Lila Downs Video Showing Tortilla Making in Oaxaca

...ngeles Bread Bakers sent me a link to this music video that shows tortilla making in Oaxaca. The song is “Palomo Del Comalito” (Dove of the Comalito) by Lila Downs. Note the huge corn tortillas, proof of the regional diversity of Mexican cuisine (and one of the many details I got wrong in my tortilla press post–thanks for the corrections Gloria). Lyrics in English after the jump. The beautiful people of this land Grind corn A miracle of their hand...

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New Project: Making Bitters

...I’ll share the recipes I develop as I follow this path. In the meanwhile, making your own bitters is really easy. You may be able to throw a few experiments together just using things you find in your spice cabinet. Since these are flavoring, not medicine, you don’t have to be as careful with the quantities and timing as you must be when tincturing herbs for medicine. Yet at the same time, it’s a great introduction to that essential herbalist’s c...

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Saturday Tweets: Dutch Bicycles, Landscaping and a Ski Sled

Want to feel old? This is what a Dutch bicycle looked like 50 years ago and what it looks like today. pic.twitter.com/aSkz1jeOpv — Bicycle Lobby (@BicycleLobby) March 30, 2017 Claudia West on functional planting https://t.co/jB6cAdWxeF — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) March 31, 2017 How to make a coin sorting machine from cardboard https://t.co/26ofyfDi5f — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 31, 2017 Weed cloth always fails https://t.co/yYNVAJbXUr...

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Can our landscapes model a vibrant future? Not according to the LA DWP.

.... This is not the kind of model we need, DWP. Next time you change up your landscaping, consider consulting one or more of the many brilliant plant people and designers in this city. Call us if you need numbers. Consider using permeable surfaces and contoured landscaping to capture every drop of our rare rainfall and send it down to the thirsty soil. Show us how to use native and Mediterranean plants to make lush landscapes that call in the pollin...

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Our new front yard, part 3: design

...cy of the lawn and the specimen tree as the be all and end all of suburban landscaping. It is difficult to challenge this model with more naturalistic landscaping. If a design is not going to cause complaints and wrinkled noses, it can’t look “too wild.” This means using hardscaping strategically to make a landscape look well planned, and to also mix in more traditional landscape elements with wilder ones. A good strategy, for instance, is to keep...

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