Here at Microcosm we are super grow-your-own friendly (in fact, half of us live on a farm). In the name of making the world a better place we wholly advise growing the things you eat. (Or at least as much as you can.) In that spirit, here’s our list of books and zines that are mega helpful if you’re planning on doing any sort of DIY farm and garden stuff this year! Stay tuned for part two of this list later on in the week!

Homesweet Homegrown: How to Grow, Make, And Store Food, No Matter Where You Live

Robyn Jasko and Jennifer Biggs’ Homesweet Homegrown is self-described as “a simple DIY guide to growing, storing, and making your own food, no matter where you live.” An ideal companion to Raleigh Briggs’ DIY guide Make Your Place, Jasko and Biggs’ debut book will turn you into a healthy, happy farmer even if you live in a big city sky-rise. Based around eight comprehensive sections (Know, Start, Grow, Plant, Plan, Make, Eat, and Store), this wonderful 128-page guide takes you through all the steps of crop nurturing, and gives the goods for everyone from the base beginner to the well-seasoned farmhand. (The recipe section alone is enough to keep you comin’ back to this gem for years to come!) Narrated in a friendly, helpful tone by Jasko and held aloft by Biggs’ great illustrations, this book is the definition of awesomely useful. Super, super, SUPER inspiring. Grow your own! https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/books/3613/

Home Composting Made Easy

Growing Stuff

Notes for Building a Hearty Inner-City Community High Tunnel

Wow, this one is somethin’ special! The full-size Notes for Building a Hearty Inner-City Community High Tunnel gives the goods on building an unheated greenhouse called a “high tunnel.” (Says Bill in the zine’s intro, “This is a small community project for experienced food growers who want an affordable way to extend warm seasons.”) In easy, illustrated (comic book style) steps Bill and Max Konrardy lay out the tools and supplies you’re going to need; the design principles; a guide on making a correct angle; visualization of your project; team and material gathering; layout and leveling, and much more. All of this is done in a friendly, accessible way (i.e. you don’t have to be a master builder to do this.) The Konrardies’ plans will have you up and running and to the final, finished stages for less than $1,000 (these things are generally staggeringly expensive.) This zine is incredibly inspiring, well-illustrated, and really fun to thumb through. Much recommended! Note: see an inside look at this zine’s pages over at our blog. https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/3770/

Czech One Two #1

Daniel’s personal zine about working on an organic farm. He’s quick to dispel myths of idyll earth tending, and confesses that it is hard backbreaking work. His home is a barn in Virginia, and his bosses yell at him until he has tears in his beard. But it’s not all terrible. Daniel still gets nostalgic for rural life from time to time. He misses being outside 12 hours a day, and all his fellow workers. Czech One Two is a realistic look at the often romanticized job of organic farming.

https://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/3289/

I’m always amazed at the simplicity of this recipe, and that it can be on the table in a quick 20. Cooking or roasting your tomatoes this way really intensifies their flavor, making it a velvety rich sauce that’s packed with good stuff. 

It’s also a great way to use all those cherry tomatoes. No need to skin and seed, just an immersion blender will make short work of all them.

Ingredients:

• A shoebox worth of homegrown tomatoes
• olive oil
• garlic
• onion
• salt
• pepper
• basil
• lemon juice (for canning)
• hot pepper (optional)

To make this sauce:

In a large pot on high heat, add a pinch of salt, let it warm up, then add the olive oil. Once fully heated, add onions and garlic until wilted. Then, add tomatoes, all of them, at once. Put on the lid and do something else for 20 minutes while it cooks down. 

Once it’s boiling and the tomatoes are soft, use an immersion blender to turn this into sauce. Cook down longer if you want a thicker sauce, or serve right away. 

This sauce is a great base. If you want to make it a puttnesca, add olives and capers; if you want to make it spicy, add a habanero. It’s all up to you. 

To can this sauce:

Sterilize canning jars and squeeze half a lemon’s juice into them. Add sauce, and boil water bath for 45 minutes. Try not to eat it until it’s cold outside because it will be so good then!

Originally posted at GrowIndie.com Check out Robyn Jasko and Jennifer Biggs’ book Homesweet Homegrown right here.

Days to Harvest: 2 to 3 years after initial planting. Perennial, harvest early spring through early June.

Light: Sunny.

Temperature: Cold season, 60° to 65° F is ideal.

Companions: Dill, coriander, tomatoes, parsley, basil, comfrey and marigolds.

Avoid Planting Near: Onion, garlic and potatoes.

Preparation: Asparagus is a perennial vegetable that lives 12 to 15 years or longer. Prepare bed for initial planting as early as possible. Double-dig bed and enrich with compost. Then, dig 12-inch deep trenches, 12 to 18 inches wide, with 4 to 5 feet between trenches.

Planting: Plant one year crowns in early spring. Set plants 15 to 18 inches apart, mounding soil slightly under each plant so crown is slightly above roots. Spread roots over mound and cover crown with 2 to 3 inches soil. As plants grow, continue to put soil over crowns (about 2 inches every 2 weeks) until trench is filled.

Spacing: 18 inches between plants, 3 feet between rows.

Water: A flush of spears often follows a soaking rain.

Harvest:  Spears should not be harvested the first season after crowns set. Harvest lightly for 3 to 4 weeks the second year. In the fourth season, harvest 8 to 10 weeks a year. Harvest spears just under soil surface when 6 to 8 inches tall and before tips separate.

Tips: Asparagus does well where winters are cool and the soil occasionally freezes a few inches deep.

Originally posted at GrowIndie.com Check out Robyn Jasko and Jennifer Biggs’ book Homesweet Homegrown right here.

