Courses

Join Ernie and Erica Wisner, world-leading rocket stove and cob oven trainers and builders, for hands-on learning as we build a double chambered cob oven over this weekend.

Cob is an ancient building material consisting of earth (clay, sand) and straw. It is fireproof and inexpensive, and can be hand-formed into infinite, useful, and durable shapes. Cob ovens are a popular backyard cob project. They can be built in a day or two, fire up easily with scrap wood, and can bake all day, producing delicious artisan breads, pizza, and heavenly scones.

A double-chamber cob oven offers the same artisan baking quality, while burning far more cleanly than a simple single-chamber oven, resulting in more efficient use of wood and better air quality. The exhaust is 4 times cleaner than with simple dome ovens. The double-chamber oven includes a domed rear baking chamber and a front chamber with a chimney and special door for air flow during firing.

A 2-4 hour fire can produce enough heat for 8 hours of baking time using this oven design.

This workshop will enable even the most novice non-builder to gain the skills to effectively build their own cob oven themselves.

This course will cover:

• Planning your backyard cob oven
• Designing your backyard cob oven
• Mixing and testing cob (monolithic adobe) and earthen plaster of various types
• Constructing and Installing a double chamber cob oven at Milkwood Farm
  

Ernie Wisner explaining the benefits of a double-chamber cob oven:

Please note this course begins at 5pm on Friday 11th with an evening session, and concludes at 5pm on Sunday 13th. If you can't make the Friday evening session, it's not the end of the world, but we'd love to have you there for the fire science demonstration (and dinner, of course).

Booking your place:

Book your place below with your credit card or paypal account for this mworkshop, or contact us if you'd prefer to pay by phone, cheque or direct deposit.

Included in your workshop fee:

Your course fee includes our famous organic farm-grow catering for lunch, drinks and tasty treats each day of your course. You will also receive extensive post-course notes following this workshop.

For a small additional fee you can camp at Milkwood Farm for the duration of your course, and this option includes breakfast and dinner each night. See our Staying at Milkwood page for full info on accommodation and facilities.

About your teachers:

Erica and Ernie Wisner are hands-on teachers of creative, ecological and practical skills. Ernie’s practical knowledge and Erica’s teaching skills combining to form an excellent and dynamic team. Together this dynamic couple have led workshops across the US and Canada, and consulted on projects in Argentina, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Ireland, NZ, Mongolia, Kenya, and South Africa.

Erica is a science and art educator with a degree in Physics and Art. She also has architectural, drafting and engineering knowledge, and loves wild- crafting and outdoor recreation. For 5 years she taught chemistry for all ages in the world’s first public wet science lab (at OMSI in Oregon).

In 2005-6 Erica worked for the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon USA. City Repair promotes ecological and natural building methods in several ways, including a yearly Village Building Convergence which attracts people from around the world. It’s here that Erica and Ernie met.

Ernie is hands on, versatile and self sufficient. He’s a trained fire fighter, mariner, botanist, an excellent cook, and a handy man. He can fix practically anything. His motivation in learning many of these skills was to stay alive. Growing up on commercial fishing boats, a kid learns to watch everything, and maintain all the equipment, in order to get home again.

On a boat voyage in 1996 that reached the North Pole, Ernie realised that fossil-fueled lifestyles won’t last forever. After casting around for more sustainable options, in 2004 he joined the Cob Cottage team, working with Ianto Evans and builders from around the world. One of their projects was researching and testing approx 700 stove designs for the 2006 book, “Rocket Mass Heaters”.