The Genetic Diversity of Watermelons

September 16, 2013

...s been mealy, old and tasteless. Why? Yet again, the folks who sell us our food have decided to grow only a handful of the over 1,200 known varieties of watermelons. The one pictured above is a Navaho watermelon I picked up at the National Heirloom Exposition. Note the vibrant (and tasty) red seeds. Navaho watermelons are sometimes called “winter melons” since they can be stored for a few months. Another watermelon I tasted at the Exposition was a...

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Don’t Wash Raw Poultry

Mr. Homegrown

August 29, 2013

Food

9 Comments

...acteria all over you, your kitchen towels, your countertops, and any other food you have nearby, such as raw foods or salads. This can make people sick, especially young children, pregnant women, older adults and the immunocompromised. Instead, just take raw poultry straight from the package into the cooking pan. The heat from the cooking process will kill any bacteria that are present. Then clean up any splashes and wash your hands with soap and...

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LA’s Parkway Garden Dilemma: Not Fixed Yet

Mr. Homegrown

August 20, 2013

Gardening, Urban Farming

9 Comments

...allow vegetables in the parkway (it’s political suicide to oppose healthy food, after all), we also have to remember that the devil is in the details. I’m willing to bet that the Bureau of Street Services will allow “edible” plants but leave in place their short list of ornamentals as well as their requirement to keep those ornamentals mowed unless you apply for an expensive permit. While I’m all for vegetable in the parkway, I also think that th...

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Saturday Linkages: Yet More Potty Talk

Mr. Homegrown

August 10, 2013

Saturday Linkages

10 Comments

...fblog.com/2013/08/can-diapers-really-control-salmonella-in-lap-chickens/ … Food Issues Cylindrical, quivering, gelatinous, tinned 12-course meal – Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2013/08/04/cylindrical-quivering-gelati.html … What if gluten-phobes are eliminating the wrong thing? The Grain of Truth http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/the-grain-of-truth … Tokyo’s “unmanned stores” – honor-system sheds where farmers to sell their surpl...

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The Mystery of the Zero-Irrigation Squash

Mrs. Homegrown

August 22, 2014

Food, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

20 Comments

...s. The chairs in the picture above are holding over 100 lbs (45+ kilos) of food grown with zero water inputs! To top that, this was one of the healthiest squash plants we’ve ever “grown” or rather allowed to grow. How did that work? And more importantly, how can we make it happen again? I have three thoughts: 1) Perfect timing. Volunteers know exactly when to come up. They’re rarely wrong. We humans schedule planting by when we finally buy our see...

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