Urban Homesteading: What Went Wrong

...es of future posts I’d like to look back at the ideas in our two books The Urban Homestead and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World. I’ll consider both the broader ideas in the books as well as what might have changed in terms of specific methods in subjects such as gardening and beekeeping. First let me peel back the curtain for those of you have have never written a book and describe how awkward and weird it can be to read your o...

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Build a Solar Dehydrator

...but we just built the original design and it works fine. The original plans and improvements to those plans are split between two articles: Issue #57 and Issue #69. You need to download and read through both before building this dehydrator. . Alternatively, the always excellent Build it Solar website has a whole bunch of solar dehydrator designs, including a nice cardboard version. And while you’re in the library there’s also a book by Eben Fodor,...

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SolSource Review Part I: Assembly

...signs, who sent us their SolSource solar grill for testing, as part of our solar cooking initiative this summer. This device is different than a solar oven in that it does not function like a slow cooker, but as a high-heat grill. Arguments could be made that a well-outfitted solar kitchen needs both an oven and grill. More on that later! We’re going to break our initial review of the SolSource into a couple of parts, starting with assembly. But f...

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Campfire Cooking: Fish in Clay (& Vegetarian Options!)

...rtunate to have taken their class on cooking with clay. This is an ancient cooking technique. Clay provides the insulation necessary to keep the fish from scorching on the fire. You can also try cooking veggies and firm fruit in clay, though Pascal also showed us that for veggies, a layer of grass can also work quite nicely. The principle is the same: insulation. We’ll talk the grass/veggie technique at the end of this post. For cooking a fish in...

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The Food and Flowers Freedom Act

...Hall will change the law quickly and let L.A. become a leading center for urban farmers. Urban farming provides access to more local, organic, affordable, fresh and nutritious food. In this time of economic crisis and rising food prices, urban farming can help create green jobs and stimulate the growth of artisanal home-based businesses. Urban farmers help build community bonds and bring a truly local flavor to farmers’ markets. Angelinos care de...

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