A film crew from New York City came out and spent two full days with us taking footage that was eventually edited into this episode. Here you can see the wood-fired barrel oven in action and learn more about how it is made and how it works. We were especially happy that they picked up on the value of showing our gardens and the process of harvesting the food, preparing it, and then cooking it in the barrel oven.

Links

• Buy the book Build Your Own Barrel Oven.
• Learn more at our main Barrel Oven page.
• See a stop-action video of Eva and others building a Barrel Oven.
• Learn about The Barrel Oven Kit and how to get it.

In our quest to live smartly and well, Eva and I have resisted the urge to use an electric dryer to dry our clothes. Although this common appliance certainly offers some conveniences, it seems a gratuitous use of electricity and energy that is otherwise available to us in free and smart ways. We had been getting along alright hanging our clothes out in the sun during the warmer months and hanging them on expandable accordian-style wooden racks near our heating stove in the colder portion of the year. With the arrival of our new-born daughter and the prospect of many loads of cloth diapers to wash and dry, I figured it was time to up the anti and improve our system or else succumb to the need for an electric dryer. I wanted to build a drying rack that was retractable to the ceiling so that it wouldn’t take up any floor space. This turns out to give it the added benefit of placing it up in the warmest part of the house and exposes all the clothes equally to this rising, circulating hot air.

Watch the video to see more details about how it works.

Materials List:

Let us know what you think and join our mailing list to stay in touch.
If you are interested, we could provide the hardware as a package.

Other great resources:

• YouTube Video: Low Cost, Home-Made Wooden Pulley Drying Rack

Masonry heaters are a relatively new tradition in North America. We do not have the same tactile memory that many Europeans do of experiencing the warm, thorough heat. As such, many of us builders spend a lot of time educating potential clients. This was not the case with the Allens!

This was their fourth masonry heater in as many homes! They knew exactly what they wanted and knew all of the benefits of living with a masonry heater from their many years of experience with them. Their first heater was a “Russian” heater and their second two were built from Tempcast kits. Although satisfied with the Tempcasts they had, they hired us because they were interested in the Masonry Heater Association’s 5-run design due to its compact footprint and top-venting chimney.

Process….

(hover for descriptions, click to enlarge)

Read more….

• What is a Masonry Heater?
• Our Masonry Heater Portfolio
• Our Wood-Fired Bake Oven Portfolio
• Join our Mailing List to Receive Updates!
• Contact us!

(click on images to enlarge, hover over for descriptions)

(process photos by Dylan Boye)

Have you ever heard of Earthships?  The term refers to a grouping of design principles that aims to make houses as self-sufficient as possible.  They were pioneered by a man named Michael Reynolds, a creative architect genius from New Mexico, who wanted to move away from homes being consumer boxes that demand resources like water and electricity from a grid and require connections to such things as septic dumps and trash collection.  Instead, he made concepts such as rain-water harvesting and storage, grey water treatment, micro-power generation and extreme passive solar design for heating and cooling shape the form and function of “earthship” homes.  The specifics of his design principles are honed for the climate of the southwest which includes very cold but sunny winter days and a scarcity of water.  I have always felt it an interesting challenge to understand how we might apply these same principles to other climates.  In the Pacific Northwest where we live, for example, the sun rarely shines in the winter time but the forests that abound are extreme accumulators for the solar energy that shines during the rest of the year.  As we worked on this project, influenced by the clients’ affinity for earthship design and a shared interest in applying these ideas to our bioregion and our lifestyles, I came to see the masonry heater we were building both as this vessel’s navigation deck from which they will be able to stay warm and steer through the colder parts of the year.

This masonry heater was built at the home of James Reismiller (owner of Abundant Solar) and Cassandra Robertson (environmental engineer and excellent singer-songwriter).  They did a great job of researching and planning for this heater.  The outside air source and reinforced foundation had already been installed before we were brought on.  In fact, the house was pretty much completed except for this central element.  They wanted a heater that would flow with their modern clean lines and be consistent with an ecological way of building.  They wanted to heat water, they wanted an all-season bake oven, and they wanted a configuration of heated benches that would flow well with their stairs as sitting space for house concerts.  So…. we got to work and designed and built the heater.

