Search Results for: label/food preservation

427 results

Sundiner

Mr. Homegrown
Solar
8 Comments
...s plates prevent excessive heat loss. The solar energy grill works in this simple way: point the mirrors toward the sun for a few minutes until the right temperature is reached (built-in heat indicator dial) and pop a tray of food into the oven. There is no fire or fuel to handle. Sole source of cooking stems from the collected, concentrated rays of the sun. Here is a sample of how long various meats take to cook: Hamburgers, franks, and fish, 15...

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Problems Part I

Mr. Homegrown
Animals, Chickens
16 Comments
...8217;d like to begin regularly sharing problems as they develop. Here’s problem #1 for this troublesome July: A Sick Chicken Our Araucana hen became listless and depressed over the weekend, just sitting around, avoiding food and not engaging in the usual hen chatter. She also stopped laying eggs. At first we thought she might be egg bound, a condition in which an egg becomes stuck on the way out the cloaca. Warm baths and lubricants (I̵...

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Toby Hemenway On How Horticulture Can Save Us

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Permaculture, Thoughtstylings
6 Comments
...ders to have a destructive influence on ecosystems, human health and culture. Hemenway also, justifiably, critiqued some corners of the urban homesteading movement for promoting an egocentric self-sufficiency–”MY food on MY land” as he put it–a kind of industrial farming on a household level. While “self-sufficiency” appears in the subtitle of our first book (our publisher’s idea), it’s not a term...

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La Alternativa

Mr. Homegrown
Resources
RLeave a comment
...or vegetables rather than scarce corn starch and eggs, and laundry soap made from the jaboncillo tree. What we like most about Gálvez is that she is a strong proponent of urban gardening, maximizing every available space for food, a contrast to Martha Stewart’s useless pesticide and fertilizer drenched flower gardens. See the the film Power of Community How Cuba Survived Peak Oil for more on Cuba’s inventive urban gardening. While we...

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Cleaning the Sink with Baking Soda and Lemons

Mrs. Homegrown
Cleaning, Domesticus
15 Comments
...adding it to our water supply–not to mention the danger of having it around the house. The lemon bleaching is an extra step, but one I always enjoy. Maybe it’s the scent, or maybe because I like playing with my food. Extra tough situations: If the baking soda isn’t cutting it as a scrubber, try scrubbing with table salt or Borax, or a combo of baking soda and salt or Borax.  Borax is a laundry additive, and sold in the lau...

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Picture Sundays: Good News and Dog Carts

Mr. Homegrown
Picture Sundays
3 Comments
First off, Governor Brown signed the California Homemade Food Act, AB 1616, into law this past week. So Californians will soon be able to make and sell “non-hazardous” foods in a home kitchen and sell them. But how will those goods get delivered? Above, a bakery in Holland using that long lost mode of transport, the dog cart. Picture via Terrierman’s Daily Dose....

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Loofah Sponges

Mrs. Homegrown
Cleaning, Domesticus, Gardening
14 Comments
...–sort of like tomato seeds. They won’t start in cold soil. Start them indoors over heat if you have to.  Basic growing requirements are lots of sun, lots of water, warm weather and time. Again, three months for food, for months for sponges. Here in SoCal March is a good month to plant the seeds directly in the ground. Provide support for the vine: it’s a climber. The vines are long and the fruit big. Some people harv...

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Finding an Urban Homestead on Craigslist

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
6 Comments
Backyard of the “Lee Street Homesteaders” You know the urban homestead thing has caught on when the phrase shows up in a Craigslist rental ad: Imagine… living at the edge of a city and at the edge of modern society. Growing your own food and medicine in your backyard. Raising poultry and harvesting your own eggs. Brewing your own beer and kombucha. Fermenting your own raw sauerkraut and pickles. And living within s...

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Seed Mania

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Seeds
7 Comments
...up some crimson clover and globe artichoke seeds from the Bountiful Gardens folks. Desert Chia from Native Seed Search. Yes it is that chia, of Chia Pet fame. Chia is an ancient herb used by Native Americans for medicine and food. Chadwick’s Sweet Pea from Seed Dreams out of Port Townsend, WA. I really like having some sweet peas in the garden and this variety caught my eye, for its dark purple color and the fact that it’s from the l...

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