Picture Sundays: Backyard, Midsummer

August 10, 2014

...A view of our backyard taken July 1, 2014. The adobe oven is in the foreground and a monster, rogue squash dominates the background. Chicken run is on the left. The flattering viewpoint of this photo obscures much work that still needs to be done!...

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O79 Growing and Breeding Tomatoes with Fred Hempel

Mr. Homegrown

March 23, 2016

Gardening, Podcasts, Tomatoes

...rmet vegetables in Northern California. His focus is on tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs and edible flowers. In the podcast we ask if there is such a thing as a heirloom tomato? What does a tomato breeder look for in a tomato? Why do supermarket tomatoes taste so crappy? And what happens when you turn a tomato breeding project over to an eight year old. We also talk about how to water tomatoes and prepare soil. During the podcast Fred mentions: Du...

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Why I’m Growing Vegetables in a Straw Bale

Mr. Homegrown

May 29, 2019

Gardening, Straw Bale Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

10 Comments

...gen. On the other side of that equation I grew some truly monstrous winter squash, enough to feed all the inhabitants of a generously sized cult compound. This time around I’m trying an inorganic approach, substituting the blood meal I used last time for urea. I’m curious to see if I notice any difference other than price (urea is a lot cheaper). Should I try it again, I’m thinking of building some simple wooden boxes to hold the bales and keep th...

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Seed, nut and fruit energy bars

Mrs. Homegrown

September 8, 2014

Food, Foraging, Recipes

8 Comments

...me to helm the Root Simple empire while he brushes up on his clogging and squash ogling. Today he asked me if I would make him some energy bars as road food. I was happy to, as this is the easiest thing to do in the world. These date-based, no-bake bars are all the thing in the raw vegan precincts of the Internet (or maybe rather they were all the thing c.2009) but it just occurred to me that maybe not everyone has encountered them yet. As fast s...

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Flowers from Vegetables

Mrs. Homegrown

July 22, 2014

Gardening, Permaculture, Vegetable Gardening

12 Comments

...that vegetables make flowers, so it’s fun to show them a carrot flower, a squash blossom, a bean flower. My new favorite garden flower comes off an old Italian chicory plant left to go riot. I’m not sure which chicory it is, but it’s one of those long-leaved, bitter greens beloved in Italy and sold by Franchi seeds. It’s easy to grow, pest proof, and we like the strong, bitter flavor. The flowers, though, are amazing. The greens send up narrow st...

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