Pat Wass wants to change the world one cob oven at a time.

At his home in Sooke he has built a wood-fired cob oven out of the most basic natural materials — clay, sand, straw and water.

Each Sunday he fires up the oven and when the wood smoke starts rising the neighbourhood kids come running because they know they are in for a treat of pizza or fresh baked bread.

During my visit he had already fired the oven up and was preparing to place four loaves of bread into the oven. In less than 20 minutes the bread came out beautifully browned and pungent with the scent of rosemary. A little brush of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt and the bread was ready for tasting. It was in a word — delicious.

Wass is a passionate and enthusiastic advocate for building with cob.

Cob is an ancient method of building ovens and structures and is quite similar to the way adobe is made. Cob-type ovens are ancient and have been built worldwide throughout history. Homes built in the British Isles have lasted for centuries and these days fans of cob are building large, modern, organic homes out of sustainable materials.

The word cob describes the blocks mixed from the raw materials which are applied by hand in large gobs (or cobs). Building cob structures is usually a communal-type effort as it is rather labour intensive. Traditionally the mixing of the straw/clay was done with bare feet. These days though heavier equipment can be used to mix the cob, especially for large projects.

Wass built his cob oven using a base of rock gathered off his property. Sand was used as a form and the cob applied in stages as each layer dried.

“We did the cob dance on tarps to mix it up,” he said.

The clay works as the glue, sand as the hardener and the straw acts as rebar giving the structure tensile strength. The last layer is finished with an earthen plaster and it is then either broomed or polished.

“You are looking at a functional piece of art,” said Wass. “You can shape it using your own creativity.”

His oven is the typical dome shape but it has a brown-coloured bear hugging the top of the oven. The ovens are inexpensive, the one Wass built cost under $200 to build.

The oven is incredibly functional and efficient as it has radiant, convection and conductive heat. Pizza cooks in three minutes and a chicken dinner will be ready in slightly over an hour.

He recommends a roof over the oven and his is a living roof with daffodils and tiger lilies growing in the sod. Any surplus water from the roof is drained into a rain barrel and used to water plants around his property.

“This is my passion, it’s a great medium for people to come and do. It’s limitless — limited only by your creativity.”

Together with his wife Michelle they have set up West Coast Cob & Compost Creations.

They hold workshops with a maximum of 10 people and the “host” of the workshop gets a cob oven out of the process.

In changing their world, Pat and Michelle see the future in their two sons.

“We want our two young sons to do the right thing,” he said. “

“It’s not about the money it’s about the passion.”