Grow Italian!

...r the multi-year success of our artichoke plant. We’re also jumping on the permaculture bandwagon this year with an experiment in the backyard. And look for more root vegetables in our illegal parkway garden. Lest we come across as Eurotrashy, here’s two domestic seed companies that have interesting varieties: Seeds of change. Native Seeds which sells Native American seeds By the way, for us in L.A. the back of the seed packages have no connection...

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Saturday Linkages: From Bananas to Laird’s Laws

...-smith-college-conservatory#.UrzZKcw8rbU.twitter … Goleta considers groovy permaculture ordinance: http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/23/goleta-considers-groovy-green-ordinance/ … Spanish sperm whale death linked to UK supermarket supplier’s plastic http://gu.com/p/3eb3b/tw Solicitor George Cooper’s diaries give insight into Victorian life with his watercolour paintings http://bit.ly/yFANsU Recreation of ancient beer suggests it was really,...

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Village Homes: A Model for Sustainable Suburbs

...to get a feel for it is to watch the 10 minute video above. It’s hosted by Permaculture guru Bill Mollison, who’s a big fan of the development. It’s well worth the time to watch it all the way through. Also, here’s a short paper on the development, which gives all the pertinent facts, friendly for quick skimming: Village Homes: A model solar community proves its worth. And finally, here is a video someone took during a site tour given by Michael C...

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Journal of the New Alchemists

...ns, no-till agriculture, old timey music, wind power, four season growing, permaculture, non-hierarchical leadership and goats. Only the 1980s era of appropriate technology amnesia separates current efforts from the work of the New Alchemists. Aquaponic system. Image: Journal of the New Alchemy. By accident I discovered the Journal of the New Alchemists deep in the closed stacks of the Los Angeles Central Library. As revealed by their journal, wha...

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What’s the Best Solar Food Dryer?

...Brace Research Institute and the Poisson indirect dryer. In an article in Permaculture Activist, “Evaluating Solar Food Dryers: Stocking Up with Solar Power,” Scanlin says, The Appalachian indirect dryer produced higher temperatures than the other two dryers and also removed more moisture from the tomatoes drying inside each day. In one test, the Appalachian dryer removed 32 oz. (0.95 L) of water during ta day, while the Brace direct dryer remove...

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