FARMcurious Blog
Win an Ultimate Homestead Starter Kit!
The Oakland Eat Real Festival is this weekend and for fun we're doing a photo booth with lots of silly props. To spice it up even more we thought it would be fun to allow people to tag the photos of themselves on the FARMcurious Facebook page to be entered into a drawing for a really amazing Ultimate Homestead Starter Kit. If you happen to be a conscientious objector of Facebook or you don't live locally enough to swing by our photo booth, we wanted to offer another way to be entered into the drawing. So here it is.
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2014 | By Nicole Easterday |
Oakland Planning Commission Discusses Right to Grow Food TONIGHT (9/17) Please attend!
TONIGHT (Sept 17th) at 6pm the Oakland Planning Commission will be discussing a major positive change being considered to affect the currently confusing (and somewhat prohibitive) urban agriculture permitting structure. If the proposed changes pass, it will be a huge win for Oakland backyard farmers. It's important to have high attendance in support of the changes, so please considering making it if you're able.
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
FARMcurious Fermenting Set - Troubleshooting
Uh-oh. Something went wrong with your fermentation set? Let's troubleshoot... Mold It looks like there's mold growing on top of my produce. What do I do? First, are you sure it's mold? It's normal for a fermentation to get cloudy, especially near the bottom of the jar- that's your bacteria so don't worry about that at all! If there really is a thin layer of yeast on top of your brine, we recommend pulling it off and tasting the veggies underneath. The good thing to know is that they won't kill you - lots of people ferment with the assumption that they'll have to do this (and Michael Pollan on NPR told me that the CDC has no documented cases of illness from lacto-fermented food).
Posted Wednesday, August 20, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
7 Ways to Connect with What You Eat
"They're growing!" My friend reported to me that a mushroom-growing kit I'd given her had, in fact, made mushrooms. "Now what do I do with it?" she inquired. "You eat them." I replied. "Are you sure they are OK?" she asked with some trepidation. 
Don't put that in your mouth, you have no idea where its been! We've all heard that before, right? But most of us frankly give little thought to where our food has been. It could have come from Tulsa or Timbuktu, but safely wrapped in plastic or sealed in a can and marked with a 'best by' date, we have come to trust what is packaged more than what we make ourselves. So how do we reconnect with the food that has become so distant from us?
FARMcurious Fermenting Set - FAQs
A list of answers for frequently asked questions!
Posted Tuesday, August 05, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
Lacto-fermentation Recipes
Some delicious lacto-fermentation recipes to try!
Posted Monday, July 07, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
Fermentation Vessels
Lactofermentation can be done in almost any type of vessel. Here are some options.
Posted Sunday, July 06, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
Who says fermenting is good for you?
A Kickstarter backer to our Fermenting Set project recently posted that he'd like to see some links to articles claiming the health benefits of fermentation. Well, ask and you shall receive
Posted Sunday, June 15, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
FARMcurious Fermenting Set - a Simpler Way to Culture
You can hardly turn on the news without hearing about a new discovery about the "human microbiome", that collection of bacteria living in an on our bodies. Study findings tell us that a more diverse collection of 'gut bacteria' will help with everything from a weak immune system, irritable bowel syndrome and even obesity!
Posted Tuesday, May 13, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |
Preserving 101: Canning & Drying Tomatoes, Oakland
Tomatoes are here!! September might as well be tomato month - it's the month we've eaten all the fresh tomatoes we can stand and need to find a way to put them up for winter use. This class will cover all the canning and drying basics as we preserve a gigantic tomato harvest.
Posted Friday, May 09, 2014 | By Alycia Lang |