Earth ovens combine the utility of a wood-fired, retained-heat oven with the ease and timeless beauty of earthen construction. Building one will appeal to bakers, builders, and beginners of all kinds, from: - the serious or aspiring baker who wants the best low-cost bread oven, to - gardeners who want a centerpiece for a beautiful outdoor kitchen, to - outdoor chefs, to - creative people interested in low-cost materials and simple technology, to - teachers who want a multi-faceted, experiential project for students of all ages (the book has been successful with everyone from third-graders to adults). Build Your Own Earth Oven is fully illustrated with step-by-step directions, including how to tend the fire, and how to make perfect sourdough hearth loaves in the artisan tradition. The average do-it-yourselfer with a few tools and a scrap pile can build an oven for free, or close to it. Otherwise, $30 should cover all your materials--less than the price of a fancy "baking stone." Good building soil is often right in your back yard, under your feet. Build the simplest oven in a day! With a bit more time and imagination, you can make a permanent foundation and a fire-breathing dragon-oven or any other shape you can dream up. Earth ovens are familiar to many that have seen a southwestern "horno" or a European "bee-hive" oven. The idea, pioneered by Egyptian bakers in the second millennium BCE, is simplicity itself: fill the oven with wood, light a fire, and let it burn down to ashes. The dense, 3- to 12-inch-thick earthen walls hold and store the heat of the fire, the baker sweeps the floor clean, and the hot oven walls radiate steady, intense heat for hours. Home bakers who can't afford a fancy, steam-injected bread oven will be delighted to find that a simple earth oven can produce loaves to equal the fanciest "artisan" bakery. It also makes delicious roast meats, cakes, pies, pizzas, and other creations. Pizza cooks to perfection in three minutes or less. Vegetables, herbs, and potatoes drizzled with olive oil roast up in minutes for a simple, elegant, and delicious meal. Efficient cooks will find the residual heat useful for slow-baked dishes, and even for drying surplus produce, or incubating homemade yogurt.

How to build your own wood fired oven

Creating the perfect loaf of bread--a challenge that has captivated bakers for centuries--is now the rage in the hippest places, from Waitsfield, Vermont, to Point Reyes Station, California. Like the new generation of beer drinkers who consciously seek out distinctive craft-brewed beers, many people find that their palates have been reawakened and re-educated by the taste of locally baked, whole-grain breads. Today's village bakers are finding an important new role--linking tradition with a sophisticated new understanding of natural levens, baking science and oven construction. Daniel Wing, a lover of all things artisanal, had long enjoyed baking his own sourdough bread. His quest for the perfect loaf began with serious study of the history and chemistry of bread baking, and eventually led to an apprenticeship with Alan Scott, the most influential builder of masonry ovens in America. Alan and Daniel have teamed up to write this thoughtful, entertaining, and authoritative book that shows you how to bake superb healthful bread and build your own masonry oven. The authors profile more than a dozen small-scale bakers around the U.S. whose practices embody the holistic principles of community-oriented baking based on whole grains and natural leavens. The Bread Builders will appeal to a broad range of readers, including: Connoisseurs of good bread and good food. Home bakers interested in taking their bread and pizza to the next level of excellence. Passionate bakers who fantasize about making a living by starting their own small bakery. Do-it-yourselfers looking for the next small construction project. Small-scale commercial bakers seeking inspiration, the most up-to-date knowledge about the entire bread-baking process, and a marketing edge.

**********THIS IS A "SHORT," NOT A FULL-LENGTH BOOK!!!********** This booklet tells how to make the best bread in the world. And it's made from only wheat, water, and salt! You'll love this tasty, wholesome, easy-to-make bread from a tradition thousands of years old. In fact, it may spoil you for all other bread! ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Mark Shepard is the author of several books on simple living and nonviolent social change, and also on the flute. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// CONTENTS The Starter The Ingredients The Sponge The Two Things You Must Always Remember The Dough The Rising The Baking Final Facts ///////////////////////////////////////////////// A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR I first learned to love this bread while visiting the Community of the Ark, a utopian society founded in France by an Italian disciple of Gandhi. On my return home, a friend taught me how to make the same bread -- or pretty close. Some further experimenting ended up with the method in this booklet. If you've made other breads, you'll find it refreshingly simple. No matter how much of this bread I've eaten, I've never grown tired of it.

Offers a comprehensive guide for planning and building a practical, efficient and affordable wood-fired oven. The Barrel Oven offers surprising convenience because it is hot and ready to bake in within 15-20 minutes and is easy to maintain at a constant temperature. Follow this step-by-step guide to transform local, low-cost materials and the sun's energy into good food.

In the past twenty years, interest in wood-fired ovens has increased dramatically in the United States and abroad, but most books focus on how to bake bread or pizza in an oven. From the Wood-Fired Oven offers many more techniques for home and artisan bakers--from baking bread and making pizza to recipes on how to get as much use as possible out of a single oven firing, from the first live-fire roasting to drying wood for the next fire. From the Wood-Fired Oven offers a new take on traditional techniques for professional bakers, but is simple enough to inspire any nonprofessional baking enthusiast. Leading baker and instructor Richard Miscovich wants people to use their ovens to fulfill the goal of maximum heat utilization. Readers will find methods and techniques for cooking and baking in a wood-fired oven in the order of the appropriate temperature window. What comes first--pizza, or pastry? Roasted vegetables or a braised pork loin? Clarified butter or beef jerky? In addition to an extensive section of delicious formulas for many types of bread, readers will find chapters on: - Making pizza and other live-fire flatbreads; - Roasting fish and meats; - Grilling, steaming, braising, and frying; - Baking pastry and other recipes beyond breads; - Rendering animal fats and clarifying butter; - Food dehydration and infusing oils; - And myriad other ways to use the oven's residual heat. Appendices include oven-design recommendations, a sample oven temperature log, Richard's baker's percentages, proper care of a sourdough starter, and more. . . . From the Wood Fired Oven is more than a cookbook; it reminds the reader of how a wood-fired oven (and fire, by extension) draws people together and bestows a sense of comfort and fellowship, very real human needs, especially in uncertain times. Indeed, cooking and baking from a wood-fired oven is a basic part of a resilient lifestyle, and a perfect example of valuable traditional skills being put to use in modern times.

Outdoor Classrooms: A Handbook for School Gardens is ideal for teachers and home educators who want to incorporate education at all levels of the school curriculum with an emphasis on: setting up edible gardens teaching children about growing food food security and economics human and planetary health permaculture and sustainabi.