A Prickly Harvest

...next spring the good folks at Process Media will be releasing our book The Urban Homesteader. While we’ve been negligent in some of the small scale agricultural duties we profile in the book, at least we have our prickly pear cactus to keep us in fruit this summer. And due to the unusual quantity of fruit our prickly pear has gifted us with we’re experimenting with making jelly to deal with the abundance. We’ll share the recipe and other prickly s...

Read…

There Will Be Kraut–Lecture on Fermentation at the Historic Greystone Mansion

...cabinets to pricy “pro-biotic” supplements. Erik Knutzen, co-author of The Urban Homestead and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World, will give an overview of the world’s fermented foods and discuss how you can make your own. He’ll cover everything from sauerkraut to pickles to sourdough bread to the great kombucha controversy to the health benefits of fermented foods. He may even discuss arctic explorer Knud Rasmussen’s untimely de...

Read…

Moringa!

...ating inflammation. The seed pods can be pressed to produce a high quality cooking oil. The leaves are also edible and the plant is drought tolerant and will grow in poor soil. Native to the southern foothills of the Himalayas, the Moringa tree is cultivated in many parts of Asia as well as Mexico and Africa. Here’s what Wikipedia says: The immature green pods, called “drumsticks” are probably the most valued and widely used part of the tree. They...

Read…

Saturday Linkages: Incas, Big Rocks and Cool Cucumbers

...Trucks… http://feedly.com/e/EIHJkA8Y Odd ideas Betrayers’ Banquet: gourmet dining vs the Prisoner’s Dilemma – Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2013/11/21/betrayers-banquet-gourmet-d.html … Complete meal cooking with a hotel coffee-maker: http://boingboing.net/2013/11/18/complete-meal-cooking-with-a-h.html … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter: Follow @rootsimple...

Read…

Pasture Standards for Laying Hens

...n pasture. That said, the non-profit that adjudicates the Certified Humane label has pasture standards. Here’s an excerpt from those standards relating to exterior access for laying hens on pasture: R 1: Pasture area a. Must consist mainly of living vegetation. Coarse grit must be available to aid digestion of vegetation. b. The pasture must be designed and actively managed to: 1. Encourage birds outside, away from the popholes, and to use the are...

Read…