Growing Food in a Hotter, Drier Land

...into the present, humans have been cleverly managing their water, soil and plants to gather harvests from some of the most inhospitable places on the planet. We have much to learn from them. Over and over he points out that we’re not meant to replicate the exact methods of these desert farmers, but learn from them and adapt them to our own particular situation and climate. To help us do this, he breaks down the methodologies into conceptual chunks...

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Saturday Linkages: Gourds, Cats and Cider Bread

...ienceshot-chameleon-vine-discovered-chile … A warning about “bee-friendly” plants http://www.honeybeesuite.com/a-warning-about-bee-friendly-plants/ … L.A.’s First Public Transit Used Actual Horse Power http://southland.gizmodo.com/l-a-s-first-public-transit-used-actual-horse-power-1566350171/+nathanmasters … Neuroscience of junk-food cravings, researched in a Chili’s dumpster – Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2009/04/27/neuroscience-of-junk.html...

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News From Nowhere

...ecause they are needed: men make for their neighbours’ use as if they were making for themselves, not for a vague market of which they know nothing, and over which they have no control: as there is no buying and selling, it would be mere insanity to make goods on the chance of their being wanted; for there is no longer any one who can be compelled to buy them. So that whatever is made is good, and thoroughly fit for its purpose. Nothing can be mad...

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I Made an Enzo Mari Table and So Can You

...terial than the examples in this book. I experienced my own contradictions making this table. Using reclaimed lumber meant the base was free but the decking material used for the top (it’s an outdoor table) was expensive. And my little modernist experiments in furniture–this table and my Gerrit Rietveld chairs–live outside, while a Medievalist arts and crafts fantasy plays out in the furniture I’ve build for the inside of the house. Such is the fa...

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Baking Bread with Specialty Malts

...king and just use malted grains directly in your bread. The grains used in making beer are, mostly, barley that has been malted (sprouted) and then either caramelized or roasted. To make beer you soak the grains in warm water to extract the sugars that form in the malting process. Fermenting that sugary malt water creates alcohol. Most of the grain used to make beer is two or six-row malt. You add so-called “specialty” grains (that have been caram...

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