Kiko Denzer and Hannah Field, maker and baker, invite you into the artisan tradition. First, build a masonry oven out of mud. Then mix flour and water for real bread "better than anything you can buy." Total cost? Hardly more than a baking stone & and it can cook everything else, from 2-minute pizza to holiday fowl, or a week's meals.
Clear, abundant drawings and photos clarify every step of the process, from making "oven mud," to fire, and to bread. Informative text puts it all into context with artisan traditions of many agesandcultures. Beautifully sculpted ovens (by the author and readers) will inspire the artist in anyone. And the simple, 4 step recipe (based on professional and homestead experience) promises authentic hearth loaves for anyone, on any schedule.
From weekend gardeners to "simple living," back-to-the-landers; Peace Corps volunteers to neighborhood community-builders; third-graders to earth-artists of all ages, this book feeds many hungers!
updated, expanded, re-written,andrevised.
foreword by Alan Scott, the grandfather of wood-fired ovens and artisan bread.
super-insulated design holds heat longer with less wood burned.
8 pages of color photos.
Plus: mobile ovens, rocket mass heaters for the home, hay-box cookers, and more.

"[It] will awaken in you...the artisan vision, where earth meets hand meets spirit" — Peter Reinhart, author, Crust and Crumb

"Creative. Innovative. Brilliant. ...the definitive book on how to build an adobe oven..." — William Rubel, author, The Magic of Fire

"...simplicity itself: brief, brisk, artful, and well-written....empowering throughout...fruit of a new movement for sustainability, it celebrates the pleasure of living well with the earth"— Peter Bane, Permaculture Activist.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 119-120) and index.

Kiko Denzer lives with his wife in a small cabin in Blodgett, Oregon. This book comes out of his experience of learning about, and falling in love with mud—the oldest (and, according to some, still the best) building material there is. It is also the product of his belief that participating in creation is better than going shopping. "Real value," he says, "is a function of involvement and life," not just the dollar price that you pay for "artisan" loaves in a fancy market.
As a sculptor, Denzer approaches both oven building and baking as art. As a writer and teacher, however, he sees art simply, as the fruit of human life and love. Quoting Kahlil Gibran, he says, "if work is love made visible, then love is everywhere you look." It follows, he continues, that "to be either artist or craftsman is no more and no less than it is to be human: to engage hands, head, and heart in the genesis of form and relationship; to celebrate and renew self and world; to be whole and wholly involved; to offer communio

Preface 2
Introduction
Why a wood-fired, earthen oven?
Earthen Building, or what is "cob," anyway? 5
Chapter One: build a basic mud oven
How big an oven should I make?
Getting organized
Materials and tools
Beauty and sculpture
On "waterproofing"
A roof for your oven
Eight steps to a simple oven 11
Chapter Two: firing and baking in your oven
Building and managing a fire
Assembling a set of traditional baking tools 43
Chapter Three: simple sourdough bread!
Introduction and a note on ingredients
A quick outline of a ten-step sourdough process
On yeast, flour, and bread
How it works--the ten step process in detail 51
Chapter Four: materials and making do
Floor materials
Straw and other fibers
Gravel and Sand
Subsoil, clay, and what to do if you can't find it
Clay facts
Refractory Cement 68
Chapter Five: other mixtures, other ovens
Single layer, all-clay, "rammed earth" ovens
Simpler foundations
Sculpting and finishing
Lime plasters and other water resistant, breathable plasters, and a warning
Brick or metal doorways
Chimneys and doors
Firing doors
Cob doors
Insulating a mud oven
Experiments and things to try 73
Chapter Six: pyro-dynamics, or, playing with fire
Mechanics of fire
Some related principles
Metaphysics of fire 93
Chapter Seven: troubleshooting
My sand form won't hold its shape
I have no sand--how else can I make a form?
I can't find straw
My fire won't burn
The bottoms of my loaves always burn
My oven is cracking
Can I quick dry my oven?
Can I keep an all-clay oven from shrinking?
The doorway is crumbling and falling apart
I can't find clay subsoil anywhere
What about fuels other than wood? 99
Afterword
Art, earth, ovens 105
Appendix: Questions, Answers, and Resources
About efficiency, design, etc
Using the oven
Materials and construction
Resources: Books on bread and building 112
Index 121