Make an Aluminum Can Lamp

December 26, 2006

...cans. According to the author of that article, Del Gideon, the Vietnamese used to make these lamps back during the war. You can also use these lamps to heat up water. Making one is easy: 1. Remove the top off a can. We like to do this by scoring the inner ring of the top with a razor blade and then using a pair of pliers to bust it out. The fastidious and safety conscious may want to file down the sharp edge. 2. Cut a 2 1/2 inch square window out...

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Creating a Moon Garden

Mr. Homegrown

July 17, 2014

Design, Gardening

2 Comments

...irector at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. Bornstein’s talk used the Natural History Museum’s garden to demonstrate the many reasons why we should consider how our gardens look at night. Why create a moon garden? For many people, nighttime is the only chance to see the garden during a busy work week. And sometimes it’s more pleasant to avoid the heat of the day and enjoy a garden after the blazing sun goes down. But perhaps most imp...

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012 Damnation, Good Books and Listener Questions

Mr. Homegrown

August 13, 2014

Podcasts

6 Comments

...’s massive Three Gorges dam. I didn’t mention it during the podcast, but I used to work at the Center for Land Use Interpretation. The CLUI did a show on towns submerged by dam building projects called Immersed Remains. What we are Reading Kelly is reading The Nature Principle: Human Restoration and the End of Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Erik is reading Psychomagic by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Listener Questions We answer Gloria’s questio...

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Seed, nut and fruit energy bars

Mrs. Homegrown

September 8, 2014

Food, Foraging, Recipes

8 Comments

...edge seed (gathered while foraging) and Erik’s favorite part–cacao nibs. I used these ingredient because they were in my cupboard. It turned out good. The thing is, these always turn out good. Some fussy details: 1) It’s all about the dates! The dates should be Medjool dates, the soft, sticky kind, for both their sweetness and their binding properties. If you want to use another dried fruit in the mix, I’d recommend you still use dates for at leas...

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Diyas: oil lamps from India

Mrs. Homegrown

November 12, 2014

Domesticus

3 Comments

...te appeal to you, may I interest you in diyas? Diyas are little clay lamps used in India. They usually burn ghee, but any vegetable oil works well in them, too. I just found them being sold at our local Indian supermarket. There, the fancy molded ones, like the one pictured above (one of many shapes) were 3 for $1.00. The simplest ones, which are basically teardrop shaped pinch pots, go for 5 for a dollar. That’s a lot of fun for a dollar, and a g...

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