Start Your Urban Homestead for One Dollar

...The Lyth Cottage in Buffalo, purchased for $1. Photo: Buffalo Rising. Want to move to Buffalo, New York? If so the city has an Urban Homestead Program where you can get a house for a $1 plus closing costs. The rules–you’ve got to: Fix code violations. Live in the house for at least three years. Have $5,000 in the bank for repairs. Too cold a climate for me, but you can read more about the program and see some success stories at Buffalo Rising....

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Urban Homestead Wins Book Award

Our book, The Urban Homestead just won a gold medal in the Independent Publisher Awards. To celebrate we’ll throw in a back issue of Ripples magazine for the first twenty folks who buy a copy of our book off of this website. Ripples is, “A Revolutionary Journal of Seasonal Delight” published by the nice folks at www.dailyacts.org. Now that’s enough tooting our own horn. We’ll get back to posting when the dust settles after Earth Day and talk abou...

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Cooking Bread in a Dutch Oven and Alternative Steaming Techniques

...you stick the pot on top. I imagine that the handle is handy. Someone in a bread class I was teaching suggested using a bread baking stone and simply inverting a pot or large roasting lid over the stone. As long as the lid or pot seals properly, this should work too. Other folks use parchment paper and don’t do the inversion at all. I’m a bit skeptical, but haven’t tried this technique myself. You can also buy a clay cloche, but they’re on the exp...

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Why You Should Proof Bread in the Refrigerator

...ulk fermentation takes place at room temperature, I almost always proof my bread in the refrigerator. Why? Proofing bread in the fridge slows down the fermentation. Most of my breads are made with a sourdough starter (levain is a better word). A long proofing stage allows the acid producing bacteria in the levain to create a more developed tangy flavor than you would get if the bread just proofed for a few hours at room temperature. Slowing down f...

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Los Angeles Bread Festival This Weekend!

...e only bread menu offerings–special, hearth-baked loaves from Clark Street Bread, cornbread from Horse Thief BBQ, flatbread specials from Madcapra, handmade tortillas from Chiles Secos, “butter flights” from DTLA Cheese, salted caramel bread pudding and fruit bread pudding from Valerie Confections Bakery & Café, cultured butter and Bruce Kalman’s signature giardiniere from Knead & Co. Pasta Bar + Market and much more. The festival will also includ...

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