133 Trees of Power with Akiva Silver

September 18, 2019

Food, Foraging, Gardening, Podcasts, Trees

...lk to Akiva Silver of Twisted Tree Farm, described in his author bio as a “homestead, nut orchard and nursery located in Spencer, New York where he grows around 20,000 trees a year using practices that go beyond organic.” Akiva’s background is in “foraging, wilderness survival and primitive skills.” He is also the author of Trees of Power: Ten Essential Arboreal Allies (Amazon, library) just published by Chelsea Green. In our conversation we discu...

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Video Sundays: Doberman Outsmarted by Chicken

Mr. Homegrown

November 10, 2013

Picture Sundays

4 Comments

...berman was deathly afraid of chickens, for some reason. Addition from Mrs. Homestead: I wouldn’t characterize our dog as having been deathly afraid of chickens. Rather, I’d say he let the chickens push him around–very much like this video. Once I found him trapped, unable to get to the house because the mean chickens were blocking his path, so I had to rescue him. But often enough they’d all coexist peacefully, with the chickens pecking right unde...

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Erik’s 2012 New Year’s Resolutions in Review

Mr. Homegrown

December 31, 2012

Thoughtstylings

10 Comments

...doesn’t look like an episode of Hoarders. Organize supplies in garage into labeled boxes: still messy. Turn the garage into the ultimate man cave. Increase running distance. Organize bug-out box. Backpack more often. Camp on Santa Rosa island again. Return to biodynamic practices in the garden. Learn how to sharpen knives and tools. Create an iPhone or iPad app. Check email only twice a day. Take more time to cook. Keep the kitchen spotless. Ferme...

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That ain’t a bowl full of larvae, it’s crosne!

Mr. Homegrown

January 21, 2010

Gardening, Self Watering Containers, Vegetable Gardening

22 Comments

...n, justifiably, gives me a hard time for growing strange things around the homestead. This week I just completed the world’s smallest harvest of a root vegetable popularly known as crosne (Stachys affinis). Crosne, also known as Chinese artichoke, chorogi, knotroot and artichoke betony is a member of the mint family that produces a tiny edible tuber. While looking like any other mint plant, the leaves have no smell. The tubers look all too much li...

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Stirred, Not Shaken

Mr. Homegrown

October 23, 2009

Biodynamics, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

27 Comments

...ties us to nature and I look forward to stirring preparations and perhaps making them with a few close friends. In fact, I’m much more excited about making preparations than it buying a package through the mail. Steiner’s set of herbs all grow well here and many of them I have already. But a cow is kinda hard to come by in Los Angeles. While it may be heresy to some, perhaps we’ll have to come up with some modifications to the rituals that make s...

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