Making a start

No baking today as we are off to an event organised by the Starlight charity. The kids will get to fly in planes and helicopters and ride in vintage cars.
Had a mad pie making session yesterday (pies do not cause madness) and have my order ready for Denver Windmill. Going to show the boys one of the married quarters I lives in as a child at RAF Odiham. Will be a long day but well worth it.
Four weeks until two more customers open their businesses and I have had a sample order placed for the farm shop of a large stately home oop North.


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Location:Kitchen

The end of an era.

Hi All,
Well that's it, I have finished my six week workshop at Great Hockham Primary School.
It has been a great introduction to teaching cob and it's uses to young children. 
This is in part due to the children being so keen and attentive, but mostly due to the enthusiasm and drive of the wonderful people responsible for bringing me into the school in the first place.
So a big thank you to Rachael Garrod and Bev Page, for tirelessly corralling children and preparing endless cups of juice and tea.
In this last lesson the children were given a big pile of sticky cob, and allowed to mould it into all manner of hideous and creative shapes from cats to caterpillars as well as gargoyles and roadkill!


This workshop has proved that it is possible to detach even the most earnest gamer from their console, and engage them in a building material that is as old as the hills.
I hope that this success can carry on into the coming years as Cob-It spreads the word of Cob.


Stay tuned for further updates as I am attending a Collaborative Leadership course at West Lexham Manor this weekend. 
Check out the West Lexham website to get a better idea of where it is I will be spending the next few days.
www.westlexham.org 


See you all soon and 
keep on cobbing.

LOA ALL THE WAY

Hi All,
Today has been a day of synchronisities like I have never seen before.


I was busily searching through Google for a recipe for Sourdough starter, when for some reason I felt the need to type West Lexham in.


Before I knew it I was on the phone to Edmund Coleville, the enigmatic front man for this amazing organisation.


I wanted to know whether or not there was a Permaculture design course running, and ended up being invited over to talk in more depth about a course that is running this week.


So I cleared my schedule for the rest of the week and drove over to West Lexham, just outside of Swaffham.


Driving out of Swaffham towards Fakenham there is only a small sign pointing towards West Lexham. So I hung a right and headed through the leafy green lanes towards the village.


Passing the solitary phone box I rounded several corners, with the last one revealing a large brick wall with a huge carriage archway set in the middle. To the left was a small sign bearing the distinctive cloud emblem of Westlexham.org.


Parking up I could not see a soul, so set off on foot to see what was afoot.


Walking down through a complex of old farm buildings I came across a rustic outdoor kitchen with a huge cob oven smack bang in the middle. Now I knew that I had found the right place.


I approached to hard working women elbow deep in washing up, and asked them if Edmund was about.
A brief phone call and Edmund arrived, brushing his hair out of his face furiously, as if it was just one more job that he didn't need.


Edmund then briefed me on what West Lexham is all about and took me on a whistle stop tour of the developing site, including a piggery that would eventually put a decent hostel to shame.


After a cup of tea and a chat it was decided that I would help deliver the course that is running this week. 
In exchange for helping to host those arriving to take part, I have been awarded a free place and accommodation!  
This course is a stepping stone to many more like it that are held each week at West Lexham.


I will post more after I finish the course as it promises to be a great weekend. Especially as I get to live in a bell tent for three nights.


Tomorrow I am providing a pizza lunch for a group of seniors at The Surge in Watton. After which I will be taking my final session with my friends at Great Hockham Primary School.


Well that's it for today. See you soon and,
keep cobbing


Ps, have a look at West Lexham. www.westlexham.org 

Free Stuff

Hi All,


Today was a fairly laid back affair until three o'clock this afternoon when Robin Gorham from Flaming Good Firewood Ltd (www.firewoodandbriquettes.co.uk) called me to say that he had a few bits of firewood to drop off at The Surge.


When I arrived to unload it I was expecting a sack or two of firewood. What I was greeted with was a whole trailer full of both kindling and split logs, which took an hour and a half to carry through to the oven.


I would like to thank Robin massively, as this 'bit' of fire wood will keep the oven burning for many hours.


As if this wasn't generous enough, robin also donated a bag of briquettes and has agreed to donate a custom made wood store, which he will build and install at The Surge within the next two weeks.


Well it's early to bed for me as I will be up at 4am to bake bread ready tomorrows Farmers Market in Watton, then it will be over to The Surge for about 9am to fire up the oven to get it nice and hot for the lunchtime pizza session that is planned.


That's it for now, see you tomorrow for my last entry for The Surge and perhaps some lovely pics of stone baked pizza.


Keep on cobbing.

All work and no play.......

Hi All,


Today was all about tidying up and making sure that the oven performed as intended.


We started by clearing the site and preparing a small fire in the mouth of the oven, which I built up and eventually shovelled to the rear of the oven.


As the oven reached 400 degrees centigrade it cracked slightly which is to be expected.


I prepared a small batch of pizza dough whilst the flames in the oven burnt down to large embers. I then spread the embers across the oven floor to create an even cooking surface temperature. I then put in place the arch form as a temporary cooking door.


To prove the dough I simply sat the dough in a covered bowl on top of a house brick on top of the oven because, at this stage, the oven was hot enough on the outside to prove bread dough.