After your seeds have started, these easy-to-make newspaper pots are perfect for transplanting your new seedlings. Forget pricey plastic sets and excess pots—-all you need is some extra newspaper and a small cup or mason jar and you are on your way.

Since the newspaper will decompose naturally, you can then plant these right into the garden.

Here’s how to make your own newspaper pots in 6 easy steps:

Step 1.

Cut sheets of black and white newspaper in half or thirds, depending on the size of pot you want to make. Make sure not to use pages with color, since this will be going directly into your garden. (Color newspapers may contain heavy metals that are unsafe).

Step 2.

Align your mason jar or cup with the newspaper so that a few inches of paper are above the opening of the cup. Roll the newspaper so it circles the cup.

Step 3.

Push the sides of the paper that are above the cup opening inside, so they are wrapped around the lip of the cup.

Step 4.

Remove the cup gently, while still keeping the pot’s shape.

Step 5.

Use the bottom of the cup to reinforce the pot’s bottom by inserting it inside the newspaper pot. Tamp down the inverted ends, so it seals the bottom.

Here’s what it should look like after it’s done:

Step 6.

Add soil and transplant or start your seedlings.

When they reach the size for transplanting outside, they can be placed directly into your garden. This will also alleviate root disruption for healthy, happy seedlings!

Note: originally posted at growindie.com Find Homesweet Homegrown right here.

Note: Let Gluten-Freedom Ring! A Vegan, Gluten-Free Cookzine is available right here.

WILL’S CAST IRON SKILLET CORNBREAD

BY WILL POTTER
Fast and easy and not a lot to clean up, which is the holy trinity of cooking in my book. The key ingredient here is the cast iron skillet. You can pick one up pretty cheap, or I bet you’ve got a family member hiding a couple in their cabinets. My favorite skillet for cornbread is about 12” diameter, with 3” walls. It’s nice if it has an extra grip, because those things are heavy coming out of the oven.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425.
Rub some vegetable oil inside the skillet (all surfaces) and then put the skillet in the oven for about 10 minutes. Let it get good and hot, as you mix all this together in a bowl:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c cornmeal
1 1/2 c flour (for gluten-free, I like the Red Mill brand but whatever)
3 1/2 tsp b powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar
2 1/4 c soymilk (or, I prefer almond milk)
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 c jalapenos chopped, plus some green chilis (both optional)

Mix all the dry. Stir in the wet until it’s as smooth as you can get it. If it’s too thick add a bit more milk. Pull the skillet out of the oven (be careful!). Pour your batter in, then put it right back in the oven. Bake it for about 35-45 minutes. It should start to pull away from the sides, and crack at the top, when it is almost done (if you’ve oiled it and let it heat up). This is a bit tricky, but you want to flip the skillet over on top of a cutting board and the cornbread should thud out in one piece. Let it cool, put some vegan margarine on there, and now you’re in business. If you want to get extra Texan have a piece or two for breakfast with your coffee.

PS: You’re not gonna use any soap on your cast iron, are you? Good. That’s bad for the skillet. Wipe it out with a paper towel, then rub a thin layer of oil over it before you store it. Keep doing that each time you use it, and it will have a natural “non-stick” finish.

Wow, this one is somethin’ special! The full-size Notes for Building a Hearty Inner-City Community High Tunnel gives the goods on building an unheated greenhouse called a “high tunnel.” (Says Bill in the zine’s intro, “This is a small community project for experienced food growers who want an affordable way to extend warm seasons.”) In easy, illustrated (comic book style) steps Bill and Max Konrardy lay out the tools and supplies you’re going to need; the design principles; a guide on making a correct angle; visualization of your project; team and material gathering; layout and leveling, and much more. All of this is done in a friendly, accessible way (i.e. you don’t have to be a master builder to do this.) The Konrardies’ plans will have you up and running and to the final, finished stages for less than $1,000 (these things are generally staggeringly expensive.) This zine is incredibly inspiring, well-illustrated, and really fun to thumb through. Much recommended!

Order Notes for Building a Hearty Inner-City Community High Tunnel here.

It’s issue eight of one of thee hottest bike mags on the planet! (We say “mag” but it looks and feels like a book. Really solid, really well put together.) Between its beautiful must-be-seen-to-be-believed covers, the UK-based Boneshaker folks give us 56 pages of full, vivid color (and we mean jaw-dropping, eye-popping, brilliant color. It’s pretty outstanding). Issue eight’s topics include a history piece on Gino Bartali (winner of the 1948 Tour de France), bike chain sculpture, an on-the-road piece about two good dudes riding recycled bikes across the states, comics, a photo essay on abandoned bikes, and so much more. This full-course meal of photos, stellar design, and writing is one of the best things going these days in indie publishing; a total wow-your-socks-off combo-punch for cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

Order Boneshaker #8 here. And see below for an inside look (taken from http://www.boneshakermag.com/)

Robyn Jasko and Jennifer Biggs’ Homesweet Homegrown is self-described as “a simple DIY guide to growing, storing, and making your own food, no matter where you live.” An ideal companion to Raleigh Briggs’ DIY guide Make Your Place, Jasko and Biggs’ debut book will turn you into a healthy, happy farmer even if you live in a big city sky-rise. Based around eight comprehensive sections (Know, Start, Grow, Plant, Plan, Make, Eat, and Store), this wonderful 128-page guide takes you through all the steps of crop nurturing, and gives the goods for everyone from the base beginner to the well-seasoned farmhand. (The recipe section alone is enough to keep you comin’ back to this gem for years to come!) Narrated in a friendly, helpful tone by Jasko and held aloft by Biggs’ great illustrations, this book is the definition of awesomely useful. Super, super, SUPER inspiring. Grow your own!

Order Homesweet Homegrown here.