Kimchi Class with Hae Jung Cho November 15

...rience where you make two kinds of fermented kimchi – napa cabbage (poggi) and radish (kkakdugi) – and one quick pickle. We then share a light meal of rice, kimchi, soup and other side dishes. You leave the class with three containers of kimchi and pickles that you have made, printed recipes and the know-how to replicate the kimchi at home. Fee: $75. Anyone interested in this class should email Hae Jung at [email protected]. More info here....

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How do I keep squirrels and rats from eating my grapes?

...hing on grapes. I decided to see if either paper bags or plastic clamshell containers would deter the daily and nightly mammalian fruit buffet. Preliminary results: Clamshells don’t work. The fruit fermented, and not in a nice way. Paper bags seem to work, but probably only because I left a lot of the fruit exposed in the hopes that they would eat that first and leave the bagged fruit alone. It’s also hard to tell when the fruit is ripe when it’s...

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The revolution will be fermented . . .

...n Revolution’s month of fermentation continues with the following bubbling containers–from left to right: Rye Sourdough Starter More info in a future post, but rye flour is much more active than a starter made with white flour! White Flour Starter We’ve already ranted about this stuff here and here. So far, much success. Crème Fraîche Special thanks to Susan of Northeast LA’s “culture club” for giving us some Swedish fil mjolk culture. We gave it...

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More Washing Machine Greywater Fun

...ith the washing machine surge tank greywater strategy is that what you are watering has to be downhill of the machine. This is a common problem with greywater systems, and trying to use pumps to get the water uphill is simply not economical, nor is it environmentally hip since those pumps have a lot of plastic and other icky industrial materials in them. Fortunately washing machines have a pump built-in and it’s possible to use your washing machin...

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

...se it seems to be a placeholder for better days when we can all go back to watering our lawns into emerald brilliance. We need to say goodbye to the lawn for good, write it off like a bad boyfriend. And the purple gravel… I just don’t know what to say. Note that the design consists of a lawn and foundation plantings. It’s the same old uninspired model, repeated on the institutional scale. I suspect this landscaping will have some fans because it i...

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