Failed Experiment: Bermuda Buttercup or Sour Grass (Oxalis pes-caprae) as Dye

January 31, 2013

...of chopping them up, as I was supposed to. Then, I covered the greens with water. The instructions didn’t give exact water quantities to match the fabric weight–it only said “cover”–which seems a bit problematic. “Cover with water” is not a helpful instruction, especially when the plant matter you’re working with floats. But I added water as best as I could judge. There were two steeping options–with heat on the stove or by a long sun steep. I opt...

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Urban Homesteading: What Went Wrong

Mr. Homegrown

February 25, 2019

Thoughtstylings

23 Comments

...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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Urban Farm Magazine

Mr. Homegrown

August 26, 2009

Events, Resources, Urban Farming

4 Comments

...elly Yrarrazaval of Orange County. All of these fine folks have repurposed urban and suburban spaces to grow impressive amounts of food, a common sense trend popular enough to have spawned this new magazine. Editor Karen Keb Acevedo says, “Urban Farm is here to shed a little light on the things we can all do to change our lifestyles, in ways we think are monumental as a whole, yet at the same time, barely noticeable on their own.” The first issue...

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Plenty of choices

Mrs. Homegrown

July 15, 2016

Thoughtstylings

12 Comments

...had to take a snapshot of what I was seeing. This is only a portion of the water case. I can buy water from Italy or France or Fiji or Hawaii or Iceland. I can buy water with odd molecular super powers: it’s oxygenated or alkaline or…something? Buying a bottle of water in certain stores in Los Angeles in the year 2016 can be as exquisitely nuanced a process as buying a bottle of wine. When it comes to buying water, I have tons of choices–as long a...

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How to Make Stock

Mrs. Homegrown

June 19, 2014

Food, How-to

17 Comments

...r it. Just skim off the fat or scum which rises to the surface, and if the water level drops so that the bones are exposed, add more water or wine. When it’s done, strain the stock through a colander or strainer, lined with cheesecloth if you want the stock to be particularly clear. When the stock cools you’ll find a layer of fat floating on the top, which you can lift off. Fish Stock Fish stock is, obviously, used as the basis of various classic...

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