Search Results for: label/build it/2011/04/making-it

406 results

Using Kosher Salt for Making Pickles

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Food Preservation
19 Comments
...t for fermented pickles, you must weigh out the proper amount.Weigh out 73⁄4 ounces (220 grams) of flaked salt, and you will have the equivalent of 1 cup of canning and pickling salt. This same publication also notes how easy it is to find pickling salt and how hard it is to find kosher salt. It’s just the opposite here in Los Angeles. So what kind of salt do you use for pickling and fermenting? What’s the easiest to find where you l...

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The Making of a Great Olive Oil

Mr. Homegrown
Food
4 Comments
...e At the end of all this machinery the oil pours out of a spigot and into a steel drum: We all had the great privilege of tasting the freshly squeezed oil. I won’t soon forget that heavenly flavor. Matt told us that it takes around a ton of olives to make 25 to 30 gallons of oil. The olives come from a thousand trees that are tucked around the vineyards. If you’re ever in Northern California the Preston Vineyard is well worth a v...

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Harvesting and Drying Calendula

Mrs. Homegrown
Body Care, Calendula series, Gardening, Herbal Medicine, Herbs, How-to
32 Comments
Mrs. Homegrown here: Okay, so in a previous post I talked about growing Calendula. This post I’m going to talk about harvesting and drying it. The next post I’ll do on the topic will be about making a skin-healing salve from the dried petals, olive oil and beeswax. When to harvest:  Start harvesting your Calendula as soon as the first flush of flowers is in full bloom. Don’t try to “save” the flowers. The more you...

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Saturday Linkages: Bus Offices and Secret Doors

Mr. Homegrown
Saturday Linkages
2 Comments
...ex  Thanks, Davis! Gardening grounded design by Thomas Rainer: No They Didn’t!: A Gallery of Mockable Landscapes http://landscapeofmeaning.blogspot.com/p/no-they-didnt-gallery-of-mockable.html?spref=tw … Ancient wheat: making a comeback http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Artisanal-Wheat-On-the-Rise.html#.UQM4YKWpmhs.twitter … Soul Searching The secret to feeling like you have more time available – Boing Boing http://boingbo...

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DIY Outdoor Shower

Mr. Homegrown
Water Conservation
4 Comments
y will you be saving water and burning less fossil fuels to heat that water, but your body odor will soon separate your real friends from superficial hangers-on. But we urban homesteaders don’t need to be stinky since it’s possible and easy to build an outdoor solar shower. There are two reasons this makes sense, particularly in a place with as warm a climate as LA. First of all, you can direct the water straight into the garden and...

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Saturday Linkages: Black Soldier Flys, DIY Power Bars and CDFA Thugs are Killing Bees Again

Mr. Homegrown
Saturday Linkages
3 Comments
plants-in-the-ocean/#.UTfFax5lLoc.twitter … Good Ideas Department DRM Chair that works only 8 times: http://hackaday.com/2013/03/04/drm-chair-only-works-8-times/ … Nature Blows My Mind! This 80,000-Year-Old Aspen Grove Clones Itself : TreeHugger http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/natural-sciences/nature-blows-my-mind-80000-year-old-aspen-grove-clones-itself/ … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter: Follow @rootsimple...

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Mud for the People! Building an Adobe Garden Wall

Mr. Homegrown
Design
6 Comments
This weekend Kelly and I had our first adobe encounter. We were lucky to have been invited to attend a workshop led by Kurt Gardella and Ben Loescher. Kurt also teaches both live and online classes that you can find out about on his website, www.kurtgardella.com. We’ll post announcements for future classes, because I haven’t had so much fun in a long time! This past weekend’s workshop focused on making bricks and building an a...

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A New Fitness Craze: The Kayak Balance Stool

Mr. Homegrown
Fitness
9 Comments
e end boards to the sittin’ board with some bolts or sturdy screws. The deeper the curve on the bottom of the end boards, the more tippy it gets. Cunningham suggests a depth of 1 1/2 inches to start. I’d suggest making that curve a bit on the “pointy” side, as any flatness will lead to a lack of tippitude. Why do this? I’ve been taking a few kayak lessons lately which have showcased my inflexible hamstrings. Mrs....

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A Homemade Mattress?

Mrs. Homegrown
Design, Domesticus, Miscellaneous
63 Comments
The Princess and the Pea by Edmund Dulac This is the story of my life. I read about some old domestic technology or product that makes a lot of sense. Perhaps it is obsolete. Or perhaps it is only done/made in more enlightened countries. Nonetheless, I want it. So I have to make from scratch. Yesterday we met a great couple, Renae and Dimitri. Renae mentioned she was thinking about making her own mattress. I was intrigued because just that morni...

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How to Make Soba Noodles

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Recipes
11 Comments
Last month I took an amazing class with author and chef Sonoko Sakai on how to make soba noodles by hand. She’s a great teacher and I managed to make a halfway decent couple of servings of noodles during the class. Like many Japanese arts, soba making has a series of very precise steps. The recipe itself is simple (just buckwheat flour and water), though you do have to pay close attention to the temperature and humidity in the room. Whil...

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