Forget barbecues in the garden this summer. The new way to dine outdoors in Dorset, is with a wood-fired cob oven which lets you cook everything from authentic Italian pizzas to your Sunday roast.

Darron Howarth of Branksome Park in Poole, builds rustic cob ovens for a living and, as he points out, it's more than just an oven, it's a lifestyle.

"I love being outdoors and I love cooking, " he says. "For me it makes a meal more of an event, because everyone can get involved, and everyone likes to gather around the fire which becomes a focal point.

"Most children love pizza too and enjoy rolling out the dough and choosing their own toppings so you can cater for all tastes. It's also a healthier way of cooking as you know exactly what you are eating."

Once the fire is lit, temperatures can reach in excess of 400°C and the stone floor cooks the pizza in a matter of minutes.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver swears by his: "I love cooking in it. It's outside, it's sociable and food tastes better in it. If you can get the hang of cooking in one of these, you feel more connected with it - there's something medieval about it."

A cob oven is the original oven made from natural, sustainable materials such as sand and clay.

And as Darron points out, once you get the hang of cooking pizzas, there's no limit to what you can rustle up.

"This style of cooking has been around for thousands of years so anything you can cook in a conventional oven, you can cook in a cob oven.

"We bake bread in ours and a leg of lamb slow cooked for three hours is so tender that the meat is literally dropping off the bone afterwards.

"It's fun to experiment too. Once the oven has cooled down, you can put a tray of tomatoes in with a little oil and herbs and leave it in overnight, and the end result is very similar to sun dried tomatoes - it's such an intense flavour."

Darron is now running cob oven workshops for individuals, as well as part of corporate team building programmes and also for school projects including special schools and charities.

Last month he ran a workshop at High Mead Farm, a therapeutic farm near Wimborne, for people within the community who have learning or physical disabilities.

"You can build a rustic cob oven in a day," Darron explains. "It gets everyone involved because it caters for all ages and all levels of ability as all the skills can be taught in a day.

"Everyone can have a meaningful job to do and feel part of the project. We encourage people to mix the sand and clay with their feet which often breaks out into what we call the cob dance. People end up doing all sorts of moves!"

And Darron is also working on an idea to reconnect local businesses to the community.

He explains: "There are many people who could really benefit from the positive experience of working together and building an oven that can then be used for all sorts of events in the future.

"By connecting companies with charities that wouldn't normally be able to afford an oven, this is a way of giving something back to the community. It's not just about the funding, but trying to bridge the divisions which exist in our society and build a better future."

For more information, visit rusticcobovens.com