Search Results for: label/book%20reviews/2010/06/the-urban-homestead/2011/04/making-it

1100 results

Food Preservation Disasters

Avatar photo
Food, Food Preservation, Mistakes
16 Comments
...me preservation projects. Some of the recipes I tried were from unfamiliar books and dubious websites. Some sources I’ve come to trust: The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s website. Kevin West’s book Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling, and Preserving . Between those two sources I’ve got just about all the recipes I need. One Ring to rule them all When you’re done processing jars and they’ve cooled down, remove...

Read…

Analysis Paralysis

Avatar photo
Design, Thoughtstylings
17 Comments
...ternet made it worse by providing way too many possibilities. A quote in a book finally broke my analysis paralysis spell. The gist of that quote was that we are all called by a higher power to build. I realized that I needed to set a deadline, get off my ass and construct the raised beds that I had spend endless hours researching, planning and discussing. I told Mrs. Homegrown that this Saturday I was buying lumber and cutting wood. I quickly dre...

Read…

Defining a Garden’s Purpose

Avatar photo
Garden Design, Gardening
13 Comments
...imagine living in the building and wandering down to the garden to read a book, do some work on a laptop, throw a party or simply to soak in the overwhelming peacefulness of this lush space. Sean Stout looking down on the garden from the balcony of his apartment. It’s also clear that the Organic Mechanics created this garden on a budget. The materials were scavenged, but carefully chosen (I’m often too indiscriminate with the objects I place in t...

Read…

Why You Should Avoid Staking Trees

Avatar photo
Fruit Trees, Gardening, Miscellaneous, Trees
6 Comments
...efits from chaos and shock. This idea is the subject of Nassim Taleb’s new book on what he calls “anti-fragility“. By contrast, natural or organic systems are antifragile: They need some dose of disorder in order to develop. Deprive your bones of stress and they become brittle. This denial of the antifragility of living or complex systems is the costliest mistake that we have made in modern times. Stifling natural fluctuations masks real problems,...

Read…