Category Archives: Blog

Chickens – Part 2: The Arrival

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Christy

[Cue movie voice over guy]

It’s been two years in the making…

But now they’ve come…

And No One knows what to expect…It’s…

[Cue percussive orchestral filler music]

Chicken Invasion

Already exhibiting personality…

Our story continues from last week’s post.

Our pullets arrived late …
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Meet the Milk Man

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Christy

The latest edition of Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter is live and ready for your cheese-y delight:  This week you’ll learn about Milk Man Cheese
Services and find out where to get local artisan cheeses in Southern California.

The Milk Man Cometh
 …
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Chickens – Part 1: Building the Coop

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Christy

In an effort to expand our garden ecosystem, we’ve gone the way of the farmer, adding backyard chickens to our list of on-site resources. This
is the story of how we got started. We intend to share the process in hopes of making it easier for others who plan to do the same.

We spent two years researching and being skittish about getting them, while everyone with chickens kept saying, “Just get them!”  2012 rolled around, as did …
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How to Know if it’s GMO?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Christy

“Dear Gardenerd,

How do we know if our seeds are genetically Modified?”

Excellent question! I have answers for you.

The good news is that GMO seeds are widely available to the commercial agriculture industry, but the push to sell them to home gardeners is not yet popular (and most likely not lucrative).
   The bad news is that farmers growing non-GMO crops for seed are having a harder time isolating themselves from farms that …
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Ask Gardenerd: When is it Organic?

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Christy

A very thoughtful question came into Ask Gardenerd this week:

“I’m new here. So far my big challenge is getting started. I do have a question. I do want to eat organic. Let’s say I get a small plant, like an herb, from Home Depot or a similar store, I plant
it and grow it organically with no man-made chemicals are pesticides. Does that make the plant organic? Is it kind of organic? If I keep it growing year-after-year and grow it organically, will
…
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Tasty Cabbage Season

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Christy

It’s time to harvest those cabbages that have been growing over winter. As readers may remember, we planted a newly discovered variety of open
pollinated Vertus savoy cabbage from Bountiful Gardens this past fall, and now we’re reaping
the benefits. It’s hard to find an open pollinated or heirloom variety of savoy cabbage, so we were very excited to test this one out.

The results are in, and they …
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Get Local with Refyll

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Christy

The latest post from Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter is ready for your viewing pleasure. Check out this great way to refill your home and body products:

Reduce, Reuse, Refyll
 …
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Homesteading: Making Yogurt…Again

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Christy

After seeing Vegucated, the vegan documentary that shows the underside of our country’s meat
and dairy industry, I was highly motivated to find organic milk products from truly trustworthy suppliers. Many of our organic dairy manufacturers like Horizon and Organic Valley still utilize
confined feedlot techniques and, without going in to details, they don’t treat their cows very well. I wanted control over my dairy ASAP.

I did …
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Romanesco Broccoli: Fibonacci of the Garden

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Christy

Growing new varieties each season keeps the garden interesting. Since we focus on heirlooms and open pollinated varieties here at Gardenerd,
our choices are not new, but rather newly discovered. After a slight seed debacle last year where we grew seeds from an (unnamed) seed company that purchased Romanesco seeds from an
untrustworthy supplier, resulting in Romanesco that looked nothing like Romanesco, we tried again this year with guaranteed seed.

What …
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Got Beans? Sun Coast Farms Does.

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Christy

The latest post from Mar Vista’s Bounty Hunter is live and ready for your perusal. Feast your eyes on some great legumes and find out how to
cook them with a delicious recipe or two:

Sun Coast Farms has its Finger on the Pulse (of
Beans, that is) 
 …
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