Oven Building

Yesterday we finished rebuilding the Cobb oven that we have been working on for about 2 weeks. The brick foundation was already there from the last oven (that was broken during the hurricane) so we had to add the clay dome, the insulation and the final plaster. It was a fun project that allowed everyone to get covered in mud and then have a delicious baked treat to reward ourselves with in the end! Cobb ovens are also really cool beacause they cost nothing to power (assuming that you have readily available firewood...) and they retain their heat for about 6 hours. This makes them a good tool for developing economies because they are cheap to make (all of the materials we used came from their yard), easy to maintain, very eco friendly, and practical for cooking.

The brick archway and the sandform that we used as a mold for our first layer of material. Once this layer was dry we dug out the sand and had a beautiful clay dome!

Collecting clay to use for the first layer

The boys and I mixing up the first layer of material-a mixture of finely sifted sand and clay in a 3:1 ratio. It was hard work and involved dancing while reggae music played in the background to help cover up the burning in my legs and my incredibly terrible coordination...

The first layer going on over the newspaper covered sand form. The newspaper was useful when we had to dig the sand out so that we knew when to stop. This layer was about 4 inches thick the whole way around and will hold the majority of the heat from the fire.

Suzy being useful...



Mixing up the secong layer, which is a mixture of mostly sawdust and just enough clay slip to make it stick. This will be the insulation layer.

Agape making clay slip for the insulation mixture

The finished insulation layer, about 4 inches thick. This layer should be light and springy while it is still wet, and when in doubt opt for less sawdust than you think you need.

 

Our first fire in the cobb oven (We jumped the gun a bit and did it before we finished to insulation but we just couldn't wait for fresh bread)! If you light a good blazing fire and let it burn for 2-3 hours, your oven will stay hot enough to cook in for up to 6 hours. It is helpful to have a door to keep the heat in. Ours is covered in tin to keep the wooden door from burning.



We had some help finishing the oven from the wedding party staying next door! It was a good group project and a fun way to get to know some new people. The final layer was about an inch thick and made from a mixture of .5 parts horse manure, 1 part clay, 3 parts sand.

Agape, Joshua, Enoch, and Kofi putting shells collected on their beach for the finishing touches on the new oven

Finished cobb oven!

Our first coconut cake made in the new oven! delicious!

Hike to the waterfall and Black Sand Beach

 

Today I joined a wedding tourist group on their hike to the waterfall and Black Sand Beach. It was a beautiful trip and I got to see a part of the island that I hadn't been to before. The area used to be a little town, but once they realized that it was too far to route electricity everyone (including the first residents of Yerba Buena) moved up to Strawberry Fields, so there were some cool old buildings covered in ivy and fig trees. We hiked in and then got a boat ride back, which was beautiful! A lovely day overall of hiking and swimming and getting a little burned in the sun....

 

A little cove we spotted on the hike in

 

Old church

A fig tree attacking the church

The waterfall!

Black Sand Beach

The boat ride back

A trip to the Kingston Fruit Market

An early morning wake up allowed for a beautiful sunrise over the bay for our drive to Kingston. Among some other errands, Kwao and I went to the farmers market. It was a slow day, but the stalls were still pilled high with onions, irish potatoes, ackee, papayas and oranges. I even got little treats of a frozen bag of sorrel juice and an empananda! Going from Yerba Buena to Kingston is a bit of a shock...like going from a hottub to an ice bath. There are people everywhere and everyone seems busy. It was exciting to see such a contrast from my very laidback time on the farm!

Entrance to the market

The outside portion, all the stalls are under tarps to hide out from the heat

Tomatoes and papayas on display

yummyummy ackee!

7 am on Robin's Bay

Mr. Hill's Apiary

Today Kwao and I drove up in the mountains about 20 minutes away to drop off the bee boxes that we had built at Mr. Hill's bee farm. He has about 150 hives and he took us around to all of them, so I got to see a variety of hives of different ages and health levels. We spotted a swarm which Andrew, on of the helpers on his farm, was dispatched to remove. I learned that bees will swarm if there isn't enough space in their box so part of the colony leaves to find a new home. This can be solved by just building an open bottomed box filled with frames and stacking it on top of the previous one. We also rescued a young queen from being killed off by worker bees. Whenever the colony needs a new queen, they build multiple queen cells (which look much bigger and blobbier than worker cells) and raise queen larva. Once they all hatch the colony kills off all but the strongest queen. Getting to see Mr. Hills apiary was really interesting because I had never had a chance to see and compare so many hives!

some of his ~150 Langstroth hives

Larva that died because there weren't enough bees in the hive to care for them

smoking out the hive interfers with the bees' pheramone warning signals and makes them confused and less likely to sting

A comb full of honey ready to be harvested!

Andrew climbing the coconut tree to get us an afternoon snack

Salvaging a queen from the pile of bees

A Trip to the Point

The boys took me on a little hike to the "point" on the opposite side of the bay from Yerba Buena. We got to make a quick trip to the river pool nearby which reminds me of Indiana Jones. I got to collect some sweet shells and see a new part of Strawberry Fields (the town that Yerba Buena Farms is located in). It's a sweet, quiet little community with gorgeous views and tropical flowers everywhere. I'm in love.

River Pool

A friend we found on the way

View of Yerba Buena on the other side of the cove

Little beach at the point

Joshua and Malchizedek by the point

Building Boxes for Beez

The family does Top Bar beekeeping, which is more simple but less common than using Langstroth style hives. They are simpler because when it is time to harvest the honey you just cut the whole comb off (which means that you also get wax in the harvesting process!) instead of saving it for the next honey harvest. This also makes them less susceptable to diseases and pests that like to target old comb. My first project was to help Kwao build 10 square hives (top bar hives are usually trapezoids so that the bees won't stick comb to the sides) so that they can pick up and transport colonies from a seller (they lost a lot of hives during the Hurricane). I had no idea that beeboxes had to be so precise! Bees need at least 3/8ths of an inch underneath the body of the hive so that they can get in. That should also be their only place of entry. We also had to nail tin to the top to make them waterproof. I'm excited to get to see the new colonies once they come in (we'll be dropping off the hives by the end of this week). The boys taught me some valuable carpentry tricks and helped out with the building process a ton while also providing some quality entertainment....

number 1 helper

Emmanuel and I building the body of the box

Enoch lending a hand...

Kawo cutting wood for the frames-Wood that they cut on their property

Emmanuel building the bottoms

Parts in the workshop

Arriving in Jamaica

after a 12 hour flight(which included a 5 hour nap on the benches in Miami airport and the most delicious empanadas of all time...) my flight came in around noon in Kingston, which was a hot, busy city. Kwao greeted me at the airport, and after a few stops in the city we drove through the windy roads into the mountains on our way to Yerba Buena Farms in St. Mary parish on the other side of the island. The family raises bees, grows mushrooms, and keeps a little vegetable garden with bok choy (or pop cho like they call it here) and basil some corn. They got hit pretty badly by Hurrican Sandy and lost most of the fruit trees in their front yard as well as some roofs and windows. They are quick in the process of rebuilding. They have five boys ages 2-12 who are constantly full of energy. On my first day they took me down to their little beach by the farm. It is absolutely beautiful here, and from my hammock outside my house I can see to bright blue ocean and it feels like a tropical paradise. A pretty sweet place to be spending the rest of my quarter!

The Beach

The walk to my house (The yellow one on the right)

View of the sea