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Slowly Mastering Baking in A Wood Oven

One of the biggest learning curves since moving to rural Colombia is learning to bake with a wood stove.

2 min readMay 19, 2025
Sourdough discard bread, and banana muffins. Photo by author.

I am slowly getting the hang of it and love it. Sometimes I think, f-it, I wish I had a ¨normal¨ oven, then I taste my food, and it’s always better with wood. Plus, it reminds me of my childhood.

I used to watch my mother cooking breakfast on the wood stove or baking bread. It was such a simple act that I never realized how much effort it took, and she cooked every meal on that wood stove.

I have lived so long in the fast lane that I love slowing down and taking time to do things. This means that if it takes all day to make bread, then it takes all day to make bread.

Sometimes, I think I am going back to the basics in my life. Instead of getting a ¨smart home¨, ¨smart car¨ or ¨smart stove¨, I have a good old-fashioned wood-burning oven, and I love it.

However, I live like everyone else in my community….simply. No one here thinks it’s weird that I cook with wood; they all ask where I got my stove instead of WHY I got a wood stove.

In the photo, sourdough discard bread, and banana muffins, because I have an abundance of bananas!

More bananas! Photo by author.

XOXO
S

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Sara Burdick
Sara Burdick

Written by Sara Burdick

I quit the rat race after working as a nurse for 16 years. Travel and Storyteller. I live in Colombia. https://substack.com/@saraburdick

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