Every Day Carry Revisited

...seful. 2. Field Sketchbook I’ve tried the sketchbook thing before but this time around I’ve actually made a habit of it after a key insight I had about how to keep one going. Here’s that insight: notebooks and sketchbooks need to be private and are not for public consumption. In my case this is not because there’s anything in it that I wouldn’t want to share but that doing so would make my notes and sketches performative rather than useful. There...

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Pasture Standards for Laying Hens

...n pasture. That said, the non-profit that adjudicates the Certified Humane label has pasture standards. Here’s an excerpt from those standards relating to exterior access for laying hens on pasture: R 1: Pasture area a. Must consist mainly of living vegetation. Coarse grit must be available to aid digestion of vegetation. b. The pasture must be designed and actively managed to: 1. Encourage birds outside, away from the popholes, and to use the are...

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How to save tomato seed

...are bone dry, transfer to envelopes or glass jars for storage. Be sure to label! *I just lost a batch to germination. I blame the heat. It didn’t seem like they’d be fermenting that long, but after I drained my seeds I saw the tiny little white nubbins poking out of the seeds. Now I have to begin again. This is one reason why you should not wait ’til your last tomato to think about saving seeds. Also, this is a reminder to keep a close eye on you...

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Stickers for the Organic Gardener

...Boing a clever re-purposing: “Evil Mad Scientist Labs wants you to proudly label your organic garden with these handsome “Now Slower and with More Bugs!” stickers, originally produced to adorn software products. The influence of the Slow Food movement is increasing, and gardening is getting ever more popular. Even the tech bloggers are posting about local pollinators and getting beehives. In this environment, it is fitting that a new use has been...

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Quince: the “Poster Child of Slowness”

...a few weeks ago to say that he was working on a quince article for the LA Times, “There’s a new taste for quince“. In the article Karp discusses varieties that can be eaten raw as well as how our Southern California climate is an ideal place to grow quince. Karp asked how my tree is doing and I had to say that it’s not doing all that well. In a fit of mad, rare fruit tree planting fever, I put it in a crappy location, in bad soil too close to a l...

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