Remember to Label Those Jars!

June 13, 2012

“Label, label, label!” This was one of the most important lessons I learned in my Master Food Preserver training. You’ll note, from the jars above, that I’m not very good about this. When were those jars canned and what’s in them? I have no idea. They were probably the result of some late night canning frenzy two years ago. At the time I probably thought to myself, “I’ll label them in the morning.”...

Making Beer in Plain Language

Mr. Homegrown

December 14, 2008

Beer, Fermentation, Food

13 Comments

...strategies of the rearticulation of power.” -Guggenheim Fellowship-winning professor of rhetoric and comparative literature Judith Butler via the Bad Writing Contest Huh? At least the terminology surrounding beer making ain’t that obtuse, but it certainly could use some simplification. For novice home brewers, such as us here at Homegrown Evolution, the terminology creates an unnecessary barrier as impenetrable as a gradu...

Michael Reynold’s Beer Can Houses

Mr. Homegrown

December 8, 2011

Design

7 Comments

The National Archive just put thousands of 1970s era images from the Environmental Protection Agency online. One of the photographers working for the EPA, David Hiser, captured New Mexico architect Michael Reynolds building houses out of adobe and aluminum cans. See a selection of these photos after the jump . . . Caption: “Detail of a wall in an experimental home built of aluminum beer and soft drink cans near Taos, New Mexico. for th...

Summer Urban Homestead Failures: Exploding Beer Bottles

Mr. Homegrown

August 27, 2011

Beer, Fermentation, Food, Thoughtstylings

14 Comments

Somehow in last week’s roundup of the summer’s failures I blocked out of my memory the most exasperating: exploding beer bottles. I think I may have had a contaminated siphon hose which passed on some nasty, yeasty bacterial bug to every single bottle of two batches of beer I had made this summer. Three of those bottles over-carbonated to the point that they became beer grenades and exploded. One blew up on the kitchen counter and...

Cooling with Beer . . . Cans

Mr. Homegrown

April 6, 2008

Food, Recipes

RLeave a comment

Homegrown Evolution dropped by Houston’s famous Beer Can House, created by John Milkovisch in the 1960s and 70s. We won’t plumb the messy depths of the meaning of “visionary art”, the academic art Mafia’s euphemism du jour for this stuff–we’ll leave that to our art bloggin’ amigo Doug Harvey. So sidestepping the whole debate over the intentions of its creator, we’ll point out that all of Milk...

Beer Can Shingles

Mr. Homegrown

November 27, 2010

Design

4 Comments

A neat idea via the Uncomsumption blog. Bricoleur Billy Robb took a bunch of beer cans, flattened them and ran them through a custom made die. The result: tiles for the roof of a chicken coop. It’s reminiscent of Houston’s renowned beer can house: The Beer Can House You can read Robb’s beer can shingle directions on an Instructables....

Picture Sundays: Beer and Motherhood

Mr. Homegrown

February 26, 2012

Picture Sundays

7 Comments

“A case of Blatz Beer in your home means much to the young mother, and obviously baby participates in its benefits. The malt in the beer supplies nourishing qualities that are essential at this time and the hops act as an appetizing, stimulating tonic.” -Blatz Beer ad, 1916....

Looking for the Union Label

Mr. Homegrown

September 12, 2007

Domesticus

3 Comments

We’ve got a bad case of Ohrwurm, a German expression translated as “earworm” and used to describe a song stuck in your head. Our earworm came after a search for union made socks and underwear on the internets recalled a highly catchy ad jingle from the roller disco era, “Look for the Union Label” (youngsters can watch it on youtube here). We looked for the union label and we were surprised to find it via a company c...

Saturday Linkages: Really Old Beer, Interior Design Tips From the Mafia, Trash in LA, Halloumi Kabobs and More

Mr. Homegrown

May 12, 2012

Saturday Linkages

3 Comments

Williams-Sonoma’s $60 “predator proofing” kit. Yes, that’s hardware cloth and nails. Via Northwest Edible Life. Beer From 1840s Shipwreck May Be Recreated By Scientists. http://huff.to/JFfiAl Huge, dumb booze producer Diageo orders industry association to give them the prize that had been awarded to competitor:http://boingboing.net/2012/05/10/huge-dumb-scottish-bar-chain.html Italian mafia interior tastes exposed...