Wood Fired Mobile Oven: hot water system

Hi Everyone:  it has been a long time since my last post...Things have been moving along here.  Currently I am busy building mobile ovens for clients and I wanted to share a recent project built for Donna Wallstin and Shared Ground.  Shared Ground is a food security/educational agricultural project in NJ, just east of Philadelphia.  In many urban areas food security for youths is a central issue limiting kids from equal access to education (can't learn when you are hungry).  In many of these places food of good quality is also hard to come by- a nutritional desert if you will.  Shared Ground is addressing this issues directly and I have been happy to be a part.  This mobile oven will be used on the farm by Donna Wallstin, who is a baker we have worked with for a while and are tickled that she finally has her own oven!  Baking will be part of the food security education shared at the farm.  This oven has a hot water heating system which operates without limiting baking capacity or requiring powered circulation pumps.  The second photo in the sequence shows the tank and plumbing.  Opposite the water tank we installed a wood storage area, which is enclosed by the pine plank door.  

Oven at Sub Rosa

Here are some photos from the sequence at Sub Rosa in Richmond, VA.

Completed oven core: external firebox, double deck with 4' x 6'  hearths, dual assise, mega harness.

Antoine communicates by text message and let's his trowel do the talking.

Finished Oven: reclaimed brick/lime mortar front face veneer, lime plaster sides and rear.   

Door system:  Insulated stainless steel doors with air intakes.

Open the outer doors and the spring hinged baking doors rest inside an internal track
fit into the main frame.  These baking doors slide in and out.  Dual door system will provide
ultimate for baking ergonomics,  steam retention, oven insulation.

Assise, guelard, flue gas transfer to second deck.  When firing second deck guelard hood is removed and "fire tube" set in it's place to connect lower hearth assise (heavy cast iron plate) to upper deck assise.  Fire tube mates with stainless pipe dropping from above to establish continuos channel into upper guelard.

Evrim Dogu: Sub Rosa

Dear Evrim,

Thank you for everything.

So much has come and gone since we first connected about your project about 2 years ago.  It was a long process but all worked out for the best.  We learned a great deal about oven building during that time and were able to engage every ounce of that juice to design and construct your double deck, external firebox, guelard oven and door system to the best of our abilities.  In your big hearted way you pushed us beyond and further to create the oven that you envisioned and knew would offer you just what would be needed for your new bakery.  In your big hearted way we were given the grace of your patience as needed to make all this come together.

You've shown us respect and love as artisans, and so to you we return the gift. And give thanks in the full appreciation of the cycles of reciprocity found between humanity, and in all of nature.   From our hearts and hands to you, and from your heart and hands unto all who break the bread.

May your first bread be in the shape of a heart.

With love and blessings,

William, Antoine, Jeremiah, Pearson

King Arthur First Firing

This week the final task was completed at King Arthur Flour- install of the main oven door.  We designed this custom door last winter and then it was built by hand in our shop here in Burlington by Pearson McCracken, our in-house fabricator/metal artist.

After the doors were installed we gathered the bakers at King Arthur and lit the first curing fire for the oven.  This is our favorite part, of course, and always warms the heart.

They will continue to fire the oven so that is cured and ready to go for Richard Miscovitch's wood-fired baking class next weekend at King Arthur.  His class will be the first to bake in the new oven.

KISMET~Fennville, MI

One of our current projects here,  Kismet Organics in Fennville, MI.

Chris and Mari enlisted us to design and build the wood fired oven for their new bakery, located on their fruit farm in south west Michigan.

The design process created the oven core seen here. It's our first "guelard" style oven- that is an oven with an external firebox option.  In this case the firebox is located below the hearth just right of center in relation to the oven hearth and vault.  The oven may be fired direct to the hearth or through the firebox.  The gases, upon exiting the firebox, pass through a french made "guelard" which is a cast iron hood and directed into the baking chamber.  The combination of direct firing and guelard firing options gives the oven a lot of versatility and enables flexibility in baking schedule.  This external firebox had a by-pass channel and chimney which allows the exhaust to be directed either direct to hearth or direct to chimney by operating a damper to the dedicated chimney.

There is also a heat exchanger located in the tall upper channel at the rear of the oven.  This will capture excess energy from the firing process and transfer it into stored hot water.

The oven has two rear dampers which operate from clevis pin attached rods at the front of the oven- push to open, pull to close.  The dampers may be manipulated to help direct the gases from the guelard hood into alternating corners of the oven chamber.

This rig has a lot of detail...and a lot of flexible use options that with some experience will allow the type of baking performance Chris and Mari felt would best work for their baking schedule.   We are very excited to follow the outcome and learn from them how the oven is performing.
More pics to follow once the hardware is up and wood is burning.

Many thanks to Chris and Mari- some beautiful people we are fortunate to work with.

Jeremiah Church welds harness in place.

True King Spirit

An epic journey has come to an end- the new stone faced wood fired oven at King Arthur Flour is complete.

We are blessed to have been able to complete this project for King Arthur Flour and know that it will serve as the centerpiece for wood fired oven baking classes for many years to come.

The stone is a mix of "granites" from NY State and CT. The soapstone hails from Les Pierres Steatite in Quebec.

All the hardware is custom and built by Pearson McCracken at the Turtlerock shop here in Burlington. The pieces are the wood box at left, peel storage at front left (eight feet deep shelf at bottom for peel, twenty four inch deep shelf above for sheet pans), ash chamber clean out at front right, and lastly the accessory cabinet at deep right below the soapstone counter. The final remaining item is the main oven door, and that project is underway at the time of this entry.

Mega high fives to the on-site crew who held this project in their hearts and directed it through their hands:

Jeremiah Church, Antoine Guerlain, Forrest White, Dave Mora, Pearson McCracken

Without such love for craft this beauty may not have been made manifest.

CRAFT NOT DEAD

King Arthur Flour

We are pleased to be working with King Arthur Flour for the construction of a wood-fired oven for their new classroom. The classroom is part of a massive expansion underway at the King Arthur campus.

Very exciting times for King Arthur and we are lucky to be a part of it.

The photo at left comes from the oven core building sequence.

The larger structure, one completed, will feature a stone veneer with custom hardware, soapstone slab and arch details, wood storage, peel storage, and a small counter top area.

Come back soon for more posts as Operations in Norwich continue. Big thanks to Antoine Guerlain, Jeremiah Church, Pearson McCracken, Forrest White, Susan Miller, Steve Cochran and Richard Miscovitch.