I manged to bake my 1st pizza on this weekend. As it was baked in higher temprature than a usual electric oven, its surface was very crispy but still it kept moisture in crust and felt soft. After long, devoted 6 months work, my wife and I really savoured its taste, although it was a little hectic to go back and forth between a coffee table in the living and the oven in the garden. I look forward to spending an afternoon around the oven in a warm day in the next summer.
I found a couple of issues. There came no instruction with the oven, I need to do some experiments on the use, especially on firing. Today, I burned fire woods 10-15cm thick, but they took for a while to burn up. I think a quick hot fire is better than a slow, long fire. I will use more kindling size wood next time.
Also, my rake, which is used to pull out coals at the end of firing, is too large. I often scraped the wall around the door. I have to make the rake smaller and need some reinforcement of the door area.
It was a cold showery day, but I have been waiting for two weeks the earth oven to get dried. Today is the day to cut the oven door and remove the sand form!
This blog is the translation of the one I wrote in Japanese. When I started writing this in English in May, my earth oven project was already in the final stage. I am lazy even writing in my 1st language, and more so in English. If I were to write in this slow pace, I'm afraid I couldn't finish it before my oven would get eroded by harsh Wellington weather. That's why I thought it would be better to start writing from the latest status. Also, I am an impatient person. I hate TV programs which abruptly end in a scene just before the climax with a subtitle saying "See you next week on the same channel, same time". I don't want to put my readers into the same situation.