Is the Urban Homesteading Trend Over?

December 14, 2015

...ackyard chickens in the spring and the search trend also shows a decline. “Vegetable gardening” searches Searches for “vegetable gardening” seem to have declined sharply, perhaps because of all the homestead projects, gardening is the most difficult. “Gluten free” searches And another digression–it looks like we may have reached peak “gluten free.” I’ve often joked that when the economy picked up Kelly and I would have to write a book called How t...

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Seed, nut and fruit energy bars

Mrs. Homegrown

September 8, 2014

Food, Foraging, Recipes

8 Comments

...l they soften up. I’ve heard this works, but haven’t done it myself. Other fruits to consider would include anything sticky, like raisins, dried cherries, dried figs and dried plums. Dried apples, for instance, are not sticky, so can’t help bind the mix. You could use chopped dried apples, but count them more like a dry ingredient. 2) For extra flavor, you can add all sorts of things, like a pinch of sea salt, spices, vanilla extract, coconut flak...

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Best Practices for Gardening in Contaminated Soil

Mr. Homegrown

February 8, 2016

Gardening, Lead

3 Comments

...est practices for dealing with contaminated soils. You should always: Wash fruits and vegetables from your garden. Also wash your hands and don’t wear shoes in the house. Compost, compost, compost! Compost dilutes the overall amount of lead in soil and encourages healthy plant growth which also dilutes the (usually small) amount of lead a plant will uptake. Apply compost annually since it breaks down over time. Plant away from painted surfaces of...

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Is Urban Homesteading Over With?

Mr. Homegrown

March 22, 2013

Animals, Bread, Chickens, Food, Gardening, Thoughtstylings, Transportation

23 Comments

...t Topic anytime soon. So I thought I’d plug a few search terms relating to urban homesteading into Google Trends to see what is going on. This is, of course, highly unscientific–Google Trends may just reflect media generated interest, not what people are actually doing. Here’s what I found: Backyard Chickens Many urban homesteading activities are seasonal–in spring people start searching for information on chickens and vegetable gardens, so you’ll...

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016 The Urban Bestiary with Lyanda Lynn Haupt

Mr. Homegrown

September 10, 2014

Animals, Chickens, Gardening, Pests, Podcasts

3 Comments

...ot Simple Podcast we interview naturalist Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of The Urban Bestiary, Crow Planet, Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent and Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds. During the podcast Lyanda covers: The effect of the drought on urban wildlife Invasive species How to get along with wildlife such as skunks, possums, raccoons and coytes The problem with relocating animals (except rats!) Moles and gophers Seeing raccoons during the day...

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