[billycw]

La Corroirie estate near Loches, France (this Hemp oven also served as a prison for misbehaving monks when not in use)



Getting Baked With Hemp

All across France ruins of hemp history decay. The structures loom on the farm lands awaiting that day they can all get baked again!



Restored Hemp Oven in Auvers under Montfaucon (an old French commune) in France dating to at least around 1826


All across France, ruins of a technique for processing hemp can be found dominating farmland. Large stone silo's, almost always 2 story's high dot the landscape. These ruins hold a key step into our history of hemp.

After soaking the hemp in water or known as the process called 'retting', farmers needed to dry the hemp out. This step could be accomplished by laying the hemp out in the field for the sun to work its magic over time. But for the elite hemp farmers of France this just wasn't fast and efficient enough...

The solution? 'Four à chanvre' or Hemp Ovens!



Hemp Oven in Le Perche in southern Normandy, France turned into a guest room (notice the original stone steps leading to 2nd story room)


The design was simple but elegant. A 2 story stone building usually round like a silo would be separated into a top and bottom room. The first floor would hold the oven, often designed as a bread oven serving the farm with a duel purpose.

The second story would have a separate entrance from the oven floor and be an empty room where the wet hemp was placed to dry in the ambient heat created by the oven below.



diagram of a Hemp Oven


The Hemp Ovens would also keep the hemp inside dry from the rainy seasons that usually followed the harvest season further expediting the drying process while keeping it controlled from issues like mold.

The structures would often be placed away from the main house for fear of the fire danger they presented.



A hemp oven in Sarthe, France

[billycw]

Getting Baked With Hemp Continued...




Outside view of a square Four à Chanvre/Hemp Oven in Teloche (Sarthe), France


Mostly round in shape, the hemp ovens were also built in a square design for added room accommodating the larger farms.

This Hemp oven from Teloche in Sarthe, France shows the size obtained by building in the square shape including a look inside the oven room.




Inside view of a square Four à Chanvre/Hemp Oven in Teloche (Sarthe), France


In a old farming neighborhood right in the heart of a present day city a little piece of Hemp history is preserved. At a city park, a nearby farmhouse's old Hemp Oven dominates the space.

Located at 3 Rue du Petit Closeau, in the city of Coulaines, France, is a city park called Madonna Park. Tucked away next to an old farmhouse is the parks centerpiece, 'Hemp Oven Square'.

The nearby farms old hemp oven has been restored allowing park visitors to peak into the hemp history that surrounds them!



Hemp Oven Square in Madonna Park, Coulaines, France


If you ever find yourself overlooking ruin's in the French countryside remember, it just could be a Hemp Oven waiting to get baked again!



Old Hemp Oven ruin's near Neuville, France

[billycw]

'New York police officers examine confiscated marijuana plants', New York City early 1950's

[Jellyfish]

Mayberry's finest!

[billycw]

Originally Posted by Jellyfish

Mayberry's finest!

'You go read any book you want on the subject of child discipline and you'll find that every one of them is in favor of bud-nippin. Nip it in the bud!'

- Barney Fife

[billycw]

'Hemp workers', engraving created by Lallemand and Levy, published in the 'L'Illustration, journal universel', Paris, France 1860

[billycw]

Craftsman works on a water pipe, wrapping twine around the stem near Nakhoda Mosque, Kolkata, India. 1944

[Elmer Bud]

[billycw]

Originally Posted by Elmer Bud

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Churchman cards? Have a couple of these saved, thanks for sharing

[billycw]

Man smoking pipe while displaying the days catch in Black River Falls, Wisconsin 1920's