Search Results for: label/water conservation/page/4/2011/04/making-it

596 results

Questions about cats

Mrs. Homegrown
Animals, Cats
41 Comments
...3) Why must our cat make use the litter box when one of us is using the toilet? Why the sharing? 4) And speaking of the litter box, why is changing the litter so exciting for cats? Why does she rush to use the box the moment it’s changed? (Actually, the first time she watched me change the box, she jumped into the empty box and peed, soaking her feet. Now I really hustle to get the litter in there.) 5) And while we’re on bathroom mat...

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How To Ice Glaze Fish

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Food Preservation, How-to
RLeave a comment
Photo by Portable Soul Ice glazing is a process of creating a thin layer of ice to help preserve foods, usually chicken or fish. Ice glazing prevents freezer burn and helps preserve texture and flavor. The big processors do it, but it can also be accomplished at home. To ice glaze fish you need to do some pretreatment. You dip fatty fish in an ascorbic acid solution. Lean fish are pretreated in a brine. Once treated, you then p...

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Problems Part I

Mr. Homegrown
Animals, Chickens
16 Comments
The road to urban homesteading ain’t smooth and involves more than a few potholes along the way. Some of those potholes will swallow a bike tire while others are big enough for a Hummer. But with persistence it becomes easier to deal with the occasional bump, lessons can be learned and future mistakes avoided. With the popularity of our earlier blunders post, I’d like to begin regularly sharing problems as they develop. Here’s...

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Guyaba Guayabas (Psidium guajava)

Mr. Homegrown
Food, Gardening
9 Comments
Just last week I was spotting L.A. river blogger creekfreak while he bench pressed a whole bunch of weights (was it 300 pounds?) at our local YMCA. Between hefting all that poundage (we’re both getting ready for the inaugural L.A. River Adventure Race), the conversation turned to a productive guyaba fruit tree on the grounds of the L.A. Eco-village, where the creekmesiter’s crib is located. Guyaba (Psidium guajava–”guyaba...

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What’s the dirt on soap nuts?

Mrs. Homegrown
Miscellaneous
46 Comments
Sapindus mukorossi fruits , image from Wikimedia Commons Mrs. Homegrown here: I’m trying to take a temperature reading on soap nuts. Have you used them? Did you like them? How do you use them–as laundry detergent, shampoo, soap? Do you use whole nuts or make a liquid? How long have you been using them? Do you find a big difference between brands? If you could shoot me a comment, I’d really appreciate it. On a more advanced...

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Tomato Review #1 Red Currant–The World’s Smallest Tomato

Mr. Homegrown
Gardening, Tomatoes, Vegetable Gardening
5 Comments
...ruit measuring about one centimeter across. Red Currant is an indeterminate tomato, with a delicious, sweet taste. A malfunctioning drip line has has meant that our specimen probably did not get enough water, but nevertheless it has managed to produce fruit despite looking unhappy. If we had more than the paltry number we’ve produced, they’d make for a tasty addition to a salad. That malfunctioning drip line means that all we have is...

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Infinite Green Onions

Mrs. Homegrown
Food, Gardening
16 Comments
Here’s a handy little tip. I’m pretty sure I heard it first from Mr. Jack Spirko: Save the root ends of your green onions (aka scallions) — the parts you cut off when you’re cooking. Plant those, roots down, under about an inch of soil and they will generate new green onions. Keep this cycle going throughout your growing season and you should have an endless supply of green onions for your table. It’s much easier t...

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