In Praise of the Hedgerow

November 10, 2014

...d, provide habitat and don’t need a lot of maintenance. Combine these two resources with a third, Piet Oudolf’s magnificent ideas about plant design in his book Planting: A New Persepctive and I think we might just be able to save the world....

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024 Water, Wilding our Gardens and Sewing

Mr. Homegrown

November 12, 2014

Domesticus, Gardening, Podcasts, Water and Power

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...ifornia’s Central Valley The UC Davis Arboretum Allstar list Piet Oudolf’s book Planting: A New Persepctive In the sewing portion of the podcast, Kelly talks about: Sew L.A. Second Skin: Choosing and Caring for Textiles and Clothing If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is...

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How to Make Great Pizza in a Home Oven

Mr. Homegrown

December 4, 2014

Food

5 Comments

...in those plans. I remembered that Josey Baker had some instructions in his book on how to make pizza in a home oven, so I decided to give it a try. I’m happy to report that it works so well that I’m beginning to doubt why I should bother to spend three hours tending a fire to prep the outdoor oven. Baker attributes this home oven technique to San Francisco street pizza maverick The PizzaHacker. It’s simple. Here’s what you do. Heat an oven safe sk...

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Picture Sundays: Joaquin Oro Wheat Loaf

Mr. Homegrown

December 28, 2014

Picture Sundays

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...This is a 100% whole wheat loaf I baked this week using locally grown Joaquin Oro wheat, a high protein, hard red spring variety. It was fermented with a sourdough starter (100% hydration for the bread geeks out there). And thank you to Michael Pollan for inventing the somewhat crass #crumbshot hashtag. Look for more #crumbshots and a whole wheat bread baking e-book on Root Simple in the coming year....

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Is it safe to use cinder blocks or red bricks in stoves and ovens?

Mr. Homegrown

January 6, 2015

Appropriate Technology, Rocket Stove, Water and Power

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Source: Capturing Heat. As how-to book and blog authors we face many questions that begin, “Is it safe to . . . ?” And, for some reason, any post of ours involving rocket stoves sets off a firestorm of incoming Google hits. An old blog post on a “Redneck Rocket Stove” made out of cinder blocks prompted many to suggest that the cinder blocks would explode due to heat. Leon, of the blog Survival Common Sense, does a good job of refuting this notion...

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