103 Ugly Little Greens with Mia Wasilevich

June 14, 2017

Food, Food Preservation, Foraging, Podcasts, Recipes

Our guest this week is chef and forager Mia Wasilevich. Mia is the founder of Transitional Gastronomy and teaches culinary workshops, wild-food identification and food styling. She was a featured consultant on “Master Chef” and “Top Chef.” She is also the author of a brand new book, “Ugly Little Greens: Gourmet Dishes Crafted from Foraged Ingredients.” During the show we discuss:

How she got started cooking.
Mia’s new book Ugly Little Greens.
Eating invasives.
Working with mustard.
Elderflower ghee.
Nettle aid.
Mallow.
Currants.
Working with acorns.
Lambsquarters.
Meal planning.
Fish sauce.
James Townsend and Two Fat Ladies.
Mia’s website Transitional Gastronomy.
Cottonwood Urban Farm.

If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.

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102 Beekeeping Controversies With Susan Rudnicki

Mr. Homegrown

May 31, 2017

Animals, Bees, Podcasts

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Behind the headlines about bee die-offs is an untold story about the methods of conventional beekeeping. There is a sharp divide between mainstream beekeepers and natural beekeepers. In this episode we delve deep into the controversies over how bees are managed with beekeeper Susan Rudnicki. We recorded this episode in front of a live audience at one of Honey Love’s monthly symposiums. We get into a lot of detail on beekeeping methods, so consider this episode a kind of natural beekeeping 101. During the podcast Susan discusses:

Why are all the bees dying?
Treatment vs. non-treatment.
Why most advice is pro-treatment.
Keeping feral stock.
Africanized bees.
Mistakes.
How often to inspect.
Swarm prevention.
When to take honey in a Mediterranean climate
Dodgy bee removal services.
The “Complete Idiots Guide to Beekeeping.”
What’s wrong with package bees?
The difference between swarming and absconding.
That Flow Hive thingy.
Darwinian concepts in beekeeping.
“Scientific” beekeeper Randy Oliver’s change of opinion on feral stock: here and here.
Bee Audacious conference.
Foundation vs. no foundation.
Reducing entrances.
Queen excluders.
Screened bottom boards.
Straightening crooked comb.
Eight frame boxes.
The problem with organic treatments.
Les Crowder’s “Top Bar Beekeeping.”

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The Fertile Ground of Bewliderment

Mr. Homegrown

May 29, 2017

Podcasts, Thoughtstylings

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[Editors note 2022: I’ve come to see Eisenstein’s thinking as deeply flawed listen to this podcast for what I agree are many of the problems with his work]

It’s Memorial Day in the U.S. which means that most of our domestic readers are probably not reading Root Simple blog posts. For those few of you who are, allow me to suggest a podcast to listen to while you recreate, garden, or mix a cocktail. It’s a lecture by Charles Eisentein delivered last year at St. James Church in London. He begins with the need to stop the paradigm and language of being at war with everything: bugs, people, germs etc. My favorite bit comes during the question and answer session when Eisenstein addresses a concept of interconnectedness he calls, “interbeing.”

Interbeing is the truth. You can only suppress it at great and growing effort, temporarily, until you become exhausted. It’s like a parking lot covered in cement. If you don’t constantly maintain it in a state of ugliness, then beauty will erupt. Dandelions will come up, it’ll crack, and in fifty years it’ll be beautiful. And we are getting exhausted now at maintaining an ugly world.

~~You can read a transcript of the lecture here and listen to more of Eisenstein’s podcasts here.~~

101 Eric Interviews Erik

Mr. Homegrown

May 17, 2017

Appropriate Technology, Podcasts, Rocket Stove, Urban Homestead Trademark Dispute, Water and Power

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Between Kelly’s aortic dissection and my mom’s passing it’s been a difficult few months here at Root Simple. Eric Rochow of Garden Fork noticed that I haven’t put out a podcast episode in a long time and offered to interview me. So, on episode 101, you’ll hear Eric interviewing Erik about Root Simple, our books and my background. Despite the differences in the way we spell our names we have a lot in common! During the podcast we talk about:

Root Simple’s five gallon metal bucket rocket stove
Garden Fork’s plastic bucket rocket stove
Sewing
Museum of Jurassic Technology
Center for Land Use Interpretation
Our first publisher, Process Media
Derek “Deek” Diedricksen of Relaxshacks.com
Trademark dispute
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Signal messaging app

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100 Eric Rochow of Garden Fork on Maple Syrup, Welding and Cast Iron

Mr. Homegrown

March 15, 2017

Food, Podcasts

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On this, the 100th episode of the Root Simple podcast we talk with Garden Fork impresario Eric Rochow about his adventures in maple syrup making, learning how to weld and the controversial topic of maintaining cast iron. During the show we touch on a lot of things including: