Each nation has its own kinds of bread and it is one of the most essential foodstuffs for human beings. Nevertheless, the traditional crafts of baking and cooking are threatened to die out because the industry can produce faster and more efficiently amounts that small bakeries would never be able to accomplish.
Many mid-Europeans from countries such as Germany and France moving to Finland notice the lack of traditional family bakeries in the country, especially in urban areas. Most of the bread seems to come plastic-packaged from the supermarket. One possible solution is to just stick to what you get. Another one is to start baking yourself, cultivating your own sourdough starters and getting completely passionate about bread. And, last but not least, you could get together a bunch of people and build an oven yourself! One problem about making bread yourself is that domestic electric ovens do not even reach the temperatures needed to bake proper bread, and the temperature is stable at all times, unless you drop it every few minutes. Traditional stone ovens save the heat in the stone and drop the temperature slowly, so that bread gets a nice crust and a juicy crumb. The special flavour of bread or pizza baked on a wood-fired hot stone is just unforgettable for your taste buds...!
The "Stadin uuni" aka Archie was built in a communal effort during a workshop organized, facilitated and hosted by three women, who found themselves on social networking platforms on the internet (Public School Helsinki in this case), after each one of them had been struggling alone with authorities and professionals who did not believe in their dream. Quickly, a workshop was set up, which took place during the first week of August of 2010. An international group of enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds experienced these incredible workshop days full of fun, work, discussions, surprises, and positive spirit together.
In the same spirit, the oven is supposed to be open to the public. People who want to organize events or simply bake some bread, pizza, or cake with friends can make a reservation via this blog. Just send an email with a description of your event to us, and we will publish it on the calendar.
saviuunihelsinkiin@gmail.com
Enjoy!
