What laundry detergent should I use for greywater applications?

..., so some people will opt to soak the bag in a cup of hot water first–like making tea–and then dump the water and the bag into the wash. Other people stew the nuts in water and make soap nut tea, which can then be used like liquid soap, for both hand washing and laundry. There’s lots of info online about soap nuts if you poke around a bit. I just remembered that I posted here back in 2010, asking for feedback on the nuts, and got lots of it. So yo...

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Cooking Bread in a Dutch Oven and Alternative Steaming Techniques

Commercial bread ovens have a steam injection system. The steam keeps the surface of the dough supple so that dough can expand gracefully during baking. Jim Lahey’s popular no-knead bread recipe uses a dutch oven to emulate steam injection. The Dutch oven method seals in the moisture contained in the dough during the first half hour of baking. It works great and I cook all my bread this way. That being said it can be tricky to plop a loaf of wet,...

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Saturday Tweets: Cooking in Clay, Cuteness and Pickles

Why food tastes better when cooked in clay: https://t.co/8BqNmrbFZZ — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 22, 2017 How parking lots are ruining Los Angeles https://t.co/NzhmC0pxYK via @CurbedLA — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 22, 2017 Double Rustic Barn Doors (From Framing Lumber) https://t.co/Sof6tD8uvH — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 20, 2017 Small Batch Bread and Butter Pickles https://t.co/JekNG6H15g — Root Simple (@rootsimple) July 22, 2017 Wha...

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Cooking with Poo

Homegrown Revolution Toronto correspondent Nicholas Sammond wrote us this morning asking if it would be possible to generate enough methane in his new abode via a composting toilet to cook with. It’s a great question since once abundant natural gas is getting scarce and expensive here in North America, and the desperation has gotten to the point that large and dangerous liquefied natural gas terminals are in the proposal stage across the continen...

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Turnip Greens via The Silver Spoon

...greens among many other edibles. While we appreciate the crusty old Joy of Cooking’s advice on cooking raccoon, The Silver Spoon is so good that we feel like throwing out all the other cookbooks we have. But back to the greens. Turnip greens have massive quantities of vitamins A, C and K and a pleasant mild taste. The leaves have some barbs on them which disappear during cooking. In past years we have grown an Italian variety called Rapa da Foglia...

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