Sorry to repost this under a different heading, those who have corresponded with me must have realised that I'm not quite up to speed with how internet community sites work.
So many interesting ideas on the site, so many things I'd like to try but we just don't eat that much bread. I always bake more than we need and give some away, but that doesn't solve the problem. Some while ago I had the idea of setting up a community bread oven in my village, but didn't pursue it. TFL has given me new inspiration to see if it can be done and I'll be putting an announcement in the monthly village magazine. If there are enough people interested and if we can find premises, it will happen. Has anyone out there done something similar?
Maybe if people knew where you were people with more of a local idea might be able to help. Fill out your profile page?
It would probably not work where I am mostly because people are lazy and don't make their own bread, preferring to buy it.
I also envisage lots of local issues - death by committee... Who would actually own it? Who would fire it? When would it be fired... Is it insured? (more so in a litigation happy country which traditionally I'd say was the US, but sadly that's happening more and more here now), And so on...
It's a great idea, but ... I'd suggest that if you live in a village then you start selling what you bake...
-Gordon
I'm in Oxfordshire, UK. I believe all of the potential problems of ownership and liability can be dealt with at the outset in the way the group is set up. Similarly, fuelling and firing rotas are easily arranged.
The idea of building a large wood fired oven from scratch using traditional methods and materials is very appealing and may also attract people who are more interested in building than baking. But a wood fired oven is not a given, a couple of people have suggested that a professional electric oven might be a better choice because it gives more control and, maybe more importantly, it enables us to use existing premises.
No harm in trying, I guess. Especially if you have the premises - just the initial cost... Form a CiC? (There are grants available too - lookup the real bread campaign, they often post details) I think Tom Chandly ovens also still do deals with real bread campaign members too.. but for something smaller, there's the Rofco B40 (which I have) which can bake 12 large loaves at once (and another 12, and another 12 and ...)
-Gordon (in Devonshire)
Didn't know there was a campaign for real bread and oven suggestions v useful. Many thanks.
Jon
for the phrase "community oven" (you won't need the quotation marks) and you will get a number of posts on the topic from different locations. Those will give you some background reading as you wait for additional feedback here.
Paul
Thanks, just a brief glance at what's out there says that it can be done and gives a very useful indication of scale. The emphasis seems to be on wood fired ovens, which solves the premises problem because it just needs someone's back garden. The one in Colorado also answers the question 'what do you do in bad weather?' - if they can bake in bad weather in Colorado, we can do it in Oxfordshire.
Jon
...class/group? Meet once a month (or week) to bake? Doing this might give you an idea of how much local (and reliable) enthusiasm there might be for your admirable idea.
Most church/community halls have kitchens with ovens that you can rent very cheaply. Legally, in England & Wales, as long as you're not selling the bread just sharing between the group, there'd be no insurance or even food inspection requirements (and if you were, the former is cheap and the latter never unreasonable).
Building a wood-fired oven is not a huge challenge. Nor is putting a roof above it to keep the rain off. Most of us could muddle through and any local builder could put one up double-quick. Let's face it, our ancestors used them for millennia. Just make sure you have a decent set of plans (easily found online) and that you use fire-proof bricks. :)
I'm like a dog with a bone at the moment, really focused on getting an oven set up. Early research suggests that it should be possible even with just a few people at the beginning. If you build it, they will come...
An Italian friend In Molise has a biggish wood fired oven and bakes for a very extended family. The best bit of baking day is huge amounts of different Pizzas baked first (and very quickly) while the oven is at it's hottest, cut with scissors and washed down with beer or wine.
Jon
There's half a dozen of us where I am in Devon who meet up monthly for a bit of a chat and to show-off a baking challenge - not always bread. It's very relaxed though - although sometimes when it's my turn I sometimes use to test-drive things - e.g. earlier this year we test-drove the viennoiserie course I was developing to run next year (I run bread, etc. making courses to supplement the microbakery thing) all good fun though with lots of good ideas passed around over tea/coffee and our latest creations!
I have a little indirect wood-fired oven which is great for family & friends, although the past 2 years running I've used it for a local street food event where it baked 40 pizzas back to back without any issues - being indirect, I can keep it fuelled while baking in it without any space being needed for the wood. If building a traditional WFO, make it bigger than you anticipate, so you can leave space to keep some wood going for longer bakes...
But on the ovens - if going electric then the Rofco is probably the best choice if you're limited to 13A single phase. My other big oven is a Lincat EC08 which is also 13A single phase. It's GN 1/1 size and I fitted it with 10mm steel plates to bake the breads on - works much better than thin baking sheets.
So put the word out and see what response you get!
-Gordon
If we go electric then single/3 phase will depend on the premises. There is so much more choice if it's 3 phase, but if it doesn't exist it's very expensive to put in. In many ways wood fired seems the easiest and the romance of it may appeal to a much wider group of people.
Jon