It’s been a week since I’ve started my indoor mushroom garden. Per the instructions, I’ve been misting the bag two times a day. I was starting to get a bit skeptical, but after the eighth day I started to see some growth bursting out the front of the bag. At this point it almost looks like a piece of cauliflower. On the side of the box, it says that...
Author Archives: Mike Lieberman
I’d like to thank everyone who entered the contest to win their own mushroom garden kit courtesy of Back to the Roots Ventures. There were a total of 128 comments and entries. There was a comment that slipped in past the deadline and wasn’t counted. To choose the random winner, I went to Random.org and entered 1-128 in the true random number generator. The...
You can make this simple recipe without buying a single ingredient. You will just be using what you were going to toss out. What you need to do is start to save your vegetable scraps and store them in the freezer. This includes any or all of the following: Carrot tops Beet tops Veggies or herbs that were starting to go bad Kale stems Onion skins Celery leaves ...
Last week the Eatocracy section of CNN.com posted an article titled – Study shows people don’t give a crap how many calories they eat. The results of a study showed that, “Posting calories on menus has little effect on what customers buy, according to a recent study.” Besides the fact that it’s slightly awesome that CNN put the word “crap”...
While I’m running the contest to win your own mushroom garden from Back to the Root Ventures, I am going to be growing the mushroom garden to see how it works. Growing my own mushrooms is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Most of the kits that I’ve seen use logs and require a damp, dark location, which I don’t have. That’s...
When I came back from my New Year break, I said that I was going to post twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Now that we are a few weeks into the new year, I can’t do it. There are too many things that I’d like to discuss and share with you. On Monday, I’m starting to post four days a week. I already mentioned sharing seasonal recipes on a monthly...
A few weeks back when I posted a question on Facebook asking what posts people would like me to write, I was asked by Tim of Ecycler about a “hit list” for starting an urban garden. I thought that it could be done in a short series, so here is the first part that includes what you will need to get started. The list is short and pretty simple. It consists of: ...
There was a post on Rodale.com on rodent control and how it was effecting barn owls. Even though this post wasn’t specifically about gardening, it can certainly be related to why organic gardening makes sense. Here’s an excerpt from the post: Other studies have found these dangerous chemicals building up in the bodies of herbivorous animals like squirrels and...
When I posted a question on Facebook asking what posts people would like me to write, recipes were mentioned. I used to keep a raw recipe blog, but stopped that long ago. Since people are interested, I’ll give em what they want. To start, once a month, I will post a simple recipe for something that is in season that you can get from your garden or the farmers market....
One of the food blogs that I regularly read, Fooducate, had a post 2011 Food and Nutrition Trends. It was a recap from some of the top food industry experts Marion Nestle, The Food Channel, Food & Wine and Mintel. I’d like to contribute my predicted 2011 food trend as well. I am going to predict that people will continue to take their food back from the hands...
A common excuse that people often give to not grow their own food is that they don’t know when or how much to water their plant. I was away from my balcony garden for nearly two weeks during the holidays. While on vacation, I did not once travel back home to water my garden. This wasn’t the first time that I was away for an extended period of time without...
So here it is my first post of 2011. It’s been about a month since I lasted posted. It looks like the world continued to exist and get by, which is good. Towards the end of last year I was starting to feel like I wasn’t bringing much value to the blog and internet world. I felt as if my posts and the information that I was providing was stagnant and blah....
This is going to be my last post of 2010. I need to take a break from posting and promoting. I’ve been feeling a bit stagnant lately. I think the posts and blog have suffered because of it. It feels like I’m forcing content and just putting stuff out there. It feels like I’m saying the same things over and over again to the same people. I appreciate...
It’s getting close to winter time here in the States. Last year during this time I was wrapping up my growing season on my fire escape garden. This now that I’m on the left coast I can grow on my balcony garden year round. Not everyone is that fortunate when it comes to their growing season. For most of you the season has pretty much ended unless you’ve...
One of the biggest stories and bills that’s out there right now is the S510 Food Safety Modernization Act that recently passed Senate. There is lots of speculation and to do about this bill because it can have a huge impact on growers both large and small. It’s written in legalese and has a bunch of amendments and additions to it that it’s confusing to...
There have been mysterious sprouts growing in the containers on my balcony garden for months now. At first I thought they were old seeds that I had planted and never sprouted, but then I planted in new containers using new soil and the sprouts appeared again. Some of the sprouts have finally started to mature to the point where they have full leaves. They are dark green...
One of the questions that I frequently get asked is what vegetables can be grown in a shady garden. Most of us that grow in an urban environment are faced with this situation. I’ve been growing for about 1.5 years between my fire escape garden and now my balcony garden. Both gardens received at max 6 hours of direct sunlight a day. That didn’t stop me from...
Most people only give thanks for their food during their Thanksgiving (or other holiday) meals. It’s usually done as an afterthought. My question is why is being thankful for the food on our plate part of our daily routines? Why is it something reserved for Thanksgiving? To me this is another example of how disconnected we’ve become from our food source. Thanksgiving...
On the surface this question is gonna seem stupid, but I think it has just caused to be asked – Do you need to add seeds to potting soil in order for something to grow? A few weeks back I wrote about mysterious sprouts growing my containers. I thought I had solved the mystery and that they were old seeds that never sprouted. Since that time I’ve planted four...
I have about 10 self-watering containers on my balcony garden. In taking care of them, I’ve started to notice that the reservoir containers have been starting to stank and form algae. The reason for this might be because there is no room for the air to circulate. The air can get in through the overflow hole, but no other way to get out. What I’d recommend is...
