Search Results for: label/homegrown evolution amazon store/page/2/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

797 results

Thong Theory

Mr. Homegrown
Preparedness
RLeave a comment
As author Daniel Pinchbeck suggests, we’re in a time when technique is more important than technology. Take the Homegrown Revolution Thong for instance. A friend and fellow “thoughtstylist” posed the question last night, what else could the real survivalist do with a thong in an emergency situation? It’s all about the brain my friends, so get out there and innovate – that thong has many uses – tourniquet, band...

Continue reading…

Black Mission Fig vs. Janice Seedless Kadota FIgs

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Gardening
2 Comments
Janice Seedless Kadota (top), Black Mission Fig (bottom) Who wins the flavor battle between Black Mission figs and Janice Seedless Kadota figs? The verdict: Black Mission figs are damn good, but Janice Seedless Kadotas are damn better! We’re jealous of Homegrown Neighbor who has one of these beauties. Patented in 1993 and sold wholesale by the Dave Wilson Nursery, Janice figs are white and incredibly sweet. Ask your local nursery...

Continue reading…

Nettle Mania

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Foraging, Herbal Medicine, Herbs
7 Comments
“out of this nettle, danger, we grasp this flower, safety” -Shakespeare, Henry IV, part 1, Act II Scene 3 Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) are a common weed with a bad reputation–the plant has tiny spines that inject, as Wikipedia puts it, a “cocktail of poisons.” Miraculously when you boil the plant the spines lose their punch and you’re left with a tasty green consumed plain or incorporated in a number of d...

Continue reading…

So Much Chicory, So Little Time

Mr. Homegrown
Miscellaneous
RLeave a comment
Chicory mania continues here around the casa with a grid of some of the many varieties available at Seeds from Italy. At the risk of turning into a chicory blog, we’d also like to augment Wednesday’s chicory post with a link to a recipe for chicory and beans posted by Homegrown Revolution reader Sognatrice, an American living in Southern Italy. Grazie!...

Continue reading…

Bean Fest, Episode 3: Bastardized Puerto Rican Beans

Mrs. Homegrown
Bean Fest, Food, Recipes
6 Comments
Mrs. Homegrown here: It’s been a tough week here on the bean front. I had two beanfail incidents trying to come up with a recipe for this week. The first, an Armenian recipe for white beans, failed through no fault of its own but because the beans were hopelessly old. No matter how long I cooked them, they stayed crunchy, yet somehow also tasted overcooked. Shudder. Meanwhile, I’d been obsessing on Cuban-style black beans, but fell...

Continue reading…

We Are the Festival!

Mr. Homegrown
Bikes
RLeave a comment
Here in Los Angeles we’ve got a number of lame Christmas traditions including the low-rent Hollywood Christmas parade and the L. Ron Hubbard Winter Wonderland (no joke). But the lamest of all has got to be the Department of Water and Power’s annual Christmas light show, which turns one of our few parks into a exhaust clogged traffic jam during the holiday season. Worst of all the city bans bikes from the light festival in spite of t...

Continue reading…

Bean Fest, Episode 4: Frijoles Refritos

Mrs. Homegrown
Bean Fest, Food, Recipes
7 Comments
Refritos are not photogenic, so I decided to show the more tempting end use. Photo by Ernesto Andrade. Mrs. Homegrown here: I can’t believe I’ve never made frijoles refritos--refried beans–before. All these years of scooping that suspicious stuff out of the can–what was I thinking??? Now I see refritos as the natural destiny of any leftover beans. Refried beans (that name is a mistranslation–refrito me...

Continue reading…

Behold the Squash Baby

Mrs. Homegrown
Gardening, Squash Baby
8 Comments
He’d lay down his life for his squash baby Mrs. Homegrown here: It’s 36 inches long as of today, and mystifying passers-by. I think I underestimated its size in the first post, where I claimed it was 20 inches. It was probably closer to 30″ at that point. The curvature makes it hard to judge. (I love the way it arches out of the raised bed–see the pic below). The thing is actually inching into the driveway no...

Continue reading…

Thank you, everyone

Mrs. Homegrown
Miscellaneous
2 Comments
Photo: Pénélope Fortier, from an article about us at Cyberpresse.ca Mrs. Homegrown here: We just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have expressed condolences this week via the blog, Facebook, or email–as well of those of you who just sent positive thoughts. We could feel the good energy. It’s been a hard week, but your good wishes really helped.  We’re resuming regular posting. There’s squash baby updates to...

Continue reading…

Growing Potatoes in Tires

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
19 Comments
Chicago homesteader extraordinaire Nance Klehm, temporarily in residence here in Los Angeles, gifted us with some beautiful seed potatoes which we just planted. As we did last year, we’re growing them in used tires filled with compost (see our surprise potato harvest in a post from last September). As the plant grows you add another tire to the stack, causing the growth of more potatoes. An alternate method, suggested by Homegrown Revolut...

Continue reading…