Hello and foundation question

[tngabe]

Hi WFOBers (Wood Fired Oven Builders, is that ok?),

What an amazing resource. I had found the Forno Bravo site sometime ago and thought it was just a store. I now realize the error of my ways and am very grateful for all of the information here. The free plans are really great and are much better than anything available in the books I've been able to track down from the library, but ya'll know that already, dontcha?

I discovered the joys of baking and pizza making when my wife borrowed Peter Reinhart's 'Artisan Breads Everyday' from the library. After renewing it a few times, and possibly getting a few pages stuck together with dough, we bought our own copy. We also checked out 'Build your own earthoven' and ended up buying a copy of that as well.

I have been baking around 20 to 30 loaves a week and several dozen pepperoni rolls and have a small business going. TN has a farmhouse kitchen certification and when there is another training class available we are planning on getting certified. We have a few acres and are planning on selling at one of the local farmer's markets and offering CSA shares as well.

Our property came with lots of junk. At first I was overwhelmed by it all. Sometimes I still am. As I've wittled away at it all, I've come to realize that some of the junk is actually useable. Which brings me to my:

FOUNDATION QUESTION:


I've started on a foundation, but rather than pouring concrete or buying block, I've utilized what I have on hand and want to make sure it isn't going to come back to bite me. I used a small front end loader (48" bucket) to dig a hole approximately 5' square and maybe 36" deep. I see from the Pompeii Oven Instructions this won't be large enough, but that's easy enough to fix.

I want to make sure that the materials I am using will work. I have filled the hole with a mix of broken concrete and sand and am planning on topping it with limestone that is around 8" to 10" thick, seated in the sand and as close to level as I can get. We have a fair bit of rock here and my in-laws are around the corner and have an old quarry on there property.

To me this sounds like a solid base that will support the stand, also rock, and oven, but what do you all think?

Thanks!

[dmun]

Hey, If you can do it, that's great. Concrete is just artificial limestone, after all. Better still is if you can build your stand and enclosure from natural stone. That's a great look.