Chicken of the Woods

...calyptus. The very same mushroom pundits suggest thoroughly cooking all Laetiporus. I can report having consumed a lot of the mushroom we foraged with no ill effects. It was, in fact, one of the most delicious mushrooms I’ve ever consumed. But one should not trust the musings of an aging urban homesteading blogger when foraging for mushrooms. Find yourself a local mushroom nerd or run it past your cats. That said, don’t be too fearful either or yo...

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Go Plant a Million Trees

...trees, a bunch of ponds, enriched soil and wild stories.” In our own small urban yard, we’re beginning to see the fruits, literally, of our own small-scale arboreal efforts that we began over ten years ago. This month we had a abundant crop of Mission figs, avocados, olives and pomegranates. And that pathetic vegetable garden I blogged about? My heretical thinking is to give up annual vegetables entirely and use the space to plant two small citrus...

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Saturday Tweets: Screens, Model Villages and Walkable Cities

...nterested in the @ucce_la Master Gardener Program? Come out to @OpenSilo‘s Urban Ag Happy Hour next Tuesday, 10/30, from 6-9 to talk gardening and learn about the program! Join us at the Highland Park Brewery, 1220 North Spring Street, Chinatown. pic.twitter.com/HcFwyn8J2F — Rachel Surls (@RachelSurls) October 22, 2018 In the walkable city, people gather in a piazza, square, or plaza. In the automobile city, it’s called an intersection. (And nobod...

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For the Locals . . .

On that foot sign Alissa Walker, one of my favorite journalists, covers urban design here in Los Angeles. She wrote a great piece on our nieghborhood’s iconic podiatrist sign. Walker agrees with me that we need much more than kitschy signs to mark our neighborhoods. She concludes, We need more reminders of what history predates our presence. We need more streets that are designed to connect us instead of being fast-forwarded through in cars. We n...

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Saturday Tweets: Rainy Day Tweets

Great resource for LA County urban farmers! https://t.co/gFgitxww6i — Rachel Surls (@RachelSurls) December 8, 2018 L.A. Adds Lanes For Cyclists To Recover From Getting Hit By Cars https://t.co/wmEvQHwCJM via @theonion — Colin Bogart (@ColinBogart) December 8, 2018 Metaphor alert. https://t.co/NG3LzEazzM — Peter Flax (@Pflax1) December 5, 2018 If You Can't Bike On It, It Doesn't Belong In the City https://t.co/7QXjPmbIRN via @RebelMetropol...

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