First baking... pizza and bread

 The first baking was a bit slow. The fire was not hot enough, but in time the pizza came out to be quite edible. The bread cooked in just under 20 min, to an internal temp of 190. However, (long story) the dough was not the greatest. So there is room for much improvement. We enjoyed the pizza and will try the bread for breakfast. It's a start and with luck and patience, we will figure this out. One thing for sure, this way does not heat up the kitchen!

Memorial Day Planting At Last

Chile Peppers and Tomatoes

 

Tomatoes/Sweet Peppers

Cold Frame/Plant nursery

Memorial Day has always been the benchmark for planting the garden. In the northeast kingdom, zone 3, that can be iffy. I took a chance this year. The plants were ready to go in, the irrigation system was connected (see black tubes going to each tub) and the weather finally warmed up nicely. The containers were mixed up with soil amendments and then planted. This summer the theme is Chile Peppers, growing and preserving.  They were slow to sprout and grow in the house, but they took nicely to the warm greenhouse today. They should be happy in such a hot place for the summer.

Decorating the Wood-Fired Oven

At the end of the day, May 19, 2011, the front of the oven looked like this. To see what took place all day long to get to this stage, click on the link to the slide show:  Oven Decoration Day  The electric heater inside is drying and curing the mortar. John and I had a ball doing this together, using things we had collected up in the Canadian Maritimes years ago. Red beach sand from the coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, scallop shells from Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, various other shells from various other beaches, cookie cutters, hand made clay marbles from a confiscated collection in the attic of our former house in Gill, Mass, and mirrors from window mobiles bought in Johnson, Vermont.  There are still other things that must be done before we can start building little fires to break it in. The oven will be insulated with vermiculite and the chimney has to be installed. Another month maybe before we are ready to bake.

Building the Wood-Fired Oven

 

The mason, Bill Roddy, took a few days off after working on the oven 6 days a week. He has completed the oven and we will attempt to dry it, set the concrete etc. over a long and rainy weekend. We put an electric heater inside to help the process. The next step will be to start the first stucco layer. Kyla, my craft buddy from town, has agreed to come and help me apply the shells and other things to the second coat of stucco. 

Here is the link to the slide show of the building of the oven. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nekcarolyn/sets/72157626594681775/show/

The Oven Begins....

Today the masons arrived. We are waiting for the materials to be delivered and measuring, measuring, and remeasuring. And so the wood-fired oven project begins. There will be slide show when it is done, rather than daily postings, oh no no no.Much too busy keeping up for that. Stay tuned, a couple of weeks tops.

A Natural Ritual

 Every spring, during late April early May, we have tried to witness the annual migration of the Steel Head Trout up the Willoughby River in Orleans. Brownington where we live, is next to Orleans and the Willoughby comes barreling through Brownington before it hits this gorge on its way north to Lake Memphremagog. After the water goes under the bridge, it opens up and generally there will be dozens of fisherman there, hoping to snag one of the big beauties. The steel head is really a rainbow trout and in some of the pictures you get a faint rosy glow on the side. Click on the link to see a slideshow of the run. We have dreamed of getting these pictures for almost ten years. Thanks to a tip-off from a neighbor yesterday, we saw this wonderful ritual passage where the river runs north.



Steel Head Run up the Willoughby River, Orleans, VT May 2,2010