The proof is in the pudding. The same can be said for a functional permaculture system. When you integrate cultural and community diversity into your landscape, you are offered the privilege to experience firsthand the valuable combination that social permaculture offers every individual on our rich, blue marble.
One surefire way to create a synergistic blend of people and the environment is with food. Pizza is an especially good dish that enjoys vast popularity across borders. Moreover, it is versatile, simple and inexpensive.
Building your own outdoor pizza oven is not pie in the sky. And growing toppings and herbs that you can pick fresh from your own pizza garden can yield more than just a tasty meal: it clears a path to building a stronger community when friends and neighbors are invited to participate in pizza-making activities, and then to dine on a feast of conversation, as well as garden delights – making local the key ingredient.
Getting Started: No-Straw Clay Oven
Since you are not using straw, much of the backbreaking work that would otherwise be required is eliminated. And because construction is relatively simple, enlisting the aid of family and friends might be considered the modern equivalent of a barn raising party, celebrating community unity and ecological integration.
Clay-Test-on-the-Plinth
Essentially, there are four main steps to building your oven.
• Step One:
The first step is building the plinth. This is the platform on which your oven will sit. Jonathon Engels has already conveniently laid out the steps for constructing a sturdy plinth that also provides storage space for the wood you will be using.
• Step Two:
Constructing the oven floor is your next step, though it is technically part of the plinth. This is the top layer of your foundation. Since this is the surface that you will be cooking on, you need to ensure that the surface is smooth. Bricks must be fitted together tightly and evenly. Therefore, the core of your plinth that is filled with glass and sand needs to be evenly planed prior to placing the bricks on top that will form the oven floor. Here, again, Jonathon provides very helpful advice.
• Step Three:
Next, you will want to start figuring out which type of clay to use. Selecting your clay and adjusting sand-water-clay ratios is crucial to ensuring the integrity of the oven’s functionality. Therefore, you want to make sure that you give serious time and attention to developing a mixture that will be durable. Finding the right combination is often a matter of simply experimenting with the materials you have. Since clay characteristics vary across regions, you will need to test your recipe. Jonathon used the puddling technique, which can be learned from the Clay Oven website, which he also recommends for general instructions on how to build the oven.
• Step Four:
The final step – and perhaps the most enjoyable – is molding the dome. You will be forming a large mound of damp sand on the top layer of your plinth (the oven floor). Here, again, you will want to consult Jonathon and the Clay Oven website. Their instructions are clear, simple and concise.
Spicing It Up
Once you have completed your oven, you will want to use it to make your very own mouthwatering wood-fired pizza. Having some savory herbs picked fresh from your own garden will make your taste buds dance – and save you money.
Spiral herb gardens are versatile, practical and beautiful. Since different culinary herbs require varying soil and environmental conditions, a spiral herbal garden provides a solution to accommodating an assortment of microclimates.
Prior to constructing your spiral, think about the herbs you want to grow. You will need to learn which ones can be grouped together, and what conditions each group will need.
Evaluating how to configure your microclimates before building your garden will make it much more convenient for planting than figuring it out after construction.
Specifically, some of your herbs – for example, chives and parsley – will require a shady, cool and moist area; others – such as rosemary and oregano – will demand dry, sandy conditions in direct sunlight. Consider making the bottom portion of your coil a shady, moist area; the top layer warm and dry; and the middle, a seam that blends the conditions of both tiers.
When it is time to fill in your spiral with soil, you can then fill the bottom with compost-enriched soil, while adding more sand to the top layer. You will also want to think about drainage as you add your layers.
You can use stones, rocks, bricks or blocks – or a combination of materials – to build a spiral herb garden. It is recommended that you start building from the inside and working your way out. Marking your pattern with smaller stones is a good way to start. Here, again, Jonathon Engles offers simple step-by-step directions, along with some sage advice rooted in extensive permaculture experience.
Topping it all off: Dishing the Dirt on Gardening
There is more than one way to create your own pizza garden. You do not need to be an extreme gardener to produce great tasting veggies for pizza toppings – or sauces. Similar to your herb circle, consider companion planting as a highly effective gardening technique that yields numerous benefits.
First, companion planting promotes the growth of diverse crops in close proximity. This is particularly useful where space is limited. Since companion plants are essentially roommates sharing the same space, pest and weed control are a natural result. An added benefit is a friendlier habitat for beneficial insects (your BI friends), resulting in easier pollination.
Next, invite your kids or friends to make a list of complementary pizza veggies. As with herbal varieties, you need to ensure that your cultivars will be companionable. Tomatoes, onions, garlic and carrots, for instance, make terrific friends. You might even consider re-planting some of the basil from your herb garden among this tasty group, since it has been shown effective in boosting their disease immunity and pest resistance without the application of harmful chemicals.
So plan to get Together
Whether it is family or friends who you invite into your circle that is all-things-pizza, offering others the opportunity to observe the ease with which people can dance to the rhythm of the natural world is what lies at the heart of permaculture. Synchronizing those steps with a robust Eden of herbal and veggie flavors – as well as with a wood-fired oven that can bake all varieties of bread and cook a menu of tantalizing treats – offers you your very own slice of social permaculture that is hard to beat.
