Photoclubalpha

I love photography, but I think I more a lover of the wild nature.

I have a chalet in the north of Quebec where I like to take picture (macro, wildlife, landscape, etc ). But this weekend I have found time to realized an old dream. Making my own Bread oven with only things found in the nature (Except for the Rope ).



http://www.pbase.com/nadeauf/fourapainnaturel

I'm already doing all my food (bread, yogourt, etc ) at home, but it is special to bake your stuff if you own oven.

(all pictures taken with my trusty A700 and 18-200mm ).

Regards,

Frank

Hi Frank - what a fantastic experiment! You obviously had to work very hard to make the oven. It looks great. If this was the first time you had done this then I am even more impressed as it looks very "professional" .

I am amazed that the little oven works as I would not have thought there was not enough air to get to the fuel to make it burn - but it obvioulsy works well. The bread must have tasted great in the fresh air, after all of the hard effort. Thanks for a really interesting set of pictures.

I'd like to call you 'the man of the planet' for this week for doing something with the planet for the good of the planet, Frank! Would even hand out a tiny 'natural' award too if I could make the adsl lines materialize it on your end...

I'm so proud of this project of yours and you, if I may say so. Those who gave you a hand and pair of feet also deserve the big thanks of course!

A day's hard work and the next morning it was ready to bake those delicious pans of bread...inspiring set of photos I must say. I saw these earthen ovens in the villages here but this, coming from an urban man is more valuable for making a choice in this regard.

Congratulations! And please continue non-stop with your next projects-in-mind..

Thanks a million for sharing,

Yildiz

Birma wrote:Hi Frank - what a fantastic experiment! You obviously had to work very hard to make the oven. It looks great. If this was the first time you had done this then I am even more impressed as it looks very "professional" .

.

This was the first time I tried this, but I think about how to make it for almost 6 months ... Once the idea and the plan was clear in my mind, I just had to make my hands (and family hands) do the rest .

Regards,

Frank

Bon app! Maybe you can use the oven to melt your own glass and then build your own lenses. Now that would be fun. We have one of these electrical bread machines, not bad, but your oven beats it, I guess.

Frank, thanks for sharing this. Everyone, try the slide show button in Frank's link.

A large version of this type of oven is becomming popular in the local pizzarias. A frind of mine fired his up and made his first pie on the day I got my 7D. He's still in business and the fire in the oven has never gone out since then.

I made this slide show for him. The elapsed time from the first image to the last was about 5½ minutes.

Winston wrote: A frind of mine fired his up and made his first pie on the day I got my 7D. He's still in business and the fire in the oven has never gone out since then.

Oh boy! After that slide show I predict that I will be eating pizza tonight Yummy.

Did you get in to the oven for the "cooking" shot ?

Now, can Henry be coaxed into providing further ethnic oven photos? Don't they do something with hot stones and burying them in the sand with leaf wrapped fish in Hawaii?

Frank, this is so cool! I showed it to my wife and she said that someday she wants me to build her one too.

Birma wrote:Now, can Henry be coaxed into providing further ethnic oven photos? Don't they do something with hot stones and burying them in the sand with leaf wrapped fish in Hawaii?

I don't have any photos from here in Hawaii, but here are some scanned slides from West Papua, New Guinea a few years ago. There are many more on my website along with a trip report.

This is what I wrote in my trip report about the first two photos:

It must have been a good excuse for a celebration so he brought out 2
cous-cous that he had killed that day with his bow and arrow. A
cous-cous appears to be a large rodent similar in appearance to a
opossum with a hairless tail. One of the porters skinned and cleaned
the cous-cous and at the same time other porters gathered up some
(wild?) squash, green leaves, wood, and rocks from the river. Janus
took the intestines down to the river and while Richard, Rosemary, and
I watched he carefully cleaned them in the water. He used a long,
smooth, straight stick to push the contents out and then repeatedly
let the fast running water fill the intestine and wash the rest out.

