Search Results for: label/homegrown evolution amazon store/page/43/2010/06/the-urban-homestead

799 results

On why our vegetable garden is such a disaster this year . . .

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Vegetable Gardening
36 Comments
sign help. Oh, the humanity Fatigue and frustration–the double knockout punch of skunks and the hot weather left me on the ropes with little enthusiasm for ongoing gardening maintenance. Ego–forgetting that urban homesteading is not about self-sufficiency—to chase self-sufficiency is a fool’s errand. I should be happy just to have a few good salads and be thankful that I can buy good vegetables at a local farmer’s market. I don...

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Seed Review: Thompson & Morgan Golden Berry

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening
6 Comments
In a new feature on Homegrown Revolution we’ll review the success and flavor of our crops beginning with Physalis pruinosa, a.k.a ground cherry, husk cherry, or strawberry tomato. When we planted these seeds we posted on the confusing array of names that this neglected branch of the nightshade family has gathered over the years–we’ll use the scientific name in the interest of precision. Our Physalis pruinosa, planted in April h...

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Sourdough Recipe Disaster!

Mr. Homegrown
Bread, Food
1 Comment
There’s nothing we hate more than a bad recipe, something that the internets have in as great an abundence as porn, penis pills and subprime mortgage ads. And after a visit from the revolutionaries at Weasel Goes Pop yesterday we learned that Homegrown Revolution is guilty of distributing a bad whole wheat sourdough starter recipe. Please pay a visit to our corrected version here....

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Kimchi Secrets Revealed

Mr. Homegrown
Fermentation, Food
1 Comment
Kimchi champion Granny Choe at Krautfest 2009 – photo from Eating L.A. The last time I tried to make the spicy Korean fermented cabbage dish known as kimchi it was such a disaster that Mrs. Homegrown exiled the batch to the back porch where it rotted for a good two months before we got around to sending it to the landfill. At Krautfest 2009, which we helped organize back in September, we had the great privilege of learning to make kimchi...

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Plantain for rashes

Mrs. Homegrown
Foraging, Herbs
16 Comments
It’s hard to take a decent picture when both of your hands are covered in green slime!  Mrs. Homegrown here: A couple of days ago I made a mistake: I attacked a stand of rogue borage without gloves. You know how it is when you think you’re just going to make one pruning cut, and then end up hacking for an hour in a mindless frenzy? Borage is covered with irritating little hairs which made my hands and forearms itch and burn....

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Off the charts

Homegrown Neighbor
Animals, Chickens
9 Comments
Homegrown Neighbor here. My chicken, Chickenzilla, is at it again, producing several mammoth double-yolked eggs in the past few weeks. The brown egg on the right is more of a normal sized egg, weighing in at extra large on this antique egg scale. Chickenzilla’s egg is way beyond the measure of this scale, weighing in I’d guess at somewhere around extra, extra, extra large. Pretty good for an industrial meat chicken that isn’t...

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Hipster Honeybear

Mrs. Homegrown
Thoughtstylings
4 Comments
Mrs. Homegrown here: Erik puts molasses in his coffee and keeps the molasses in an old honeybear. I’m endlessly amused by the honeybear’s resulting mustache. Now, if he just had the handlebar mustache, I’d take him for a hip kid, one of those boys in tight jeans pedaling their fixie whips around the neighborhood. But it looks like he’s got a soul patch, too. So he’s either a refugee from the 90′s (Grunge b...

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CooKit Solar Panel Cooker

Mr. Homegrown
Solar
14 Comments
I’ve been experimenting with a nice panel solar cooker for the past week and, so far, the results are impressive. Called the CooKit, it was developed in 1994 by a group of engineers and solar cooking enthusiasts associated with Solar Cookers International and based on a design by Roger Bernard. It has a couple of nice features: It produces ample heat to cook rice and simple casseroles. When you fold it up it takes up no more space than a...

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Squash Baby’s Sibling

Mrs. Homegrown
Gardening, Squash Baby
9 Comments
Squash Sibling sleeps tight under wire mesh and specious warnings Mrs. Homegrown here: A quick update on the squash baby circus. There’s a surprise addition to the family. In my first post, I said one of our two squashes had been stolen, leaving us with only one squash, which provoked Erik’s Guantanomoization of our front yard. In turns out there was a tiny 3rd baby hiding under a big leaf. We didn’t notice it for a w...

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