Saturday Tweets: Cast Iron, Astroturf and Testing Your Microclimates

.../t.co/qj0S6jL5Z2 — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 10, 2014 Silver Lake urban farmers get into turf war over artificial grass http://t.co/7Ce8xODsTK via @TheEastsiderLA — Root Simple (@rootsimple) November 14, 2014 From Farm to Patient Tray: Retrofitting the supply chain to meet hospitals’ demand for local food https://t.co/aPU7iE7ewJ — Rachel Surls (@RachelSurls) October 24, 2014 Drought: Beverly Hills is big water user; East L.A. is the lowes...

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Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities

...they also managed to define the eclectic topics contained within the urban homesteading movement. A confession here: when it came time to write our two books, Kelly and I leafed through our old copy of the Whole Earth Catalog to make sure that we didn’t leave any topic out. Kevin Kelly kept the Whole Earth Catalog ethos alive through his Cool Tools review website. That website has morphed back into print in the form of Cool Tools: A Catalog of Pos...

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My Apologies to the Skunk Community

...k: raccoon and skunk diets overlap considerably. Both are highly adaptable urban foragers. In the case of our raised beds, both the skunks and raccoons are digging for figeater beetle larvae (Cotinis mutabilis). These huge larvae must be a delectable treat, the equivalent of a raccoon and skunk sushi party. Maybe I should overcome my squeamishness and join in the nightly feast. A plate of Cotinis mutabilis larvae ceviche could just be the next hip...

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Lost from the cradle of connection: the high price of driving

...ate change, air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, habitat loss, urban sprawl, songbird harassment–all of the rest of indicators of the unspeakably high cost of the personal automobile. So, okay, this is all depressing. What’s my point? The point is: What are we thinking? I mean, seriously, what are we thinking? Can we step back from this? I doubt it. We can’t talk about giving up the personal automobile. We can’t even think about altern...

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