The Homegrown Revolution Broadleaf Plantain Pizza

February 23, 2007

...l-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast Mix water and yeast and proof for 7 minutes. Mix flour and salt in a heavy-duty stand mixer. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and mix on low for 30 minutes. Shape dough into a round and let proof in a covered and oiled bowl for 4 hours in a warm place (we use the top of the stove which has a pilot light). Divide into two pieces and proof for another 4 hours. Preheat your oven...

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Growing Watermelons

Mr. Homegrown

September 4, 2008

Gardening

10 Comments

...adds a little more to the shade and water retention effort. 4. Irrigating watermelons. Watermelons have large root systems and if you use drip irrigation make sure that the emitters extend in a ring around the roots. Putting an emitter at the stem of the plant, as we did, does not adequately water the roots. We’ll get into the topic of drip irrigation in detail later this year. 5. It ain’t easy picking the world’s largest watermelon. See for your...

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Dookie in the Tomatoes

Mr. Homegrown

June 11, 2008

Gardening, Thoughtstylings, Vegetable Gardening

14 Comments

...rrives at a centralized packing facility where it is loaded into a massive water bath by underpaid workers to mingle with thousands of other tomatoes. The water bath acts as our second salmonella Petri dish along the tomato’s path to our table. Alternately, a blade used to automatically slice tomatoes gets infected with salmonella, thereby spreading the bug to all the other pre-sliced tomatoes headed to the food assemblers (a more accurate term th...

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Pee on your Compost

Mr. Homegrown

January 24, 2007

Composting

1 Comment

...in your pee can build up in the soil. Dilution should be at least 10 parts water to one part urine. Peeing directly on plants can burn them as anyone who owns a dog already knows about. Urine is easiest to apply to non-food crops, though it’s perfectly safe to use on fruit trees and bushes. Applying it to root crops is more controversial, and frankly seems like a practice best left to hippies, so if you try this at least cease application at a res...

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A Recipe for Injera

Mr. Homegrown

June 15, 2007

Bread, Fermentation, Food

3 Comments

...t on an easy way to keep and maintain a sourdough starter) 5 cups lukewarm water 2 cups whole-wheat flour 2 cups teff flour (an Ethiopian grain available from Bob’s Red Mill at Whole Foods) 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda or baking powder (optional) Vegetable oil 1. Mix the sourdough starter, flours and water. The result should resemble a pancake batter. 2. Ferment in a warm place for 24 hours. 3. Just before you cook add the salt. 4. Katz...

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