Urban Foraging with Nance Klehm

September 8, 2008

Via The Little Green People Show, a podcast with Chicago’s urban forager Nance Klehm: “We’re not talking gardens or dumpster diving. This is a discussion of the riches that grow in our highway medians, city planters, backyards and rail lines. Expert forager, Nance Klehm, sheds light on the city’s bounty, from medicinal plants to tasty greens. Getting to know the foraging landscape takes some time and energy, but gives back in complex flavors and...

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The New Urban Forager

Mr. Homegrown

April 22, 2008

Food, Foraging

...On a hot, humid day along Houston’s Buffalo Bayou, in the shadow of four abandoned concrete silos, a maggot infested corpse of a pit bull lies splayed across a sheet of black plastic. Nearby, a pile of asphalt roofing material blocks the path I’m taking down to one of the most polluted waterways in Texas. Not a promising beginning to an urban food foraging expedition. (Read the rest of our foraging essay via Reality Sandwich)...

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The Brooklyn Bee

Mr. Homegrown

February 28, 2007

Animals, Bees

4 Comments

...g Island, and advice from a beekeeping supplier. Howe said that the key to urban beekeeping is maintaining good relations with the neighbors since bees have a tendency to swarm on occasion and people are always shocked to see a basketball sized cluster of bees hanging out on a local light post. He deals with these sticky situations through careful neighborhood diplomacy and, of course, free honey. Howe argues that his honey is more organic than co...

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Is Lead Poisoning a Risk in Urban Gardens?

Mr. Homegrown

February 5, 2016

Gardening, Lead

3 Comments

...issue. But if the results of a University of Washington study on lead and urban agriculture are to be believed, we might not need to be as concerned. The researchers note that most vegetables don’t take up lead and that improving soil with compost greatly reduces the bioavailability of lead. You can read a summary of the results of this research paper here. Thanks to Joanne Poyourow of Environmental Change Makers for tipping me off to this resear...

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Your Urban Homesteading Vocabulary Word of the Day: Slumgum

Mr. Homegrown

May 22, 2017

Animals, Bees

6 Comments

...of slumgum. Don’t leave your slumgum outside like I did. It turns out that urban night critters such as skunks and raccoons also love slumgum. Some mammal dragged mine off and ate it! Side note: check your library’s online digital resources. The Los Angeles Public Library offers the Oxford English Dictionary, and many more online reference resources, for free to anyone with a LA library card. Stay tuned for a longer post on beeswax processing in t...

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