The porters proceeded to build a large fire made up of alternating
layers of wood and rocks. Once the fire was going they dug a hole
about 3 feet deep and 4 feet in diameter nearby. After the fire had
consumed most of the wood they then took sticks 1-2 inches in diameter
and split the end up for about 2 feet. They used these split sticks
to pick up the hot rocks in the fire and line the bottom and walls of
the hole with them. They then put a layer of wet grass and leaves in
the hole and then another layer of rocks. They continued doing this
and at various points they put the cous-cous, squash, and potatoes in
also. When they were done there was a steaming mound about a foot
high where the hole had once been. After only an hour or so, and by
then it was very dark, they started unpacking the mound with their
bare hands. By feel, they could identify the edible leaves, potatoes,
squash, and finally the real prize: the cous-cous. We soon helped
out by pointing a couple of flashlights into the hole for them. The
porters passed pieces of steamed squash to us and we enjoyed eating
with them in the dark. We tried a small bit of the cous-cous, but we
wanted to let them keep most of it for themselves. They had obviously
been relishing the thought of chowing down on it for the last couple
of hours. They were small animals and there were almost 20 porters
plus the old man.






This is what I wrote in my trip report about the next photo:

The morning after we woke up in the hut with the multitude of rats we
experienced a pig feast put on by the village. A pig was selected,
one man held its ears while another held its hind legs and they lifted
it off the ground. Another man then stood about 6 feet away and aimed
an arrow at the pig's heart and released. He then grabbed the shaft
of the arrow protruding from the pig and "stirred" it around a few
times and withdrew it. The two men released the pig and it walked
around for awhile and squealed until the 3 men, apparently, decided
that the heart must have been missed. They then picked the pig up and
shot the pig again. This time the pig seemed much less energetic
after being released and after a few minutes collapsed. They spread
some banana leaves on the ground and butchered the
pig and prepared it to be cooked. Previously a fire and hole had been prepared similar
to the one used to cook the cous-cous in the jungle several days
earlier -- only larger. Before, during, and after the pig slaughter
there was ceremony involved. It was obvious that there was a method
in the way things were done. In addition, all the people of the
village had dressed up in their finest with exquisite horims on
display, paint on faces and bodies, pig teeth necklaces on, and
feathers in the hair of many.

Frank and Henry- Thanks a million for sharing the photos and experiences. I love the fantastic stories and information that the two of you have shared. I am so glad KevinBarret introduced me to this website... John

If I was into publishing books, I think I'd rather like to publish Henry's life journal - illustrated.

David

David Kilpatrick wrote:If I was into publishing books, I think I'd rather like to publish Henry's life journal - illustrated.

David

Though I can't undermine Frank's good-natured enthusiasm to create something so nice and utilize it too, it's true that Henry has some good stories on his website.

In fact, I remember one of his trips where he describes the mosquitos that attacked them at some primitive village area when he was travelling with a group. The vision was so vivid for me that now, in Istanbul, whenever one or two mosquitos circle over my head at night to feed on some blood, I remember his stories...and my momentary discomfort feels less painful.


Yildiz

Interesting how easterners thrive to live like westerners do while the latter try to return back to their roots
After the fall of the soviet empire, during the early 90s, we "traveled" back to stone age and made everything the "natural" way. Those were harsh and very difficult times. Just think of surviving in winter with temperatures reaching - 25 C outside, while there were no electricity, nor gas nor anything...

Very nice series, Henry.
And a contribution from me, something very very common here in Armenia.

Hi Dr. Harout,

I'm familiar with the ovens in your photo. It's hardest on the person who sticks the flat bread dough on the surface of the oven well; far too hot. More common in the villages of Turkey are the ones built like domes above ground, resembling the one that Frank built.
Actually, I like the flat breads baked this way, especially if they are made from a special dark whole wheat's flour. They smell nicely different and taste sweet. Hard to come by in city bakeries.

Yildiz

Afiyet olsun!

bossel wrote:Afiyet olsun!

Size de öyle olsun! ( Likewise, to you too! )

Yildiz