The Energy Environment Simulator

...condition? It’s been the centerpiece of Nik’s living room ever since, even making a cross country move. The device demonstrates energy inputs and demands. Depending on how you turn the knobs, you can either engineer a future of never-ending power or, on the other extreme, your own personal zombie apocalypse. One of the energy sources is labeled “new technology.” This could either be solar or that UFO doughnut from the Thrive movie. The only info w...

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Eight Things to Consider When Saving Vegetable Seeds

The directions for seed saving in our last book, Making It, almost got cut. Perhaps we should have just changed those directions to “Why it’s OK to buy seeds.” The fact is that it’s not easy to save the seeds of many vegetables thanks to the hard work of our bee friends. That being said, Shannon Carmody of Seed Saver’s Exchange gave a lecture at this year’s Heirloom Exposition with some tips for ambitious gardeners who want to take up seed saving...

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Recipe for the World’s Best Whole Wheat Pancake

...ea salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder The night before making these pancakes I take a tablespoon of mature starter and add it to 100 grams of freshly milled Sonora wheat flour and 110 grams of water. This mixture will be the 200 grams of starter you’ll use in the recipe. The next day mix all the ingredients together, fry them up in a pan and get ready to have your pancake paradigm shifted. New frontiers in baking Freshly milled...

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Stern Sprouted Wheat Vegan Cookie or Health Bar Type Things

...tainers very clean. Don’t let the sprouts get too long (i.e. too old) when making this recipe, because you want the wheat berries to be sweet and firm–not all spent out–or turned to grass! When the roots are about as long as the berries themselves, move them to the fridge and use within a couple of days. As far as sprouting equipment goes, you’ve got options. Lots of people use a special sprout kit –which is often a canning jar with mesh lid. Othe...

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Does Sourdough Offer Hope for the Gluten Intolerant?

...uickly. But even before Pasteur, bakers used the yeast remaining from beer making (also a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae) to make doughs rise. Sourdough cultures are not as powerful and predictable, so it’s understandable that commercial bakers would want a more dependable alternative. What is in a sourdough culture? There are many strains of yeast in sourdough cultures, but the main one is Candida milleri. Candida milleri is tolerant of highl...

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