Search Results for: label/food/page/3/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

682 results

Cutting a Beehive Out of a Wall

Mr. Homegrown
Animals, Bees
6 Comments
to Sue’s garden we put the frames into a hive box and dumped the loose bees in. While we won’t know for a while if the hive will take to its new home, we all felt a great sense of accomplishment. Hopefully, other urbanites around the world will take up beekeeping and put more exterminators out of work. For more info on Kirk Anderson’s natural beekeeping methods see www.beehuman.blogspot.com. Got a beehive that needs to be remov...

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Geoff Lawton Soils Video

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Soil
10 Comments
Help, I’m turning into a soil geek. I just spent an evening viewing a video entitled Soils featuring permaculturalist Geoff Lawton. What I like about this video is that it’s not just about soil, but Lawton actually shows you what you can do to improve your soil. In the DVD he demonstrates how to build a compost pile (lots of carbon material), contoured vegetable beds, a compost pile heated shower and a simple vermiculture system usi...

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Citron

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Gardening
5 Comments
The Citron (Etrog) and its anatomy. I just attended a fascinating lecture by fruit expert David Karp on the history of the citron (Citrus medica) or etrog in Aramaic. I’ve only encountered citron in a candied form buried deep within a fruit cake. I’ve also seen the bizarre Buddha’s Hand, another kind of citron popular in Asia as both food and medicine. What I did not know is the significance of citron in Jewish history...

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The Sundiner–A Groovy 1960s Era Solar Cooker

Mr. Homegrown
Appropriate Technology, Solar, Water and Power
5 Comments
Backywards beekeeper Dennis of The Buzz in the Dale, was nice enough to gift me his vintage Sundiner solar cooker that he found at a garage sale a few years ago. Resembling a cross between a portable 1960s record player and a satellite, the Sundiner is compact, light and easy to carry. A built in thermometer lets you know when you have hit cooking temperatures. The unit is so efficient, that when I set it up at noon it hit 350° F within minut...

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Tree Spinach – Chenopodium giganteum

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Foraging, Vegetable Gardening
RLeave a comment
For most of the country planting time is far off but for us, here in the Homegrown Revolution compound in Mediterranean Los Angeles, it’s time to start the winter garden. The billowing clouds of apocalyptic smoke from the fires ravaging the suburban fringes of our disaster prone megalopolis are the only thing that keeps us inside today, giving us time to contemplate one of the seed packets that has crossed our desk, Chenopodium giganteum a...

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An open letter to Trader Joes

Mr. Homegrown
Animals, Chickens
15 Comments
Dear Trader Joes, First off we’re not an animal rights activists, nor are we even vegetarians. We’re just people who like honesty in packaging. So let’s take a look at the carton for your Grade AA Cage Free eggs and assess the truthfulness of the illustration on its cover. Now conventional wisdom says that you are to be congratulated for selling only cage free eggs in contrast to many other food retailers who continue to sell e...

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Saturday Linkages: Makers, Haters and Beekeeping Donkeys

Mr. Homegrown
Saturday Linkages
1 Comment
...m/2012/11/step-by-step-tiny-home-design.html#.UKbP0iPHQeI.twitter … Open Source Ecology’s “Build Yourself”: http://boingboing.net/2012/11/14/open-source-ecologys-build.html … Popular Mechanics Magazines from the 1930s http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2012/11/popular-mechanics-magazines-from-1930s.html#.UKbP-zJtCxE.twitter … People Are Suspicious About This Pee-Powered Generator http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/11/8/people-a...

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Stoicism as a Toolkit for Modern Life

Mr. Homegrown
Age of Limits, Thoughtstylings
10 Comments
Lucius Annaeus Seneca ca. 4 BC – AD 65. This is the first in a series of posts focusing on positive techniques for keeping our heads screwed on straight in troubled times. Growing food, doing stuff with your hands, drinking homebrew with friends–all these kinds of things help keep us grounded and hopeful. But sometimes you need a little more help. Maybe we’ll call these posts “When chickens aren’t enough.” Whether t...

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Changing Egg Habits

Mr. Homegrown
Animals, Chickens, Thoughtstylings
1 Comment
photo by Buzz Carter Got the last word in an Associated Press article on the egg recall: Egg recall has some changing buying, eating habits. Basically, I said small is beautiful–better to have lots of  people with four hens each rather than a few people with hundreds of thousands. Too bad food safety laws winding their way through Washington are being crafted to favor the big guys who caused this recent outbreak. More on that anon...

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The Whip: A Homemade Moisturizer How-To from Making It

Mrs. Homegrown
Calendula series, Domesticus, Herbs
104 Comments
A quick little project: lavender infused moisturizer, two Calendula/plantain salves and a chamomile infused lip balm. Enough unguents to see me through Christmas. Note 3/16/13: When I posted this I never expected this to become one of our most popular posts.  Since so many people are looking at this recipe, I feel like I should let you know a couple of things about it before you try it. 1) The first is that it is not perfect. I love it...

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