Thankful for the New Rain Garden

November 28, 2019

...sting calculator, in an average year we could send almost 6,000 gallons of water to our backyard. We ran a pipe from the rain gutter way back into the yard along a fence. The pipe terminates at a simulated gravel filled stream bed that spills into the rain garden. Kelly has just started planting the wet lower part of the rain garden with native plants including water loving Douglas irises (Iris douglasiana). She planted the dry outer edges with de...

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Baking Bread with Specialty Malts

Mr. Homegrown

June 13, 2016

Beer, Bread, Food

2 Comments

...t the sugars that form in the malting process. Fermenting that sugary malt water creates alcohol. Most of the grain used to make beer is two or six-row malt. You add so-called “specialty” grains (that have been caramelized or roasted) to add flavor. If you skip the beer making and add the specialty malts directly to your dough, more of their flavor makes it into the bread. Step into a homebrew shop and you’ll find bin after bin of different specia...

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Essential System #7 – Repair Kit and Tools

Mr. Homegrown

August 27, 2006

Preparedness, Tools

...er glove – for gathering or distilling water or for one-handed first aid 8 water purification tables (in straw) – see our earlier post on water 6 safety pins – for, among other uses, creating a sling with a shirt for a broken arm 2 medicated Bandaid strips 1 package first aid cream 6 aspirin 1 baling wire 4 fish hooks (snelled #2/#8) – for fishing! 4 split shot sinkers – also for fishing 1 snap swivel (#10) 1 filament (10 meters) Beyond having eno...

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Day to day, our decisions count

Mrs. Homegrown

April 30, 2015

Back to the Garden

6 Comments

...ean staggering amounts. For instance, according the NRDC, 80% of our fresh water goes to agriculture. So, when we’re wasting food at this rate, that means that 25% of our fresh water is going directly to waste. Here in the dry West, that kind of extravagance has become unconscionable. In terms of soil, think about this. To grow all the food we waste globally, we use an area of land one and half times larger than the U.S. That’s a lot of soil. And...

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Dave Miller on Baking with 100% Whole Wheat

Mr. Homegrown

January 21, 2014

Bread, Food

23 Comments

...ade, the wheat breads had a similar method: Starter was added to flour and water to build up a levain. This was allowed to ferment for three hours. Miller likes a long autolyse. Flour and water for the final dough were mixed and allowed to sit for at least a half hour before adding salt. This period gets the enzymes working. The final dough is mixed in a mixer for 5 minutes at the first speed and 5 minutes at the second speed (if you don’t have a...

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