Local Politician Tom LaBonge Wants LA Covered in Astroturf and the City to Pay For It

January 19, 2015

...ncluded that they did not want to subside artificial turf. Why waste staff time?] Let me predict the results, should Tom’s AstroTurf vision become law. In a few years we’ll see acres of ripped, smog and dog feces stained plastic turf that will eventually end up in our overflowing landfills. The present rebate program is an opportunity to create landscapes that support birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife at the same time as they reduce wate...

Read…

Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities

Mr. Homegrown

January 29, 2015

Reviews

7 Comments

...ed within the urban homesteading movement. A confession here: when it came time to write our two books, Kelly and I leafed through our old copy of the Whole Earth Catalog to make sure that we didn’t leave any topic out. Kevin Kelly kept the Whole Earth Catalog ethos alive through his Cool Tools review website. That website has morphed back into print in the form of Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities . This new book is just as addictive as the...

Read…

The Return of the Monocle?

Mr. Homegrown

February 3, 2015

Appropriate Technology

17 Comments

...ow a monocle would allow you to see both close up and distance at the same time. Monocles weren’t an affectation in the old days. I’m sure it would take some time to adjust to, but wouldn’t it be better than having to remember to carry around the hideous reading drug store glasses I currently use? Kelly considers a monocle grounds for divorce and, I have to admit, she has a point. It’s hard to pull off a monocle these days without also donning a t...

Read…

De-Cluttering the Garden

Mr. Homegrown

February 12, 2015

Domesticus, Gardening, Tidying up

8 Comments

...gangly, trees shade out other plants and things just generally change. Sometimes you have to mimic nature’s floods and fires and make a radical shift. Weeding and thinning. We got behind on this and we’re paying the price. This is a matter of poor scheduling, subject matter for an upcoming series of posts (if I can ever schedule time to write those scheduling posts). Let’s just say there was some cursing while pulling out a robust and thorny Opunt...

Read…

Three Things I’ve Learned About Baking Bread With Whole Grain

Mr. Homegrown

February 19, 2015

Bread, Food

25 Comments

...se). Once I shape my dough, I put it in the fridge to proof overnight. The time in the fridge makes wet dough easier to handle and develops the flavor. And that cold dough can go straight from the fridge and into the oven. 3. The biodiversity of grains and the way they behave as bread has been a astonishing and sometimes frustrating experience (note the difference in the photo above between a loaf made with Sonora wheat and a loaf made with Joachi...

Read…