Olive Curing Update

...when the silvery underside of the leaves shimmer in a light breeze. Olive trees have deep symbolic associations in ancient Mediterranean cultures and the tree has an average lifespan of 500 years. There are a few trees, over 2,000 years old, that still produce fruit. If you live in the U.S. but not in a climate that supports olives, consider buying domestic olive oil and cured olives. Especially with olive oil, a lot of the imported stuff is adul...

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Saturday Tweets: Goodbye 2018

..., but Milarch and his son, Jake, discovered living tissue growing from the trees’ roots…” Giant coast redwoods, cut down in the 19th century, successfully cloned. https://t.co/FHL7Nzgj6H pic.twitter.com/dsAFkVoUp2 — Geoff Manaugh (@bldgblog) December 27, 2018 The shutdown comes to Joshua Tree, where, with no federal employees to keep an eye on things, people are littering, lighting illegal fires, and “stringing Christmas lights from delicate Joshu...

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Our Hot Streets Are an Opportunity

...s 120.8º F (49.3º C). Being a crank I have two conclusions: 1. Let’s plant trees. 2. How about instead of painting streets gray we do something really radical and pull them up entirely and start cooling people rather than serving cars? According to the Los Angeles Times, “Recent research has found that when manufacturing emissions are taken into account, most cool pavements hurt the climate more than they help.” So, as is typical for our mayor Eri...

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Yet More Reasons to Mulch

Image: Wikimedia. From a water conservation perspective alone, our trees need a good layer of mulch. But there are many more reasons to mulch, according to research by James Downer, Farm Advisor with the Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, California: Mulch provides nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. A serendipitous accident in one of Downer’s studies revealed that mulch changes soil structure so that mulched soils are able to absorb more w...

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A Tour of the Homegrown Evolution Compound

...tolerant, hardy stuff. At the top, not visible in the photo, are the fruit trees we planted and described in an earlier post. Due to extensive foundation work (note to potential home buyers: don’t buy a house on a hill!) we’ve only recently been able to work on the top part of the front yard. Next the backyard, pictured above (click to bigulate). The extreme wide angle makes it look a lot bigger than it actually is. In reality, the backyard is abo...

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