Come see the new adobe community oven and celebrate the summer solstice! Here’s a note from Joanne of Environmental Change-makers:

Want to learn about all the fun stuff that goes on at the Community Garden at Holy Nativity, and the Holy Nativity campus?

This Saturday, June 20, there will be a Summer Solstice Open House across the entire campus.

I will be speaking about saving water and greywater (three 15-minute talks, at 10, 11, 12)

The open house will feature garden tours, oven explanation (the oven mud is now drying), highlights from other campus organizations like Teri Roseman’s LiveYoga Wellness, Patricia Rose’s Fresh-food-in-a-flash cooking classes, the Food Forward gleaning program, art tours by Steve O’Laughlin, and much more.

Steve’s band will be performing 12-1, and pancakes will be served from 9-11. Come join us and see all the new goings-on!

Summer Solstice Open House
Sat Jun 20, 9am-1pm
Community Garden at Holy Nativity
6700 W. 83rd, Los Angeles, 90045
free
RSVP helpful

Don’t miss this chance to learn how to make your own cob oven! Ben led the class the built the oven in our backyard (pictured above). Here’s the 411:

Ben Loescher will conduct a 4-day hands-on workshop this June, to teach you how to make your own earthen oven. Ben has built dozens of these ovens, and has great expertise in both adobe construction and earthen plasters and finishes. You will leave the class with the knowledge necessary to build an oven of your own, with materials that you may already have in your yard.

What Will I Learn?

• Local considerations and the siting for your earthen oven
• Soil and material selection, sourcing and testing
• Foundations and oven base design and materials
• Sizing
• Sand Form and Oven Domes
• Natural oven plasters and finishes
• Firing and baking in your oven

4 Days: June 6, 7, 13, 14
Saturdays, 9am-4pm.
Sundays, 1pm-4pm.

Early-bird tuition $175

Register after May 15 $200

In Westchester/Los Angeles 90045 at the Community Garden at Holy Nativity:
6700 W. 83rd Street

Register at:
www.change-making.com/cob-oven-workshop/

Ben Loescher is a licensed architect, principal of Loescher Meachem Architects, and founder of AdobeIsNotSoftware, an organization which was founded in 2009 to inform, enable and advance adobe construction in California, and educate the public in the building and conservation of adobe structures.

This will be a hands-on, get-dirty workshop. Please wear clothes that you don’t mind getting really muddy, wear closed-toed shoes, and bring sun protection.

Coffee and nibbles will be provided at the beginning of each day. Please bring your own lunch.

On Sunday, March 29 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm climate scientist Peter Kalmus (our guest on episode 39 of the Root Simple Podcast) will share his experiences as he and his family journey toward a lower carbon footprint, focusing on how using less fossil fuels turned out not to be the burden one might expect . . . in fact, he’ll show how it has made life even better.

The second (optional) part of Peter’s presentation will guide the audience to calculate their carbon footprints, and discuss concrete ways to decrease their impact on the planet. Please bring a pencil, calculator, and information about your driving, flying, and consuming habits, including a gas and electric bill, to get the maximum from the workshop. If not available, Peter will show ways to guess-timate your usage. More info can be found at http://becycling.life.

The talk will take place at:
Throop Unitarian Universalist Church
300 S Los Robles Ave, Pasadena
Sponsored by Transition Pasadena

Hey bread bakers, I’m part of a two day bread-centric cooking camp being held at the historic (There Will Be Bread!) Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills. For more info and to sign up head over to the Institute of Domestic Technology.

March 28 & 29, 2015 10am to 4pm (a 2-day workshop)
Historic Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills
$495 – New smaller class limited to 14 students.

Includes ingredients, supplies, morning beverages and snacks, 2 fully catered lunches and handouts

After the smashing success of our previous two-day bread camp workshops we are offering it again! Announcing the Spring 2015 Bread Camp.

This all-things-bread immersion course will explore wild yeast, fresh grain milling, hearth-baked loaves, whole grain breads, pretzels, parchment crackers, tortilla-making and pizza dough 101. What’s more, many of our recipes will be baked in MOMO a wood-fired mobile bread oven! Don’t worry, home oven baking instructions will be included in your class handouts along with places to source the best flour, grain, equipment and tips.

Highlights include:
Assembling your own take-home wild yeast starter
Grinding fresh flour on the spot from whole grains
Mastering the art of baking by weight with a scale
Enjoying delicious meals the Institute is known for including a make-your-own-pizza bar and a DIY taco stand

Saturday
Bread baking basics: yeast, scales, grams, wheat, storage,
Tartine-style boule
Tortillas
Lunch: Taco Bar
Grain grinding
Wild Yeast Starter
Fermented Rye bread

Sunday
Pizza shaping demo
Shape boule
Shape rye bread
Parchment Crackers with a salt, seed and herb topping bar
Lunch: Make your own pizza
Baking of the Loaves

Instructors Include:
Erik Knutzen: Co-author of The Urban Homestead and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World, co-founder of the Los Angeles Bread Bakers collective and a L.A. County Master Food Preserver
Joseph Shuldiner: Institute Director and author: Pure Vegan: 70 Recipes for Beautiful Meals and Clean Living
Carmi Paulson: Carmi trained at Le Cordon Bleu, London where she received a Grand Diplôme in Patisserie and Cuisine. She further developed her skills studying with bakers from Tartine Bakery in San Francisco.
Michael O’Malley: Artist and bread baker, Michael’s work centers around ideas regarding social practice, community and sustainable art practice. He is currently growing wheat and taking his mobile wood-fired bread oven MOMO on the road for workshops and performances. He is an Associate Professor of Art at Pomona College, in Claremont, CA. He lives and work in Los Angeles and the Catskills of New York.
Nan Kohler: Owner and Miller at Grist & Toll, the first commercial stone-ground flour mill to open in Southern California in eighty years.