The Masonry Oven Finished!!!

Isaiah with the completed oven

Finally I have an "After" to go with the before photos. We fired the oven up for the test run taking 3 hours to get to 500 degrees F. We put potatoes, and chicken in to bake, and closed the door with extra oven bricks. After one hour it was down to 175. I ended up finishing up the baking in my gas oven. Good thing we called it a "test" because we were not too discouraged. Our friend Jimmy put another layer of cement on the dome, and fixed the chimney. We are ready to test it again. This time PIZZA!!

Masonry Oven

Before picture of Masonry Oven June 2009

Here is the almost finished base of the masonry oven my wonderful son is building for me(with help).
The rocks are from our land, and the fire bricks are used and were a trade from a friend. One of the men helping my son build it was able to get really good information, and left over fire bricks from a guy who has been researching masonry ovens. When this is built, I hope to bake bread,crackers, and many pizzas here.
The beauty of this oven is I will be able to cut down my gas bill, and burn "scrub" trees that are unwanted anyway.
After photos to come, hopefully before Summer is over, and there will be a pizza party.

If you love horses you will understand

Showed this house today,with a lovely old masonry oven.Kealani came with me. She wants me to buy the property now because it has a horse in the back yard. I told her it does not come with the horse, but she was not listening. I explained that it only has 2 bedrooms, and so she would not even have her own bedroom. She said she would sleep out in the horse shed.

The Bread Builders

While I have been sick with the flu for the last 6 days, I have read and re-read the book The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens. Was very inspiring to read, and I even tried one of the old French bread recipes for the farmer's market.(before the flu) My bread turned out well if I do say so myself. It was a sourdough rye. Now that I read that book, I want a masonry oven even more now than ever. The bread was nice, but with a lovely masonry oven, the crust could have been crustier, and the crumb could have had better texture.Are any of Alan Scott's apprentices out there in need of a Hawaiian vacation, and just wanting to test out your skills so you can help feed the people of Hawaii?? Oh, and yes, it is Thursday, that means if I want my sourdough to be just right, I need to start tonight. I don't do well on 1 hour of sleep. Lack of sleep might have had something to do with my coming down with the flu last Saturday afternoon. These are the sacrifices one makes for the art of fine bread making!