After half an hour (instead of an hour and a half) the dough was knocked back, kneaded and left to prove for a second time (twenty minutes was ample.)


I then cut the dough into several small chunks and rolled them on a lightly floured surface until they were really thin.
Then I floured by pizza peel and slid the dough on. Adding a dollop of pizza topping sauce and a handful of mozzarella cheese I pulled out the door to the oven and slid my peel inside, whipping it away to let the pizza fall onto the hot bricks. (Don't worry I had swept aside the embers and cleaned the floor of the oven with a damp tea towel.)


Each pizza took about twenty seconds to cook and were by general consensus delicious.
So practice went well and come this Saturday I am hoping that much more people turn out for pizza.


Here's to the next project, what ever it may be.

Keep on cobbing.

You have to earn your Peroni around here son!

Hi All,


What a fantastic day!
The sun was up early and stayed all day with no let up. 
I had the assistance of some awesome cobbers today, so I would like to thank Jake, Billie, Stellan, Ben, Elaine, Stephen as well as a few others, you know who you are and thank you.


Today we had to not only make a monster amount of cob, due to the fact that we were now covering a much larger surface area.
We started around midday and didn't finish making the cob until around three in the afternoon. 
Then Elaine and I mixed in the chopped straw, which was kindly donated by Andrew Garner of Griston.
The mix became very stiff and became very hard to shovel. We left it to dry slightly (time for tea and a natter sat on a hay bale, well rural!)
After we had let the mix set up, we shoveled it into two wheelbarrows and a handful of buckets and even a large planter.
We had pre-scored the outside layer of the oven to help the next layer key in.
I then spent two and a half very happy hours applying the layers of cob "loaves".
Each loaf had to be connected to the  course beneath by poking a "cobbers thumb" (stick the size of a big thumb) through the loaf and into the one below. This sews the courses together by forcing straw from one loaf into another.


Once the oven was totally covered I went round and trimmed the very longest straw sticking out of the oven, and then set about pouring over a clay slip.
The slip had been made over a three day period by dropping small lumps of clay into water in a large plastic bin and letting it stand. 
Then this morning I used a cordless drill and a mortar mixer paddle to blend the clay and water into the consistency of double cream.


Pouring from the top down I worked the slip over by hand until it covered the oven, and me!


Now the exciting and nerve wracking bit, I gingerly removed both door shims and then very gently removed the form for the arch.
Thankfully the arch held and the sand behind the form sat there waiting to be removed.


The sand that I then pulled out filled two wheelbarrows and there was still a heap left on the floor.
Using my arms, sticks, shovels and a bit of blue language I managed to get all of the sand out .
Now for the bit I had been looking forward to since I first cut the turf six days ago, I got to light the first small fire.


The concern was that if I had miscalculated the height of the arch by even a small margin, the fire would choke and the arch would have to be rebuilt.


No such thing happened and within no time I had a small but hot fire burning in the front of the oven.
Building the fire up gently with increasingly large pieces of kindling and then eventually full logs, I was able to build a respectable fire at the back of the oven. 


Although initially I had to use a copper blow pipe, the fire did eventually start drawing in fresh air which was clearly visible as a layer of clear air beneath the blanket of thick smoke. Slightly geeky but I felt an enormous sense of achievement at building my very first bread oven.


Tomorrow morning I will make good on the site and remove excess materials, tidy the outside of the oven and apply a further slip coat or two.


Once the site is tidy I will then fire the oven and try out some flat breads to test out my new pizza shovels (peels) and see how the oven performs.


Now time for a well earned Peroni.

Keep on cobbing.

Cob between my toes and sunburnt shoulders.

Hi All,

Today was awesome. We saw children and adults puddling cob for the first time, some of them even went barefoot, me included.

The weather stayed lovely and warm almost all day and we managed to produce four wheelbarrows full of cob, more than enough to achieve our goal of getting the form and first thermal layer up.

The form was a challenge, primarily because it was just so flippin' big. The base measured 31.5" x 21.5" and was 20" high in the middle. 

Despite three sizeable sand avalanches, we managed to get a lovely smooth firm form up and stable ready for the cob.

Whilst we were preparing the cob (three and a half hours of puddling) the newspaper that we had wet and draped over the form had dried out and blown all over the place, so this had to be rewetted and put back on, as this paper stops the clay bonding to the sand form inside and potentially ruining the final product.

After some fairly serious puddling, a few achey legs and hips and some fairly seriously sunburnt shoulders, we had a lovely firm cob mix ready for application.

Taking my time and really revelling in the experience of building such a big oven, I used all of the cob that we had made, but needed a couple more bucket loads to get the whole thermal layer finished. now for the finishing touches.

As soon as the thermal layer was finished I set about smoothing out all the little joints using my hands, which is therapeutic and nerve wracking, as I have never worked on this scale before. 

Once relatively smooth, I took the final step of smacking the whole layer with a smooth piece of timber (recycled dado rail), this bonds the molecules a little more firmly and gives a good finish.

Finally I packed the joints in my brick arch with cob and tidied up all of the joints.

And that's it! 

My feet are buggered and I ache all over, but I am the happiest person alive.

See you all Wednesday for the next instalment, enjoy the pictures.

Keep on cobbing.