On todays Sustainable Living Show we talked with Dan Durica and Mark Mazziotti about natural building techniques and pizza ovens.
Dan is a board member, bookkeeper, and organizer of the workshop series at Sweetwater Organic Farm. He has lived at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri for 18 years, where they do a lot of natural building. Dan built his own strawbale home that incorporates cob, lime and earthen plasters. He has 30 years of involvement in cooperative businesses and communities, along with 45 years of gardening, horticulture and farming experience.
Mark is a designer, builder and homesteader at Red Earth Farms Community Land Trust in Missouri. He has 20 years of experience with natural building techniques and mass ovens and heaters. He has learned these techniques from masters all around the world. Mark has just made his third pilgrimage to stove building Mecca, the annual Masonry Heater Association gathering in North Carolina.
Both men had moments when they knew that building in a sustainable way was their passion. Mark was working as a graphic designer stuck in front of computer wanting to have a house. Then, he felt the energy of the clay and was hooked. Dan attended an annual renewable energy fair in Wisconsin and was inspired. They are both now residents in intentional communities where they live in straw bale and Cobb homes that they built themselves.
The first style of outdoor cookery they each started with was Cobb oven and specifically pizza ovens. They attended many pizza parties and learned by doing with others. They continue to learn from others at workshops and other events such as the annual Masonry Heater Association gathering at Wild Acres retreat in Little Switzerland, SC.
Find out more about Dan and Mark as well as natural building and intentional communities at the following links:
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