The Food and Flowers Freedom Act

August 10, 2009

Events

...its municipal code to support the burgeoning urban farming movement. It’s time L.A. legalized urban farming in R1 zones as part of its commitment to greening our city. SOLUTION: On July 8th, 2009, Council President Eric Garcetti introduced a motion to explore allowing “the cultivation of flowers, fruits, nuts or vegetables defined as the product of any tree, vine or plant, and that these products be allowed for use on-site or sale off-site.” A gr...

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How to Remove Bees from a Wall

Mr. Homegrown

October 5, 2015

Animals, Bees

4 Comments

...ime to calm down. I use burlap in my smoker because it smolders for a long time. Demolition When I do these jobs I tell the homeowner that I’m going to open up their wall, make a mess and I’m not going to repair the damage. If you hire a bee removal service they should put the wall back. I don’t promise repairs. I also don’t do work from ladders. Once the bees had been smoked, John set about peeling off the paneling from the porch wall. You have t...

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Our Disastrous Summer Garden

Mr. Homegrown

September 15, 2015

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

37 Comments

...po with some ideas: Spend a little less time on Facebook and a little more time in the garden. Come up with better raccoon fortifications. Take out stone fruit that isn’t performing (Kelly has wanted to do this for a long time but I’ve dragged my heels). Take better notes. Improve soil and restart a composting project. Come up with small metal cages to enclose fruit (I have a notion that involves 3D printing–more on this later). How did your garde...

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Our Amazon Problem

Mr. Homegrown

August 24, 2015

Thoughtstylings

52 Comments

...but finding them, negotiating with them and wrangling their ads is a part-time job that neither of us wanted to take on. Regarding alternatives to the Amazon model, there was a period when Amazon dumped all associates in California after the state went after them for not paying sales taxes. During this time, I tried using Portland-based bookstore Powell’s associate program, but it proved unpopular with our readers. There were maybe one or two ord...

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What to do with not-so-good tomatoes

Mrs. Homegrown

April 21, 2015

Food, Recipes, Tomatoes

13 Comments

...per. Put them in a low oven–around 300F- 325F. They’ll need to cook a long time, maybe two hours or so. The exact cooking time depends on the size and moisture content of the tomatoes. So this is something to do when you’ve got other things going on in the kitchen–like maybe a pot of beans simmering on the stove–so you will be around and remember to look in on them. What you are trying to do is remove some of the liquid and concentrate the flavors...

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