Adoberos Magníficos

Making adobe bricks at Mission Garden

For the past several months a small dedicated group of volunteers have gathered most Tuesdays, Thursdays and some Saturdays to participate in another work of passion: to create a small, aesthetic wall between the Mexican and Chinese Gardens made out of adobe bricks created by their own long hard work and hopefully short learning curve.

During that time they have created over 700 12” by 14” by 3.5” mud adobes.  They have used the traditional materials of sand, clay-rich soil, straw, water and the secret traditional ingredient of prickly pear juice squeezed from the pads of local cacti.

Using a cement mixer and a wooden mold they learned very shortly what worked and what didn’t.  The bottom line is the harder you work the better the adobe.   That includes (among many other things) pressing each filled mold by hand to ensure the adobe has no hidden air pockets and using the correct drying method.  The adobes need to dry on their “backs” until they are stable and then dry on their long end to ensure they dry throughout.

These volunteers also poured the cement footing for the wall and cemented in a rock base from volcanic rocks identical to those found in the A Mountain quarry. The adobe wall will be put onto this rock base. (We are looking for an expert adobe layer to instruct us on the best method for doing this)

The adobe-making team (adoberos) was organized by Phil Hall and joined by William O’Malley, Gene Einfrank, Jose Gastelum, Frank Barraza,  Lynn Ketchum, Gordon Mc Donald , Brad Kindler, Jesus Garcia, Dick Zeiner and Tomas Castillo

We cannot express in words all the appreciation we feel for the work this group has contributed to Mission Garden.

Adoberos including Sam Whitthorne, Phil Hall, Steve, Bill OMalley (Photo by Kendall Kroesen)