Just before the pandemic hit, I was over the border in Mexico with an old friend I hadn't seen in almost 40 years. The man has everything, a beautiful family of five with his Mexican wife, a handmade round adobe house, the respect of his community, four old Volvo's kept going with spit and piano wire...
What could I give him?
Just up on street, down another, on the edge of town, is an adobe maker, a woman in her fifties turning out hundreds of adobes a week. They are laid out on edge drying in the sun; later, they'll be stacked in a scove (a rectangular pile that is both the adobes and the kiln) and fired to maturity.
Our goal, my friend and I, was to build an oven with the least possible cost and of local materials. We chose green (unfired) adobes. These would be easy to cut, the very mud that they are made from would serve as mortar, and they were cheap.
We also had limited space and an existing barbecue platform (next to the wood-fired hot water heater).
Vamos pues!
