The Original L.A. Urban Homestead

...e house is a charming bungalow full of warm dark wood. It features a small solar array, a fabulous greywater system and many other features that make this cozy home worth a visit. The most educational part of the Eco-Home, in my humble opinion, is Julia’s actual lifestyle. Sure, technical features such as solar and greywater are great, but living lightly is more about how you live and small simple choices you make everyday. Julia is in her 70’s an...

Read…

Simple Tech

...r and scrap wood rather than cutting down whole trees to make charcoal for cooking. Rocket stoves if adopted in wide numbers, have the potential to slow deforestation. Another example is a wheelchair made out of the ubiquitous plastic lawn chair developed by an organization called the Free Wheelchair Mission. At just $44 a chair to manufacture and ship, the Free Wheelchair Mission hopes to, as they put it, “Transform lives through the gift of mobi...

Read…

Saturday Tweets: Dumb Appliances, Chinatown Produce,

...po12wOLpI — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 6, 2017 https://t.co/SKIBofeNZS: Solar Cooking with the Solavore Oven (“Moron’s Mea… https://t.co/gIDicJqrtl — Root Simple (@rootsimple) May 6, 2017 I love how Metro construction downtown has created narrower bike-friendly streets and extra wide pedestrian crossings. Can we keep them? pic.twitter.com/zxe1GfravV — Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) May 3, 2017 The Real Reason Chinatown Produce is Crazy Cheap | SA...

Read…

Saturday Linkages: Bitters, Dogs and Native Plants

...2/we-only-bond-with-complex-landscapes.html … How To Make Homemade Bitters Cooking Lessons from The Kitchn http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-homemade-bitters-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-197883 … 100 Years of Dog Breed “Improvement” http://wp.me/p1VSYl-eg Los Angeles Was Once a Forest of Oil Derricks http://southland.gizmodo.com/los-angeles-was-once-a-forest-of-oil-derricks-1469825345 … Full-color handout for plant-based eating. Tips for foo...

Read…

Notes on Mark Bittman’s “Behind the Scenes of What We Eat”

...lready doing– just like us. You’re trying to support local farmers. You’re cooking from scratch and eating whole foods. You’re trying to source ethically raised dairy products and meats. You’re growing some of your own food. All of this is important. Michael Pollan’s advice–Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants— is pretty much the same as Bittman’s recommendations. (I wonder if Pollan and Bittman hang out? Maybe Bittman crashed on Pollan’s sofa du...

Read…