1,000 clay bricks

While I waited for my cement to harden, I bought normal clay bricks from Langkloof brick yard. I worked on roughly 1,000 brickes for the oven, including the base. I also started collecting clay from a farm in the area, building sand and cutting grass. The clay had to be worked with the feet to achieve the perfect consistency! I then mixed the sand and grass to the clay and stomped this mixture thoroughly.

In my first oven, I mixed one part clay with one part sand and half a part grass. Considering that the oven worked very well and I had experienced no cracking, I was not going to deviate from that recipe.

It was hard work to mix everything together and be certain it was mixed well - this is a crucial step! I added water until the clay had the consistency of building sement.

When I was certain the cement was hard (after about two weeks of keeping the cement base wet!) I lay the first layer of clay bricks on top af the clay mix or mortar. I decided on a small narrow chimney to maximize the size of the inside of the oven. I designed the oven so that the chimney would be choked when the door is closed, thus creating a sealed oven for baking. The fire would be burnt out and the oven cleaned before bread is put into the oven. When making pizza or baked vegetables, for example, the door would be kept open with a fire right in the back of the oven.

After the first layer, a base layer of clay brick was added on top of the cement base. Now, it was just a question of building the wall to the desired height. Each brick was dipped in water before building and was kept wet during the whole process. It took a full day to build the walls up to 650mm (including the base layer).

You reap what you sow

I was paging through book on Taoism this weekend, and in the preface it was mentioned that the writer based his philosophy on the idea that "you will reap what you sow".

I like this philosophy when it comes to building baking ovens. Take your time, build strong and build straight, and you will reap the benefits tenfold in the form of delectable oven-baked delights. Considering that I am not a qualified builder, I enlisted the help of George the builder to lay the cement base for the oven - the foundation was 250mm wide and 200mm deep! George built a strong cement base to support the oven, and I had to make sure he never strayed - otherwise there would be greater problems at a later stage in the process. The size of the base was 1800mm wide, 2m long and 800mm high.




Next, when the base was well dried, we poured a slab of cement on top of it. We used gum poles to build a box to hold this cement in place, which would later be removed.




When the plans for my oven started taking shape, a family of Lesser Striped Swallows started building a nest on my patio. Their nest is made up of a bowl with a long tubular entrance, and it consists of mud pellets - so there were two building projects on the farm using earth! The female started brooding a few days before I started my building.

After all the hard work, who will reap the benefets first? Will it be the swallows, or will it be Charl? The race is on!

A rustic introduction

Well, to be honest, I was about to jump into this 'blog'-thing head first until my well-studied and wise daughter insisted I introduce myself properly. So, here goes! My name is Charl Roux, and I live in the Tsitsikamma (which is a Khoi word for 'place of abundant water'), close to the sea. Pictured below is the view from my front door (as well as my bed - mmm!). My hands-on relationship with food started when I built my first clay oven a few years ago, serving fresh bread, meat, cheese(which I was produsing on the farm from my own goats), olives and other tapas from the farm. Next, I plan on building a clay oven and crafting breads, foods and desserts in the oven. Firstly, I will concentrate on perfecting comercial white and brown breads as well as a few artisan breads, such as rye, ciabatta, and potato sour dough. In this blog, which will document this ongoing journey, I will show you how to build an oven and share recipes as I test, try, serve and enjoy them. Hopefully, you will get to see a glimpse of my life, including my family, friends, surroundings and ideas as time passes.

When this is established, I want to start serving food straight out of the oven once a week - every Sunday - and as bookings pick up I will work towards firing the oven for two days a week. Eventually, I hope to turn it into a fully-functioning restaurant. I believe that time will mould my plans and - considering that I am quite flexible - I will grow with them. So, welcome to my journey - I hope you have as much fun as I know I am. Put on your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy, bumpy ride!