A Lecture on the Connection Between Cats and Grain

May 24, 2016

If not for cats would we have bread? On Saturday June 4th at 2 p.m. at the Los Angeles Bread Festival at Grand Central Market I’m going to deliver a talk on the connection between cats and grain. The connection is a basic one: store grain and you get vermin. Then you need cats. But, in the course of preparing for this lecture, I discovered that the commonly held narrative of cat domestication is an unsubstantiated fiction. That narrative goes som...

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Los Angeles Bread Festival This Weekend!

Mr. Homegrown

June 3, 2016

Bread, Events, Food

1 Comment

This Saturday at Grand Central Market, I’ll be doing a free demo on how to starter a sourdough starter as well as a lecture on cats and grain! I’ll also be at the Los Angeles Bread Baker’s booth all weekend. Here’s the 411. Throughout the weekend, Grand Central Market vendors will provide an eclectic offering of special, one-time only bread menu offerings–special, hearth-baked loaves from Clark Street Bread, cornbread from Horse Thief BBQ, flatbr...

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Erik to Speak at South Pasadena Beautiful on June 3rd

Mr. Homegrown

May 26, 2017

Events

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I’ll be delivering a talk/rant at the on Saturday June 3rd in the South Pasadena Library Community room at 4:00 pm (refreshments at 3:30). In addition to the usual subjects of chickens, bees, vegetables and the home arts I’ll touch on some hot button issues I find equally important: Tree care in a drought Creating walkable/bikeable communities Gardening with native plants Throwing neighborhood parties Why hay hooks are the new hipster fashion acc...

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The Rye Revolution

Mr. Homegrown

October 6, 2017

Bread, Events, Food

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...Bakers is hosting a class with the rye expert, Stanley Ginsberg tomorrow, Saturday the 7th of October. There’s still space in the class if you’re interested. Head here to sign up. If you live elsewhere or can’t make it, Ginsberg has penned what I believe to be the definitive book on rye baking, The Rye Baker: Classic Breads from Europe and America. In the book Ginsberg covers every imaginable rye recipe from around the world, from loaves to crack...

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Recipes From the Rye Baker

Mr. Homegrown

October 9, 2017

Bread, Food

2 Comments

...housands of miles away. Short of putting Stanley on tour, the next best thing is to take a look at his detailed rye blog which I neglected to mention in my last post. There are enough recipes there to keep you busy for months. The bread recipe we made on Saturday was the Berlin rye pictured above. You can find that recipe here. I’ve had to take a break from baking, but when I get back to it I’m going to specialize in rye exclusively. Why? You just...

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