Campfire Cooking: Fish in Clay (& Vegetarian Options!)

December 26, 2013

...eautiful fish: Once the clay is applied, the fish goes on the hot coals for 10 minutes on each side. This timing applies to a trout in 1/2 inch of clay. Differently sized fish and different thicknesses of clay will effect the timing. When the package comes off the fire, crack open the clay and peel the pieces off of the leaf coating. This is the exciting part, and would be really dramatic at the dinner table. When served while hunkered around the...

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Of Skunks, Sauerkraut and Stoicism

Mr. Homegrown

January 3, 2014

Thoughtstylings

1 Comment

...We were honored when the nice folks behind Stoic Week 2013 asked us to write a blog post. It begins, Practicality is why stoicism works so well as the philosophical operating system of urban homesteading. While Foucault and Hegel might help me navigate the epistemological frontier, when I’m staring at a carefully tended vegetable bed that just got destroyed by a skunk, you can bet I’ll reach for the Seneca. Read the rest here....

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Help us With a Fodder System for our Hens

Mr. Homegrown

January 13, 2014

Animals, Chickens

24 Comments

.../run. Ideally they’d be grazing on green pasture all day. But our abundant urban predators, lack of space and dry climate make the vision of hens clucking on verdant fields a challenge. I’m thinking of building a DIY fodder system but I’m a bit confused by the instructions I’ve seen floating about the interwebs. Which is where you come in. Have you built a fodder system? Do you know any good instructions? How big should it be for five hens? Or do...

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How To Calculate Anything

Mr. Homegrown

January 30, 2014

Resources, Water and Power

3 Comments

...ate Ohm’s law? Convert women’s clothing sizes? Calculate the area of a circle? Figure out whether its better to buy or rent a home? It’s all at www.calculatoredge.com. The site has lots of formulas for the urban homsteader even if you never have to perform a Sallen-Key Butterworth Low Pass Filter equation (except, perhaps, for recreational reasons). Thanks to Bruce Nolte, N1BN for the tip....

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Piet Oudolf’s Enhanced Nature

Mr. Homegrown

May 13, 2013

Garden Design, Gardening

5 Comments

...at’s pragmatic, recognizing both the need for natural ecosystems within an urban environment, while at the same time providing visual interest. Oudolf’s imprint is on the landscape, but to most people that human touch will remain on a subliminal level. It’s a brilliant “third way” strategy outside of the dualistic smackdown between the simulated nature of English style gardening and the rectilinear hedges of Versailles. Oudolf’s plan for the Serpe...

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