Sealing the chamber with high temperature concrete

It was all hands on deck today as we tackled the last of the big muscle jobs. We needed to mix a bunch of concrete to pour over the top of our cooking chamber.  This will help keep the chamber solid, and the high temperature concrete will also keep it insulated.

We had over a dozen people out this afternoon to help (not too shabby for the Friday of Memorial Day weekend).

We had expert supervision.

We had four wheelbarrows going back and forth.

Then we had a team filling a big bucket and pouring it over the top of the chamber.

After waiting a day to take the forms off, we finally had a look at the finished product...behold the cooking chamber. (NOTE: we still have to build our walls, chimney, roof, and the oven "entrance")

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.