Diyas: oil lamps from India

...’s post today–Wednesday. Please don’t miss our regular scheduled Wednesday podcast, below.] As readers of this blog and our books know, I’m a big fan of little vegetable oil lamps–the type that can be easily improvised with any shallow vessel, from sea shells to Altoid tins. If the tabletop aesthetic of oyster shells and recyclables doesn’t quite appeal to you, may I interest you in diyas? Diyas are little clay lamps used in India. They usually bu...

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Koreatown Market Tour with Hae Jung Cho

...od Preserver Hae Jung Cho, who was a guest on episode 6 of the Root Simple Podcast, is leading a Koreatown Market Tour on Saturday August 23, from 10 to 1: Ever wonder which products at the Korean market are organic or what kind of pepper flakes to buy for making kimchi? Join me for a guided tour of supermarkets and specialty food shops in Koreatown. The tour is geared toward people who want to cook and eat Korean food at home, especially those wh...

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A Question About Freezing and Canning Home Grown Vegetables

...s sort of preservation. Frozen berries, for example, are fantastic for jam making. If I need to make some peach jam out of season, I head straight to the frozen fruit section of the grocery store. Your caller was asking about vegetables, of course, and there would be some nuances. First, they will want to be sure to freeze the vegetables properly, such as blanching certain veggies to set color and stop enzymatic reactions. Following the guidelines...

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Bottom-up Urbanism

...tal property. Johnny describes himself as a “rodent who scurries about finding the opportunities other don’t recognize.” A lot of the things he talks about in the video are things we’ve done in our own very small Los Angeles house, such as adding sheds and making the garage space usable, all strategies for getting by on the expensive West Coast. The video even includes a bonus visit to a Murphy bed manufacturer. You can follow Johnny on his blog G...

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Federico Tobon’s Kinetic Sculptures

...#MakeNovember, Federico Tobon (our guest on episode 108 of the Root Simple podcast) has challenged himself to make one kinetic sculpture every day and post the results in social media. For inspiration he’s using an 1868 book with the delightful title, Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements: all those which are most important in dynamics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, pneumatics, steam engines, mill and other gearing, presses, horology, and miscel...

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