This is true adobe. Mud, water, and straw, dried by the sun and applied with a mortar of more soil and water, that is the recipe. With lintels over the doorways and windows for support, this has worked pretty well since the Neolithic period. Now sometimes Portland cement is added to the mix.
Regrettably, our house is stucco, but we do have an adobe brick wall (bits of straw sticking out everywhere) and adobe brick fireplaces. Nothing compares.
Photo copyright 1994, philg@mit.edu
