Baking Bread Transcript
- I'm Todd DeGarmo. I run the Folklife Center at Crandall Public Library. That's the central library up in Glens Falls, New York, and we serve a four-county region. When we were looking for a community partner, what popped to mind for me was Cambridge and Hubbard Hall. It doesn't have a strong French-Canadian community, frankly, but it has maybe an older root to the Quebec folks. A lot of the fur traders actually came down this far on the Hudson, and this is the Battenkill Valley and a lot of beaver were on the Battenkill. So, there were some early, early, Quebec settlers here before they got kicked out by the Dutch. So, I thought, oh, this is close enough. But, I think the better part of it was that Hubbard Hall's been around since the 70s, and they're just such a magnet for all kinds of creative activity. And, when I heard we could have the bread oven as part of this project, I mean, that's what jumped out at me. My wife bakes, I love to eat bread. But, I thought, oh, Hubbard Hall could handle this. You're kind of in the edge of the Taconics, and then the beginning of the Green Mountains. We're only about 15 minutes west of the Vermont border.
- I was just one of the groups that came along right after the country's bicentennial with a heightened interest in historic preservation. So, it worked for us. It's been incredible fun ever since. We started off primarily as a music hall, had traditional music, because a couple of us happened to know some traditional musicians. And, then, 10 years ago, we started a professional theater company. We have visual arts workshops, we, just this past summer, started a professional opera company. And, then, whatever seems to be of interest at the moment. Right now, there's a sustainability forum that is very popular. There are contra dancers, and community events.
- We're all just standing there. Yup, it's one heck of a hole. Great big hole dug in the middle of the town park.
- Yeah, it's four feet long and six feet long.
- Okay.
- So, it's rectangular.
- All right.
- We're here today because we work in partnership with different organization and we have three craft men will make some demonstration here today, and one other one making a bread oven today. The bread oven is something very typical of Quebec. All along of the Saint Lawrence River, people have bread oven, and there was often a big bread oven in a village, a community bread oven, bread oven. And, people would go one after the other to cook their bread in that oven, if they didn't have one personal. So, that was the life of the village was really around that big bread oven. So, I think you're doing it here, too, with constructing that bread oven where people perhaps will come with the recipe of bread, and they'll come and cook it in your oven.
- For now, you can put it away. This one's here, . This have to be perfectly level. The first steps. The first one are the green one.
- 95, your eye is good.
- Okay, we have two choice now. Put the sand right now because it's more difficult when it's--
- Higher.
- Higher.
- Nope, too much.
- The heat, inside. it traps the heat so the heat goes down.
- Use cold water with ice in extremely hot weather.
- Trying to get my friend to bring her granddaughters down.
- Okay, I already prepared the .
- [Richard] Arches.
- The arches like this.
- [Man] You wanna hold this?
- [Man 2] Yup. Before I will explain how I arrived to these .
- Size.
- Size. This is a traditional size oven, for some. You put the door like we did yesterday, and then after you see how big your space is. Now, the wall of the oven will be six inches.
- [Richard] Thick.
- Thick. So I left, like, one inch and a half space, then, six inches for the wall. I do the same the other side. So, between these two line you have 35 inches space in the oven, same thing at the back. 58 by 35 inches inside. Now, I kept piece of nice pine, you see, .
- [Richard] Just straight pine with no knots.
- With no knots. Clear pine, because you have to bend it a lot. So, if there's a knot, it will--
- Break.
- Break. So, with this, I draw a nice curve line from my six plus one, seven and a half inches, just like that. The same, the other side, and then the back.
- Inside the interior.
- So, you see, this will be the interior of the oven. For, like I said, for an oven without chimney, you have to calculate the highest point because a without chimney is really difficult. In fact, it's the height of the door,
- [Richard] Divided.
- Divided by .63. It will give you the height inside, the peak, the highest point inside the oven. With that, I made like 25 oven. They are really good. I didn't find it myself. I read it in a book, I tried it, and it's perfect. With that door, 14 and a half inches height. If I divide it by .63, it gives you 22.5 inches. So, I take a piece of plywood, 35 by 22 and a half, I take my piece of pine, and then I do, like, half of round like this. With this, I have the first part of my oven. The first one will be the door. The door, it's easy. You take your door, you just
- Transfer.
- Transfer the .
- Yeah, the design.
- The design, the shape of the door. The highest point in the oven must be not in the half of your space, 58, just six inches back of the middle. So, if we take it, we should attach. The clay must dry from inside, too. So, if there's a wall, the clay will not dry. So, let's begin by the back. Yeah, like somewhere there, yeah. Okay. Whoops. Yeah, almost every house in the 18, 19th century had this bread oven in the courtyard. I made mine at home. One, for my friend, another friend , and that's it. I was able to already to give some course how to make a bread oven. So, it began like that. I'm a wood worker. My specialty is furniture, from 17th century, to 18th century. I make, like, five bread oven a year. But, my business is wood working.
