Bees Like Mochi

May 27, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0IPv74oEQE This viral video proves two things: 1. Bees like sugar. 2. Foraging bees aren’t likely to sting. And I love the way this street vendor keeps on working. If this were the US, there’d be a major freak out, the fire and health departments would be called and an exterminator would show up to spray poison. If you keep calm and carry on you get your mochi and the bees get a free lunch. Thanks to Winnetka Farm...

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We Went to Japan

Mr. Homegrown

March 13, 2024

Thoughtstylings

1 Comment

.... things like healthcare for all and decent public transportation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB4_G9l3mdY In Kanazawa we had a guide to show us around and one of the stops was at a gold leaf workshop. Gold leaf is one of the crafts Kanazawa is known for. We stayed at an inn and enjoyed a fancy Japanese breakfast. We visited the reconstructed Kanazawa castle to nerd out on the joinery. During our brief two weeks in Japan we visited three archi...

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Virtuosic Bread Shaping

Mr. Homegrown

August 8, 2014

Bread, Food

5 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLAq1SzdxhQ This video proves that to learn a skill one must repeat it 10,000 times. That was the advice of a chef friend when I asked her how she learned to shape pizzas. The bread being shaped here is called Markook, In Arabic, مرقوق، شراك. It’s a flatbread found throughout the Middle East (an Armenian friend who grew up in Lebanon told us about it). A casual Youtube search will reveal many different Markook shap...

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Neil deGrasse Tyson, GMOs and Risk Management

Mr. Homegrown

August 14, 2014

Thoughtstylings

17 Comments

...y other genetic variation or mutation, transgenic transfers are subject to competition and selection over many generations before becoming a significant part of the population. A new genetic transfer engineered today is not the same as one that has survived this process of selection. With GMOs there is the chance, albeit small, of total systemic failure of the system. The “bottom up” nature of conventional breeding–a much longer time frame and loc...

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2,000 Year Old Bread

Mr. Homegrown

August 15, 2014

Bread, Food

10 Comments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYTuNXq1eBk A Root Simple reader sent me a link to this video from the British Museum showing a chef recreating a 2,000 thousand year old loaf of bread found in one of the ovens of Pompeii. Coincidentally, I’ve been reading Bread A Global History by William Rubel. Rubel puts forth a couple of theories about the history of bread. One, that there’s nothing new about white bread. The elites have been eating white brea...

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