MCOE Earth Oven is Cooking!

The River School youth at Mendocino County Office of Education have completed the Earth Oven and cob counters in the Talmage State Preschool Garden.    Dozens of students gathered at the campus on May 24th to make fresh pizzas in the oven, using the beautifully mosaic counters to prepare them.

The Earth Oven project has been a multi-year collaboration with numerous community partners assisting the youth in learning natural building skills.  The oven construction began with John Richards Construction leading the students in rammed earth building for the base.  Next the Solar Living Institute hosted the oven building class with free admissions for the River School students.   After testing the oven's pizza making abilities, Mike Riddell Construction worked with the students to build a protective roof over the oven.   Finally, this year, Tonia Sing Chi led the students in building the cob counters that wing the oven, John Havemann of MCOE built the counter tops, and Chad Raugewitz and his students at Ukiah High School did the mosaic for the counter tops.  That's what we call collaboration!

To see photos from all of the stages of construction check out the slideshow below.