Hello from Uganda Introductions Discuss Hello from Uganda in the Good Background Information forums; Hi Janine,, THanks for keeping us posted,, I Enjoyed your blog and looking forward to reading your future adventures... Cheers ...

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Hi Janine,, THanks for keeping us posted,, I Enjoyed your blog and looking forward to reading your future adventures...
Cheers
Mark

[Archena]

Awww, Lunch is so cute!!!!!

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Originally Posted by Archena

Awww, Lunch is so cute!!!!!

Now that's a comment I bet people never expected on a Wood Fired Oven Forum! But, yes he is. (For those just joining, look back and see pictures of the chicken named "Lunch." ) He is still doing well and growing. Big cooking day last Saturday--8 french baguettes, one olive loaf, 3 pizzas, and a bunch of cornmeal muffins. Sorry no pics again, but I'm living well on all this bread. Still no time to do any repairs/improvements to the oven. I am getting some cracking and ideally should do a little patching on the oven floor as there are some pits now. Some of the excessive mortar that sneaked in to the inside of the oven has also flaked off--not a problem though as bricks are still well set. Still need more adobe on the outside. Vertical poles are up for the roof, but that's all so far. Minor oven damage to the hearth as after I carried a piece of firewood to the oven, a small but poisonous snake came out of the piece of wood and was coming towards me out of the oven. Damage occured as my guard vigourously attacked the snake with another piece of wood. Nobody injured (except the snake). Life is sure an adventure here in Uganda!
--Janine

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Janine,,
you didnt cook the snake did you ??

Mark

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Originally Posted by ThisOldGarageNJ

Janine,,
you didnt cook the snake did you ??

Mark

Nah, too small. Actually, I didn't think of that. I should have at least used him for chicken food. My main concern at the time was making sure he was dead. Here you hear stories of snakes "coming back to life" so I think sometimes they are just knocked out. Small doesn't mean harmless; in fact I recall reading that bites of smaller poisonous snakes had a higher mortality rate than the larger ones of that type. I think the theory was that larger snakes learn to regulate the amount of poison injected--but maybe the venom is just more concentrated in the little ones. I have never eaten snake, though I hear the rattlesnake can be quite tasty. I have eaten, and enjoyed, eel though never filleted it myself. I think you would need a fair size snake to get a good meal; while they do get big here this time it was only a little one! Any recipies for next time?

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

YouTube - How to build a Rocket Stove

Janine,, here is a youtube link for building a rocket stove, very easy and thought it might interest you, after building your oven this shouldnt be any problem for you
Recipes for snake ??? sorry fresh out....

Cheers
Mark

[Archena]

Maybe you can adapt some of these...

Rattlesnake Recipe Page



What? I live in a state that has had a rattlesnake rodeo for the last 48 years...

[Janine M. LeGrand]

Originally Posted by ThisOldGarageNJ

YouTube - How to build a Rocket Stove

Janine,, here is a youtube link for building a rocket stove, very easy and thought it might interest you, after building your oven this shouldnt be any problem for you
Recipes for snake ??? sorry fresh out....

Cheers
Mark

Thanks Mark! The Rocket Stove info was very interesting. It looks like an improvement on the types of stoves we teach in a church program I am involved with here. We have two types of low-firewood stoves that we build. One is made of the local bricks and the other out of mud and dung. Here is a picture from a teaching on the brick low-firewood 2 burner stove--the wood goes in at the left and smoke vents from a chimney attached on the right. Of course the bricks would be mortared in on a real stove.
The mud and dung stove is built by putting a mud mixture around pieces of plant stem as a form then the stems are removed. Here they are building a three burner stove. The wood feeds in from the front of the stove at the bottom and burn in a small central chamber.



You dig out the mud to connect the chambers, add a vent to the chimney, and shape the burners set in the stove with a built in pot support. You also need to make burner covers for when the burners are not in use. All this can be done out of free local materials and is uses maybe half the wood of a traditional three stone fire that most people cook with.
The rocket stove you sent me the link for incorporates a shelf for the wood to get better air draft and a better insulated burning chamber. I am very intriqued and have someone who will try to get a premade one from Kampala. I am also looking into building one but the 1000 deg C (Celsius, not Farenheit) suggested to fire the bricks is hotter than my oven gets.... I may be able to do the stove just not firing the insulating bricks that hot.
I also saw a bread oven using the rocket elbow combustion chamber--I am thinking I might try a modification of my WFO. I could add a rocket chamber behind the oven with a chimney into the oven body. That would give me an option of using it as a low-firewood oven when I don't need the full heat such as for pizza but am only baking say 350-400 deg F. I don't think adding such a chamber on would have any significant negative effect on the regular performance of the oven--I believe other people may have ash drops or such at the back of the oven. Lots of interesting possiblities.
Lastly I have now bought the wood and roofing materials so hopefully soon I'll have a roof over the oven--just a very simple sloping iron-sheet roof.

P.S. No more snakes killed yet. The rattlesnake recipies looked interesting so maybe next time

--Janine

[ThisOldGarageNJ]

Hi Janine, That looks like the Indian chulha stove Im sure they are similar. very cool,, Maybe you could incorporate the rocke stove into it... THere ara a ton of youtube videos on rocket and other types of stoves..

Cheers
Mark

[texassourdough]

Hi Janine!

I have been traveling and missing your updates but am now caught up. One comment...

Your fire baked bread is easily the best looking I have ever seen! How you get it to look that good without steam is totally beyond me!

Jay