Rain- The Best Gift of All

December 27, 2009

...epression planted with native plants adapted to our weather patterns. More water for me, less water wasted! Directing rainwater from your roof into the landscape is often simpler and lower in cost that harvesting in a barrel or cistern. The small 55 gallon barrels I have are great, but they fill up very quickly even in a light rain. You would be amazed at how much water you can collect. There are many cistern options out there. They just tend to b...

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Beans 101 (Return of Bean Friday!)

Mrs. Homegrown

March 1, 2013

Bean Fest, Food, How-to

21 Comments

...easier it is to burn them. I’d recommend cooking them with with plenty of water, evenadding water if you need to, just to be safe. You can always cook some of the liquid off at the end. Which brings us to the lid. Keep the lid on if you want to hold in moisture and heat. With a lid and the lowest possible heat setting on your stove, you can keep beans simmering safely for hours. But like I said, if you want to boil off some liquid to condense the...

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Fifty Shades of Gray Water

Mr. Homegrown

February 7, 2018

Water and Power

7 Comments

...the subject of reusing waste water for lack of clarity on how to spell greywater, gray water, grey water and/or graywater. I’d also like to see what the OED says about the first uses of the word. Merriam Webster suggests “gray water” not “grey water” or “greywater.” Wikipedia goes with “greywater” as well as listing off all the variations. Wikipedia also suggests a word so unappealing that it’s almost appealing, “sullage.” Sullage, according to Me...

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Building a Makeshift Treadmill Desk

Mr. Homegrown

December 20, 2012

Fitness

1 Comment

...s, although I’m standing on the side rails … Say something about your blog/homestead/books . . . I’m the author of the novel Place Last Seen (Picador USA, 2000), and have been blogging at Livingsmallblog.com since 2002. I’ve written for Culinate.com, Ethicurean.com and have a cookbook review column at Bookslut.com. I’ve been published in the Best Food Writing of 2010, and am currently working on a book proposal for a nonfiction book about finding...

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SIPS and Kraut at Project Butterfly

Mr. Homegrown

August 24, 2009

Events

2 Comments

...our community and our planet. Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne, authors of The Urban Homestead, have become increasingly interested in the concept of urban sustainability since moving to Los Angeles in 1998. In that time, they’ve slowly converted their 1920 hilltop bungalow into a mini-farm, and along the way have explored the traditional home arts of baking, pickling, bicycling and brewing, chronicling all their activities on their blog Homegrown Evo...

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