Communal Ovens (more domestic arts)

SherryMayo · Post by **SherryMayo** » 10 Aug 2005, 13:11

Some European countries such as France and Crete have a tradition of communal ovens. A village had a communal wood-fired oven which was used for baking bread and cooking meals (and some still do). It would be fired up in the morning to "white heat" - this means hot enough to burn off the soot - and because of the very large thermal mass it takes hours to cool down.

During this time is is used for baking and cooking, first for things like pizzas and hearth-breads which need very hot temperatures, and then for regular bread, and after that for casseroles and other meals. Households would bring their dough, crock pots etc to the oven at the appropriate times.

I really like this idea - it makes efficient use of renewable resources (much more effective than lots of individual ovens) and it builds community. We may not need such things in the immediate future, but I think it is an interesting idea for people looking at powerdown or building low-energy communities.

CERES - a city farm and sustainability demo centre here in Melbourne - has built a communal oven and has a bake every few weeks. There are also instructions for building these types of ovens on the web from a czech guy living in Brisbane, Australia - see:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/
A scaled up version would make a nice communal oven. He also has some photos of a couple of traditional ovens on his site:
http://www.traditionaloven.com/building ... king.shtml
http://www.traditionaloven.com/building ... kery.shtml

Rach121 · Post by **Rach121** » 10 Aug 2005, 23:43

What a fantastic idea. I've been trying to persuade my friend to go halves on a small wood fired oven, as we make a lot of bread and wanted to branch out into authentic pizzas.

I lived in the Lot Valley in France for a while and the local village had a communal oven. It's main function was to provide a social hub, the cooking was a delicious by-product!
I LOVE country bread cooked in a woodfired oven...i'm getting all nostalgic now

beev · Post by **beev** » 11 Aug 2005, 17:05

My mouth is watering!

PowerSwitchJames · Post by **PowerSwitchJames** » 12 Aug 2005, 17:47

Communal ovens are a great idea and make so much sense. If we're encouraging people to share their cars, no reason they shouldn't share ovens!

RogerCO · Post by **RogerCO** » 12 Aug 2005, 21:47

Isn't a communual oven and the role of 'Baker' one of the first trades/specialisms that emerges as communities become stabilised. The fact that we have lost it (and only relatively recently - there were certainly still village bakeries where I grew up in Sussex in the 60s, and when we moved to Cornwall in the 80s there was still a very good village baker in the first place we lived) is a symptom of the 'disconnectedness' of life in our current civilization. As things are forced to move back to a more local footing as oil and transport becomes difficult then the re-emergence of the local baker will probably be one of the first positive effects of the 'crash'.

Thinking about it the local bakery is often still there in a proto form in your local supermarket who are probably providing a 'bake-off' service to ensure they have some attractive fresh bread and tantalizing aromas to entice you into coming back.

RogerCO · Post by **RogerCO** » 12 Aug 2005, 21:48

Isn't a communual oven and the role of 'Baker' one of the first trades/specialisms that emerges as communities become stabilised. The fact that we have lost it (and only relatively recently - there were certainly still village bakeries where I grew up in Sussex in the 60s, and when we moved to Cornwall in the 80s there was still a very good village baker in the first place we lived) is a symptom of the 'disconnectedness' of life in our current civilization. As things are forced to move back to a more local footing as oil and transport becomes difficult then the re-emergence of the local baker will probably be one of the first positive effects of the 'crash'.

Thinking about it the local bakery is often still there in a proto form in your local supermarket who are probably providing a 'bake-off' service to ensure they have some attractive fresh bread and tantalizing aromas to entice you into coming back.