The Community Brick Oven at Hamline Church is an outdoor, wood-fired brick oven. Although it will produce amazing pizzas and rustic bread, it is more than that. The oven will be a unique place in our community where we all can slow down, create, strengthen relationships, and build connections. Slowing Down, Meeting Neighbors, and Baking Really Good Bread.
For a long time, there was just one oven for an entire village. It was inefficient for every person to have their own oven, and so the community shared a large oven in the center of town. In the process of baking, people would meet friends, discuss politics, share stories, and gossip. In addition to producing good food, the community ovens produced good neighbors.
That old idea is now coming to the Hamline-Midway neighborhood in Saint Paul. This spring we will begin building the Community Brick Oven at Hamline Church, and hopefully we'll be eating some wood-fired pizzas and baking many loaves of awesome bread by this summer.
News, information, and random thoughts will be posted on this blog. So stay tuned and visit often.
Construction of the brick oven will start in April. It will be a community effort. Anybody who would like to volunteer to help is welcome to sign-up for a volunteer slot (more information about signing up will be posted soon). Once completed, we'll focus on learning how to fire the oven and use its full heat cycle.
Then, the fun will really begin. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, we must step back and thank White Bear Lake United Methodist for awarding us a grant to build this community brick oven in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood. It is the vision and support of Pastor Bryce Johnson at White Bear Lake United Methodist that sparked our imagination and made this possible. It's also the technical expertise and construction know-how of Mike Faust that is going to get this project done.
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