Search Results for: label/homegrown evolution amazon store/page/40/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

799 results

Elderly and Barefoot–that’s how I plan to be

Mrs. Homegrown
Fitness, Thoughtstylings
17 Comments
See, even Plato was rockin’ the barefoot look Mrs. Homegrown here: Erik is the Thoughtstylist™ in this house, but I’m going to step up on the Stylin’ Platform for a change. As regular readers know, Erik is into barefoot running. I barefoot walk, and am working my way into barefoot running. Our neighborhood is full of long, steep staircases devoid of handrails. I go up and down these on my walks. When I’m in runni...

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Tree Spinach – Chenopodium giganteum

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Foraging, Vegetable Gardening
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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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Behold the Glassy Winged Sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata)

Mr. Homegrown
Pests
4 Comments
I finally spotted my first glassy winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca coagulata or GWS for short) sinking its vampire like feeding tube into one of my hops vines. The GWS transmits Pierce’s disease, fatal to many grape varieties including my flame seedless, a gardening frustration I blogged about last week. For your enjoyment I captured a 1/2-inch GWS specimen and scanned it. Note that the GWS was harmed in the process, for which I’m u...

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Bird Netting as a Cabbage Leaf Caterpillar Barrier

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Pests, Vegetable Gardening
18 Comments
UPDATE: This idea is a complete failure–see the ugly details here. Last month I sang the praises of floating row cover as an insect barrier. The only problem is that floating row cover retains heat, and so when our fall and winter days turn hot, as they so often do, it gets way too hot and humid inside the “tent.” So as Marshall McLuhan was fond of saying, “If you don’t like that idea, I’ve got others.”...

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A New Source of Fuel

Mr. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
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Homegrown Revolution comrades, the Yes Men have pulled off a rather nice stunt: June 14, 2007 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE EXXON PROPOSES BURNING HUMANITY FOR FUEL IF CLIMATE CALAMITY HITSConference organizer fails to have Yes Men arrested Text of speech, photos, video: http://www.vivoleum.com/ GO-EXPO statement: http://newswire.ca/ Contact: [email protected] More links at end of release. Imposters posing as ExxonMobil and National Petroleum Council...

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Stinging Nettles and Cat Allergies

Mrs. Homegrown
Domesticus, Herbal Medicine, Herbs
40 Comments
Facebookers have already seen these pics. Kitty, being a fast moving black hole, is very hard to photograph. Mrs. Homegrown here: Sorry this is sort of rambling, but context is everything. Our friend Anne, of the pea-eating-Chihuahua fame, and the chicken-sitting-on-kitten fame, and various other fames, is a frequent animal rescuer. She came over to our house maybe 2 weeks ago with a pet carrier. She said, “Someone dropped this of...

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New Squash Baby Theory: Aliens

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Squash Baby
4 Comments
Photo courtesy Piero Fiocco At the risk of becoming the “squash baby blog,” one final post on the subject. Reader Piero Fiocco sent some photo evidence that conflicts with Doug Harvey’s “Sass-squash” theory. Fiocco sent a brief, cryptic note: “I from Italy once again.I came in possession of this evidence….Use it as you wish, but keep Erik cool Ciao from Italy!” It seems as though I “gr...

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This Is Why Mint Is Invasive

Mrs. Homegrown
Gardening, Herbs
12 Comments
Mrs. Homegrown here: That’s me pulling out a mint plant from our garden, as part of The Great Renovation. Check out those amazing roots! This container was filled with a 5 inch thick mat of thick, tangled roots. No wonder mint is unstoppable. I adore mint, but we had two big mint plants, and under the new scheme, I’m trying to be more efficient about the way space is used in the yard. So this guy had to go. I thought I’d be di...

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Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands

Mr. Homegrown
rainwater harvesting
RLeave a comment
“The bricoleur, says Levi-Strauss, is someone who uses “the means at hand,” that is, the instruments he finds at his disposition around him, those which are already there, which had not been especially conceived with an eye to the operation for which they are to be used and to which one tries by trial and error to adapt them, not hesitating to change them whenever it appears necessary, or to try several of them at once, even if the...

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Oatmeal: It’s Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

Mrs. Homegrown
Food, Recipes
21 Comments
(we’ve really gotta get us a live-in food photographer) Mrs. Homegrown Here: Okay, this is one is a little weird.  I’ll tell you right off that Erik won’t eat this stuff (it just seems wrong to him), but I love it. I’m exploring the world of savory oatmeal. I’m sure there are savory oatmeal recipes on the web, but I haven’t looked because I’m enjoying working without a map. What I’m doing...

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