Portable Oven Class Schedule for 2013

I have started scheduling my portable oven class for a variety of locations for 2013.

I primarily keep the list on my main Portable Oven Classes page.

In short, these are the dates scheduled so far.

04/20/13 Gale Woods Farm Park (Minnetrista, MN)
05/04/13 Tunnel Mill (south of Rochester, MN, might be full)
08/08/13 Tunnel Mill (south of Rochester, MN, Added in February)
05/12/13 Borner Farm Project (Prescott, WI)
05/25/13 Running Dog Ranch (near Stockholm, WI)
06/22/13 White Bear Center for the Arts (White Bear Lake, MN)
06/29/13 Borner Farm Project (Prescott, WI)
08/17/13 Running Dog Ranch (near Stockholm, WI
08/24/13 Borner Farm Project (Prescott, WI)

I expect to add fall dates for Gale Woods and WBCA.

Ten classes in one year would be a record, and there are even other locations under negotiation but not yet scheduled.

It's shaping up to be a busy year for teaching people how to build ovens in a day.

You can read more about my class in the pages whose links are to the right of the blog (under "PAGES").

January 25, 2013: I got an e-mail from Tunnel Mill telling me my class on 05/04/13 was already full, with a waiting list of two people. (That's four months ahead of the class.) We added another date (possibly June 8).

I also put together a map showing where my classes are scheduled.

Oven Building Classes

This blog gets searched for subjects like "bread oven building class" or "pizza oven building class" or even "brick oven building class" (according to my blog's search statistics).

While I have a few posts here about specific classes, I do maintain a more general list of class information on a page as part of my main Quest for Ovens links pages. The class information is organized by state (for the US) or country.

The information might not be current; I record classes as I find them mentioned without tidying up past links. Partly that's because a place that once held a class is more likely to do so in the future.

This provides the best info available at the time.

If you are going to be hosting an oven-building class, I would be happy to mention it here and link to it if a link is available. Just leave a comment on the blog or use the mailto link on the web site.

Portable Brick Oven Features

I put together an initial web page describing the features of the portable brick ovens that I teach people how to build in my classes. It seems only fair to discuss what's good and bad about my oven designs.

Update 11/24/2012: Just to save you some mouse clicks, note that my oven designs are for ovens that are portable in sense that they are built of unmortared bricks cleverly stacked together. The ovens can be moved by moving the bricks from the starting location to the ending location and rebuilding the oven (which takes less time than you might think, about an hour, less with help). It you are looking for some other kind of portability (what I might describe as a mobile oven), you will need to look elsewhere.

AOA Bar & Grill, New York, New York

My Google alert pulls through again, this time finding a mention of the AOA Bar & Grill in New York City.

This looks like a real beer and pizza place ("25 craft beers and over 50 bottled").

In addition, they have a regularly scheduled pizza-making class. (Now I know why people were thinking the price for my all-day oven-building class was not out of line with New York prices.)

I did find a limited-time offer for the class at a significant discount (but check out the fine print).

Portable Oven Class, Gale Woods Farm Park, Minnetrista, Minnesota, Sept. 8, 2012

I have an agreement with the farm supervisor at Gale Woods Farm Park to hold my portable oven-building class on Sept. 8, 2012, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Tim Reese, who organized cob oven-building classes at Gale Woods, has been kind enough to let me return to Gale Woods. While I have not had my oven-building class there, members of the Saint Paul Bread Club did build portable brick ovens there in 2009, as recorded in an Extras segment by KARE-11.

We are aiming to leave the oven up to help Gale Woods celebrate their harvest festival Oct. 6 and 7.

Update August 3: Registration is now available on-line.
Update September 4: Class is now full, with a waiting list.
Update Februray 15: Next class is scheduled for April 20, 2013.

Portable Oven Class, Prescott, WI, June 16, 2012

I will be returning once again to Prescott, Wisconsin, to teach my portable oven class.

The contents of the class are fully described here.

Registration information for the class is on this page of the Borner Farm Project.

In short, I show people how to build an oven from stacked bricks, how to make the doughs for naan, pita, pizza, and bread, and then bake them all in an oven we build as part of class. We then get to eat all of that. In past classes we have baked up to 15 pieces of naan, 8 pita bread, 5 pizzas, and a loaf of bread in an hour and a half.

Alan Scott-style Oven Class, near Twin Cities, Minnesota, July 13-15, 2012

Rae Ann Vandeputte has cancelled  her brick oven building course at her home in Victoria, MN.

The remaining part of this message just preserves the original details. It no longer applies.

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
• Rae Ann Vandeputte can get some help building her oven

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.

More details about the class can be found at the web site she built for the class.

If you or anyone you would know might like to take this fun course, have them look at the class registration page.
You can also contact Rae Ann Vandeputte at 612-381-7908 or raeann.vandeputte@gmail.com

Dates: July 13-15, 2012 (all day for each day)
Cost: $250.00 (meals provided)
Location: 8400 Allegheny Grove Blvd, Victoria, MN 55386

Original source

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.

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

Portable Oven Classes, 2012, Minnesota

I am now scheduled to teach my oven-building classes at four Minnesota locations in 2012 (updated 9/4/2012). So far, there has been only one class at each location.

The class at Silverwood Park on Saturday, April 28, 2012 was full, and we managed even though it was raining..

Silverwood Park has told me they won't be hosting my class again (they don't see it as being in line with their mission).

The class at Tunnel Mill on Saturday, May 5, 2012 was full, and we managed even though we had thunderstorms and rain.

