GROW FOR TEN THOUSAND
Our readers know that that we’ve been hinting for months about a great new project in the works. As we start the new year, the moment has come to reveal our plan, along with a new logo exemplifying the revolutionary spirit of PTF’s Homegrown Revolution™: To harvest 10,000 pounds in 2008 from [...]
July 4th gathering. Friend Chris whips up some tasty homemade pizza. YUM.
Sorry for the late of postings, it’s been busy here on the homestead. Well, that’s nothing new, I suppose. Weather’s hot, back to typical August weather.
Day of Rest & Reflection and Forward Thinking
Saturday, we spent a quiet and relaxing day with a friend as we hiked in the local mountains. We walked up to our [...]
Fall?
August is certainly turning out to be a strange month weather wise. It’s a mixture June Gloom and crisp Fall-like weather. If we didn’t know any better we’d say it was late October. The now cool weather is throwing everything out of wack and besides, it’s weird. Those weeks when it was excruciatingly hot we [...]
Snap shots
“…small old path that leads to freedom: a path of action, of thought, of wisdom.” ~ Katherine Tingley, 1914 ~
Photos
Here on the homestead there’s always something quirky, beautiful or stunning to take photos of. Here are few of the best shots taken:
Top right – to left: peaches ripening on the tree; Blackberry eating out [...]
Lodge pole trellis
A warm tropical “pineapple express” has descended on the southland bringing showers and occasionally torrential downpours. Already by afternoon our rain gauge measured over 1″ of rain! The storm is expected to linger till tomorrow dumping more, much needed, rain. Late Friday another storm is expected.
The lodge pole trellis structure that we [...]
Animal enclosure
The weather has shifted again, it’s a cool and slightly cloudy today. A heavy storm is expected Tues and into Wednesday which should dump from 1-5 inches of rain throughout the Los Angeles area.
The animal enclosure is nearly done. All that’s left is to put a trellis along the top to support the grapes. [...]
Kids pet the duck
It’s warming up. After several nights of sssshivering 28 degrees, it’s warmed up to a comfortable low of 32. The sky is clear and the sun’s out today- a beautiful, warm day. The chilly nights are definitely good for the fruits that require a certain amount of chill to set [...]
Part of front and back yard
Good news, more rain is on the way Monday, into Tuesday and more chance on Thursday! Around 6 am this morning we spotted geese flying North. A sure sign that winter is coming to a close.
This morning a noxious smell of gas hung heavy in the air. We checked [...]
We hear so much these days for us to “think outside the box.” But then what? Jules has for years come to a conclusion that it’s time for us to “act outside the box.” Thinking outside the box is one step, but now it’s time for our to put our thoughts into action. It’s [...]
Cob baked goodies
Baking day was yesterday, everything turned out yummy! We ate 1/2 of the warm bread coming right out cob oven and also enjoyed warm rice pudding for dessert. The bread pudding and pie cooked perfectly and nothing burned. This oven is great that it can cook almost anything — not just bread [...]
Brrr, it’s been quite cold these last few days. Mornings and evenings especially.
Today is baking day in the cob so I will be making a couple of alfalfa sprout bread, pumpkin pie, rice pudding and a dish of our popular New Orleans style bread pudding ( I know, I know – I really should make [...]
Food from co-op & recent garden harvest
With the recent bulk order from the co-op, we are set for a few months with the necessary staples and with the unseasonably warm temps the garden is still going strong.
Butterfly comes to town
Tuesday, we spent the evening at LA City College with concerned people from the community and [...]
Dirty bunny
Someone’s having fun! Sierra’s enjoying the warm fall days by digging a tunnel in the animal enclosure. She certainly is taking the digging seriously! Unfortunately, we’ll have to fill in her excavations since it’s pretty deep and we don’t want to have any accidental cave-ins.
The guavas are ripe! We have been looking forward [...]
Baking day
Oh dreary days. Each day seems to be a carbon copy of the other – cool, foggy mornings, clearing to hazy sunshine. However, for the last two days, the cloud cover has so thick it’s brought light to heavy drizzling. Today looks to be a much better day with the sun peeking through the [...]
Late summer snapshots
The backyard garden is looking nice and lush once again as late summer beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, squash and other colorful green crops fill the beds and self-watering containers. The guys erected a new open-air bamboo fence between our place and our neighbor’s. Being that that side of the yard is so [...]
Fo-ti vine screen
Passive Cooling
To keep our house cool during the brutal summer months, the guys erected two passive cooling, living-trellises a few years back which runs along the hottest side of the house. A Chinese herbal vine grows on one and a passion fruit on the other. We’ve noticed a considerable difference these living sunscreens [...]
Pizza Party
Hey guys:Thanks so much for a great night at the Cob Oven Pizza Party. I learned so much in a compressed time frame from being able to see all the different things you have in place at the house. Not to mention the overall great energy from a bunch of nice people in one [...]
Early this morning (4:50 am) we were all jolted wide away by a massive explosion that was scarily close by.
Justin ran to the backyard to see a huge pillar of black smoke coming from the what looked to be either the freeway or private school that’s right behind our house. As we scrambled around for [...]
