A Mystery Philippine Vegetable

...ping for something more telegenic, sexy and radical, to fit the “guerrilla gardening” story, like say the image on the left. They were, perhaps, less excited by some ordinary middle-aged to elderly residents of Echo Park passionately talking about vegetables. Their loss our gain. As a parting gift Julie gave us this leafy green whose name, I’m afraid, I can neither pronounce nor remember. She told us to parboil it and season with soy sauce. Any gu...

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041 Sounds of the Homestead

Kelly and Erik discuss some of the unusual sounds heard around the Root Simple compound: chickens, cats, bees and, yes, Kaiser Permanente’s music on hold. If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. You can subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store and on Stitcher. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additional music by Rho. A downloadable version of this...

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Urban Chicken Enthusiasts Unite!

...hicken keepers. And we often meet people who would like to know more about urban poultry. So I’ve decided to create a group of L.A. urban chicken enthusiasts. I used meetup.com to create the L.A. Urban Chicken Enthusiasts group. I like Meetup because the point is to organize face to face meetings. Our group will get together every month or so, eat eggs dishes and talk about raising chickens, local food and sustainability. The L.A. Urban Chicken En...

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Putting Your Civic House in Order: How the Young Members of the Family Help

...er to his forlorn corner patch. Toni turned “good” and through interest in gardening got interested in other phases of school work. With him, as with all children, mastery of the soil proved mastery of self. The movement showed parents how the work of children can be made the means of contributing to the family income, thus making it possible for them to stay in school longer. In one district two inexperienced young boys in their very first garden...

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A Hinged Cover for a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden

...reate a hinged cover for one of my raised beds so that I can easily access vegetables without having to remove the bird netting or row cover each time I want to access the bed. I’ve found that I can remove the netting once the vegetables have matured. To create the cover I made a frame with some 2 x 2 inch lumber and bent some electrical conduit pipe (and a piece of leftover copper pipe) for the hoops. I put some gate hinges on the back, stood bac...

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