The next class in Minnesota is Sept. 8, at Gale Woods Farm Park. (Registration is full.)
After that, the next class in Minnesota is Oct 13, at the White Bear Center for the Arts. (Registration is open.)

You can find out more about my class schedule here.

Portable Oven Classes, Silverwood Park, Minnesota

My one-day oven building class at Silverwood Park in the Twin Cities is now available for registration through this link.

My classes at Silverwood have always filled, so if you want to take a class this year so you can build an oven this year, this is your remaining opportunity.

8/22/11: Apparently the class is full. We are planning to do a little deliberate overbooking, so you might still be able to sneak in.

David Cargo Brick Bread Oven / Pizza Oven

I sometimes see where somebody is searching for information about bread and pizza ovens using my name as part of the search.

I do not yet have a set of complete set of detailed plans or a book or DVD on my oven plans and oven construction techniques. (I have been working on a manuscript, which will include plans and diagrams. If you know of a suitable or interested publisher, please let me know or have them contact me.)

I do post information on-line about my class schedule.

You can also e-mail me with questions about my classes.

Currently I regard my oven designs as my intellectual property (IP). I know people who have built their own ovens using information collected in my brick oven links page, but not using my specific designs. I make what I find on the net available through that links collection, but I feel that my own designs have their own advantages.

I won't give away my intellectual property for free by posting it on the internet. I will share the information with people who take my classes, and I'll even keep them updated when I update my designs.

You can save yourself some work by taking my class and using my designs, but suit yourself.

So, what do you get if you take my class and build one of my ovens? You get an oven that is quick to build (about an hour for the smallest), that gets hot enough to cook pizzas (easily 20 and as many as 40 in 2 1/2 hours if you have a good production line) at high temperatures (starting at 800-1000 degrees), and while not cheap is still a lot cheaper than any other brick oven you are likely to see. (The small oven would cost about $400, not counting taxes and shipping charges.)

8/25/11: Here is a look back at how I got started building ovens.

Three classes are now scheduled for 2012.
Silverwood Park (Twin Cities) on April 28, 2012 (no more classes with them unless they change their minds)
Tunnel Mill (south of Rochester) on May 5, 2012 (no more classes with them in 2012)
Borner Farm Project (Prescott, WI) on June 16, 2012.

Follow the schedule link above for more details.

Bread Baking Link Collection

While normally I focus on brick ovens in this blog, I thought I would digress a bit by putting one of my own subsites forward.

In response to a question from somebody who heard me on Radio KASM's program, Afternoon Delight, I decided to publish my collection of links related to bread baking.

I added them as part of the web site that I maintain for the Saint Paul Bread Club.

I just called the pages Bread Links. They are built using a process similar to the one I use to build the links for the Quest for Ovens Ovens Links pages.

I also have a subsite for my baking and oven-building classes called Baking with escargo.That is mainly of interest to people near the Twin Cities, since that is where most of my classes are held (Minnesota and western Wisconsin).

If you are interested in bread baking, I hope you find the links useful.

Wood fire pizza ovens in Japan

My Google Alert brought my attention to a corner of the world I don't see much: Japan.

It's a blog about wood-fired ovens in Japan, and aptly named Wood fire pizza ovens in Japan.

They also apparently sell some small ovens. (They do not look like general purpose ovens; they look like they are better for pizza.)

They even have a kids cooking class.

I thank them for making their interest available in English so we can see what they are doing.

Portable Oven Classes (Update), Minnesota and Wisconsin

I have put together a consolidated site for my classes, including my oven-building classes.

The site's index page primarily discusses class formats, and locations.

There's a locations page for class location and registration information.

There's also a schedule page for both the baking classes and the oven-building classes. (For simplicity, I put the oven-building class dates on the locations page as well as the schedule page.)

The Tunnel Mill location requested an additional spring date (May 14) because of "popular demand," (the May 7 class filled and they had a long waiting list). They also said they anticipate the May 14 class to fill.

It's going to be an interesting year for oven building.

Portable Oven Classes, Minnesota and Wisconsin

My schedule for teaching my class on portable brick ovens is now mostly firm.

If everything goes according to plan, I'll be teaching my class in five different locations this year.

Three of the locations are in Minnesota (Tunnel Mill, Silverwood Park, and the annual meeting of the Minnesota Guild of Metalsmiths), and two are in Wisconsin (French Hill Folk School, Driftless Folk School).

I put together a page about the class here. The class dates scheduled are listed below.

• 05/07/11 Tunnel Mill (full)
• 05/14/11 Tunnel Mill (added by popular demand)
• 06/11/11 French Hill Folk School
• 06/25/11 Driftless Folk School
• 08/13/11 French Hill Folk School
• 09/10/11 Silverwood Park
• 09/17/11 Minn. Guild of Metalsmiths

It's a one-day class with everyone getting a chance to build an oven and watch naan, pita bread, pizza, and bread getting baked in the oven.

01/24/2011 Wood Fired Pizza Class, Brooklyn, New York

Most of the time what I see are businesses where you get to eat food prepared in a wood-fired oven, and maybe even watch it get made and cooked.

Here is an opportunity to get some hands-on experience: 01/24 Wood Fired Pizza Class

The description says in part, "This Interactive class will cover Wood-fired cooking in the pizza oven with our friend at Best Pizza. Anthony Falco and Angelo Womack will teach how to do everything and more in the wood fired oven.... This small class will really give you the know how not only to use one, but to build your own wood fired pizza oven, on a trailer, or in your yard!"

Of course, you have to pay the fee and go to Brooklyn Kitchen, but that's not so bad.