- [Man] Okay.
- The idea of having a community bread oven was just perfect. And we'll take turns firing, and baking. We have enough people familiar enough with the oven, and how it works, to fire it up, and organize a baking. Spread the wealth.
- My name is Richard Roy. I'm from Laval, Quebec. I'm here on a very special reason. I wanna learn how to make these stoves, these ovens, bread ovens, because I do voluntary work in Haiti, and I'd like to share that with the people down there, because they don't have bread oven, and the one that I've seen don't work properly. So, I seen this one, and this sounds interesting. So, I have no knowledge of how it's done, and Janet told me that he was making one here, and I says, well, can I join in to do this kind of work? And, I wanted to do all the process, because I don't read a book. I have to do hands-on thing. That's how I learn. Happily for me, because it's what I like to do.
- Bread makers amongst us have the advantage here. Strong, kneading arms.
- [Woman] Gotta get more clay for that one.
- So, does this look good? I can't tell. Do I have too much--
- Pull it apart. Pull it apart, and see if you got any dry spots. You got dry spots. See, where you're dry in the middle there?
- Oh, right in here?
- Yeah
- So, what do I need to do?
- Here, just put some more.
- More glop in there?
- Yeah, exactly.
- All right. Okay.
- This is all pretty good.
- Okay. So, that section's pretty good, then.
- Yeah, but you gotta put it back together.
- And, I need to put a little more glop in here.
- More work, less talk. More work, less talk. There you go. Put that all together.
- All right, all right.
- My name's Chris, and I live halfway between Lake George and Saratoga in Upstate New York. I came, because I saw it on a poster in one of the health food stores. And, I just thought it'd be a very interesting project. A lot of fun, and it's turned out to be a lot of fun. Mama, want more?
- Mama wants more? I think I have a lot in mine.
- [Woman] There are two ready here, too, Robbie.
- [Robbie] Huh?
- [Woman] Those two back ones over there.
- You want more here?
- Yeah. On it.
- On top?
- Yeah. Thank you. You can put it all there. My first one in the US. I made, like, 25 in the Province of Quebec, but it's my first here in Cambridge, my first in the United States. The first of many, many, many more. Okay, there.
- I should work up there?
- Yeah. We'll fix this after.
- This is a dream come true, because this is the community that I'm very involved in. Hubbard Hall, and, it's gonna be this incredible asset to our community.
- After we finish the oven, we have to let it dry. So, we take like seven, eight days to let it dry with the wind. Eight days, and we put some small fire in it, three days in a row, like, one hour fire, one hour each day. Then, the fourth day, we can put the big fire. Until there is coal, then I can push it back with more new wood, and, like, for two hours I have to put some more wood to heat the clay. After this, we have to take everything out from the oven, after two hours, and then we can cook in. Me, I wish mine at home will broke some day, because I want to make another one. But, it's still in good shape. No, that's good. Oh, no, this one here. Okay. Ladies, and gentleman.
- So, every oven that I made when it's finish, we almost finish, I sign it with that key. I thought it was a good idea, instead of my name, to put something in the relation with me. I'm the only one to have one like this. So, I always put it here in the middle of the back. That's it. Jean Laberge's signature. Worldwide famous.
- Yeah. That's a good sign.
- There's cool air rushing in at this level. And, there's very hot air rushing out at this level. And, so, when you're feeding the fire, you have to lean way down. And, I understand now why bakers wear hats to cover their hair. Once the arches were out, you basically just light the match, and it just draws beautifully. And, so we've done, except for last Tuesday, we've done a fire every day. So, this is the eighth fire, and we've been making them a little bigger each day.
- [Woman] And, the difference between those, and welding gloves would--
- [Man] Welding gloves have a--
- [Woman] Asbestos?
- [Man] Not necessarily asbestos, but a wool lining.
- [Woman] A wool-lined leather? Maybe the next thing will be a glove maker.
- [Woman 2] Now all the women will sit around knitting wool gloves, and then line them.
- We're ready to bake!
- There it is.
- [Woman] problem with too much fun.
- Yeah.
- [Man] Okay, let's see it, Bliss.
- There it is.
- [Woman] Whoa.
- [Man] Beautiful. Now it has to cool.
- [Woman] Now it has to cool.
- [Man] Try doing one raw.
- [Woman] Let's try doing one raw.
- [Man] Raw. I don't know if that's the right term.
- Oh, wow. This is so good, Bliss.
- It's not too hot?
