An Echo Park Weed Salad

...alt, neglected plantings were, on this warm February day, overflowing with weeds. Edible weeds. We explored these edible edges this afternoon with visiting Chicago artist Nance Klehm, who proved that many of these weeds are not only edible, but tasty, in a lecture and food foraging walk she led that was sponsored by the innovative art space Machine Project. Gathered on the walk were wild mustard, mallow, shepherd’s purse, dandelions, oxalis, prick...

Read…

Our new front yard, part 3: design

...g. They point out that a natural meadow, or even a vacant lot colonized by weeds, will host hundreds of species on one patch of ground. Compare this to the paltry biodiversity of our typical yard, where the number of species can often be counted on one hand. To get this kind of diversity, plants need to be layered densely, so every possible niche is filled. They point out that a design might look closely planted from above, but if you get down on...

Read…

054 Digital Design Tools on the Homestead

Our topic this week is using digital design tools such as Sketchup to conceptualize and build simple projects around your house or apartment. Our guest is designer John Zapf, proprietor of Zapf Architectural Renderings and the genius behind our chicken run. During the podcast we discuss: Why you should draw up plans before you build something Architectural Graphics Standards Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) technology John’s Cat Bed 7 (pictu...

Read…

How to Design and Fabricate Homestead Projects

I’m a horrible designer. My music degree (I have a master’s degree in un-listenable noise from UC San Diego), did not prepare me for the rigorous design and fabrication needs required for our two books and this blog. But, over the years, I’ve bugged our art, design and architecture friends for advice. Luckily, I’m also married to a talented artist (also with a UCSD degree–go Tritons!) who can provide 24 hour emergency art and art history advice....

Read…

Fashion on the Homestead

...to wear will be obvious. Does that mean a chicken coop casual Fridays? And for part two of this post I need to cajole Kelly into blogging about her outré homesteading uniform idea. In the meantime, how do you approach the way you dress?...

Read…