Ruben’s Could Not Be Easier Sourdough—annotated
I strongly believe that we should start in a way that is the simplest possible. It is easy to make things more complex, but it is a lot harder to make them simple once you have invested a lot into…
a Small and Delicious Life
Common Sense for the New Times
a Small and Delicious Life
Common Sense for the New Times
Tag local food
Clarifying vegetable fermentation
In this article I will identify and clarify as much of this as I can:
•Different goals of fermenting
•Why use an airlock
•Other gear suggestions
•You can use any salt
•Tap water is probably fine
•Botulism is unheard of
Introduction to Sauerkraut
This is a quick introduction to fermented foods, and to fermentation with Fido jars.
Pickle Soup
A delicious way to use homemade fermented dill pickles that are past their prime.
Tips for making (firm) yogourt.
A collection of trivia, some links, and some science concerning how to make firm yogourt.
The Life and Death of Bun-bun.
The death of a newborn rabbit kit, Bun-bun, occasions a lot of thought.
At the end of the world, there is plenty to do.
“Well, should we just give up then?” If only I had a dollar for every time I have heard this, always from well-meaning people.⊕Well, if I had a dollar for each time, I would be drinking Laphroaig right now, with…
Vertical farms: the greatest hope for cities, or a band-aid on a sucking chest wound?
I sometimes find myself making negative comments about vertical farming. This happened again today, and the facebook friend to whom I responded replied very openly with, “Well, what then? Green belts?” So rather than continue my terse and impatient crypticism…
How to make Sauerkraut or pickled vegetables the easiest and cheapest way possible (crocks are for holding umbrellas)
Making sauerkraut is incredibly easy to do, and with Fido jars you will be richly rewarded for your few minutes of work.
Review: The Market Gardener. Summary: Excellent.
The first piece of swag to come out of writing this blog hit my mailbox this spring, when I was asked to review Jean-Martin Fortier’s book The Market Gardener. Sadly, they did not also send me a broadfork. Carmen and I…
In the calmness of bees.
We have honeybees flying in our backyard again, and they have brought our family a noticeable sense of comfort. Our bees died last fall. Likely it was the varroa destructor mite, archvillain of many news stories. Carmen has noticed our…
My best loaf yet.
The slices of bread on my sandwich were not loaf-shaped, they were round—perfectly round—and it was bursting with alfalfa sprouts. Eaten by a young boy with long, wavy hair and often-repaired glasses, this circular sandwich was part of a pretty…
I don’t want salvation.
I watched a deer die this week. It took about ninety seconds, which is a lot longer than I hope for, and the deer fought hard to live. The shock, pain and fear it was experiencing as it struggled against…
Why Green is not Sustainable.
“An Environmentalist on the Lie of Locavorism” crossed my desk the other day. It’s a pretty eye-catching title, pitting “An Environmentalist” against local eating and urban farming, darlings of greens and urban planners everywhere – and calling them liars, to…