GRAND ISLE, Maine — The tradition of “mudding” in northern Maine goes back long before large trucks with even larger tires began racing through mud-filled pits.
In the early days of Acadian history in the St. John Valley, residents took locally mined clay to build dome-shaped, wood-fired bread ovens.
The public is invited to participate in a mudding day beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 12, at the Grand Isle Historical Society on U.S. Route 1 to recreate one of these old-time ovens.
“You can’t miss it,” Gerald Soucy of the Grand Isle Historical Society said. “The base and hearth of the bread oven are already built [and] they’re right in front of the museum’s entrance.”
Soucy said the public can take part in the entire process from mixing the claylike mud with hay to forming the oven dome before it is dried and fired.
Historically, this was a very social and somewhat messy process.
The clay is placed in troughs with water and softened by kneading it with bare feet — much like stomping grapes to make wine, Soucy said.
The hay is added as a binder before the mud is slapped on by hand to a dome-shaped frame made of alder branches.
The oven dries over time and is then fired — like pottery — before it can be used to bake anything from bread to pizza, Soucy said.
The alder wood frame simply burns away in the process.
Soucy said the dome will be under a protective covering to keep the elements at bay and the hope is the first loaf of bread can be baked in October.
The Grand Isle mudding day, which will take place rain or shine, is as much about community participation as it is historical reproduction.
“Simply roll up your pant legs and take off your shoes,” Soucy said. “The rest is easy.”
For more information on the Grand Isle mudding day, email Contact@GIMEHistorical.org.