It is based on the Contraflow with the 22″ replaceable firebox from the Masonry Heater Association Plan Portfolio.  The interesting design challenge was to both provide for the heated benches as well as preserve access to the ash box, especially while needing to meet the low height of the second stair which meant that the bench’s flue could not cross above the access to the ash drawer.  The utility room which houses their hot water tanks for distributed radiant floor heating and domestic hot water is directly the other side of the back wall so the natural thermosiphon loop for the hot water was very simple and straight forward.  The bricks we used for the facing were very dense recycled pavers that beautifully reveal the flame patterns of the kiln they were fired in.  The bench and trim details are soapstone that were cut and polished on site from slabs that were seconds at a counter top shop.

Stay tuned for photos with fire as well as possibly a stop-motion video of the process!

This heater begs to make gracious acknowledgment to the following:

• Cassandra and James for the opportunity to participate in their home’s construction and their hospitality.
• Dylan Boye for his hard work, precision in cutting, and general assistance.
• Kiko Denzer for his assistance especially in laying out and cutting the soapstone
• Eva for coming at the end and helping to finish up and giving it her special pretty touch.
• Marcus Flynn of Pyromasse for his generous documentation, tutorials and correspondence.  See this great tutorial on how-to-build a jack arch.
• Norbert Senf of Masonry Stove Builders and Steve Bushway of Deerhill Masonry for their readiness to offer advice especially in the design stage… and to the whole MHAMembers chat list for great discussion which contributed enormously at various points in the build.

Read more….

• What is a Masonry Heater?
• Our Masonry Heater Portfolio
• Our Wood-Fired Bake Oven Portfolio
• Join our Mailing List to Receive Updates!
• Contact us!
  

The Barrel Oven at Sweet Briar Farm! Jeanna and Sebastian got married this summer. We built this oven with them to be a part of their wedding celebration and for it live on to cook meals for their family and friends. www.firespeaking.com/events/barrel-oven-at-sweet-briar-farm/

Sebastian and Jeanna are getting married!
This oven will be a part of their wedding celebration and then will live on to cook meals for their family and friends.

COME LEARN HOW TO MAKE A BEAUTIFUL AND EFFICIENT WOOD-FIRED OVEN, AT THIS BEAUTIFUL HOMESTEAD, IN WHICH TO BAKE DELICIOUS BREAD AND SO MUCH MORE!

Join Us For This 2-day, Comprehensive, Hands-On
Workshop on How to Build A Wood-Fired Barrel Oven.

June 16-17, 2012 – Sebastopol, California

Registration/Info: Eva Edleson- eva@firespeaking.com

• Learn more about the Wood-Fired Barrel Oven
• Watch a video of a Barrel Oven being built!
• The Barrel Oven at Vistara, part of an urban EcoVillage
• Pizza Party in the Dabbeni Barrel Oven

A practical and wood-efficient oven built by hand from local clay, river sand and recycled red clay bricks. Project is evolving into a fully developed outdoor kitchen with counter tops, a wood-fired griddle, a sink and more! The whole area will be roofed as well. Stay tuned for more good times and stories of this family oven at Davidson Farm.

Eva led a workshop in April to build this oven at the Duckpond Pottery, Nick Friedman and Jennifer Kelly’s retail pottery shop and venue for live original music. Nick had an awesome idea to make an oven in the shape of a jazz hollow body guitar! We harvested clay from just down the street and sand from the French Broad River. The people of Brevard are so talented and so much fun! Expect some amazing natural building projects to blossom there soon.

Learn how to build your own super-insulated, wood-fired, earthen oven!

Learn how to make an oven to cook bread, pizza, cookies, cakes, pies, casseroles, stews, and so much more!

Wise Acres Farm is a beautiful place and home to Dr. Sharol Tilgner, author of “Herbal Medicine from the Heart of the Earth”!

Check out this from her website-

“Wise Acres Farm is an educational farm where the mind expands and the soul is nourished. Our mission is to connect people in the city with farm life.  The farms educational focus is on growing food and herbs. At Wise Acres you can meet and become familiar with over 200 herbs. We teach herb classes for the beginner as well as the advanced student. There is something for everyone at Wise Acres. To get more information on classes click here.”

For more information or to register for this workshop, contact
Sharol Tilgner- class@herbaltransitions.com