Our new front yard, part 3: design

...w already, and got some books out of the library and began reading. I also used Internet resources, particularly the Theodore Payne wiki, for looking up native plant specs. I realized that in the past, I had always thought of native plants (all plants, really) as specimens. I’d say to myself, “I really want a white sage.” And then I’d get one and find somewhere to plant it. I never thought about the whole yard as a system. This process is very dif...

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Compost Outlaws

...s ADC. My friend may have been refering to LA County waste practices.] are used as “Alternative Daily Cover” or ADC. ADC, which in addition to yard waste can consist of all kinds of things including broken glass and construction materials are used to cover up trash dumped into landfills. So while our friend Tara gets busted for composting, some cities go about taking the same perfectly good organic matter and toss it into the dump along with the r...

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Something for Nothing – Wild Mustard Greens

...n raw. The seed takes about 4 days to be ready. A hot flavour, it is often used in salads. A nutritional analysis is available. The seed can be ground into a powder and used as a food flavouring, it is the ‘white mustard’ of commerce . . . The pungency of mustard develops when cold water is added to the ground-up seed – an enzyme (myrosin) acts on a glycoside (sinigrin) to produce a sulphur compound. The reaction takes 10 – 15 minutes. Mixing with...

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Pepper’s Ghost

...eB4kup3oKY0?si=Lp8HuYnto3B3_gH1 Looking for an easy Halloween display that uses stuff you might have at hand? In this video Joshua Ellingson shows you how to create the 19th century Pepper’s ghost effect using an iPad, some plastic film and a glass container. YouTube is full of pre-made Pepper’s ghost videos so you don’t even need to shoot anything. If you want to go deeper there’s a free version of a video DJ type program called VDMX that you can...

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The Museum of the American Cocktail

...our fair city and is rumored to be opening a San Pedro venue next year. I’ve attended two free events in downtown LA, one a tasting of the spirits made by a Central Coast distillery, Calwise Spirits, and another tasting of the many offerings of the venerable French distillery Combier which still uses a facility designed by Pierre Eiffel. Note to self: remember to spit out the spirits when you do a tasting of 20 bottles or the next day won’t be all...

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