Craig Ponsford Bakes Whole Wheat Ciabatta

...t’s because they did not use a scale. Rather than dust flour on work surfaces in order to handle dough you’ll see Ponsford use water instead. He also wets containers that he puts dough into. It’s a lot neater and less flour gets incorporated in the dough. Whole wheat doughs need to be wet. When he does use flour, as in the end of the video he’s using it strategically–in order to keep the loaf from getting to dark in the oven. Baking bread is actua...

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A Simple Beer Can Stove

...http://vimeo.com/64726512 There’s lots of variations on the beer can stove out on the interwebs. This is a nice one in that it can be made with just a pocket knife as opposed to the more complicated Pepsi can stove we blogged about back in 2006. If you have a favorite stove project leave a comment . . . Via the folks at Zapf Architectural Renderings....

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When the Crate’s Better Than the Chair

...a crate to avoid damage…no one has ever ascertained that such a chest embodies an improvised, highly purposeful method of carpentry…there must therefore at long last be someone who chooses the crate rather than the piece of furniture.” You can bet our next book will have some Rietveld inspired DIY designs. In the meantime, for the industrious makers out there, the chair above would be a cinch to back-engineer with pallet wood. Rietveld sold pre-m...

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Welcome to the new Root Simple!

...st about each new one as we finish them, but you can also always find them under the “Video” tab as well as on our YouTube Channel. We’re also working on making the videos “video podcasts”, so you can sign up to download them automatically. On the subject of podcasts, we have long promised podcasts but have decided to focus on video production for now. Keep an eye on the “Upcoming Events” in the right-side menu bar. More info will be found under t...

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Urban Farming in Oakland

...r interesting segments on hunting caribou, cooking pasta, roasting peppers, and more) on chef Evan Kleiman’s show Good Food. You can also check out Carpenter’s blog, meaningfulpursuit.com. We especially like Carpenter’s advice to take small steps towards your urban farming goal rather than trying to do too much all at once....

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