Hollywood always gets gardens wrong (I’m talking to you, Maze Runner)

September 25, 2014

...storical dramas, cannot somebody bother to glance at an art history survey book, and see what the visual of the period was, and make a faint attempt to replicate that style? Yes, only crusty old art history majors (ahem) are bothered by this, but heck, we’d tell you for free. Just give us a call. Run a couple of things past us. We don’t mind–it’s not like we’re employed or anything. The set designers do an okay job bringing in random paintings tha...

Read…

018 Wendy and Mikey of Holy Scrap Hot Springs

Mr. Homegrown

September 24, 2014

Podcasts

1 Comment

...Mikey Sklar of the blog Holy Scrap Hot Springs. Wendy is the author of the book The Good Life Lab: Radical Experiments in Hands-On Living. Wendy and Mikey are the ultimate “makers” and it was great to finally get a chance to talk to them and talk about their experiences in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. During the podcast we discuss: Mikey’s Battery Charger Kit Wendy’s wildcrafting Their adventures in biodiesel production 6x6x10 Remesh as a fr...

Read…

An Ancient Quince Recipe

Mr. Homegrown

September 26, 2014

Food, Food Preservation, Fruit Trees, Gardening

16 Comments

...ch year I promise I’ll pick up a copy of Barbara Ghazarian’s comprehensive book Simply Quince , but somehow I never get around to it. Last year I tried to make quince jelly, but overshot the jell point and ended up with jars of delicious tasting, but disagreeably hard quince gum. And Kelly just threw out my burned membrillo from last year. This year Kevin West, author of Saving the Season came to the rescue with an ancient (the first known referen...

Read…

Introducing the People Washer

Mr. Homegrown

November 6, 2014

Water and Power

8 Comments

...from the June 1977 issue of The Futurist, an excerpt from Stephen Rosen’s book Future Facts: The way things are going to work in the future of technology, science, medicine and life (available for a penny on Amazon!). Egg-shaped “People Washer” is an ultrasonic bath developed by the Sanyo Electric Company of Japan. The machine showers and bathes the body, cleans the skin, massages the muscles, and dries the person off. To take a bath, the bather...

Read…

In Praise of the Hedgerow

Mr. Homegrown

November 10, 2014

Gardening

8 Comments

...d, provide habitat and don’t need a lot of maintenance. Combine these two resources with a third, Piet Oudolf’s magnificent ideas about plant design in his book Planting: A New Persepctive and I think we might just be able to save the world....

Read…