How Many People are in the World?
The ever expanding world population arises the greater question of how the planet’s limited resources will be used among so many people. We already know that resources are not distributed equally. The wealthy populations in the West use far more oil based resources than the combined people of developing nations, despite their greater numbers. Will...
What is Potable Water?
Potable water is the most valued resource in the world. What is potable water? Simply, it is water that is safe to drink. You drink it daily, possibly without giving it a thought. Potable water comes in many forms, clean and crisp spring water to heavily treated tap water. Although some drinking water is more...
What is a Woodland?
Woodlands have been used as a mystical setting for fairy tales and folklore for centuries, as in Midsummer’s Night Dream and Snow White. Yet ecologically speaking, what is a woodland really? A woodland is an area dominated by trees that cast a shade upon the understory of other plant species that thrive beneath it. A...
What is Borax?
Wouldn’t the world be better off if there was a simple substance, widely available and safe that could be used for multiple uses around the home? Well, there is- and its borax? What is borax? Borax is a useful mineral with many applications and was historically used in food preservation for many former civilizations. Borax...
Complementary Currency and Its Importance Within Communities
Complementary currency is, simply put an agreement within a community to use currency that is non-national as a way in which to pay each other for services delivered for example. It is also sometimes referred to as Complementary Community Currency. This kind of currency can be implemented in two different ways: Mutual Credit or...
Sustainable Timber Helps Reduce Clear Cutting
Timber is the name given to trees that are grown specifically for wood use in furniture and construction. Sustainable timber is a term that assumes timber can be sourced and used indefinitely, however this is simply not true. When taking biomass (cutting down trees) from any forest, key materials for future healthy forest growth will...
How is Electricity Made?
Electricity supplies every whim in modern life. It powers our lights, cars, keeps us warm or cool. Interestingly there is a diversity of ways to make electricity, although not all ways are preferred. In short, electricity is produced by converting kinetic energy (or physical movement) with the use of a turbine. As a turbine moves...
Drying Herbs at Home
Herbs can be used for a variety of purposes: as culinary flavoring, adding spice and depth to meals, or as medicine to treat or prevent common ailments. Having a home medicine chest of medicinal plants is extremely useful and growing ones own herbs and preserving them for later use past their normal expiration time are...
The Neem Plant: Multiple Benefits, Naturally
Neem is a useful plant. It’s an evergreen tree endemic to the Indian subcontinent and distributed throughout tropical ecosystems. Neem oil, the most notable derivative of the plant, is made from pressing the fruits and seeds of the plant. Neem oil has been used in India traditionally in Ayurvedic medicinal practice to treat a variety...
How to Can Food: Beginners’ Style
Canning food is a reliable form of food preservation. By taking the bounty of the fat times, the summer months and converting them into jellies, pickles, sauces, stocks and other products, you can store up a reserve of food for the lean times, winter months when few, if any, crops will grow. It’s a labor-intensive...
Easy Yogurt Recipe: The Magic of Fermentation!
To make yogurt, you’ll need milk. Whatever the amount of milk you use will be the amount of yogurt it yields. For this recipe, we’ll use a half gallon. You’ll also need some store-bought yogurt with active cultures. You’ll also need two pots which can nest within one another, to create a double-boiler and a...
What is Fermentation?
Think of some of your favorite foods. Yogurt, bread, sauerkraut, pickles. Drinks? Beer, cider, kombucha. What do they have in common? They’re fermented. Fermentation not only makes food nutritious and tasty, it’s also an ancient form of food preservation, born from time-honored rituals that were practiced long before anyone could grasp microbiology. There is evidence...
