Max & Eva Edleson are farmers, natural builders, masons of devices for wood-fired cooking and heating—and now parents! They are coauthors of a wonderful book, Build Your Own Barrel Oven: A Guide for Building a Versatile, Efficient and Easy-to-Use Wood-Fired Oven (HandPrint Press, 2012). An important contribution Max and Eva make to the world of Rocket Mass Heaters is that they are our envoys into the world of masonry heaters. Max’s case study reflects these influences. Find Max and Eva at www.firespeaking.com.
In their fascination with fire, and their expertise with oven building and earthen finishing, they learned about the barrel oven, saw the potential in its pattern, and wanted to share knowledge with a broader audience, so they wrote Build Your Own Barrel Oven. Using a pre-fab kit that they offer, or building your own, if you have metal working tools, the Barrel-Oven offers the best of efficient wood burning, and the long-lasting heat from an earthen- or brick oven. I think of Eva and Max as masonry stove builders, who came to it by way of the rocket mass heater. I am really impressed by their Cabin Stove, a multi-functional masonry heater. You can read their articles, “The Cabin Stove–A Small Masonry Heater at Aprovecho Research Center” and a follow-up: “Cabin Stove, 2.0.” It’s tidy in ways the rocket mass heater is not. And super-efficient, and clean-burning.