Ovencrafters began as a request, from Laurel Robertson who is
a friend and also the author of the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. She asked me to build a brick
oven for her kitchen. When her first loaves emerged from that oven I knew that something lost was
miraculously being rebirthed. Since this beginning in 1982 many other long lost aspects of bread baking,
milling and growing grains have been rediscovered; even wood heat has revealed itself to be the
only ecologically sound, sustainable and non polluting source of energy for small scale bakeries.
However it is largely the inimitable deep penetrating heat of this new generation of masonry ovens that has triggered
much of this work. Ovencrafters oven designs have been developed in the field over the last 25 years culminating in
a type of oven that never existed before this. These oven constitute a radical departure in building technique and use
that has made it possible for the first time for small rural based home and village bakeries to be viable and compeditive with the
industry at any level. With the ongoing loss of middle class occupations throughout western societies, many with even moderate
skills and capital can create an invaluable small business in their communities that will find ready support from them in return.
Many are finding for the first time the joy of meanigful work in the bosum of their communities and free from the distant hidden
grip of the corporate world at last.
Purpose
Ovencrafters' purpose is to earn a right livelihood for its
staff guided by Gandhian principles, particularly; "Policy
with princples, commerce with morality, wealth through work, and science with humanity".
Ovencrafters' truly revolutionary oven designs and self building processes are inspiring a return to nourishing, handmade bread in the
family home, and at a local level.
Keith Iwato-Smith and Jason, Founder of Dreamhill
Bakery Oregon
"Real work is never a disagreeable chore. It contributes to life rather than taking from it;
it gives us the chance to discover and hone our skills, to see how we fit into life, and to lose
our sense of isolation by sharing a common goal with our fellow human beings." Page 82, "The
Compassionate Universe" Eknath Easwaran
"Why spend your substance on what will not nourish and your labor on what cannot satisfy?" Ancient Mid East Proverb
Oven Construction