Having visited Vivienne and Chris Hayes outside Wexford town to taste the delicious pizzas made in their homemade cob oven, the idea of building our own outdoor cob oven became very appealing. Cob is made from subsoil or marle, sand, straw and water – not forgetting many bare feet and hands. The ‘meitheal’ factor is vital as all the work has to be done in one day so the finished structure dries at a uniform rate.
Saul Moshbacher, plus his WWOOF-ing helper Theo, drove from Feakle in Co. Clare to Wexford to train the willing workers on how to make a cob oven. They brought large tarpaulins on which the mixing could take place. This looked to any passerby like barefoot dancing, but there was thorough mixing of sand, subsoil and water going on. Three layers each 2 inches thick were moulded around a damp sand dome on top of a stone base. The outer layer had straw added to the mix to make it harder wearing.
Once made the cob should really be left to dry
One of the cob mixing teams hard at ‘work’. Meet Peter, Niamh, Ailis, Dana and Theo dancing for their supper!
for several months, but we needed to test it earlier than that in advance of our wedding! So next week’s blog will report on testing the cob oven for the first time.
Trevor is co-founder and was, until his appointment to Government, a board member of Sonairte, the Irish National Ecology Centre, near Julianstown, County Meath which is an Agricultural Training and Visitor centre with a 2.2 acre walled organic garden. He is also a member of Amnesty International, the Dublin Food Co-op, the Irish Organic Farmers’ and Growers’ Association, Organic Trust and a former member of Macra na Feirme. A former teacher and fluent Irish speaker, he relaxes by reading, walking and playing music. His favourite form of relaxation is tending to his prolific organic garden at home in Balbriggan, North County Dublin, an area known by many as Fingal.
Source: Trevor’s Kitchen Garden – Making Cob Is A Very Sociable Building Activity – Trevor Sargent
