Back to Guatemala

In another couple of days I'll be heading back to Guatemala. I think it's my seventh trip, and I'm as excited as usual. My first two trips were to construct ovens for Safe Passage by the Guatemala City dump. The dump experience is one I'll never forget. You can see the ovens being constructed on YouTube.
More recently, I've been going to Guatemala with a group called Masons On A Mission and we build energy efficient stoves for the Mayas in the villages around Lake Atitlan.

Besides building stoves, I've been trying to learn how to make corn tortillas, and I'm probably the only male who has attempted this is Guatemala. It's definitely not something that men do, but the women are quite accommodating in letting me participate. As hard as I try to make a tortilla that the Mayas approve of, I'm quite confident I'll achieve another failure.

Bread Baking and Oven Building Class

This spring I'll be teaching a bread baking and oven building class. Although the class is currently filled, there is a waiting list, and I might consider adding another class.

Do you enjoy really great bread, but don't know how to make it, or if you do, it causes a lot of anxiety? If yes, then join me and all your bread baking hassles will be over. We will be baking in my wood-fired oven outdoors, but we will also be baking in my conventional gas range in the kitchen. Outdoors we'll make all types of flat breads which may include pitas, journey cakes, zatar, bagels, bialys, onion breads superieur and brick oven pizza. Indoors our focus will be sourdough and yeasted loaves, utilizing my no-knead technique. Expect to bake undercover with cloches to achieve that perfect crust.      A complimentary sourdough starter will be available for all. The primary focus of this class is hands-on bread baking, but while the bread is in the oven, we'll watch some bread baking videos, and also for those who are interested, we can assemble a small brick oven outdoors, a perfect low-cost oven that you can build at home for your pizza parties!   Lunch included. A materials fee of $20 must be made payable to Stu Silverstein and submitted to the adult ed office at the time of registration. Your place will not be held until the materials fee is received. $29.00 Online price Available slots:  0

Course location Location address not available. Please contact us for the exact location of where this course will be held. Phone: 873-5754-Waterville/Winslow ~ 465-9134-Messalonskee Course schedule This course meets Sat from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm for 1 week. Start date: June 2nd, 2012 End date: June 2nd, 2012 Course details Instructor: SILVERSTEIN, STU Course ID: 2009248.312

GardenFork.TV

Check out this website for lots of useful information about baking, gardening, home repairs and just about anything else that you might find useful or not.There is even a video of the construction of a portable brick pizza oven based on a design from Bread Earth and Fire.
Instead of having to buy angle iron (expensive), Eric came up with the ingenious idea of cutting up an old iron bed frame that was made from angle iron. Hey, recycle and reuse when you can.

Insulated oven base just waiting for pizza oven

 

Fire almost reaching the plasma (love that word) stage. Note the firewood drying on top. The top is also a neat place for keeping baked pizzas hot. Watch the video to see how easy it is to construct the oven. No mortar required!