What’s Your Personal Food Policy?

November 22, 2012

...eel strongly about is factory raised meat. I just can’t eat it anymore. It used to be that, out of courtesy, I’d eat anything served to me when I’m a guest at another person’s house. I’m not sure I can still do this. As Michael Pollan says, “Were the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do.” And those walls have become transparent to...

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Spent Grain Bread–We Brew Econo

Mr. Homegrown

February 18, 2008

Miscellaneous

4 Comments

...sing the spent grains, the leftover malted barley and crystal malt that we used in the beer recipe, which are strained out before the beer is put away to ferment, as a flavoring for our wild yeast bread (recipe and instructions for making that bread here—we added 4.5 ounces of the spent grains to the dough–and we just threw them in whole without grinding them up as some folks on the internets suggest). The rich, smoky taste and the dark color thes...

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Planting a Mini-Orchard

Mr. Homegrown

March 19, 2008

Gardening, Water and Power, Water Conservation

2 Comments

...completed mulch basin and (hard to see) pomegranate tree to the right. We used straw for mulch We use wood chips for mulch (replaced the straw): These craptacular photos don’t show the details very well, but the mulch basins were dug in such a way to also catch rainwater as it flows down the hill. Both rainwater and greywater work their way into the soil and slowly move down the hill over the course of many months. Since installing the greywater...

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Why You Should Avoid Staking Trees

Mr. Homegrown

November 26, 2012

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Miscellaneous, Trees

6 Comments

...low as possible but no higher than 2/3 the height of the tree. • Materials used to tie the tree to the stake should be flexible and allow for movement all the way down to the ground so that trunk taper develops correctly. • Remove all staking material after roots have established. This can be as early as a few months, but should be no longer than one growing season Now, back to the philosophical: Seneca’s tree analogy is a good example of a system...

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Siphon Your Bathwater

Mr. Homegrown

December 8, 2006

Water Conservation

1 Comment

...take a shower keep the plug in. Yes it’s a bit gross at first, but you get used to it. When you are finished, submerge a length of tubing in the bath water. Hold your finger over one end and pass it to an accomplice waiting outside in the garden. As long as your bathtub is higher than the part of your garden being watered, you will have created a siphon and the water will drain out of the tub. Now if this sounds like a pain in the ass, or if you h...

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