Oven Building Part 2

MORE oven photos! This is where the cob mixing starts-this year we used a cement mixer. We had so much mixing to do a tarp and bare feet just seemed like too much work! We mixed about 3 parts sand to 1 part clay. Here is the bottom cob heat …

Oven Building Part 1

These are photos leading up to building our new cob oven that will bake all the bread for Heather’s Hearth! First step was a foundation-dug by a backhoe this year instead of by hand. The ground was too wet and the foundation too big, about 10x10x3 ft! Next we had …

Stone Grain Mill

The Stone Grain Mill we’ve been waiting for! It arrived in Montreal from Austria last week. It’s all set up except for the motors that we still need to buy. This mill has a sifter attached to it with five different options for fineness. The stones are made of Naxos, which is a special volcanic stone that self-dresses (or sharpens). The whole mill is made of wood and is beautifully hand-crafted! The mill is going to be an amazing step in grinding most of my own flour to bake bread with. Can’t wait to use it!

Winter Living

We are not off grid, but using a small propane tank hooked up to an oven and cooktop. We have to bring in our water from a farm house close by so we heat our water on the woodstove to save propane. Also cooking, is some delicious chicken stock with the bones of our pastured chickens from this summer.
Even with the -20C weather we had all December we can get our place roasting! Twenty-five to 30++ degrees C sometimes if we aren’t careful!

Butter Making

Lots of random photos of this summer-I was too busy to post much before now!

Finishing Cob Oven #1

The last phases of construction. Last week I took the sand form out from under the first layer of cob. It took forever! I had to tape a trowel to the end of a stick to reach the very back of the oven. The second layer went on very quickly-clay, water and sawdust for insulation. Today I lit my first small fire to start drying the oven out. I can’t wait to bake in it!