Maggots!

July 29, 2006

...cated too far from the kitchen, so in our laziness stinky piles of rotting fruits and vegetables often gather on the kitchen counter. The presence of maggots in our pile indicates that we have an overabundance of kitchen scraps and a pile that is not hot enough. Turning the pile – much easier to do in the three pile system, increases the temperature and kills off the larvae. Another option is to put the kitchen scraps in a worm composter and use t...

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Is the Urban Homesteading Trend Over?

Mr. Homegrown

December 14, 2015

Thoughtstylings

26 Comments

...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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Urban Farming in Oakland

Mr. Homegrown

September 14, 2008

Urban Farming

Public radio station KCRW has an excellent interview with urban farmer and writer Novella Carpenter. Carpenter has pigs, goats, ducks, chickens and more all on a small lot in Oakland, California. You can listen to the radio interview here (along with some other interesting segments on hunting caribou, cooking pasta, roasting peppers, and more) on chef Evan Kleiman’s show Good Food. You can also check out Carpenter’s blog, meaningfulpursuit.com. W...

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