Great story about living in S. America. Camp stove, running water, and easy access to a reliable year around supply of fresh food. Sounds good.
I like the communal oven idea. We have a solar oven and a good sized toaster oven that can fit the same pans, as well as our range. We can't use the solar oven year around here but we hardly use the big oven at all. I could see doing my Christmas baking and roasting turkey etc. in a communal oven. I don't make bread because I'm gluten intolerant.
I could certainly get by with much less space and equipment if I didn't do so much food processing and have so much stored food. We have a short growing season so some way of storing food is essential.
I know of the Hutterite model and it works for them. As Atmospheric River pointed out in her comment above it takes a shared culture, which we don't have. Lots of people raised with the expectations of an era that is passing quickly away are - well - as AR says, they are grumpy and resentful about having to adapt. But one of the big take aways from your S.America experience is that when people have less they do adapt. They create functional systems with what they have.
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I like the communal oven idea. We have a solar oven and a good sized toaster oven that can fit the same pans, as well as our range. We can't use the solar oven year around here but we hardly use the big oven at all. I could see doing my Christmas baking and roasting turkey etc. in a communal oven. I don't make bread because I'm gluten intolerant.
I could certainly get by with much less space and equipment if I didn't do so much food processing and have so much stored food. We have a short growing season so some way of storing food is essential.
I know of the Hutterite model and it works for them. As Atmospheric River pointed out in her comment above it takes a shared culture, which we don't have.
Lots of people raised with the expectations of an era that is passing quickly away are - well - as AR says, they are grumpy and resentful about having to adapt. But one of the big take aways from your S.America experience is that when people have less they do adapt. They create functional systems with what they have.