Hopi Bread Oven First Firing

Friday, June 9, 2005 was a historic date for MNA and Flagstaff Arts and Leadership Academy as their joint Hopi Bread Oven Project reached a new milestone with the first firing of the oven.  Diana Shebala of Hotevilla supervised the activities as FALA teacher Ben Anderson and FALA students built the first fire and baked traditional Hopi yeast bread.

This project started with the repair and replastering of several bread ovens and a piki house at First and Second Mesa.  Students also built a new bread oven at a farm on Antelope Mesa and learned about the process of baking with this unique oven. The Hopi Bread Oven at MNA was constructed in the Spring of 2005 near the edge of the Rio De Flag.

How it works:

The oven has just one chamber - used for heating the oven and for baking the bread.  The plastered sandstone absorbs the heat from the fire.  The coals are removed from the oven once the fire has burned long enough. While the oven is fired, yeast dough is kneaded and allowed to rise.

To ensure that no ashes make their way into the bread, Diane Shebala thoroughly mops the oven with water.

Pans of bread are carefully loaded into the oven.  It looks small, but it's amazing how many pans will fit into the oven's interior.

MNA Education Director, Tracy Anderson, and FALA students wring water from a wool blanket, which is then used with a stone slab to seal the oven opening.

Demonstrator Vivian Shebala, MNA Maintenance Director Sat Sansar Best, and FALA teacher Ben Anderson pass the time as the bread is baking inside the oven.  The top opening of the oven has been sealed by removing the smaller rocks to allow the large slab to cover the opening.  Over an hour after the fire was removed from the oven there are incredible heat waves still rising from the oven.

After about 30 minutes of baking, it's time to remove the bread.

Yes, it tastes just as wonderful as it looks!