How To Make a Sourdough Starter

November 10, 2012

...sts–if there’s a topic for a video you’d like to see just leave a comment. Making a sourdough starter is as simple as mixing flour and water. There’s no need for all the crazy things I’ve heard suggested: adding potatoes, grapes, yogurt and certainly not commercial yeast. And the yeast that makes sourdough happen is on the flour itself in far greater quantities than in the air. After following the simple steps I demonstrate in this video you’ll en...

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Farm in a Box

Mr. Homegrown

June 18, 2009

Aquaculture, Preparedness

11 Comments

...ish with vegetables, naturally balanced aquatic ecosystems are established making it unnecessary to add fertilizer, chemicals or remove nitrogen rich water. As in nature, plants, fish and oxygen loving bacteria create a symbiotic relationship; Fish waste is converted by bacteria to a plant loving nutrient which helps maintain safe levels of ammonia without discarding waste and water. Aqupaonics is an efficient, intensive gardening method with aver...

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Fava Fava Fava

Mr. Homegrown

April 11, 2009

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

8 Comments

...ans (Vicia fava): they taste good, the plant fixes nitrogen into the soil, making it an ideal cover crop, and it’s attractive. If harvested small you can eat fava raw but I prefer to remove the skins and briefly boil the seeds (around five minutes). Once boiled, fava can be used in a variety of dishes from soups to salads. We just toss them with olive oil, white wine vinegar, mint, garlic and feta cheese. Curiously, some folks (mostly male and of...

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Homegrown Evolution Visits the Los Angeles County Fair

Mr. Homegrown

September 30, 2008

Thoughtstylings

2 Comments

...he 4-H clubs and in comes the corporate sponsors. Taking the place of what used to be livestock competitions was a farm animal exhibition called “Fair View Farms” sponsored by McDonald’s. Do I need to comment on the irony of that bit of branding? Fair View Farms featured bleak panoramas, such as this large pen of pigs with, oddly, a bunch of ordinary roosters pecking around. What happened to all the different animal breeds I remember from the San...

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TV Turnoff week April 23 – 30, 2008

Mr. Homegrown

April 25, 2008

Events, Thoughtstylings

...l those evenings quickly filled with activities. We learned fencing, print making, bread baking and countless other skills. We never regretted exiling the TV to the garage. Recently the tube’s come back into our lives with a certain DVD mail service, but we feel like we’ve tamed the beast and can heartily recommend living without TV (definitely without cable and broadcast). It’s become a shock to see cable or broadcast television when we visit rel...

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