Pizza Oven 5 Years On

We built the pizza oven 5 years ago now, back in 2021. It was a lot of work a the time, especially as we built the whole thing out of cob (the mix of clay, straw and sand). We spent many, muddy, happy hours together building it. 

When we built it we were told it would only last about 2 years before it would need rebuilding. This I thought was fine as we have the materials here, and it's quite a fun job. 

We built a shelter over it to keep the rain off but have never sheeted it over like we have seen some do. Five years later it's still here, as good to cook on as the day we built it. 

 There are a few cracks (and they get a lot bigger when the oven is hot), and each year the children make a few repairs with clay (the white you can see above is some of their modelling clay rather than what's in the sib soil here that we built it from). Bit it's needed no matentance other than that. 

I do get the children to light a few fires in it in winter, and when we start to use it in spring I never do a big firing straight away, instead I'll do a few smaller fires first. 

It's looking very much like it has a few good years in it left yet as well. 

Anyone else built an oven from cob? How long did yours last?

Pizza Oven In January

We have a few birthdays in in January, the youngest had a few friends over at the weekend for a sleepover - although they were up at 4 so I'm not sure much sleeping happened! 

 We fired up the pizza oven for feeding them. It was frosty and cold outside, but I much preferred standing out there, cooking the pizzas, to being inside with the noise and chaos!

Wood Fired Pizza

 Saturday there was that yellow orb in the sky that we haven't seen for months. I decided to seize the opportunity, I got up early and set to making bread, then did my chores and lit the earth oven. 

I then tended it as I went about getting some gardening jobs (potting on far too many tomatoes and peppers), and invited some friends for lunch. Not much notice but it felt like we needed to grab this opportunity to worship the sun for a few hours. 

Pizza Night (Cooked In Our Earth Oven)

So with my middle daughter turning nine at the weekend, she had a little party and a few friends over for a sleepover. 

 Part of me was dreading it (these girls sure do like to talk) but they were so well behaved it was very easy. 

For tea she had asked for pizza in the pizza oven. So me and the Boy fired it up around 2.30 to get it hot enough to cook 8 pizzas on. 

Pizza From The Earth Oven

 I've built a lot of cool things in my time, but one of my favourite projects is the pizza oven. 

My main love it is how much the children love it. You can tell they adore the fact they built it, know how to repair it and make fires in there about once every few weeks to toast marshmallows. It's just a natural way of cooking but somehow cleverer than that. 

Marshmallow Oven!

The pizza oven was a massive undertaking of effort and I was worried that we wouldn't really get to use it until the summer. 

I was wrong though, it has been perfect for the children. they love lighting little fires in it and cooking marshmallows!

Idiot Stick

 I'll do some proper posts soon - things have been busy with Christmas and I have lots of magazine articles to write as well (not that I'm complaining - I love doing those) 

Today was a lovely calm day before my wife goes back to work tomorrow. I decided to start teaching my eldest daughter some axe skills. 

Just simple splitting of some kindling. In the end she filled two chicken feed bags, so she took one round to our elderly neighbours and put one in the woodshed for us to use. You could tell she was super proud of herself and also the fact she could carry the whole sack full - my neighbour even messaged me to say he couldn't believe she carried all that! 

Frist Failed Cob Oven! - Earth Oven Part 2

Once we got to grips with the cob as a building material and found a better way to mix it (Using the paddle mixer I use to mix plaster and plaster board adhesive) we set about making a test oven. 

This was just to be a test oven and see if we could get the materials to work for us. 

Cob Oven

We were lucky enough to be invited to a friend's for tea the other night.

They cooked some amazing pizza in this cob oven they had built themselves as a family.

My Brother's Pizza Oven

If you've read this blog for any length of time you'll know that I come from a practical family. 

My brother has been putting this into practice lately and his latest creation is his beautiful pizza oven!

I'm really impressed with it, he's put so much effort into not only building it but the research side of things as well. 

We've been over three times for pizza now and each time they've been the best tasting pizzas we've ever had. They take a couple of minutes to cook once the pizza is going, with crispy bases and perfectly cooked toppings. You do have to keep your eye on it mind as they burn quickly and there is a bit of technique that's needed to get them in and out cleanly rather than pushing them back into the fire. 

They love making pizza

The girls get really excited about making their own pizzas and then watching them cook. In fact so do I! As well as pizza we've also knocked up batches of garlic butter and made lovely garlic bread and Dave cooked a batch of new potatoes in there as well (possibly the best tasting potatoes I've ever eaten).

Cooking away

All this outdoor cooking has really got me thinking about our outdoor cooking area and what I'd like there once the patio is built. I have to admit that after using my brother's that a pizza oven is pretty high on the list now! 

What would you have in your ideal outdoor cooking area? Who else would like a pizza oven like my brothers?