Companion Bakery, Oatsland, Tasmania

Sometimes you stumble onto the most interesting things.

In my case, a Facebook group had a link to a webcam inside a bakery. Part of what was interesting, was that  this bakery used a wood-fired oven. Another interesting thing was that it was in Tasmania.

So, the Companion Bakery seems to be mentioned in a couple of different web sites, including their own. They are also mentioned in a website about sourdough baking.

I doubt I will get to see them in person, but it's been interesting looking over the shoulders of the baker toiling away to make good bread.

Lido Woodfired Cafe and Restaurant, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Not all the news caught by my Google Alert involves reviews, openings, or good news.

An on-line article for the Courier & Mail reported that there was a fire at the Lido Woodfired Cafe and Restaurant, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Lido does not have a web site that I can find, but they do have a Facebook page.

(On Facebook they made it clear that they were not closed for long by the fire.)

Sounds like a jolly place.

Red Beard Historic Bakery, Trentham, Victoria, Australia

An on-line article from the Sydney Morning Herald covered several food "how-tos" including making sourdough bread.

For the bread making, they went to the Red Beard Historic Bakery, Trentham, Victoria, Australia.

Their home page says in part:

Located in the picturesque gold rush town of Trentham in Central Victoria, Red Beard Historic Bakery is only 70 minutes from Melbourne's CBD. We specialise in organic sourdough bread and pastry, handmade with traditional techniques and baked in a huge 19th century woodfired Scotch oven.

Their Scotch oven has a page of its own.

It sounds like a great place.

Community Oven, Albury, NSW, Australia

A little piece in the on-line version of The Border Mail (in Australia), mentions, just in passing, the community oven in Albury, New South Wales, Australia.

The piece says in closing, "Naan bread, African food and French crepes will be cooked in the community oven."

The oven was built as a multicultural artifact, bringing together Australian and immigrant cultures.

Previous pages that I found point to the community oven at Dufferin Grove Park in Toronto, Canada as its likely inspiration:

"The idea came from Albury City Council's cultural development officer Narelle Vogel, who saw a picture on a Canadian website and said, 'I want one of these for Albury'," says project co-ordinator Chelsea McLaren from Hume Murray Food Bowl, a group representing and promoting local food and wine producers.

The oven has been mentioned previously in The Border Mail (here), and has also been cited as one of the area's attractions.

This page seems to be from a neglected site, but it says about the community oven, "Community Wood Fired Oven: Heading down to the community’s centre, check out what’s on exhibit at the Library Museum or savour the delicate flavours of your meal cooked in the community wood fired oven." The content seems to be the same as on another travel site's page.

Nice to see the Albury oven get such use.

I do have a set of links that I collected about this oven here.

10/26/11: I received an e-mail from Narelle Vogel with the 2011 brochure for the community oven. (I am working on getting permission to make it available for downloading or linking to it on the Albury web site.)

Video about making naan in a wood-fired oven

A page in a site that would seem not to have anything to do with wood-fired ovens has a nice video about cooking naan in a wood-fired oven. Unfortunately, there is no recipe for the dough. (Note that the temperatures he talks about are in degrees C. not in degress F.) The video comes from Mediterranean Woodfired Ovens, which has locations in several places in Australia and one in New Zealand.

Historic oven returned to use in Newrybar, NSW, Australia

NBN on-line has a short video about a historic oven in Newrybar, NSW, Australia, that has been restored to operating condition. This might be the same oven mentioned in this Australian bread blog.The oven appears to operated by the Harvest Cafe in Newrybar, but I can't tell if it's the same location or not.

This oven design appears to be a Scotch oven. (There's a short description of Scotch ovens in the middle of this forum post.)