Cob ovens are not too difficult to build and can be a lot of fun.

One of the people building Underhill House, Brad Selz, had some experience in making cob ovens and offered to guide us through the process.

So after house construction was done for the day, we spent a few extra evenings working on making a cob oven with Brad. I had never considered life with a cob oven, but it has been a fun addition to cooking and socializing. Here’s a post about our first cob oven feast.

Saturday, September 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., we will be sharing what we learned with Brad and what we have learned since about making and baking in a cob oven as part of the Sustainability Weekend at Folklore Village.

We will go over the process of building, fire up the oven and have a wood-fired pizza lunch, then bake some no-knead bread. We’ll also give participants a tour of Underhill House, which we built as a living lab of all the green, local, low carbon footprint building ideas we could fit into 1,400 square feet.

We feel fortunate to live near Folklore Village,  which is a constant font of traditional arts performance and workshops, building community with concerts, barn and other ethnic dances, shared potlucks and locally catered meals.

The Sustainability Weekend will also feature workshops in:

• Keeping It Alive: Fermented Food & Drink
• French-Canadian & Celtic Fiddle
• Log Cabin Reconstruction
• American Old-Time Fiddle
• Mohair Cinches and Guitar Straps
• Ukelele
• Spoon Carving
• Autoharp
• Blacksmithing

Folklore Village is truly passing it on, and we hope we can share some of what we have learned building and living in Underhill House and making our own wood-fired pizza and bread.

The classes are not crowded, and it’s not too late to sign up.

Hope to see you September 9.