085 Rishi Kumar: Abundance in Suburbia

...mini) Sheet mulching Growing fruit trees close togther Raccoons! Quail and chickens Water harvesting vs. rain barrels How the Growing Home became the Growing Club, Sarvodaya Farms and the Growing Commons. May 28th greywater workshop. Many thanks to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast and blog possible. If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You...

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Salted Spruce Tips and Pine Infused Garlic Salt

...and see how it goes, because you can always add more. Feline assistance in making the pine garlic salt. A Tale of Two Salts To give you some concrete examples, I made two small batches of salt today. I often make herbed salt in tiny batches that get used up quickly, because I like to experiment. The first one I made was with spruce tips. These are the fresh spring growth of a fir tree, the tender chartreuse tips which stand out in such brilliant c...

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The Secret of Tidiness Revealed

...thrift store first may be necessary for the more wayward members of the untidy tribe. What do you think? Tidy tribesters–are you laughing? Untidy tribesters–are you weeping/making excuses/confused/skeptical? And I haven’t even touched on the issue of a tidy person living with an untidy mate!...

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Harry Partch: Woodworker and Composer

...ngularis Reversum. Gourd Tree and Gongs Partch was a master of up-cycling, making use of military and industrial surplus. Below, his “cloud chamber bowls” made from the tops and bottoms of 12-gallon Pyrex carboys found in a UC Berkeley radiation lab. Cloud chamber bowls. Here’s Partch talking about the cloud chamber bowls and playing them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfZrNaLxH-0 You can see all of Partch’s instruments here. Partch’s music can...

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Julian the Apostate’s Sleeping Advice: Sleep on the Ground and Your Mattress is Freeeeeeeeeee

...pains later in life. It’s possible that the softness of our mattresses are making our muscles and bones weak, just like the terrible running shoes and orthotics that ruin our feet and collapse our arches. It turns out that the last pagan Roman emperor has ideas about how we should sleep. Ammianus Marcellinus’ Roman History Book I, contains a description of emperor Julian the Apostate’s austere sleeping habits: And when the night was half over, he...

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