Search Results for: label/appropriate technology/page/10/2011/04/making-it

422 results

Mitchell Joachim’s Techno-Utopian Future

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
9 Comments
...loops could form the basis of a new faith to replace our current consumerist spirituality. In-Vitro Meat House. Mitchell Joachim At the risk of being a nattering nabob of negativity, I just have to say that I think it’s time to grow up and stop fantasizing about jet packs, hydroponic farms and electric cars.  We need to get realistic about our future and explore design work that lives within the resource limits of this planet. Li...

Continue reading…

There Will Be Kraut Part II–Full Day Hands-On Fermentation Workshop at the Greystone Mansion

Mr. Homegrown
Events
2 Comments
™ packed full of spices and flavorings to make your pickle unique. SPECIAL OFFER!  Purchase Together: Friday Evening Lecture + Full-Day Workshop for only $200 ! Erik Knutzen:  Co-author of The Urban Homestead and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World, co-founder of the Los Angeles Bead Bakers collective. Hae Jung Cho: After recovering from a career in nonprofit management, Hae Jung has been working in the food industry since...

Continue reading…

Build a Solar Dehydrator

Mr. Homegrown
Appropriate Technology, Preparedness, Solar
18 Comments
Like many of you, I suspect, we’ve got a few too many tomatoes at this time of the year. One of our favorite ways to preserve our modest harvest is with our solar dehydrator. There’s nothing like the taste of sun dried tomatoes, but unless you live in a very dry desert climate like Phoenix, Arizona you can’t just set fruit out in the sun and expect it to do anything but go moldy. In most places in the world, including here in...

Continue reading…

A Parvati Solar Cooker

Mr. Homegrown
Solar
4 Comments
Damn, is solar cooking easy! Put some rice in a pot, place the pot in this simple panel cooker, made with cardboard and aluminum foil, stick it out in the sun and two hours later you have lunch. We built our “Parvati” solar cooker with plans designed by Shobha Ravindra Pardeshi that can be found here. Pardeshi, who runs an “appropriate technology” company with her husband in India has another design for a similar dish-sha...

Continue reading…

Three Mules in Los Angeles

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
148 Comments
UPDATE 01/21/13: We’ve been informed via the comments that a volunteer has set up a Facebook page for the Mule Man–and with his approval. It’s called 3 Mules. So if you Facebook you can go there for more info., or to post pictures or stories. There’s even video interviews. Of course, you are very welcome to continue post your sightings or thoughts here, too–especially those of you who don’t do Facebook. We&...

Continue reading…

Homegrown Revolution at the Alt-Car Expo

Mr. Homegrown
Bikes
RLeave a comment
Riding a bicycle puts us in touch with the spaces we live in and the people who inhabit those spaces. As the Situationist Guy Debord said, “Traffic Circulation is the organization of universal isolation. In this regard it constitutes the major problem of modern cities. It is the opposite of encounter, it absorbs the energies that could otherwise be devoted to encounters or to any sort of participation.” By riding a bike we break out of th...

Continue reading…

How to Roast Your Own Coffee in a Stovetop Popcorn Maker

Mr. Homegrown
Food, How-to
12 Comments
Thanks to the Institute for Domestic Technology, I learned roast my own coffee at home in a Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper. It’s a simple, if smokey, process. You heat up the popper on your stove top over a medium/high heat and dump in 10 ounces of green coffee beans. The beans we used were ordered from Sweet Maria’s who carry a wide selection of high-end beans at inexpensive prices. The only trick with the Whirley-Po...

Continue reading…

LED Light Bulbs

Mr. Homegrown
Domesticus
2 Comments
The geeks over at BoingBoing have jumped on the LED light bandwagon with a post about the C. Crane Company’s CC Vivid and CC Vivid+ LED light bulbs. While it’s great that folks are beginning to think about conservation, it’s disappointing that this interest seems to be about chasing the latest new techno-gadget. As concerns about impending climate and ecological disaster increase, it’s prudent to greet all new technical s...

Continue reading…

Press

...m in the heart of Los Angeles. They are the keepers of the popular DIY blog, Root Simple, and the authors of The Urban Homestead (2008), which the New York Times calls “…the contemporary bible on the subject” and Making It (2011) a project book for post-consumer society. In addition to their writing and blogging, Kelly and Erik teach and speak on the topics of self-reliance, urban gardening and sustainability. Other Info: Contact us: roots...

Continue reading…

Tame the Email Beast and Have Time To Run Your Urban Homestead

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
19 Comments
...modern life from which to “harvest” some time other than from evening TV-viewing hours. Email is where I’ve begun my time harvesting lately. While incredibly useful, email has become a daily, herculean task. It’s also a medium that’s as addictive as crack (there has been debate about including email addiction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Like lab rats waiting for a treat to shoot dow...

Continue reading…