The Fine Art of Determining Peach Ripeness

June 6, 2016

How do you know when your peaces are ready to pick? For home growers it’s all about color. According to the University of Georgia, Ground color is the best field indicator of peach maturity. . . The ground color of a peach approaching maturity is light green. A break in color toward yellow is the first definite indication of maturity. Brightening of the red over-color of the skin is another, though less reliable, index of maturity. Red color is t...

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Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up

Mrs. Homegrown

February 26, 2016

Domesticus, Tidying up

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I figure by now that there are few of you, at least those of you who have de-cluttering on your radar, who don’t know that Marie Kondo, author of Tidying Up, has a new book: Spark Joy. We’ve been shamelessly selling it in our margins here on the blog for a good while, but I’m just now getting around to reviewing it. Of course, we wrote extensively about our journey with Tidying Up here last year. If you’ve read Tiding Up, your first question woul...

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Picture Sundays: Best Van Art Ever

Mrs. Homegrown

August 7, 2016

Picture Sundays

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...This beautiful couple enjoys the eternal comforts of poetry and philosophy, along with an occasional fruit basket. There are what I think are golden psychic waves traveling between their heads, and the waves have small words floating among them. They are: soul, creativity, poetry, ideas, psyche, inspiration, express, concept, love, mind Photographed on Griffith Park Blvd. in Los Angeles. Save...

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May Morris: Embroidery as Art

Mr. Homegrown

February 21, 2018

Design

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...s probably the best embroiderer the world has ever known. Her work is more like painting than stitching and she raised the craft to levels not seen since the late medieval period. May was a gifted designer and artist and worked in many mediums including fashion and jewelry. You can read her embroidery manual Decorative Needlework online. Are Root Simple readers also avid embroiderers? Leave a comment!...

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Food Storage as Art

Mr. Homegrown

January 7, 2013

Design, Food, Food Preservation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mG9xYVyAnuc Artist Jihyun Ryou’s work uses food storage techniques from the pre-refrigerator era in a way that’s both useful and beautiful. Her goal is to, “Try to bring your food in front of your eyes” to counteract that tendency we all have to make our refrigerators unintentional composters. The techniques she demonstrates include: Evaporation Sand, both to keep vegetables vertical and to d...

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