When I had my fire escape garden in NYC, I knew that it was technically against the fire code (but J-walking is illegal too and no one ever gets busted). Now that I’ve been in LA for over a year, I’ve been told that a balcony garden is against the fire code too. Last week a building inspector came by and said that it was a fire code to have anything on the...
Author Archives: Mike Lieberman
In the beginning of the year I started to partner up with some sponsors. I wanted to discuss with you whether you think that I’m still maintaining my integrity and remaining true to this site with that addition. My reasoning for starting this site in 2009 was to inspire and empower people to start growing their own food. At the current time, I’m pretty much...
Here’s what you’ll need: 1 head of cauliflower 2-3 cloves of garlic 1/2 red onion 3-4 sprigs of thyme 1/2 lemon tablespoon of olive oil Dash of sea salt and black pepper How to make: Cut up cauliflower into bite sized chunks and add to bowl. Bust up cloves of garlic, mince and add to cauliflower.. Cut up red onion and add to bowl. Pull thyme leaves off and add to...
There was a post on Serious Eats titled Food Trend you wish would fade away? Of the 160+ comments left, there were a handful that stood out to me. Those were left from the people who were hatin on the “organic” and “local” food trends. These comments reiterated to me how disconnected from food we have become. I’m pretty sure, but organic and...
It’s been about 3-months since I planted the swiss chard seeds when I started my garden from scratch. The two containers are now bursting with some nice greenage and are ready to be harvested and picked. They could very well be left to grow larger, but I wanna eat. When taking a closer look at the container, the chard is growing clumps and doing pretty well. To harvest...
Back in March I asked you to share you spring gardening plans and ideas. I got some great responses from people saying what they were starting to or planning to do. Katy said she was going to attempt to grow tomatoes in self-watering containers again. Twinkle69 said she (I think it’s a she) was reading up a lot and planning to get started soon. Barri and RootsandWingsCo...
Here’s what you’ll need: 2-4 carrots 2-3 cloves of garlic thumbnail size of ginger handful of cilantro lime tablespoon of olive or coconut oil (I used coconut oil) How to make: Mince up garlic and ginger and set aside. Cut carrots into small rounds. Put carrots into vegetable steamer for about 10 minutes. Add oil to a pan and heat it up. Add garilc and ginger and...
One of my imaginary friends on Facebook, Michael Martz, said that he was listening to a local SoCal radio station. They were discussing how organic food wasn’t as nutritious as non-organic and that the farming practices couldn’t sustain the world. He wanted my thoughts on this. The show was titled The Non-Organic Future. I’ve heard these arguments and...
The first thing you want to make sure before you plant anything in your garden is that you’re growing heirloom or non-hybrid seeds/transplants. This is really important when it comes to saving your seeds. With heirloom or non-hybrid varieties you’ll be able to successfully save the seeds from the plant. With hybrid seeds you won’t. What’s...
People always ask me how I keep so calm and poised on camera. No one really asks me that I just couldn’t think of a better segue for this post. Due to my fantastic editing skills, I’m able to edit out nearly all of my stumbles, stammers and stutters. I thought it would be fun to compile some of them here to laugh at. Hopefully you’ll enjoy and I can share...
Here’s what you’ll need: 1 lemon Handful of mint leaves 2 tablespoons of minced onion 1 tablespoon of olive oil 1 teaspoon of raw honey How to make: Mince up onion and put into a small jar. Cut lemon in half and squeeze over onion. Chop up mint and put in jar with lemon and onion. Set aside for a few minutes to let marinate. The longer it sits, the more flavorful...
There was a post on Nourished Kitchen titled The Fight to Label GMOs & 7 Ways You Can Avoid GMOs. The post was about fighting to have GMO (genetically modified organism) foods labeled as such. They currently aren’t. The author of the post, Jenny, writes how the food choices you make are becoming political statements and, “No longer do you choose whether...
When you are growing in containers, you need to make sure that you amend your soil because the nutrients are being washed through the container or absorbed by the plant. One way that you can amend the soil is by adding compost to it. To use the compost, you’ll want to add some to the container especially around the base of the plant. Then you’ll need to water...
I’ve talked about not having a perfect garden before, but I still get questions and comments about failing when gardening. People will say that they are scared of failing or making a mistake. They want things to be perfect. My sage advice to them is, “You will fail when you garden.” It’s impossible to avoid. It doesn’t matter what you see...
Here’s what you’ll need: 1-2 heads of broccoli 5-6 carrots 3-4 cloves of garlic 1 tablespoon of olive oil Dash of sea salt Herbs of your choice: I used parsley, cilantro and dill Lemon How to make: Pull of the top part of the broccoli and toss into bowl. Chop up the carrots and add to bowl with broccoli. Mince the garlic and put into the bowl. Sprinkle with olive...
If you are using manure tea to amend the soil in your there are a couple of different ways that you can use it. Directly in the reservoir container. If you made your self-watering containers with the pipe, you can pour the manure tea into the pipe as you would normally water. If you aren’t using the pipe, then you can remove the planting container and pour the manure...
Here’s what you’ll need: 1/2 head of cauliflower 1/2-1 lb of brussel sprouts 3-4 cloves of garlic 3-4 tablespoos of balsamic vinegar Tablespoon of olive oil Dash of sea salt How to make: Cut off knubby ends of brussel sprouts, then slice in half Chop up the cauliflower into chunks and add to bowl with brusssel sprouts Bust open a few cloves of garlic and...
A few weeks ago, I posted about white clusters on the stems of a spinach plant. It turns out that the spinach plant is bolting and that it’s not insects. There have a been some consecutive days of warm weather, which spinach doesn’t like. I assumed that greens could be grown year round here in LA, but I guess not all of them. Previously I learned that basil...
