things online but the ebook seems to be so well regarded that it would be handy to motivate my boss, the volunteers and the reserve manager!“

And in a recent update:

“Here’s the pretty much finished article. We jigged around with dimensions a little (door height) and structure (no chimney) but here it is. I love it. The boss loves it. It looks right here in camp. There’s a fire flickering away at the moment, and once we get some mozzarella from town (a 450km trip…) I’m hoping to start trialling pizzas. Nervously. I am also waiting to take a picture with an elephant in the background – they kindly donated so generously to the build it would seem right and proper. In short, and so far, she burneth well – I read something about the door opening being 63% of the internal height, so worked it around that, and I can get a fire going inside easily enough…..I can’t stop looking at the creation – it’s amazing. Sincerly, many thanks again for your help and input.“

This year’s course is on Saturday 18th May and costs £75.00/person for a whole day. This is a hands on (and hands dirty) course. You will learn everything you need to know to build your own oven and experience for yourself making and eating delicious pizzas for lunch, cooked in the Centre’s own clay oven.

Full details can be found here:
http://www.sustainability-centre.org/docs/course_id_30_course_pdf.pdf

To book a place or for further details please contact Sam on 01730 823166 or email her at courses@sustainability-centre.org

Places are limited and are selling out quickly so call soonish to guarantee a place.

If you want to make a weekend of it in the beautiful Hampshire countryside, the Sustainability Centre offer accommodation and camping – you can even stay in a Tipi or Mongolian-style yurt. How cool is that!

Here’s some photos from one of last year’s courses.

http://clayoven.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/clay-oven-building-course-follow-up/

It’s a great day (even though I do say so myself!)

Hope to see you there.

Simon

I’ll be running another two next year so watch this space (or look on the Sustainability Centre’s website) for more information.

The course is on Saturday 8th September and costs £70.00 / person for a whole day. This is a hands on (and hands dirty) course. You will learn everything you need so you can build your own oven and  experience for yourself making and eating delicious pizzas for lunch, cooked in the Centre’s own clay oven.

To book a place or for further details please contact Sam on 01730 823166 or email her at courses@sustainability-centre.org

Places are limited and normally sell out so get in early to be on the safe side.

If you want to make a weekend of it in the beautiful Hampshire countryside, the Sustainability Centre offer accommodation and camping – you can even stay in a Tipi or Mongolian-style yurt. How cool is that!

Hope to see you there.

Simon