Saturday Tweets: Halloween Edition

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Albrecht Dürer. Now available in a new edition, this lavishly illustrated volume draws on the latest research to present an exciting new interpretation of Albrecht Dürer.

The Museum of the American Cocktail

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Events, Fermentation, Food

We get a lot of press releases here at Root Simple. I cast most into Gmail’s purgatorial nether regions but when one came in from the Museum of the American Cocktail (MOTAC) I knew that I had to investigate further.

MOTAC operates out of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum in New Orleans. Luckily for us Angelinos, MOTAC sponsors weekly events in our fair city and is rumored to be opening a San Pedro venue next year.

I’ve attended two free events in downtown LA, one a tasting of the spirits made by a Central Coast distillery, Calwise Spirits, and another tasting of the many offerings of the venerable French distillery Combier which still uses a facility designed by Pierre Eiffel. Note to self: remember to spit out the spirits when you do a tasting of 20 bottles or the next day won’t be all that productive.

If you’re interested in MOTAC’s Los Angeles events you can sign up at the bottom of their page here. As a generalist (to a fault) I have really enjoyed meeting MOTAC’s expert cocktail enthusiasts.

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Stainless Steel Ice Lolly Popsicle Molds Kit

112 Eric of Garden Fork on Glazing, Concrete Anchors and Mouse Traps

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Podcasts


On this episode Eric of Garden Fork returns to the podcast to drop some opinions on window glazing, concrete anchors, mouse traps and Harbor Freight. Our fix-it rap includes:

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. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.

Why You Shouldn’t Grow an Avocado From a Pit

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Gardening, Trees

Consider this a brief public service announcement for readers in the tragically narrow avocado growing zone by way of a short review of basic plant biology.

I see a lot of grow-an-avocado-from-a-pit tutorials on the interwebs. It’s a great project for both kids and adults. If you’d like an avocado houseplant, by all means grow one from a pit. If, however, you live somewhere where avocados grow outside (USDA zones 8 through 11) and intend to plant your seedling outside, you should buy a tree from a nursery. Why? Bees love to pollinate avocado flowers. If you plant an avocado seed you’ll get some weird cross between the many different avocado varieties. Odds are it won’t taste good and who wants to water a tree for nine years only to get a bushel of foul avocados?

So to review: if you’d like a houseplant go ahead and plant that pit. If you’d like to keep your hipsters supplied with avocado toast buy a tree from a nursery or learn the art of avocado seedling grafting.

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The Home Orchard. Developed especially for use by backyard orchardists, rare fruit growers, and small-scale growers, The Home Orchard offers a comprehensive look at standard growing methods, as well as some innovative practices that enthusiasts have developed in recent years, some of which are uniquely suited to the small-scale grower. You will learn how trees grow, which species grow best in the different regions and soils, varieties from which to select, preparing the soil, planting, watering and fertilizing, pruning and grafting, thinning the fruit, diagnosing problems, controlling pests, and harvesting.

Saturday Tweets: Where Do You See Yourself in Ten Years?

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Saturday Linkages
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Handcrafted Bitters: Simple Recipes for Artisanal Bitters and the Cocktails That Love Them. With more bitters recipes than any other book–and twice as many cocktail recipes to try them out–Handcrafted Bitters belongs on the shelf of every cocktail enthusiast, kitchen crafter, foodie, and happy drunk.