Category: Making Our Oven

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 …

Heat mass layer on Cob Oven #1

Finally the first layer of cob goes on. Now it feels like the oven is really on its way after lots of preparation work. The mixture that goes on first is made of 1 part clay, 3 parts sand and enough water to mix, but not too much so that you have a good working material. We got the clay and sand from generous neighbours, literally three minutes away! Now we just have to wait for it to dry out enough to dig out the sand form and put the next layer of insulation on. To be continued…

Cob Oven #1 Floor

More photos of the oven-to-be. More to come. It’s been a busy week!

Rock foundation for Cob Oven #1

The oven foundation! We dug about two and a half feet into the ground and then started building up from there using field stones and gravel. We hauled rocks out of an old fence line and brought them by wheelbarrow load to our site! The ground was too wet to use any of our modern conveniences such as a tractor or truck to bring the rocks over.