How do you care for cast iron?

...killet on the sidewalk. It was a newer model pan, already seasoned, hardly used. One of my neighbors had apparently decided they didn’t like it, or need it. I snatched that puppy up. Not that I need more cast iron–I have three skillets in varying sizes, and no room for another. But to me, cast iron is solid gold. So I gave it to a friend who didn’t have one, who’d never cooked in cast iron before. Initially she seemed skeptical of the whole “no so...

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What’s in Worm Leachate?

...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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The Africanized Bee Myth

...eral hive that I would consider aggressive. Africanized bees should not be used as an excuse to ban beekeeping in Los Angeles or anywhere else that has Africanized bee populations. The people fanning the Africanized bee hysteria all have agendas (and, I’ll point out, they have never actually worked with Africanized bees–only killed them). Exterminators want your money. Government bureaucrats need an enemy to justify their jobs and pensions (govern...

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Power to the Peoplemover, a Zine About Riding the Bus

...chedule (where Mike and I lived at the time). We would sneak copies on to buses we rode and put them on the racks that held the official schedules. Power to the Peoplemover bus bench on Park Avenue in San Diego. We also collaborated on this PPM bus bench that was part of a UCSD Art Department show. The bus bench contained stories and cartoons related to riding the bus–in effect, it was another issue of PPM. I used to wait at this bus stop myself a...

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Biochar: Miracle or Gimmick?

...a lush vegetable garden. One such substance is biochar, a kind of charcoal used as a soil amendment. The University of Minnesota Extension service is in the midst of a four year study to test the use of biochar in vegetable gardens. Preliminary results (which you can read here) show benefit for some crops such as kale, but a decrease in growth for others such as asparagus. The more we learn about biochar, the more we need to learn. From an overall...

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