The Sound is Forced, the Notes are Few

...how to “be” under quarantine hot takes and I’ve even spent part of my time making bad watercolors. I even wrote a post about that later effort (part of a longer post about learning old school architectural drawing) but never hit the publish button because it just didn’t feel right. A large part of that bad feeling comes from the realization that while I’m upping my drawing skills in quarantine, underpaid grocery clerks are risking the Covid to kee...

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Busting Open an iPod Touch

...worry and exasperation is real. Apple’s minimalist design aesthetic, while making devices that are visually appealing, gets in the way of their use and function. This iPod is so sleek and slim that it just wants to slide out of your hand and break, which is how I came to this repair, of course. The funny thing is that in order to keep the thing from getting broken you have to buy a third party case. From a design perspective (not a capitalist one,...

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Bread Camp at the Greystone Mansion

...h-baked loaves, whole grain breads, pretzels, parchment crackers, tortilla-making and pizza dough 101. What’s more, many of our recipes will be baked in MOMO a wood-fired mobile bread oven! Don’t worry, home oven baking instructions will be included in your class handouts along with places to source the best flour, grain, equipment and tips. Highlights include: Assembling your own take-home wild yeast starter Grinding fresh flour on the spot from...

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Nance Klemn is in Los Angeles and She’s Teaching Classes!

...ce Klemn’s upcoming classes. Not to be missed! February 19: An Herbal Mead Making Salon. More info here. February 21: Herbal Tinctures with Wild Plants The workshop will be from 1 – 4 p.m. and will be held at Bailey Canyon in Sierra Madre, a lovely, lush, narrow canyon that extends way up into the San Gabriel Mountains. We will take a walk in the lower canyon, visiting and collecting some of the early spring growth (and possibly roots), then gathe...

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Whole Wheat Sourdough Starter Recipe

UPDATE : we have a whole (so to speak) new take on making a starter. See our sourdough starter video for a better way to do this. Back in March we showed how to make a sourdough starter with white flour. This month we converted a white starter over to whole wheat and have baked many successful loaves of bread with it. The reason that we have to do this conversion rather than starting out with whole wheat flour is that whole wheat tends to get mol...

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