Search Results for: label/water conservation

481 results

Our new front yard, part 5: Constructing a meadow community

Avatar photo
Back to the Garden, front yard series, Garden Design, Gardening
15 Comments
...y vanish or just look pleasantly dry? Some avoid dormancy if you give them water. Some die if you give them water at the wrong time. Oy! Save me from our crazy native grasses. Right now I have three species of native bunching grasses on the slope. The first is Sporobolus airoides (Alkali dropseed). This is the tallest of my grasses. It gets to be three feet tall, with more height from the seed heads, I believe. It’s showy, with nice airy seed head...

Read…

Beads and Roman Sandals Won’t Be Seen

Avatar photo
Permaculture
...herb spiral which is essentially a mound. In the permaculture version the water hungry plants are placed at the bottom of the mound and the dry plants at the top, the idea being that the water collects towards the bottom of the mound shaped spiral. We didn’t do the mound thing out of laziness and a lack of materials, and because the herbs we planted don’t require much water anyways. As for the spiral shape itself, we’d like to think that it’s our...

Read…

Baking Bread with Specialty Malts

Avatar photo
Beer, Bread, Food
2 Comments
...t the sugars that form in the malting process. Fermenting that sugary malt water creates alcohol. Most of the grain used to make beer is two or six-row malt. You add so-called “specialty” grains (that have been caramelized or roasted) to add flavor. If you skip the beer making and add the specialty malts directly to your dough, more of their flavor makes it into the bread. Step into a homebrew shop and you’ll find bin after bin of different specia...

Read…

Get Baking and Share the Loaves

Avatar photo
Bread, Food
10 Comments
...be incorporating more flour into your dough. Whole wheat soaks up a lot of water. Your hydration ratio could hit 100% or more. Wet dough like this can be tough to handle which is why Baker’s recipes in the book are around 80%. As you get more experienced you can start working with more water in the dough. Baker said that he often gives a loaf of whole wheat sourdough to people who come in his bakery and say that they can’t eat bread. He says they...

Read…

The problem with polar fleece: it’s in the ocean, it’s in sea creatures, it’s on our plates

Avatar photo
Domesticus
24 Comments
...essen the shedding by using liquid detergent and fabric softener in a cold water wash, but this is not a solution, just a mitigation. It turns out that over the years here at our house we’ve sent a good deal of these stray fibers into the soil around our house, since we’ve been using a greywater system. I’m not sure what to think about that. I doubt that the fibers are as disruptive in the soil as they are in a marine ecosystem, but still, it’s no...

Read…