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Cob Oven & Benches at Wild Culture Farm in Soquel, California
April 8, 2021 - April 11, 2021
$400
HOST & LOCATION & PROJECT
Wild Culture Farm will be our host for this short & sweet traditional wood-fired Cob Oven and Benches workshop in my home stomping ground of Santa Cruz! Yeah! I am so grateful to be hosted by a yummy farm that will take good care of all of us as we build them what they are needing right now! An oven for monthly pizza parties. As Farmer Jennifer states:
“Our family farm, Wild Culture Farm, could thrive with a cob oven! Having an outdoor space to make & break bread and celebrate the work of our hands growing food together, would be a dream realized. Doing so with the craftsmanship of willing hands gathering to learn new skills, repurpose waste, and utilize available natural materials fits so well with our ethos and why we do the work we do.”
The workshop will take place in Soquel, California, between Santa Cruz and Monterey right in the middle of the Monterey Bay. The 6-acre farm prides itself on having alot of wild land left open and planting food everywhere possible. They have a wonderful creek running through and many acres of food and space to camp and will even provide the clay soil we will use for building! I am looking forward to seeing and being there.
Students will learn all the steps to building a cob oven after the foundation is built. Since we only have 4 days, we could not include the foundation, which takes 2-3 days to build due to drying time in between layers. However students will learn the process in lecture and be able to see the finished foundation before starting the next steps:
SCHEDULE
The workshop will begin on Thursday morning at 8:30 am with an Opening Circle, Orientation to the Site and Introduction to the Workshop, after breakfast. We will have class every day until 1pm, followed by lunch and rest until 2:30pm. The afternoon session will begin with a Lecture at 2:30 followed by more building until 5:30pm. Students will have downtime until 7pm when dinner will be served. We will have one night of slides and videos and other evenings may include extracurricular fun activities including fire circles and music. The final dinner will be a Celebration that may include use of the Oven, depending on the weather and if the Oven has dried enough to remove the sand mold for use.
The daily schedule looks like this:
6:30-7:30 Yoga/Meditation
7:30-8:15 Breakfast
8:30 Morning Circle
9:00-1:00 Building
1:00-2:30 Lunch & Rest
2:30-3:30 Lecture
3:30-5:30 Building
5:30-7:00 Downtime
7:00-8:00 Dinner
8:00-9:00 Slides/Videos/Other Activities
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Under-oven insulation layers
Oven pad
Bricks
Sand Dome Mold
Inner Oven Shell
Insulation Layer
Outer Oven Sculpted Layer
Plaster
and for the Benches…
Stone Foundation
Making Cob
Building with Cob
Sculpting
Plaster
WORKSHOP REQUIREMENTS & IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Students will need to come to workshop and class/building site prepared.
This includes:
Work clothes
Work boots or other closed-toe shoes for foundation days
Flip-flops for cobbing days
Work Gloves for rocks
Good Moisturizer
Hat
Sunglasses
Rounded triangular metal trowel
Water Bottle
Notebook/Pen/Camera
Sample of Your Soil (Optional)
Personal music playlists for working
Also, if you haven’t already, reading “The Hand-Sculpted House” by Ianto Evans, Linda Smiley and Michael Smith, or something equivalent, like “The Cobber’s Companion” by Becky Bee, or “House of Earth” by Conrad Rogue beforehand, will benefit you greatly. Also please read Kiko Denzer’s “Build Your Own Earth Oven”. We encourage you to bring your natural building books with you!
GETTING THERE
Wild Culture Farm is located in Soquel, California, not far from Highway 101. Once students are registered more specific directions will be provided as well as carpooling information. Students who fly in should fly to San Jose Airport (SJC) and there are trains and buses to get you closer. Feel free to ask Claudine for more info.
MEALS & ACCOMMODATIONS
Students will receive snacks and 3 delicious healthy vegetarian meals a day prepared by cooks and with alot of fresh, organic bounty from the Farm of course. If there are meat-eaters, we can offer some meat options. We will ask about allergies and restrictions a month before the workshop. If you have favorite food snacks and needs you can’t live without, please bring them. Expect a healthy, balanced menu. Local students can choose to only have lunch and join for dinner on slide night and the final Celebration Dinner.
There is ample land to camp on or car camp. Students wanting indoor accomodations can check airbnbs or talk to Hosts.
INSTRUCTOR
Claudine Désirée is the original “Cob Queen” of Santa Cruz, where she founded the original “Sunflower Cob Building” which quickly morphed into the California-based “Cruzin’ Cob”, the cob workshop and building business that evolved over a decade. Once her three sons were “out of the house”, she went for her dream of traveling around the world on a bike teaching cob workshops everywhere every few months to continue supporting herself by offering up what she loves in the countries and languages she is passionate about. To work internationally with no home base required a new name and a website, hence CruzinCobGlobal was born naturally and appropriately and, after 5 years on the road, Claudine has finally found a new home….for now. On the island of São Miguel in the Azores (where are the Azores?) she has started building an eco homestead for family and friends called “Quinta da Vida Beleza” for chillin’, playing music, dancing and communing!!!! CruzinCobGlobal will continue to do the important work of building the best houses and best communities ever of course… with more new Teachers hitting the Cob road in 2021 as CCG-trained students begin leading workshops and builds around the world. Claudine will also keep teaching in her favorite places and spreading the Cob everywhere, with more focus on the Azores land and project now, but also very interested in working in Africa and Asia. California, however, will always be one of those favorite places, her and her children’s home for 20 years. And the demand to learn Cob in California is always growing with the fires and earthquakes threatening conventional houses. And the best part is we have a “legal” Cob Code to use anywhere in the world thanks to the CRI architects’ and engineers’ hard work and focus!
REGISTRATION & PAYMENT
The fee for the 4-day Cob Oven & Benches workshop is $400, which includes tuition, 2 snacks & 3 meals/day and camping.
There is a maximum limit of 10 students.
To register please contact claudine@cruzincobglobal.org to receive application forms and payment information. To hold your spot you will need to pay the full amount or a 50% deposit that will be non-refundable after March 8th, 2021 (see below). The balance will be due by March 25th, two weeks before the start date.
Cancellation Policy: If you cancel before March 8th you will get a full refund or credit towards another workshop to be used within 2 years. If you cancel after March 8th you will only get a credit and forfeit 10% of your payment or $40 for the last-minute cancellation.
We always offer work trades in our workshops depending on size of workshop. Here we will offer 2 work trades, one in the kitchen (making breakfast) and one onsite helping prep before breakfast. These work trades are for one hour per day of work in exchange for a $10 discount per workshop day. In this case work trader would receive $40 off. Please inquire asap because these spots go first.
You can also contact Claudine by Whatsapp at +18312127225 for questions and registration.
SEE YOU IN THE MUD!!!!!
