Why You Should Avoid Staking Trees

November 26, 2012

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Miscellaneous, Trees

...efits from chaos and shock. This idea is the subject of Nassim Taleb’s new book on what he calls “anti-fragility“. By contrast, natural or organic systems are antifragile: They need some dose of disorder in order to develop. Deprive your bones of stress and they become brittle. This denial of the antifragility of living or complex systems is the costliest mistake that we have made in modern times. Stifling natural fluctuations masks real problems,...

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Annie’s Annuals and Perennials

Mr. Homegrown

July 10, 2013

Garden Design, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

4 Comments

...edibles. It’s first time I’ve ever seen Oca (Oxalis tuberosa) outside of a book. I had to keep a tight grip on my credit card to prevent myself from buying plants I had no way of getting home on my bike. The good news is that Annie’s does mail order. And she’s got a bunch of tutorial videos covering topics such as container planting and plant combinations. As we begin version 4.0 of our back yard garden, I have a feeling we’ll be ordering plants f...

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How to Bake a Traditional German Rye Bread

Mr. Homegrown

December 5, 2012

Bread, Fermentation, Food, How-to, Recipes

33 Comments

...00% whole rye sourdough loaves. I’ve used as my guide a nicely illustrated book How to Make Bread by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou. His specialty is just the sort of rustic German style breads I’ve always wanted to learn to bake. What I love in particular about his caraway rye sourdough loaf (pictured above) is the crust. Unlike most other breads you don’t slash it before tossing it in the oven. The goal is a kind of perfect imperfection–a hard, thick cru...

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Happy Mayan Apocalypse!

Mr. Homegrown

December 21, 2012

Thoughtstylings

9 Comments

...s doomsday thinking, I think it would be best just to quote Greer from his book Apocalypse Not: there’s at least a chance that the upcoming failure of the 2012 prophecy might encourage people to take a hard and skeptical look at the apocalypse meme itself, to recognize that longing for the annihilation of most of humanity has no place in an authentic spirituality, and accept that our happiness as human beings depends on how we choose to live our l...

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My 2013 New Year’s Resolution

Mr. Homegrown

January 1, 2013

Thoughtstylings

6 Comments

...as a collection of merit badges. I think it’s an obvious trap for a how-to book author and homesteading blogger to fall into. My merit badge accumulation better served my ego than those around me. This year, rather than collect merit badges, I’m going to focus on skills and goals that will serve friends, family and community (which includes the audience of this blog). And I’m not going to make a new list–I’ve got plenty to work with from last year...

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