Root Simple’s Favorite New Year’s Eve Cocktails

December 30, 2016

Food

...regions of the world may object that two of these cocktails are considered appropriate only for warm weather. But we do live in Los Angeles where it can be hot in December (though not this year, so far). Personally, I like these cocktails regardless of the outdoor temperature. Here’s my three favorite: The Pegu Club This was the house cocktail in the 1920s at Burma’s Pegu Club, a gentleman’s establishment for British Army officers and government o...

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Grief is the pathway to action

Mrs. Homegrown

April 9, 2015

Back to the Garden, Thoughtstylings

28 Comments

...s all that uncommon to be sad, and what’s more, it is, of course, entirely appropriate to be sad. We’ve been discussing environmental degradation since the 70’s, if not before, but I feel like now it’s beginning to hit home, and hit hard. It’s not uncommon to feel sad because: That little wilderness you loved playing in as a kid has been covered by a housing development You can’t see the stars from your parents’ house anymore You don’t hear the fr...

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Free Webinar on Making and Using Compost Teas

Mr. Homegrown

October 9, 2015

Composting, Events, Gardening

2 Comments

...st teas and how they can be beneficially used. About the Presenters Dr. Lynne Carpenter-Boggs is an Associate Professor of Sustainable and Organic Agriculture at Washington State University. Her work aims to improve global health and sustainability through biological and appropriate technologies for agriculture. Catherine (CeCe) Crosby is a Ph.D. candidate in Soil Science at Washington State University. CeCe has led hundreds of pre-nursing student...

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Josey Baker on Bread: Whole, Wild, Wet, Slow and Bold

Mr. Homegrown

November 23, 2015

Bread, Fermentation, Food

4 Comments

...erd Josey Baker. Baker and his mentor Dave Miller (yes, they do have oddly appropriate surnames) have developed a style of baking that Josey has turned into set of five principles, a kind of Kama Sutra of bread: whole, wild, wet, slow and bold. Let’s get funky and break that down. Whole To make white flour, all the good stuff in wheat is sifted out, leaving it lifeless. Even “whole wheat” breads are made with a significant proportion of white flou...

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The Manzanita Miracle, or, why you should love native plants if you live in a dry climate

Mrs. Homegrown

December 17, 2015

Gardening, Native Plants

6 Comments

...the other is “Los Angeles is a desert, so I’m planting cactus.” Neither is appropriate. In Los Angeles, a lawn needs about 50 inches of water a year to stay green–and it usually gets twice that much–up to 100 inches. Compare that to manzanita’s 4 inches. Cactus doesn’t need much water, true, but we are not a desert–yet. We are in the process of desertification, yes, which is not a good thing. At the end of this road, we don’t end up in a dreamy Ge...

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