Portable fences; drying flowers; building a grape arbor; weaving baskets; painting patterned floors; working with a draft horse; reclaiming an apple tree; sharpening tools; making bricks; root cellars.

General directions for making and processing 136 treasured family recipes that turn almost every fruit and vegetable there is into delicious pickles, condiments, bottled sauces, beverages, and syrups.

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.

First published by Yankee Magazine in 1977, this book remains the authority on how old-time brick ovens were designed and used. The book explains the evolution of the brick oven from the 17th through the 19th centuries, out lines the basic points to consider in building such an oven today, and describes in detail construction of a brick oven, ash pit complex, including the tools required, procedures to be followed, types of brick and mortar, lintels and doors, plans, dimensions, and actual brickwork, graphically illustrated with photographs, diagrams and drawings. Also covered is how to heat and use such an oven, once built. Richard M. Bacon has written numerous articles for such publications as Yankee Magazine and the Sunday New York times. He also wrote The Yankee Book of Forgotten Arts, Simon & Schuster, 1978.