017 Heirloom Expo Recap

September 17, 2014

Animals, Bees, Fruit Trees, Gardening, Podcasts, rainwater harvesting, Vegetable Gardening, Water and Power

On the seventeenth episode of the Root Simple Podcast Kelly and Erik discuss Erik’s recent trip to the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, California. Some of the things and people we mention during the podcast:

California Rare Fruit Growers
Rachel Kaplan, author of Urban Homesteading
Trathen Heckman of Daily Acts
Apiculturalist Michael Thiele
“Fruit Freak” John Valenzuela
Franchi seed seller The Heirloom Seed Store
Permaculturalist Toby Hemenway

If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this podcast is here.

Kimchi Class this Saturday!

Mr. Homegrown

September 16, 2014

Events, Food, Food Preservation

Chef Hae Jung Cho, our guest on episode 006 of the Root Simple Podcast is holding another Kimchi class on Saturday September 20th from 10 a.m to 1 p.m. in Koreatown:

The 3-hour class is a hands-on experience where you make two kinds of fermented kimchi – napa cabbage (poggi) and radish (kkakdugi) – and one quick pickle. We then share a light meal of rice, kimchi, soup and other side dishes. You leave the class with three containers of kimchi and pickles that you have made, printed recipes and the know-how to replicate the kimchi at home. Cost: $75

To sign up head over to Hae Jung’s Facebook page.

Frida Paints Luther

Mr. Homegrown

September 16, 2014

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Thoughtstylings

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Sometimes an artist’s works are reproduced so much that familiarity obscures meaning. Da Vinchi and Andy Warhol have fallen victim to this. I’ve seen Frida Kahlo’s portrait in Mexican restaurants so often I’ve come to associate her work with combo platters and Margueritas.

A slide in John Valenzuela’s Heirloom Expo lecture of Kahlo’s portrait of horticulturalist Luther Burbank reminded me of how great an artist Kahlo was. That Kahlo painted Burbank also says something about people’s priorities in the 1930s.

Kahlo liked to blur the boundaries between human consciousness, the vegetable and the animal. In her portrait of Burbank she touches on themes of life, death and transformation. You could write a book about what’s going on in this painting.

Burbank’s work lives on inour backyards and orchards in the form of the fruit varieties he developed. I’ll view his Santa Rosa plum in our front yard differently after encountering Kahlo’s virtuosic painting.

A Report from the 2014 Heirloom Expo in Santa Rosa

Mr. Homegrown

September 15, 2014

Gardening

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If you like this blog you’d like the annual Heirloom Expo, which takes place in Santa Rosa in Northern California in September. I just got back from attending this year’s event and had a great time, as usual. I’ve attended every year since its inception in 2010.

The Expo features mind boggling displays of what can only be called vegetable porn. Hint: if you hang around after the conclusion on Thursday evening you can score the display items. For two years in a row we’ve gone home with a rental car stuffed with heirloom watermelon and squash.

But the real draw for me are the seminars and panel discussions. Above, some of the leading figures in the Northern California permaculture scene: Toby Hemenway, Penny Livingston, Erik Ohlsen, Grover Stock and John Valenzuela.

There’s also a huge vendor hall. I have to keep a tight grip on my wallet.

Santa Rosa was the home of horticulturalist Luther Burbank and the local chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers is particularly fervent and knowledgeable. I used the opportunity to chat up a CRFG operative and get all my quince and pineapple guava questions answered.

You’ll be hearing a number of Expo speakers on our podcast and I’ll do some blog posts inspired by what I learned. If you didn’t make it this year, I hope to meet some of you at next year’s event. I always stay at the nearby Spring Lake campground. Perhaps we can all camp together next year.

Picture Sundays: Root Simple Compound Caught On Google Street View

Mr. Homegrown

September 14, 2014

Picture Sundays

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It appears that Google Street View, back in April, caught me in the act of contemplating cleaning the garage. You can tell from my posture that I’m in the intellectual rather than the physical stage of garage sorting. In the front yard the fruit trees have leafed out, clarkia is blooming in the sparse parkway, the nopal is loaded with immature fruit and the roses have yet to climb the entrance arbor.

If only I had a Root Simple banner and and an alpaca to take to lunch.