Bike Lane Blocking, An Angry Rant and Something You Can Do

...xy and often politically unpalatable work of installing bus only lanes and making the city more pedestrian and bike friendly, seems to think that the future lies in a techno-optimist future of flying cars and private tubes as peddled by Elon Musk. Instead of improvements we could have right now (all a bus lane takes is a line of paint) we’re waiting for a future that will never come. I’ve held off writing this post for years but I can’t stay silen...

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Homegrown Evolution in the LA Times

...most vegetables here in Los Angeles. In January of 2006 we had a riotous crop of sweet peas, greens, calendula and garlic. This past winter we planted dandelion greens, collards, garlic and more sweet peas. Last summer we had a mini corn field. Lastly, a shot from the summer of 2006 of tomatoes supported by one of the obelisks. With a backyard dominated by two large shade trees, the parkway, with its excellent sun exposure, is the best location fo...

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Tomato Review #2 Banana Legs – it don’t look like a banana and it don’t got legs

...osed storage bin and we’d recommend the largest container you can find for tomatoes or sticking to tomato varieties specifically bred for containers. As soon as the large root system of a tomato plant gets down into the water reservoir at the bottom of an SWC you can get some leaf curl. This did not seem to reduce the output of our plant, but it was somewhat ugly looking. We also made the dumb, lazy mistake of not caging the plant and it sprawled...

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Solar recipe review: Moroccan Chickpea Tagine (Works on the stovetop, too)

...f your pantry right now. If you have fresh cooked beans or your own canned tomatoes it would be all that much better, but this is a good recipe for busy days. The resulting stew is comfort food, spicy and sweet. My one critique is that it is perhaps a little too sweet. It calls for raisins or currants, and I used raisins. The raisins ended up being preternaturally sweet–perhaps due to the slow cooking? They’d be fantastic in a bread pudding, but I...

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Foodcrafting 101

...Guinness Stout, liqueurs, orange flower water, coffee or fresh citrus zest. You’ll have an entire flavor bar™ of spices, sweeteners and herbs to pick from as you create your own signature mustard blend. INSTRUCTORS INCLUDE: Erik Knutzen: Co-author of The Urban Homestead and Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World and a L.A. County Master Food Preserver Joseph Shuldiner: Institute Director, and author: Pure Vegan: 70 Recipes for Beauti...

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