Lady Urine, Water Conservation and Halfway Humanure

April 26, 2013

...mous female reader, telling us how she adds urine to her compost pile. She uses an inexpensive funnel from an auto-supply store. (Auto parts for lady parts?) This funnel has a handle, which is convenient. But I’m not sure how to interpret the look of the thing. It’s sort of disturbingly medical-techno. The advantage of this type of funnel over, say, a kitchen funnel, is that it has a very long nose or nozzle. This, she explained, allows her to nea...

Read…

Of Gnomes and Peak Oil

Mr. Homegrown

April 2, 2013

Thoughtstylings

...at customers buy, the bigger an inventory the store will carry. Paracelsus uses a more poetic metaphor. Instead of ordering shipments of tomatoes, it’s our task to command gnomes, The earth is filled by gnomes even to its center, creatures of diminutive size, guardians of mines, treasures and precious stones. They furnish the Children of the Sages with all the money they desire, and ask little for their services but the distinction of being comman...

Read…

Growing Strawberries in a Self Irrigating Gutter (SIG).

Mr. Homegrown

March 19, 2013

Gardening, Self Watering Containers

15 Comments

I got this idea from Larry Hall, who made a video showing how he uses gutters as self watering containers. In the first part of the video Larry shows how to use a gutter to supply water to a row of pots. In the second part he shows a two gutter strawberry growing system. I decided to build Hall’s self-irrigating gutter (let’s call it a SIG) to grow strawberries. Here’s how I did it: With some scrap wood I made a support system for the two gutters...

Read…

Cooking Bread in a Dutch Oven and Alternative Steaming Techniques

Mr. Homegrown

February 12, 2013

Bread, Food

14 Comments

...expand gracefully during baking. Jim Lahey’s popular no-knead bread recipe uses a dutch oven to emulate steam injection. The Dutch oven method seals in the moisture contained in the dough during the first half hour of baking. It works great and I cook all my bread this way. That being said it can be tricky to plop a loaf of wet, sticky dough into a 475º F Dutch oven without either burning yourself or messing up the dough. I’ll note that even when...

Read…

Nasturtium Powder

Mr. Homegrown

January 29, 2013

Food, Food Preservation, Foraging

20 Comments

...a kind of massive monocrop in our yard. We’re always trying to figure out uses for it. Of course it does well in salads, both the greens and the flowers, and we’ve made capers of the pods. Also, the flowers make a particularly beautiful pesto. But this year, inspired by the culinary experiments of forager Pascal Baudar and his partner Mia Wasilevich (friend them in Facebook if you want a daily dose of foraging greatness) I decided to make a nastu...

Read…