Talk and Vermicomposting Workshop With Nance Klehm Sunday March 8th!

...rt network for all living things. It is the living sponge that filters our water and air, thereby cleaning them both. It stabilizes our constructions, prevents flooding, protects our landscapes against drought, and ensures the health of our food, water and air. Soil is not a thing. It is a web of relationships that stands in a certain state of a certain time.” — Nance Klehm Bonus option! Stay after the talk for a short workshop taught by Nance on...

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Olive Curing Update

...you make a brine solution with pickling salt (one pound salt per gallon of water) and vinegar (5% acetic acid–1 1/2 cups per gallon). To this I added some garlic and hot pepper flakes. I went light on the seasoning which, I think, was a good idea. Following the suggestion on the Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog I changed out the brine when the water darkened—about once a month. What the olives looked like at the beginning of the curing process. Th...

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Growing Pink Oyster Mushrooms

...d, you use it to inoculate bags of straw that have been pasteurized in hot water. I think we ended up with something like 16 small bags of straw divided between our group. Keep the bags inoculated in step 3 in a humid environment with some indirect light and wait for them to fruit. This all sounds a lot harder than it actually was. Oyster mushrooms have a reputation for easily out-competing molds that can tank other mushrooms. The culture we used...

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I Made a Coffee Sandwich

...recipe and, perhaps, add some chocolate. The ChatGPT version was a bit too watery. Naturally, instead of the hard work of refining this recipe, I decided to create a fake ad for my new coffee sandwich using Microsoft 365 and got this fairly convincing result: The AI decided to add some mint and what looks like Nutella. I spun the AI dice again and got another convincing ad depicting a thick coffee sandwich this time toasted and garnished with rand...

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A Prickly Situation

...pted to Southern California’s climate, that are both edible and don’t need watering. One of the most versatile is the prickly pear cactus, of which there are about a dozen varieties all under the Opuntia genus (Family Cactaceae). In the late spring the plant produces new leaves which can be harvested and eaten. Stores and street vendors sell them as “Nopolito”. Nopolito, tastes a bit like a slightly slimy green pepper and can be used in scrambled...

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