Mini earth oven

We have been wanting to build an earth oven for a while, and we decided to try and make a "mini" oven this weekend to test out our building soil and our technique. It was a lot of fun, and we were so impressed by how easy it was, that we are going to start the foundation for a bigger one soon. The book we are using is Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer.

We arranged some large pavers on a wood base and built our sand dome on top of that:

Mixing the clay/sand mixture to the right consistency - the kids' favorite part:

Adding the clay/sand mixture over the sand dome.

Somewhere in the middle of this, it started pouring down rain - woo hoo! We kept the oven dry with an umbrella.

Cutting the door and scooping out the sand mold:


Then we lit a fire to help dry out the inside.

We hope to be able to fire it up later this weekend and cook a few mini pizzas. This oven is not insulated, so we don't expect it to hold heat for very long, but we'll see! More to come!