New Project: Making Bitters

...I’ll share the recipes I develop as I follow this path. In the meanwhile, making your own bitters is really easy. You may be able to throw a few experiments together just using things you find in your spice cabinet. Since these are flavoring, not medicine, you don’t have to be as careful with the quantities and timing as you must be when tincturing herbs for medicine. Yet at the same time, it’s a great introduction to that essential herbalist’s c...

Read…

Lila Downs Video Showing Tortilla Making in Oaxaca

...ngeles Bread Bakers sent me a link to this music video that shows tortilla making in Oaxaca. The song is “Palomo Del Comalito” (Dove of the Comalito) by Lila Downs. Note the huge corn tortillas, proof of the regional diversity of Mexican cuisine (and one of the many details I got wrong in my tortilla press post–thanks for the corrections Gloria). Lyrics in English after the jump. The beautiful people of this land Grind corn A miracle of their hand...

Read…

Checking in on Kelly’s projects

...his very ambitious project has gone on hold until the crisis arises again. Making a mattress is intimidating, just because of the sheer cost and scale of the materials needed, and as far as I can tell, there’s no one out there to help you do it. If I ever do make a mattress, it will be like summiting the Everest of homesteading. On the other hand, if I ever learn how, I think I could make a mint teaching other desperate people how to do it themsel...

Read…

Saturday Tweets: #FlyingLess, VHS Making a Comeback and Alanis Morissette Impressions

...sts https://t.co/Dpa9b7grCA via @LitZippo — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 20, 2018 In the 1850s farmers in Hälsingland in Sweden built astounding neoclassical wooden palaces for themselves. The level of sophistication and the workmanship is unlike anything seen since. Seven remain today. This is a two-and-a-half story farmhouse for two families, ca. 1857. pic.twitter.com/a5B7J0aHX1 — Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) March 19, 2018 VHS is making a co...

Read…

I Spent a Year Making a Bed

...tect Henry W. Wilkerson so I wonder if the attribution is accurate or if Ellis just designed the inlay work. I like the dreamy, magical, vaguely medieval quality of the furniture and architecture of the years between 1900 and 1915 before the horrors of the 20th kicked in. My near term plans involve laying in this bed imagining the fin de siècle odors of absinthe and incense as I drift asleep reading Arthur Machen. The print above the bed is “Float...

Read…