Community Gardens and Cob Ovens

They just seem to fit naturally together, don’t they?

Until the summer of 2015, only one outdoor oven existed in a community garden in Kitchener. That was Queen’s Greens Community Garden. Now, due to the efforts of the KW Cobbers, there are two new cob ovens in town.

I recently visited the new oven at the Mill Courtland Community Centre:

The fire is started at the front of the oven until it gets going.

This oven has a timber frame structure around it and a brick base for the oven itself.

Once the fire gets going, add larger pieced of wood to heat the inside of the oven. Obviously, on very cold days, it will take a lot longer to hear the base and the thick oven walls.

But it’s a good reason to gather on a frosty bright winter day!

I like this space, but I think it needs more gathering space around it.

Willow Green in Cherry Park also constructed a cob oven with the help of the KW Cobbers group. You can see their documented process here.

Isn’t it wonderful?

Willow Green Community Garden in Cherry Park

What do you think? Should we build one of these beside our community garden and rainwater harvesting structure? It would make a wonderful addition…

~Juanita