Cast Iron Cookware Class at Winnetka Farms

...ing demonstrations (tastings) and discussion of the special techniques and uses of this timeless kitchen tool. Cleaning and Maintenance Very importantly the cleaning and maintenance of your cast iron cookware. While there are many theories regarding cleaning and maintaining cast Iron, I’ll discuss and demonstrate the system I adhere to after many years of experience. Restoring cast iron Either you found an old rusty pan in a thrift shop or after y...

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Garden Design Trends: Interplanting and Plant Communities

...nature’s diversity, but in a somewhat more compressed form. The example he uses is the striking garden at Arthritis Research UK. You can see a video of that garden here. Rosalind Creasy has demonstrated, this same interplanting strategy can be used with edible and medicinal plants. Another related design strategy are gardens inspired by wild plant communities. The example Rainer cites is the Daily Telegraph garden seen in the picture above. You ca...

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Book Review: What the Robin Knows

...e is different from bird watching. It is a nature awareness practice which uses the observation of commonplace birds, like robins and sparrows, to teach you about the larger workings of the nature and yourself. In a nutshell, Young asks you to choose a place to sit outdoors and commit to sitting in this place regularly, for about 40 minutes per session, watching the birds, watching all that happens around you. This sit spot might be your yard, a p...

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Primitive Grain Storage Technique

...the sides of the pit sucks the moisture out of the soil at the edges, and uses it to attempt to germinate. The germination process sucks up oxygen and releases carbon dioxide, effectively clearing the chamber of oxygen. At that point, as Neil puts it, “Time stops.” Nothing can grow, nothing changes. The grain cache keeps for at least a year, perhaps two years, and provided a very handy safety backup for hard working iron age farmers. And some ver...

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Can Whole Wheat Solve the Wheat Allergy Problem?

...e were made with whole wheat flour. While he does use some white sugar, he uses it very sparingly. Like most bakers he’s in a difficult position in our anti-gluten era. While acknowledging gluten sensitivities, Ponsford believes the problem is more complex and that the solution may be in looking at older forms of wheat as well as the way wheat is milled and baked. The “whole wheat” breads one finds at the supermarket are made with flour that has h...

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