“Bryon Waibel runs what he believes is the world’s only urban beekeeping store [in San Francisco]. It’s called Her Majesty’s Secret Beekeeper and Waibel, who uses the handle 006, does seem to believe that he/ the store/ urban beekeepers are serving a cause.”
This video follows Greg Willerer of Detroit Dirt and Brother Nature Produce in Detroit who is trying to help build a viable food system in Detroit. As part of those efforts he’s trying to create a local compost network (he’s involved breweries, coffee houses and even the Detroit Zoo — all of whom give the project their waste).
“Complete video directions for making tofu at home.”
Kenny Point of www.veggiegardeningtips.com, demonstrates how to grow your own crop of gourmet mushrooms through hardwood inoculation.
He says this works better, is cheaper and produces better yields than buying a mushroom growing kit.
For this project you’ll need a drill, a hardwood log, mushroom inoculant, wooden dowels, wax and a way to melt the wax and keep it warm (Kenny uses an old crock pot).
How to make halloumi cheese at home, simply presented by Guru Ted in New Zealand.
I had no idea it could be so easy — and inexpensive — to make.
Here’s halloumi being produced on a larger scale in the traditional manner in Lysi, Cyprus. Notice how they use baskets as molds.
The newsurvivalist gives a detailed walk-through of his urban rabbit raising set-up (he houses his Florida white rabbits in his one-car garage). Newsurvivalist recommends Bob Bennett‘s books on rabbit raising and has based a lot of his rabbit raising operation on these books. “Don’t say you can’t grow your own livestock because you live in a city, because I have proven it here. I live in a city,” he says.
Watch for the water distribution system he has set up for his rabbits. It’s really interesting.
Note that the last two videos are about slaughtering, skinning and butchering the rabbits and show these processes.
An intro to several motivated farmers who farm in Vancouver, Canada – their motivations, the rewards and the impact they hope it will have for their community.
Meet your Urban Farmer (trailer) from Fire and Light Media Group on Vimeo.
This video looks at the decline of West Oakland, California and how the community has started to bounce back in part through community and backyard gardening initiatives. The video looks specifically at the work that non-profit City Slicker Farms has been doing in the community.
This is a great talk by Laura Allen (here walking us through her home humanure system) and Gregory Bullock about setting up a home graywater system.
“Greywater (water that comes from sinks, showers, and washing machines) turns wasterwater and its nutrients into irrigation water, saving time, money, and fresh drinking water. Whats more plants love it, especially fruit trees, berries and vines. Last year California rewrote its greywater code, making simple greywater reuse legal and affordable. Learn the why and hows of greywater reuse, and how to transform your household plumbing into a greywater irrigation system.”
They are in California so some of the impacts, positive and negative, that they talk about here focus on that state, but the issues are similar everywhere.
The talk covers really important Dos and Don’ts. Some topics mulch and mulch basins as filters, choosing good soaps and cleaners to use in your home if you are going to set up a graywater system, how to set up plumbing for the system (they look at a system that uses the pump on the washing machine as its driver), costs, types of crops it is suitable to irrigate (apparently root crops are out but it’s fine for “fruit” and leaf crops.
