Hope Merkel Builds A Bear Mud Oven, Part II

When we last left our Ms. Merkel, of Los Osos Valley Nursery (201 Los Osos Valley Rd., 528-5300) and the intrepid workshoppers under the guidance of  Jordan Josea, mud oven builder extraordinaire and his partner in mudability, Meleah (of Ncredible Edibles Sustainable Solutions in SLOTown (http://www.ncredibleeedibles.com/, 234-7779), they had finished round one of building a mud oven (Pics and story posted in the 2/14/22011 Can(n)on) that looked like this.

On top of the original shell, would be added another 9-10" layer of clay and straw.  Alas, rain ensued, then some injured hands, then more rain, until Saturday came and work began again. 

More wheelbarrows of mud and straw were mixed and piled on to the original form until there was the bear all roughed in and looking very bearish even with an oven in her tummy. 

When the bear was finished, the entire base was given a second and third coat of stucco. The bear itself will be left to dry, then lightly coated with a stucco-ish finish.  There'll be further finishing and staining of the stucco coating when it dries. 

After Sunday's work, a small fire will be built in the bear's tummy to help the oven dry.  Then it will be time to party.  Next Sunday, April 3, starting about 11 a.m. the nursery will be hosting a pot-luck, do-it-yourself pizza party. 

So, bring your favorite pizza toppings. Ms Merkel will have plenty of pizza doughs ready to go, and the bear will be taken out for a Community Pizza Party & Official Test Run.  Come join us. 

Hope Merkel Builds A Mud Oven

Well, actually, it was Jordan Josea, mud oven builder extraordinaire, (that's Jordan in the center with the plaid shirt.) and his partner in mudability, Meleah, who together own and run Ncredible Edibles Sustainable Solutions in San Luis Obispo (http://www.ncredibleedibles.com/, 234-7799) and a whole bunch of workshop volunteers who showed up Sunday at Los Osos Valley Nursery.(301 Los Osos Valley Rd, 528-5300)

The day before the area in the back of the nursery had been cleared and the platform for the oven built using adobe mud/dirt-filled sacks which were stacked up to proper height. Then in the center round platform where the oven will be placed, bricks were laid to serve as the floor of the oven. And a channel cut out of the platform where the door will go. The channel cut will later have a stone extension (or more bricks) put into place. The oven is heated by lighting a wood fire on the brick floor of the oven and when the oven’s reached it proper temperature, those hot coals can be scraped out of that channel/lip into a bucket, the floor of the oven quickly swept clean and the breads and food placed into the now hot oven.

Once the bricks are in place, a pile of wet sand is mounded up and patted and sculpted into a round ball. While that process is going on, other volunteers were busy slapping their feet in the Mississippi mud – the rich dark adobe dirt that served as the basis of the oven and would soon be patted into “potatoes” of clay that were then laid around and around the sand ball and pinched together.

The clay covered dome was cut into to form a doorway (the door will be a thick piece of hand shaped wood cut to fit ) and when the clay was dried hard enough to support itself (sort of like Roman arch) the sand will be scooped out and the next thick layer of clay mixed with straw will be placed over the dome. The oven wall should end up about a foot thick.

The amazing thing about the oven is that it’s a living, breathing, sustainable convection oven, the round shaped circular interior is perfectly designed to circulate heat. The interior heats up to 900 degrees so food can be cooked very, very quickly, and because the insulation is so thick it holds heat for a long, long time, so you can cook all your meals for days while only using only one fire. The mud oven is quite an amazing piece of engineering that’s been in use for thousands of years. Very clever, our ancestors. 

         

The second half of the project will take place next Sunday, March 20 starting at 10 a.m. if you want to come watch the oven get finished (complete with more clay sculpted all around it to form a bear with the round oven to be its belly. How cool is that?). Then, the following Sunday, the 27, it will be time for a pot-luck pizza topping party. Visitors can bring their favorite pizza topping, and celebrate with a mud oven pizza party. Check with the nursery to see when the party starts and plan to stop by.