PORT BYRON - Keith Taylor has taught himself to be a lot of things during his life: farmer, woodworker, photographer. Over the summer, he has added a new skill in hopes to refine another.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
Port Byron resident Keith Taylor shows off the brick oven he is building in his yard. Taylor is an artisan baker and will bake pizzas, breads and his Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, which he built because his kitchen oven could not reach suitable bread-making temperatures.
Port Byron resident Keith Taylor shows off the brick oven he is building in his yard. Taylor is an artisan baker and will bake pizzas, breads and his Thanksgiving turkey in the oven, which he built because his kitchen oven could not reach suitable bread-making temperatures.
Taylor, 85, is currently working on the final touches for a brick oven on his Port Byron farm. When he is finished, he will be able to cook just about anything he wants - pizza, cake, pies and, his favorite, fresh bread.
Taylor never did much brick or stone work before starting the oven. But he got fed up that the oven in his kitchen didn't cook bread the right way, so he found some plans and read a few books.
The going has been a bit tougher than he expected.
“I've found out that I'm not a mason, and it is not anything you can learn just by doing it,” said Taylor, who started the project at the beginning of the summer. “The first person to say ‘This wall is a little crooked,' well, he's eating his last pizza.”
When finished, the brick oven will be heated using wood, and will be able to reach temperatures as high as 900 degrees. It will be more than eight feet tall and five feet wide.
Taylor didn't take a guess at the number of bricks it has taken to build the thing, but he has gone through almost 75 large bags of cement. And, except for when he has had to lift dozens of the 80-pound cement bags, Taylor has done all the work on his own.
“I've been working on it day-in, day-out since I started,” he said. “It has been a whole lot of guess and by-God, and some ‘Oops, I did that wrong.'”
Taylor moved to Port Byron 20 years ago after selling his film-consulting business in Syracuse. He started farming on a whim, and raised horses and Scottish highland cattle on his 100-acre farm. Of course, like with brick work, he had no farming experience before that.
Taylor said that much of his life has been spent jumping from interest to interest. After serving with the Third Infantry Division in World War II, he spent time working in advertising, television production and theater in New York. He's even taught himself carpentry.
“I have always thought that there is nothing in the world you can't do yourself if you have common sense,” Taylor said.
Somewhere along the way, he started baking bread. And according to Taylor, there is nothing quite like tasting artisan bread fresh out of a brick oven.
“When you cook a loaf of bread in an oven like this, you get a good, dark crust that is very chewy,” he said. “It tastes like nothing you've had before.”
And while the first thing Taylor plans to do is fire up a few loaves, his friends and neighbors might have other ideas.
“Everyone else wants me to make pizzas,” he said. “And I know I'm going to roast my thanksgiving turkey in it.”
Taylor never did much brick or stone work before starting the oven. But he got fed up that the oven in his kitchen didn't cook bread the right way, so he found some plans and read a few books.
The going has been a bit tougher than he expected.
“I've found out that I'm not a mason, and it is not anything you can learn just by doing it,” said Taylor, who started the project at the beginning of the summer. “The first person to say ‘This wall is a little crooked,' well, he's eating his last pizza.”
When finished, the brick oven will be heated using wood, and will be able to reach temperatures as high as 900 degrees. It will be more than eight feet tall and five feet wide.
Taylor didn't take a guess at the number of bricks it has taken to build the thing, but he has gone through almost 75 large bags of cement. And, except for when he has had to lift dozens of the 80-pound cement bags, Taylor has done all the work on his own.
“I've been working on it day-in, day-out since I started,” he said. “It has been a whole lot of guess and by-God, and some ‘Oops, I did that wrong.'”
Taylor moved to Port Byron 20 years ago after selling his film-consulting business in Syracuse. He started farming on a whim, and raised horses and Scottish highland cattle on his 100-acre farm. Of course, like with brick work, he had no farming experience before that.
Taylor said that much of his life has been spent jumping from interest to interest. After serving with the Third Infantry Division in World War II, he spent time working in advertising, television production and theater in New York. He's even taught himself carpentry.
“I have always thought that there is nothing in the world you can't do yourself if you have common sense,” Taylor said.
Somewhere along the way, he started baking bread. And according to Taylor, there is nothing quite like tasting artisan bread fresh out of a brick oven.
“When you cook a loaf of bread in an oven like this, you get a good, dark crust that is very chewy,” he said. “It tastes like nothing you've had before.”
And while the first thing Taylor plans to do is fire up a few loaves, his friends and neighbors might have other ideas.
“Everyone else wants me to make pizzas,” he said. “And I know I'm going to roast my thanksgiving turkey in it.”
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CryinRyan wrote on Oct 18, 2007 5:42 PM: