Early Birds Istanbul Earth Oven No. 5

By Regina Kruse-Özçelik

Early Birds Istanbul Founder & Author

The kindergarten year had begun, and we started building a new earth oven almost straight away. But... wait a minute! There was already an existingearth oven built in the fall of 2023. Did we really need a second oven? No. We have neither the space nor the need for a second oven in our kindergarten. One oven is enough for our 46 children!

Why do we build a new earth oven every year?

The reason we build a new oven every year is simple: when dismantling the old oven, all the children and staff learn what the oven is made frpm, and, above all, how the dome (the heart of the oven) is constructed.

Scrambled eggs in a copper pan with lid

Dismantling the furnace dome:

A well-built oven dome is very sturdy and cannot be dismantled easily, especially not with small children's shovels. The dismantling process must be carried out very carefully so that no child is injured by falling stones. That is why I use the word DISMANTLING instead of destroying.

  • The children filled small buckets with water.
  • The children climbed onto the child-friendly four-legged ladders.
  • They poured water over the oven dome until the old clay and straw plaster softened.
  • We scraped away the plaster until the stones were revealed
  • The children carefully pushed the stones into the oven.
  • They set the stones aside so that they would be ready for the new dome.
  • The foundation was cleaned and prepared for the construction of the new dome.

How do we build an earth oven?

Now the reconstruction of the furnace dome could begin:

This time, however, we received a special clay building powder. Although it was very pleasant and smooth to work with, it turned out that this clay powder caused deep cracks during the drying process. Even the abundance of straw mixed in could not prevent these cracks, but thanksfully they were not very deep, so they could be repaired with a small amount of clay-straw mixture.

The earth oven 2024 was finished after four days of intensive work with the children, staff and our kindergarten parent, Dorian Schilffarth

We were ready for a new earth oven cookbook in 2025!

Front view of the earth oven with open door and fire in the baking chamber