Making Beer in Plain Language

December 14, 2008

...the grain steeps. 3. After soaking, the liquid is drained off and more hot water is added. The liquid pouring into the pot on the ground contains sugar from the grains. 4. The extracted sugars are boiled with some hops for an hour. 5. After boiling for an hour you cool down the liquid as rapidly as possible. Here comrade Ben uses ice and a coil of copper tubing with water from a garden hose flowing through it, to bring that temperature down. 6. Th...

Read…

A Self-Watering Container in a Pot

Mr. Homegrown

July 25, 2007

Self Watering Containers

1 Comment

...owers. You fill SWCs up via a pipe and they can go at least a week between waterings. It is, in our opinion, the only way to grow water-needy vegetables reliably in a container. We have used them to successfully grow eggplants, tomatoes, collard greens and blueberries (note to the DEA: no cash crops at the Homegrown Revolution compound!). With our backyard looking fairly ugly this summer we’ve backpedaled on our earlier strident post about how we...

Read…

Daikon Radish Pickles

Mr. Homegrown

May 3, 2007

Fermentation, Food

13 Comments

...in salt can prevent the lacto-fermentation process from occurring. Bottled water is best, but we used LA tap with no ill effects. The worry is that the chlorine in tap water will also interfere with the culture. Peel and slice the daikon, and pack it into a very clean quart sized mason jar. Add a peeled garlic clove if you want. Pour the brine over the slices until the jar is nearly full. Leave just a little room at the top for gas expansion. Put...

Read…

De-Cluttering for DIYers, Homesteaders, Artists, Preppers, etc.

Mrs. Homegrown

February 9, 2015

Cleaning, Tidying up

52 Comments

...on your grill, like oatmeal and coffee? If not, how are you going to boil water? If you camp, all your camping equipment can perform double duty in emergencies. I can’t recommend camping enough as the best form of emergency preparedness. Water is essential, and it’s also incredibly awkward and inconvenient to store. There’s no getting around it, though, you’ve got to find a place to keep it We keep ours in BPA free, rectangular 20 gallon containe...

Read…

Three Things I’ve Learned About Baking Bread With Whole Grain

Mr. Homegrown

February 19, 2015

Bread, Food

25 Comments

...h more water than white flour. Bread recipes are a ratio between flour and water. In bread baking parlance this is called a hydration ratio (to get the hydration ratio you divide the water by the flour–the quirk of baker’s math is that the flour is always 100% ). Old school bread recipes, most of which require a lot of kneading, have hydration ratios in the 65% range. Popular no-knead white bread recipes have hydration ratios in the 75% to 80% ran...

Read…