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Homegrown Evolution
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Homegrown Evolution's Page
Profile Information
- What Kind of HOMEGROWN are You?
- Dirt Under My Fingernails City Slicker
- A bit about me:
- We are the authors of The Urban Homestead and run the blog homegrownevolution.com. We live in a small bungalow in Los Angeles with a dog and four hens.
- Latest greatest meal cooked at home:
- Anything from the garden.
- Currently reading
- Practical Science for Gardeners
- Currently listening to:
- I See Hawks in LA
- My latest DIY project:
- drip irrigation
- Web site I recommend
- http://www.homegrownevolution.com
Homegrown Evolution Feed
Apron Contest Winner
Homegrown Neighbor here:We have a winner for our apron giveaway. I received a lot of great entries. It was fun to hear what each of you would do in an apron. I'm happy to say that we have a lot of interesting, witty and crafty readers. I even received some international entries. I wish we could give you all aprons.
But Katie Presley made me laugh, so I had to choose her as our winner. Lots of people cook and craft, but Katie cooks and crafts with an irreverent and sassy sense of humor. My kind of girl.
Her entry was rather long, so I'll just give you the highlights. She said she would first roll around on the floor and wrap herself up in the apron like a "sexy burrito."
She cooks, of course. She even makes her own recipe books of tasty treats. In addition to cooking she notes, "I am also in printmaking, so this apron can come with me to my art classes to make the bindings for the recipe book for the recipes that Apron and I were JUST working on! It is an artistic, apron-centric circle of life."
Congrats, Katie.
I've got a batch on jam on the stove, so I'd better finish this post and get to canning. I'm putting on my apron now....the jam is peaches with ginger, zero white sugar, a little maple syrup and unripe apples pieces for pectin. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Another Panel Solar Cooker
Poyourow demoing her solar cooker designPouyourow's cooker comes together much faster than the CooKit design that I blogged about earlier this week. There's hardly any cuts to make and no glue needed. Her design makes use of a car sunshade which can be picked up cheap at your local 99¢ store. The sunshade is more durable than aluminum foil glued to cardboard. While you can also fashion a sunshade alone into a solar panel cooker, I've found that they don't stand up well in even a moderate wind.
Plans for Poyourow's cooker can be found here (pdf).
She also has a list of solar cooking resources here.
And yes, for most North Americans this is the wrong time of year to be blogging on this topic since, as the sun gets lower in the horizon, solar panel cooking season is almost over. But I've got a backlog of summer R&D to share. Stay tuned for the ups and downs of our summer gardening, a bike accident story and a taste test of beer made with our homegrown hops . . .
CooKit Solar Panel Cooker
I've been experimenting with a nice panel solar cooker for the past week and, so far, the results are impressive. Called the CooKit, it was developed in 1994 by a group of engineers and solar cooking enthusiasts associated with Solar Cookers International and based on a design by Roger Bernard.
It has a couple of nice features:
- It produces ample heat to cook rice and simple casseroles.
- When you fold it up it takes up no more space than an album (do I have to explain what an album is for the youngsters out there?).
- A flat area on the base of the CooKit makes weighting it down with rocks easy. This is really important in windy places.
- All you need to build it is a knife, cardboard, aluminum foil and glue.
Detailed instructions for how to build a CooKit can be found here.
Also, Mrs. Homegrown and I are writing a new book and we'd like to include some plans for solar cookers (any kind). If you've got a favorite DIY model, leave a comment with a link.
Another view with curious Doberman in the foreground:
Digital Farming- What's The Deal?
Homegrown Neighbor here:So here in the world of urban homesteading things can get pretty busy. We can become so preoccupied with work, chickens, vegetable gardening, cooking, cleaning, blogging duties and email that we can miss some of the things going on in the world. I do like to occasionally check in with the world at large by reading the newspaper. I just read an article that I have to comment on.
A recent New York Times article titled, 'To Harvest Squash, Click Here,' introduced me to the world on online farming. Apparently people spend a lot of time "farming" on line. Twenty two million a day in fact, according to the article. There are several farming games on Facebook, Farmville being the most popular. You can get seeds to plant, watch your crops grow and then harvest them. Some people are so addicted that they are eschewing real life responsibilities and social obligations to harvest their virtual soybeans.
It is even suggested that the popularity of these farming games is indicative of a collective yearning for a more pastoral life. I'm not sure I get this. I spend all day outside in the dirt making things grow. At sundown, I lock up the chickens. Then I harvest something to make into dinner or on a special evening, I'll make a big batch of jam or sauce and spend hours canning. I'd rather spend as little time online as possible.
I can't wrap my head around how a video game can in any way replicate the experience of farming. I may be an urban dweller, but I get my satisfaction by getting real, not virtual, dirt under my fingernails. Can any one explain this trend to a clueless non-gamer like me?
Handmade, Homegrown Apron Contest
Homegrown Evolution reader Pam Neuendorf has offered fellow readers a chance to win one of her handmade aprons. She sells her wares through Etsy, a website where crafters and artisans can sell their goods. You can see more of her aprons here. She has an ordinary day job but is a maven of craft by night. Pam says, "I love making aprons. They make me happy." I am a big fan of aprons. They are useful for cooking, gardening or just looking darn cute. I am also a big supporter of all things handmade. So I love this handcrafted apron.I also hope our readers will appreciate this reminiscence of mine. -When I was in college I lived in a house with a lot of people. There were about 50 of us and we took turns cooking and cleaning. Every Friday we celebrated 'Naked Pizza Fridays.' Only the men would cook on Fridays. They would wear aprons and nothing else. Just the apron. Oh, the good old college days. Perhaps this is why I see aprons as slightly subversive and rather sexy.
Dear readers, if you would like to have this apron, send me an email and tell me what activity you would use your apron for. I want to hear about your hobbies and how this apron would help your creative energies. I will pick a winner by Sunday night. Send your entries to fullcirclegardening@gmail.com.
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Update on Ohio Issue 2
Thank you to everyone who spread the word about Ohio Issue 2 in last week's election. We were inspired by the many emails we received from Farm Aid supporters willing to speak up, raise awareness and rally neighbors against this dangerous constitutional amendment that threatens the very premise of democracy. Despite a good effort from the grassroots, the ballot initiative passed last week. With relatively few resources and limited time, it proved difficult to counter the deceptive messaging of the multimillion dollar, corporate agri-business-backed campaign. With the help of our partner organizations we plan to keep a close eye on the development of Ohio's Livestock Care Standards Board to ensure there are sufficient checks and balances in place and opportunities for family farmers to get a shot at fair representation.
We will keep you in the loop, and please let us know if a similar measure comes to a state near you. This may feel like another case of David v. Goliath, but we all know good food from family farms is more than worth the uphill battle.
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