Community Brick Oven Dedication

It was a beautiful (but cold) Sunday to dedicate the Community Brick Oven at Hamline Church.  In order to bake bread in the morning, the oven had to be fired up the evening before.  I was out there in the darkness, loading wood into the oven and hoping that when I returned in the morning there would be a bed of hot coals. The fact that it was storming and there was a tornado warning did not deter us.

In the morning, I arrived at sunrise to see a beautiful glow coming from the oven.

The oven was a whopping 1100 degrees (way too hot to bake bread) that morning. Lesson learned that I didn't need to load that much wood in there the night before.

So all the coals were shoveled out and I left the door off for four hours, hoping the oven would cool down to 450/500 degrees for the bread bake.  Meanwhile, members of the congregation started arriving with their dough to bake in the oven.

Finally, the time came to load and bake the bread.  Luckily nothing burned, and when everybody came out for the dedication we had hot, steaming bread for everybody to eat.

First Fire

Work continued on the walls today, and Mike laid-out the oven's side table.  Most importantly, however, I got to see the oven's first fire.  This is part of the curing process. There was a lot of wet concrete poured, and the fire will push the moisture out and dry it up.

Building the Entrance and Chimney, Part One

Today we did more work on the exterior brick facade as well as build the arch.  This arch looks cool, because it is the first arch made out of our red brick. It will also make our wood storage area look cool, and ultimately it will support help support the entrance to our oven.

Here are some shots:

We also further utilized child labor in building the corners.  First, there was the ceremonial writing of name (on the back of the brick).

Then it was time to get down to business.

A little more brick

It was a great Saturday morning. We had ten people out to help on the oven at various points in the day.  On task was the completion of the lower base of the oven's exterior.  We put down row after row of brick, and Mike suggested that we edge out some of our mortar to make the bricks pop and make our brick laying "sins" a little less noticeable.  We did that, and it looks pretty darn cool.

We mixed up the mortar in the wheelbarrow that a member found abandoned in the boulevard a few blocks East of the church.

Then we got some kiddos in on the action. (child labor laws do not apply to volunteer stuff, I think?)

Then before too long we had a wall.

The next step is to build the brick arch over where some firewood will be stored, and start building the entrance and chimney for the oven.

Building the Cooking Chamber, Part 4

In order to get the right air flow, the cooking chamber needs a dip. So tonight we worked on a smaller arch that will lead to our chimney in the front of our oven.


First we had to soak the splits and prepare the entrance:

Once the entrance was built we had to cut the angled brick that will support our new, smaller arch.

Then we laid the arch:

We've got a bun in the oven...

In brainstorming ways to raise money for the new brick oven, we decided to have a party. Then we decided that maybe we shouldn't just have a party. Perhaps, we need to have a baby shower for our new bread oven, complete with a baby oven registry for all the little things that our oven will need to grow up and be happy and kind.

So that is what we've done.

On Sunday, May 10th (Mother's day), there will be a baby shower at 10:00 in the Hamline Church basement complete with food, games, prizes, and, of course, gifts.

Here is the very cool gift registry:  https://thankfulregistry.com/oven

It's fun to see what our baby has already received.

UPDATE: The baby oven shower was a blast with great food.  Look at all these happy people!

Preparing for the Cooking Chamber

We are almost to the point where we will begin building the actual cooking chamber where fire will be built and all of our delicious breads and pizzas will transform.  But first, we needed to lay a foundation for the oven.  First we need to put down a layer of calcium aluminate.  Then we will put down a pad of high temperature concrete before laying down the firebrick.

The calcium aluminate comes in fifty pound bags that look like this:

  
This substance is then mixed up into a damp, form-able sandy stuff (but not too wet).  If it didn't likely cause cancer, it'd be a pretty fun thing for kids to play with.

Then shovel it up and put it in the form and pat it down.

I went home for dinner, but they kept doing it. They laid down the metal grid for support in the middle, and then continued to fill until they got to the top of the wooden form. Here is a shot of the finished product without the frame.

Preparing the slab

What is that old verse about a house built on sand....well, we're working on creating a rock here, so no worries. We had a great turn-out on a sunny day. Finally, after much planning, we broke ground on the community brick oven and this project was becoming very real, very fast.

The day was filled with activity and a lot of laughter.  While part of the hearty volunteers dug out the grass and dirt, the more skilled amongst us built the wooden form for the concrete pour.  Once we got to the right depth, we added and compacted Class 5 gravel.  Finally we added rebar to offer some structural integrity to our base. I was also glad that when Gopher One came out to the property (pre-dig) there were no gas, water or electrical lines that were found.

The next step is calling in the Saint Paul inspector, and, hopefully, getting the go ahead to pour the concrete this Friday. Stay tuned.

 

Here comes the stuff...

This was an exciting week, we received delivery of a lot of materials that will be used in Phase 1 of building our oven.  I almost had a heart attack when the semi-truck pulled up with four pallets of cinder block, a ton of cement, and an assortment of boards and insulation.

It's hard to believe that it'll take all of that to make our little community oven, but, if you want something built to last, then this is what it takes. The difference between our oven and some of the "instant" wood-fired ovens that you see on-line is the insulation. Our oven will get hot and the bricks will retain the heat for several days, so that we can utilize the full heat cycle of the oven.  If an oven is not insulated well, you have to keep a fire going, which is fine for pizzas but not so good for bread.

What you see below is over four hundred cinder blocks (used for the oven base...the cooking chamber will be fire brick and the exterior "skin" will be brick), rebar, sand, 2,800 pounds of mortar mix, and 1,000 pounds of portland cement.