The Lament of the Baker’s Wife

...think we’ve got at least 200 lbs of flour piled up here. And where will it all go eventually? Straight to my hips, sweetheart! And I know I shouldn’t complain. “We have too much food!” “There’s nowhere to put it!” “All this artisanal sourdough is making me fat!” Boo hoo. This the lament of the baker’s wife....

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Straw Bale Gardens

Tasha Via’s straw bale garden. Michael Tortorello (who profiled us when Making It came out) is one of my favorite writers covering the home ec/gardening subjects we discuss on this blog. He had an article last week in the New York Times, “Grasping at Straw” on straw bale gardening. We’ve very tempted to give the practice a try in our backyard. Why? We have lead and zinc contaminated soil so growing veggies in the ground is questionable. We live o...

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050 Who Wants Seconds?

...Secrets to vegan cooking Tips for healthy home cooking Roasting vegetables Making your own mayonnaise Involving kids in the kitchen The problems with cooking shows Working with leftovers Advice for throwing a party Jennie’s book Who Wants Seconds? How to not burn your soup Food swaps If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in t...

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Biodynamic Composting Workshop

...n how to create your own compost! Compost builds soil, creates life, grows food and saves the planet! In this hands-on workshop we’ll build a compost pile out of materials commonly available in Southern California. We’ll also cover the use of and apply Steiner’s biodynamic preps. Our workshop will be led by Erik Knutzen of Root Simple. Erik Knutzen is the author, with his wife Kelly Coyne, of The Urban Homestead and Making It: Radical Home Ec for...

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Creating a Moon Garden

...t pollinators and other wildlife. Bornstein had a number of great tips for making a garden interesting at night: Consider color. White flowers, of course, will pop out under moonlight. But yellow flowers stand out even more. We’re lucky in Southern California to have a lot of native plants with silvery grey leaves (an evolutionary adaption of dry climate plants). Masses of silvery grey leaves stand out well at night. Include a contrasting backgrou...

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