Comments for Kiko Denzer

Comment on ovens and efficiency by Mario R. Borja

Mario R. Borja — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:27:20 +0000

Hafa Adai, Kiko. I extend our warmest greeting from the Chamorro community of San Diego. I have always been fascinated by ovens since I was 12 years old helping an elderly lady back in a village on the island of Guam. My job was to gather wood and help with the oven clean up before the event. I totally agree with what you wrote. The oven did produce some of the best tasting bread, but what I remember of the period 50 years ago was not the bread but the draw the oven had on the neighbors. It my very well the aroma of freshly baked bread that lured them from behind closed doors, but it was the gathering and sharing that it spawned. Now, at 64 years old I am recalling the goodness theses ovens brought our village, and I am now dedicating my time and resources to building an oven for my community. I have communicated with you several years ago about my ambitions here on building a cob oven. It took this long to gain support from the very people I wanted to pull together with the oven. Finally, I have been given liberty to design and build one. It will be a cob oven for sure. And as an islander I am designing one to look like a huge fish. Fish is good. Several people are quite interested in having me build one for them. I agree with you that it should be a project of many hands, many hearts, and one purpose.

I mentioned this project to the Jacobs Center folks here on San Diego as a means of focusing on the shred humanity among the many cultures here in San Diego. They are excited. CHE'LU San Diego, a non-profit group here will be sponsoring a small cob oven workshop as a startup with invitations going out to the many cultural groups represented in this community here. I have a copy of your book and will use it as an "how to guide". This is going to be exciting and I look forward to it. Tentative plans for September-October of this year. I am now building brick oven using the same "catenary" approach you have used. I would like to share with you some pics of my build.

Thanks for your time. Mario in San Diego

Comment on The Work of Art by Eric

Eric — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:56:35 +0000

Hey Kiko, Great job on "Build your own Earth Oven". I picked up your book on a Saturday night and read it straight thru. The NEXT day on craigslist I scored a TON of free bricks, 18 days later we have fired the oven twice drying it out, having a pizza party on Saturday, Four weeks from purchasing your book!! Would love to share my photos with you, email me whoodis_usa@yahoo.com. Thanks Eric

Comment on ovens and efficiency by Deac

Deac — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:07:03 +0000

I loved your book, but I have a question. I have a firebrick lined (wide open at the front) charcoal grill that was built into the fireplace of my home when it was built (probably 26" high, 48" wide and 24" deep). I would LOVE to make it an enclosed bread/etc oven but since the existing walls are rectangular I cannot easily modify it to a 'dome'. IS there any loss in efficiency if I build an ARCHED oven such that the back wall is vertical(flat) and then I would build in the sides so they form an arch brought out to the front of the oven…….and then I would assume I would reduce the front of the arch for a door opening. Would that design work? Would it work as well if I vented it to the rear vs vented it to the top/front? Thank you.

Comment on We The People vs The Western Diet by pasi arasola

pasi arasola — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:08:45 +0000

I imagine that socialist governments (like ours in Finland) should have an interest, since the gov. pays hospital fees.

If you google Canada Cancer DCA, you will see that a Canadian university discovered a likely cure for cancer. Being unpatentable the medical companies wont touch it with a long stick - naturally, but govenments like ours have not shown interest either.

Quite confusing… perhaps to achieve things these days we need to learn the art of lobbying. Buy our countries back.

Comment on ovens and efficiency by pasi arasola

pasi arasola — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:01:56 +0000

Hi i'm planning to build my first test oven, to be reproduced into pushing carts.

What you say is interesting at an environmental level, but for a mobile cart it would seem vital, as everything pushed around (heating wood) eats valuable space.

I had a look at Indian clay fridges, and more primitive African ones (use a layer of sand between two clay layers), and I would love any possible hints to cheap natural ways to increase efficiency for heat and cold.

Thank you

Comment on Jumping bricks, or: inside out oven building by Charl Roux

Charl Roux — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 10:01:46 +0000

Thank you for all the detail, I am building a oven myself and this site was very helpful.

Comment on Jumping bricks, or: inside out oven building by Ryan Zwahr

Ryan Zwahr — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:56:24 +0000

Kiko,
I have a similar situation with an oven I just built with my kids. The dome ended up being flatter than I had hoped. oven floor width is 36", but height of the dome only ended up being 15.5". I think we may have pushed down too hard when layering the cob - the inside turned out more of a trapezoid shape vs a nice smooth dome shape. I also cut the door a little too high, because it wasn't clear how much the dome had smashed while the sand form was still in. The door height is 11" high, which according to the 63% rule is about 1" too high. I planned to cob the door back down to a shorter height. The door width is approx 15".

Should I tear down and rebuild this oven, or do you think the dome height/floor width ratio is ok?

After firing the oven about 4 times and cooking with it once, it seems that the floor of the oven is not quite getting hot enough for pizza - thought that may be a factor of the door being too high and too much heat escaping.

Thank you,
Ryan

Comment on Two-tier yurt with Bill Coperthwaite by Scott Evans

Scott Evans — Thu, 13 May 2010 07:52:15 +0000

Beautiful Yurt. Did you use roof rafters/ ring beams in order to get that lovely flowing roof line?

Comment on Spoons by Katie

Katie — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:36:40 +0000

How lovely. I had a taste of spoon carving when a generous friend showed us how she makes spoons with gouges. I have a chunky cedar spoon to show for our afternoon lesson and I am saving up for carving tools. I just love the dustpan you made- really great!

Comment on ovens and efficiency by Vicki

Vicki — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:35:45 +0000

Hello Kiko: Although these ovens are not 'efficient', I am entertained by how much one can cook/bake with one firing. When I am most organized, a three hour burn will be enough to start out with pizzas, then go to a couple loads of bread, then can cook any items for dinner, ie. meant, roasted vegetables, whole squash, etc. Then we can put in vegetables or herbs to dry and even a couple apples that will be still warm in the morning. Ours can be at the center of some of our educational programs . . collecting wood, building fire, fire safety, harvesting, grinding, fermenting grains, baking birthday cakes, bread, pizzas. . . storytelling, artistic work. . .

Will you be giving any public bread oven workshops in the summer time? Thank you, Vicki