The charming Evan Kleiman searching for that elusive Korean taco wagon . . .
Listen to Mr. and Mrs. Homegrown Evolution talking about urban homesteading on KCRW’s Good Food with Evan Kleiman. The show is archived here at KRCW.com.
India: chickens and bikes in a photo by Shabbir Siraj
Urban Livestock Workshop
Homegrown Evolution will be hosting an urban livestock workshop at our humble abode in Silver Lake on March 1st from 1-4pm. We’ll be talkin’ chicken, permaculturist Joan Stevens will be rapping about rabbits and Leonardo Chalupowicz will share his recent experience of becoming a “backwards” beekeeper. We’ll discuss how to integrate these animals into your backyard and how they can serve multiple purposes beyond just being pets. Suggested donation: $10 to $20. Space is limited, so please RSVP by sending an email to [email protected].
LA Bike Summit
Ride on down to LA Trade Tech College on Saturday March 7th for the LA Bike Summit. From 9 to 4 p.m. there will be a bunch of panels and lectures including a PowerPoint from Homegrown Evolution entitled, “Complete Streets: Lessons from the Past as a Blueprint for the Future.” It’s free but you should register at LAbikesummit.org. Folks who register by Monday, February 23rd (before noon PST) will get a free lunch catered by the gentleman above (just kidding, but you will get that free lunch).
Vitus californica covering our ugly chain link fence
There’s a couple of common misconceptions amongst novice gardeners about native plants:
1. If you use native plants the whole garden has to be natives.
In fact, it’s great to mix natives with non-native plants. The natives bring in beneficial wildlife, are hardy and are efficient in terms of water use. Flexibility is key here–go ahead and mix natives with vegetables, fruit trees and other climate-appropriate plantings.
2. Natives aren’t edible.
Many natives yield edible and medicinal crops. In North America the best way to delve into this topic is to figure out the plants that Native Americans in your area used.
3. Southern California is a desert and native plants are desert plants.
Coastal Southern California has a Mediterranean climate not a desert climate and native plants adapted to this region do not look like desert plants. Coastal natives can be very lush and attractive.
Note: the workshop listed below has been postponed due to rain. See the Green Beacon Foundation website for more information.
In order to dispel these myths and offer practical advice, a new non-profit organization, the Green Beacon Foundation is hosting a native plant talk and demonstration conducted by Lisa Novick of the Theodore Payne Foundation. Theodore Payne is a great resource for finding native plants and seeds and, in Southern California, now is the time to get those natives in the ground. Here’s the 411 on the workshop:
“The Green Beacon Foundation (GBF) located in historic Elysian Heights serves as a community resource for the public to have tactile experiences of “going green,” through on-going workshops, lectures, and tours.The Green Beacon Foundation is hosting Lisa Novick of the Theodore Payne Foundation who will present the lecture entitled, “Why Plant Natives?”on Saturday, February 7th. at 2pm. If you have always wanted to learn more about California Native plants and how to incorporate them into your garden, this is the event you’ve been waiting for!
Native plants not only save water, they save species. Learn about crucial native plant-animal relationships and gardening to attract birds, butterflies and hummingbirds.
With only 4% of our wild lands left, urban and suburban native plant gardens will be the “make or break” difference to the support and preservation of bio-diversity.
Lisa will show and tell you about several varieties of native plants as well as provide samples for sale.
Immediately after the lecture in the garden we will be conducting a tour of the house to show and tell you about green products and renovation processes that will help save money while caring for the earth.
Suggested donation for the lecture and the tour: $10 each
Please RSVP for address to Julie Solomon:
or call 323.717.9636″
Hogarth’s formula: beer=good, gin=badHomegrown Evolution will be conducting an informal beer brewing demo as part of an art opening in Eagle Rock this weekend. Curated by Nate Garcia, Needle in a Haystack brings together an eclectic group of artists exploring community and public space, including our comrade Ari Kletzky of Islands of L.A., with whom we’ll be interacting during the course of the show.
At the opening, on Saturday January 24th we’ll be demonstrating how to make a batch of beer with malt extract, a process that anyone can do in their own kitchen. The beer will ferment in the gallery and be served on February 28th at the closing party. We’ll be setting up around 6 p.m. and we should be finished brewing by 9 p.m. or so. The event is at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock which is located at 2225 Colorado Boulevard.
Stay tuned for more fermentation workshops in the near future.
Bread Making
If you’re in the Southern California area, come on down to Good Magazine’s splashy digs for a bread making demo we’ll be doing on Monday December 15th at 12:30 p.m. We’ll be showing how to bake our favorite wild yeast bread (in our book and on our website here). Come at 11:30 a.m. and catch our organic gardening pals at Silver Lake Farms do a talk on winter vegetable crops. Stick around for puppets! Good Magazine is located at:
6824 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, 90038
More info on Good Magazine’s December events page.
General Partying
On Thursday December 11th at 7 p.m. our publishers Process Media and Feral House are putting on a Winter Solstice Celebration at La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles. We hear rumours of bonfires (not our book we hope!), Druids, “mystics and madmen, mulberry and mead.” We’ll just be hanging out, enjoying the festivities. Come on down and see us and get discounts on Process and Feral House books. Details here.
