Gather round the fire – Urban Farm installs traditional cob oven, outdoor kitchen

Whether around an open campfire or in the kitchen during a holiday party, people always seem to gather near a hearth to seek community and friendship. The staff at the MUSC Urban Farm hopes the new outdoor kitchen, complete with a traditional cob oven – thanks to the artisans at the American College of the Building Arts together with MUSC students –will become a new gathering place for both the MUSC and greater Charleston community. 

Urban Farm educator Carmen Ketron said earthen ovens have been used in every culture around the world that she’s researched. They’re not an ancient artifact either – many people came up to her during the construction of the Urban Farm’s cob oven to say their mothers or grandmothers used one or to offer to share recipes and cooking techniques.

“These are almost a universal symbol of community, food, sharing and health,” Ketron said.

And the MUSC cob oven came into being because of sharing. It all started a couple of years ago, when Mary Mauldin, Ed.D., executive director of the Office of Instructional Technology and Faculty Resources and associate director of education for the Office of Interprofessional Initiatives, invited the faculty from the American College of the Building Arts to the South Carolina Conference on Innovations in Teaching and Learning, a bi-annual conference hosted at MUSC. Her department then provided lunch-time sessions focused on teaching and learning for faculty at the ACBA. As a result, the ACBA wanted to repay the favor. The college suggested building a cob oven, and Mauldin approached Robin Smith, MUSC grounds department supervisor, for permission.

Smith loved the idea. She said she’s always ready for a chance to be innovative and promote healthy food and, just by coincidence, the Urban Farm staff was already building an outdoor kitchen replete with a propane grill, charcoal grill and refrigerator.

The idea behind building the kitchen was to get even more people out to the farm, whether to eat lunch, hold a luncheon or host events, Smith said.

The farm is a joint project of the grounds department and the Office of Health Promotion, and part of its purpose is to educate people on eating for health, Ketron said. Farm volunteers can harvest what they like, but the staff has found that preparing fresh fruits and veggies in a healthy way often stumps people. Before the kitchen, Ketron said, she was basically limited to showing people how to prepare smoothies or massaged kale salads – kale that has been rubbed together to break down some of its tough fiber.

Now, she said, “One of the big dreams for the kitchen is to bring in chefs and to bring in our dieticians, so we can actually do hands-on learning. That’s why cooking shows are so popular – because you can see it. If you can actually have an interactive experience with it, you’re more likely to enjoy eating for health.”

Susan Johnson, Ph.D., director of health promotion, said the farm provides a living classroom for the Office of Health Promotion to teach about the connection between food and health. The office has had events in the past, including cooking demonstrations and tastings, but having a full kitchen on site opens up a world of possibilities, she said.

Some of the office’s past programs have included events focused on the intersection of culture, heritage and food and how to update traditional recipes in a healthy way.

Besides food-specific events, the farm has hosted a range of events from a 3-year-old’s birthday party to interdepartmental team-building exercises. Every Tuesday there’s a lunch and learn from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. that’s open to all.

Volunteers can help with the gardening, too. A pain rehab group, breast cancer survivors’ group, Veterans Affairs garden club, as well as youth groups and school groups, have all participated either as volunteers or to take a tour. Ketron said she gets a lot of MUSC students who take breaks from studying to do “a little bit of Zen weeding.”

Several MUSC students also participated in the cob oven building alongside the ACBA students in an interprofessional elective course, IP 745 – Community Cooking. They built the oven, designed by architect April Magill, over the course of five Fridays in October and November. The traditional oven is made of mud, clay, sand and straw – mixed with bare feet – that uses wood fuel.

The students also spent an afternoon repairing an existing cob oven at a community garden in North Charleston. Cob ovens will typically need a new application of the plaster outer layer every few years as cracks appear.

The grounds crew celebrated the inaugural run of the cob oven and grill during its holiday party. Ketron said the wood-fired oven takes a little practice, but, she noted, pizza is a pretty forgiving recipe. She’s looking forward to the volunteers who want to make grandma’s bread or stews in the oven.

“It will be a lot of fun, and it will be a really great mingling of cultures, too,” she said.

Johnson said her office is still working on developing programming to take advantage of the new kitchen.