Fall tomatoes, guavas, strawberries and carpet of mustard
The storm that blew in Monday night, lingered all day Tuesday dumping heavy rain at times throughout the day. Certainly was a blessing to have such precipitation at this time of year. When the rain stopped in late afternoon the air was heavy with humidity and Justin [...]
Sunday cobbing
Sunday was a nice day to work outdoors. The guys spent the day in the garden, Jordanne took care of the animal chores and leveling out the ever growing pile of compost that accumulates in the animal enclosure and I spent the day preparing and putting on the finishing coat of plaster on the [...]
Cob-rocket oven
Here’s a brief anatomy of the cob-rocket stove to give you an idea how the oven functions.
Q. How long does it take to heat to cooking temp?
A. Thanks for the question. Brad, it takes about 2-3 hours to reach over 350 degrees.
Q. Is it hard to maintain a consistent temperature?
A. No, it’s well insulated [...]
Bon Appetite
The past two days we’ve enjoyed cooking tasty mini pizzas in the cob oven. We used fresh tomatoes, peppers and squash from our garden, along with sprigs of basil as toppings. For an impromptu pizza crust we used some whole wheat pita bread from Trader Joes. The oven works beautifully (so far). With pieces [...]
The “sea snail” oven takes shape!
Sunday was another long cobbing session – over 6 hours. David came by again to help and, of course, Ray who brought along more clay and a metal pipe (for the smoke stack). What was the surprise that Ray mentioned in his email? Clay! Beautifully colored clay from a mountaintop [...]
Heirloom tomatoes
It’s been muggy these past few days with temps nearing 100 degrees. The heat & humidity is expected to last through the week.
On the garden front; summer harvest’s in full swing! Enjoying meals with fresh summer veggies and fruit (yum!) Keeping a close eye on the soon to be ripe peaches!
Not all is honky [...]
Jules, Justin work on “the bulge,” Lelach, Elijah & Ray place cob “pancakes”
Ray, David ( and, later, Lelach & her 3yr son, Elijah) came by for an afternoon of cobbing. The last few feet of the smoke funnel around the dome was completed, along with a “bulge” for the last shelf. The anticipated lady bug [...]
All systems go
Yesterday afternoon, Ray brought by more clay to finish the oven and a friend along to help. This bunch of clay, gotten from a site in Silverlake (thanks David!), was a nice consistency (easier to work with). After building up the air chamber and finishing a few more “petals” around the oven (working [...]
Ray, Jordanne work on air chamber
Sunday, Ray came by and we all worked over 6 hours on the oven. It was time to join the top and bottom together with cob, in addition to making “bulges” for the petals (which will be used for food preparation). Ray also started molding the air chamber that will [...]
Cob-rocket oven takes shape
Ray came by yesterday with more materials to finish the hybrid cob-rocket oven. He also brought along a future client of his, David Silverstone (brother of Alicia Silverstone), to see his latest creation. It was time to flip the top part of the oven onto the base! Ray had the guys [...]
Anais, Jules & JB plastering oven
Ray came by yesterday and brought along some more buckets of clay in addition to a black granite piece that’s to be used as a warming shelf (he’s thought of everything!). Ray stayed awhile to help us flip the top of the oven over (that was cool) so we could [...]
Tomatoes are looking up!
June gloom still lingers in the morning, clearing out by afternoon, then rolling back again in the early evening. Helps keep the temperatures down and gives us SoCal-ers a brief respite before the brutal heat in July & August. The tomatoes in the self-watering containers keep growing taller and taller and [...]
Cobber’s hand
June gloom still lingers. The sun did peak through yesterday (and may today); however, some days we barely see any sun whatsoever. The latest garden news is that we picked our first handful of beans of the season and two peaches. The tomatoes and cukes are looking lush and green with lots of [...]
Getting dirty!
“A step backwards is progress” ~ Jules Dervaes ~
On Sunday, 15 people attended the cob oven workshop (not including us) – some coming as far as Tehachapi (100 miles) Unfortunately, due to the extensive hands-on nature of the workshop we had to limit the class size. It was a great day for a workshop [...]
Inner pieces of the cob oven
Yesterday Ray (who’s going to be helping us build a cob oven) came over and dropped off some of the inner workings of the oven. Using scrap pieces, he’s welding together the inner skeleton. Combining his “rocket fired oven” technique and traditional cob will make this oven quite unique. He’ll [...]
Model “lady bug” cob oven
On Saturday we spent an interesting day participating in ‘Earth Day LA’ in Santa Monica at the fashionable 3rd St Promenade. By interesting I mean the whole atmosphere – here we were, part of 60 “earth conscious” exhibitors in the middle of the trendy Promenade, surrounded by Paris Hilton wannabes [...]
Giant leeks
ANOTHER HOT ONE
The heat is on again today! Thankfully, being in a semi-desert environment we are able to enjoy crisp cool mornings before the heat of the day.
DOOR TO DOOR
Off again today to drum up more business — giving out a sample of edible flowers, herbs and so forth to a Culinary School in [...]
