Self-Righteousness Fail: We Bought a Car

November 11, 2013

...nation of our innate cheapness, our environmental guilt, and our hatred of used car lots would conspire to prevent any forward momentum. In that light, our friend’s offer was like a gift from the sky. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy about a car. Erik was a teeny bit mopey there for a while after we got it–sore from falling off his high horse, I suspect–whereas I was like a thrilled contestant on The Price is Right, jumping around a...

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Sunday Spam: Automatic Chicken Cage

Mr. Homegrown

December 2, 2012

Animals, Chickens, Picture Sundays, Thoughtstylings

5 Comments

...These products gained good prestige among customers and they are not only used in great-scaled biological raising farms in domestic provinces, but also exported to Middle Asia, South and East regions, Australia, South America, Middle East areas, Africa mainland and so on in great lot. We are willing to wholehearted with all the friends and customers to establish good relations of cooperation, realize a win-win benefits, and create a magnificent p...

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What’s in Worm Leachate?

Mr. Homegrown

May 6, 2013

Composting, Gardening, Vermiculture

4 Comments

...uff! Gillman concludes, this could be a great liquid fertilizer if it were used properly. I’d recommend diluting it somewhere between 1:1 and 1:5 worm juice : water before applying it, and I’d only apply it once every week or two. If you want to use it, try it on something that you’re not too concerned about first, just to make sure that it doesn’t do anything too terrible (It shouldn’t, but I believe in caution). To see a full analysis, read his...

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How to Bake a Traditional German Rye Bread

Mr. Homegrown

December 5, 2012

Bread, Fermentation, Food, How-to, Recipes

33 Comments

...s to Dana Morgan for testing and input! In the interest of health, I’ve focused my bread baking obsession of late on 100% or near 100% whole rye sourdough loaves. I’ve used as my guide a nicely illustrated book How to Make Bread by Emmanuel Hadjiandreou. His specialty is just the sort of rustic German style breads I’ve always wanted to learn to bake. What I love in particular about his caraway rye sourdough loaf (pictured above) is the crust. Unli...

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Hoshigaki Success!

Mr. Homegrown

December 19, 2012

Food, Food Preservation, How-to

34 Comments

I’d estimate that one out of ten new homesteading projects succeeds. Which is why I’m especially happy that the long process of drying persimmons the Japanese way (hoshigaki) has been a big success. The white powder that looks like mold is sugar in the fruit that has risen to the surface. The result is, incidentally, very different from drying persimmons in a dehydrator (which also tastes good but has a much firmer texture–hoshigaki has the textu...

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