First Things First

This is my first foray into blogging. I'm doing this because I want to share the knowledge Wendy and I have gained over eight years of baking artisan breads in a wood fired brick oven. Ours is a high mass, Alan Scott design barrel vault that was built brick by brick on our property located to the north and east of Toronto, Ontario. Some six years ago, due to demand, we started holding two-day, weekend baking workshops here. Particapants have come from all over North America, east to west coasts, as far north as the Yukon Territory and as far afield as New Zealand.

Our real purpose is to share our knowledge about baking real bread and to promote the use of wood fired ovens of whatever shape or design. We're don't necessarily recommend one oven design over another, but we do try to stress that the type chosen really depends on the intended use: pizza first and breads or general cooking second, or vice versa.

We do have a website: www.marygbread, but in this blog we'd like to hear from the people out there who are interested in this growing community of bakers. Perhaps you could share your recipes, ask for troubleshooting advice, need some help with suppliers or choose an oven design. We'd be glad to hear from you.

Jim