Build Your Own Earth Oven: A Low Cost Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves

A+++! This book is the perfect guide to building your own earthen oven, adding on a hand sculpted design, and it even shows you other design options. It has everything you need for the basics of making a working earthen oven and then leaves tons of room for your own creativity and design ideas. I really loved this book and we have already built a small prototype. The author combines logic and science with creativity and art, you have to love it!

I read the book, and immediately wanted to build an oven.Wonderfully written and easy to follow. It was so easy in fact that i was able to build my oven, with the help of my 10 year old son over the summer. Man hours totatled about 30. I will now build a friends oven as a surprsie next weekend! IT is that easy!Read this book and you too will realize that you can indeed built your own oven, easily, cheaply and with fun for all involved.*Build your own Earth Oven* is simply AMAZING!

I ran a summer family camp in July 2002 and built the smaller oven in one day. I had kids from age two to fifty two stomping the clay, sand, hay and water with thier feet. I set fire in the oven on day two and made our first loaf of bread. The directions are easy to follow and was a hit with my fourty campers. I would highly recommend this book. A great family or group activity! Loved it.

In Build Your Own Earth Oven: A Low-Cost, Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves, Kiko Denzer offers readers clearly presented, step-by-step instructions for building a superbly effective, wood-fired oven out of common backyard soil. The informative, "reader friendly" text is profusely illustrated with drawings and photos. There is a simple presentation on the principles and procedure for making authentic sourdough bread, as well as directions for oven-firing and references on food, baking, and building. A unique "how to" manual, Build Your Own Earth Oven will prove to be of enormous interest for the environmentally resource conscious, the adventurous do-it-yourself hobbyists, and back-to-nature, simple life enthusiasts!

Reading Kiko Denzer's book for the second time this December, as I thought about friends who would most enjoy a copy as a present, I was struck again by the artistic beauty and integrity of the book as a whole. Unlike most manuals, Denzer talks about life, not just bread, or ovens, or art. The sculptural ovens delight the eye; the color photos and flowing drawings inspire. The instructions are clear and suffused with a philosophy of simple, harmonious living. Quotes add an unexpected depth. Finally, the explanation of bread-making science and technique makes a full circle of the various experiences of making, eating, and living. The design and excellent presentation has drawn positive comments from friends, anthropologists, ecologists, as well as visitors and professional community workers from Mali, Tunisia, Japan, England, Ireland. Another friend, after seeing the book, went home with plans to build an oven for the intentional community where she lives. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, I helped people build improved cook stoves (out of earth) in West Africa. Now, as an anthropologist, professor, trainer, and returned Volunteer I especially appreciate instructional texts that respect traditions of living within material limits. I would highly recommend this book, not only to home bakers and builders, but particularly to teachers and others who work in community settings.