Purpose of this blog

This blog will really be a true web log. I will post here about different wood-fired ovens as I find them.

If you know of any wood-fired ovens I should know about, you can send an e-mail to me. (If you build wood-fired ovens, I would like to hear from you too.)

There will lots of posts and lots of labels, since I plan to create one post for every appropriate web site that I find, and however many labels it takes to describe each one (usually at least the type of page and the location of the oven).

The accumulated information will still be found at the real Quest for Ovens web site links pages, but that is not updated as frequently as this blog will be.

If you are from outside the US and Canada, let me know what you find interesting about it. I see that I get visitors from India and Iran, and other faraway places. I'd like to know what draws you to this blog.

I received e-mail from the organizers of the BBC Two television show asking if the Saint Paul Bread Club could post a notice about their show Great British Bake-Off for amateur bakers. The information they gave me is now accessible through a link. (The organizers don't have a web page for the show itself yet.)

Please share this with any amateur bakers in Great Britain you may know, or post the link where they might see it.

Thanks.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Community Oven Radio Interview

I am going to be interviewed on March 3 by a freelance radio journalist preparing a story for Los Angeles station KCRW's Good Food program. The subject will be community ovens. (I don't know the date and time the story will air.)

I will update this post when I know the date and time the story will air. KCRW does stream their programming over the web, so you can listen even if you are not in Los Angeles.

March 3, 2012: I was visited by a recordist who sat by me holding a microphone while I answered questions phoned in by the interviewer. We talked for over half an hour. Date and time of the broadcast are still not known, by me anyway, so no update for that yet. It was an honor to be of use, and maybe it will make my efforts promoting community ovens more visibility.

May 20, 2012: I was interviewed as part of the community oven segment in this program for KCRW; it starts at about 49 minutes into the show. (I speak a few times before they play me saying who I am.): Good Food

Monday, February 20, 2012

Portable Oven Classes, Staten Island, April 14 & 15, 2012

I have a person who really wants to take my portable oven-building class, but lives on Staten Island (part of New York City).

Update 3/29/2012: Not enough people registered for this trip to work out on these dates. We are going to see if we can find another set of dates that work further into the future. If you are interested, drop me a note.

If we can get all the materials and enough people registered, we would hold two classes, one on Saturday, April 14, and one on Sunday, April 15.

The costs to the students would have to be high enough to cover my normal class fees plus travel expenses.

If you are interested in learning how to build a brick oven in a day, or going from bare ground in the morning to wood-fired oven pizza for lunch, you can use the information in the announcement linked to below to sign up for the class.

This class is especially for people who love wood-fired pizza, but thought that building their own oven would be too hard and too expensive. These ovens are easier and cheaper than you might think.

The details of the class have now been set, and there is an announcement on Craig's List.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Alan Scott-style Oven Class, near Twin Cities, Minnesota, May 4-6, 2012

Carrie Jennings will be holding a brick oven building course at her home in southern Dakota County.

The class will learn how to build an Alan Scott oven from oven-builder and rustic bread baker Derek Luchese. Derek teaches the oven-building course at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN and is owner of Both Hands Bread, South Gillies, ON.

The course is offered at a significantly lower cost and near the Twin Cities so that
  • more folks can learn how to build ovens
  • Carrie Jennings can get some help building his oven
  • part of the course cost will go toward a donation to the Cannon River Watershed Partnership
During the course you will actually build an oven to near-completion, gaining experience with pouring the concrete hearth slab, setting the firebricks for the hearth, and building an arched oven vault. All materials will be provided; you just bring some gloves and dirty clothes.

If you or anyone you would know might like to take this fun course, have them contact Carrie Jennings at:
carriegeo@gmail.com

Dates: May 4-6, 2012 (all day for each day)
Cost: $250.00 (meals provided)
Location: map

Free camping or sleeping in the barn is a possibility.

Original source