Citified Parched Corn

...Then I put the nibblets in our fancy electric dehydrator. I dried a bag of baby green peas while I was at it, because I thought they might parch nicely, too. Fresh frozen corn is, obviously, very different than dried-on-the-cob corn. The fresh kernels are sliced off the cob, so they are open ended. They are missing the white part, the germ. Whole dried corn kernels will look more like popcorn kernels. And as they are whole, they act a little like...

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Saturday Tweets: Passover/Holy Saturday Edition

...n) https://t.co/ICOjnBmWNw — Root Simple (@rootsimple) March 27, 2018 Good urbanism. Kamakura, Japan. Continually inhabited since 8000 B.C. pic.twitter.com/bokyhj8wY3 — Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) March 31, 2018 The best climbers for shade | Alys Fowler https://t.co/mSGg4x4zCD pic.twitter.com/37z1Qx4zDW — Guardian gardening (@guardiangardens) March 31, 2018 Virginia opossums are the only marsupials native to North America. Just like the offspring...

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Cactus Thief Strikes Again

...dered another extreme strategy: shower the cactus thief with free flats of baby cacti. The latter strategy could even lead to the first ever Root Simple Upworthy style clickbait headline, “Thief Steals Cactus and the Thorny Response Will Have You in Tears.” Stoic philosopher Epictetus set me straight on what I should really do. He says, “Stop admiring your clothes and you are not angry at the man who steals them . . . our losses and our pains have...

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Book Review: My Side of the Mountain

...her a letter to say thank-you. * * * An excerpt. Sam’s first day with his baby hawk, Frightful: The food put the bird to sleep I watched her eyelids close from the bottom up, and her head quiver. The fuzzy body rocked, the tail spread to steady it, and the little duck hawk almost sighed as she sank into the leaves, sleep. I had lots of time. I was going to wait for the man to leave. So I stared at my bird, the beautiful details of the new feather...

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Return of the Caftan?

...er for Portlandia parody. Reaction to the caftan post fell into two camps. Baby Boomers chastised my Generation X cynicism and noted that caftans are comfortable and practical. Others thought the idea is as ridiculous as, well, hosting a shoe making workshop and grinding your own flour. In Facebook, someone posted the picture above of Yves Saint Laurent rocking a caftan and “mandals”. The caftan is from the Middle East and is still part of the the...

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