Archive for October, 2008

Oct. 26, 08

Hard frosts did not come to our little farm in Norridgewock this year until mid-October. Dave Luce took time to bank the house with hay bales and plastic and also split and stacked about six cords of wood in new half pallet cribs that he built on hardwood pallets. I dug the potatoes from the garden and the calla lily bulbs in the half barrels lining the front drive and put them away in the ...

An archeological dig in Northern Greece recently turned up what remains of a 6,000 year old farmhouse. Among the artifacts unearthed at the site are two brilliantly preserved wood fired ovens, a testament to the good taste of our ancient ancestors.

While Le Panyol’s 150 year history–which began with brick oven production and now extends into the modern wood fired oven industry–is certainly impressive, it’s certainly not 6,000 years!

Read more about how our great culinary experiences are just a blip ...

The Kansas City Star recently had a nice piece on our new Le Panyol wood fired oven, the Provence. The piece highlights the oven’s ability to redefine the home chef’s concept of the pizza status quo (and pizza ovens in general!). Click here for the original article.

October 23-26, Cindy Mushet, author of the recently released 450-page mega-tome The Art & Soul of Baking will be in Sur la Table stores throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. At locations in Los Gatos, San Francisco and Palo Alto she will be conducting three-hour intensive workshops covering everything from basic breads to Chocolate Soufflé with Cocoa Nib. It’s not wood fired baking, but the recipes should translate well and ...

In Skandinavia, it seems that a new creative idea for improving home energy efficiency emerges every day. Take, for example, this article on treehugger.com (a hip little enviro-blog now owned by none other than the Discovery Channel), featuring the Naturhus–a modest home built within a larger greenhouse.

Anything that makes the long, dreary Swedish winters more bearable is a boon, but the Naturhus ...

June 23, 2008

It has now been four months and what started out as mostly a vanity project to amuse a aging reprobate is on the verge of becoming a viable business. It has been gratifying to observe the slow but growing buzz about our little enterprise. What started out with a compliment here and a word of encouragement there has become a kind of hip little secret.

Continue Reading →

the movement gains steam. There’s a great article in the Burlington Vermont Free Press today on a local farmer/baker who takes his wheat from the fields to the table all on his own.

Here’s a favorite quote, “This flour that originates on this farm is different. It’s not processed on some roller mill in South Dakota,” he said. “It’s like the difference between ...

Dear Albie and Cheryl,

Here are a couple photos of our heater. Karen and I had it built to your customized plans in 1995. It has performed wonderfully over all of these years. At first it was our only means of heating our 2016 sq. ft. super insulated, passive solar house. Two cords of wood heated our house in those early years.

The heater does a ...

Another update from the Bread Baker in Paradise, Kevin Cabrera.

May 25, 2008

Aloha,

This last two weeks gave me an excellent Idea of what the production capacities of this little oven can be. I picked up a two week deal, where I made 50 loaves of olive bread every other day for Hapuna Beach Hotel to help them with a shortfall they were having. Of course ...

In the spring 2007, our good friend and client, Michael Yedowitz, had his beautifully remodeled kitchen featured in “Beautiful Kitchens”–a special publication of Better Homes & Gardens. The center piece of Michael’s project? A Le Panyol wood fired oven skillfully inserted just above the range.