Dehydrating Intro « Viggies Veggies. Several people have asked me about dehydrating in the last week or two, so thought I’d do a little write up about it. Dehydrating is my favorite method of preserving what I grow, so think it’s kind of funny that I haven’t really talked about it here! Dehydrating is a bit easier to do than canning because you prep the veggies or fruits and can let it sit in the dehydrator unattended. Because it’s less of a time investment, I did it a lot more when I was working and going to school and time was at a premium. You are also able to do any sized batches, which is great for those of us with smaller gardens who don’t always have enough for canning.
It is recommended that you blanch most vegetables before dehydrating to” stop enzyme action and enhance destruction of microorganisms”. But honestly, I haven’t really noticed a difference between blanching and not blanching. Most fruits and vegetables can be dehydrated at about 125 degrees. I dehydrate everything until crisp to maximize storage. Four African Teenage Girls Create a Pee-Powered Generator | Living on GOOD. In the past week or so since Hurricane Sandy devastated a large portion of the East Coast, we've seen people get creative about ways to harness power.
From sharing outlets on the street , to using bikes as generators , people have come up with innovative ways to charge their cell phones and other items necessary for everyday life. While these ideas were resourceful, none of them are nearly as outside-the-box as what four African teenage girls came up with: a pee-powered generator. During the Maker Faire Africa , in Lagos, Nigeria on November 5 and 6, 14-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola presented their unique proposal.
According to The Next Web , here's how it works: Urine is put into an electrolytic cell, which cracks the urea into nitrogen, water, and hydrogen. The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification, which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder. This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator. Eco Bath by Jang Woo-seok. Use Your Water Twice It goes in the sink, then it goes in the toilet. What’s that? It’s your water bill! You’ve got to conserve in any way you can. Here’s a lovely simple system that makes use of the fact that toilet water never needs to be as clean as it usually is. The “Eco Bath” concept uses 50% reused water and 50% new water for a toilet system half-ways to nature friendly. You simply must read this little poem written about this toilet system by it’s designer, Jang Woo-seok: Express the flow of water.
Fresh, yes? Jang gets the idea for the Eco Bath from the naturally flowing waterways all around us. Designer: Jang Woo-seok. The World's First Vertical Forest Is Growing Sky High. Did you know that Milan is one of the most polluted cities in Italy? Apparently urban sprawl and increased emissions are major causes for slumping air quality in the international fashion capital. So Italian architect Stefano Boeri has formulated an unusual plan to give the city back what it’s lacking: namely, some greenery.
Bosco Verticale is Italian for “Vertical Forest.” The project took inspiration from traditional Italian towers covered in ivy. Though Harvard Design Magazine called the project “dreamily utopian,” this tower is no fantasy. There’s lots of science behind the project to prove that it’ll actually improve the city atmosphere, and not just the skyline. The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb carbon dioxide and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution, improving the quality of living spaces and saving energy. Home Solar Power Batteries in Development - Sharp, Others Pushing Battery Technology.
The Man Who Moved a Mountain. Illinois Boy Wins $1,000, Donates Money to Neighbor Fighting Leukemia. Forget toys and video games. When Wyatt Erber won $1,000, the Illinois third-grader knew exactly what he wanted to do with the money. The 8-year-old gave his winnings to the family of his young neighbor, 2-year-old Cara Kielty, who is battling leukemia. "He was really aware of what cancer is," said Wyatt's mom, Noelle Erber. "When he found out Cara had cancer, his heart sank. " One week after the Cara Kielty was diagnosed, Noelle Erber asked her son if he'd like to enter a scavenger hunt sponsored by a local bank. "Wyatt immediately said, 'Let's do it, and if I win the $1,000, I want to give it to Cara,'" Erber said. Winning seemed like a long shot, but Wyatt was determined to win the money for Cara, Erber said. Together they visited businesses in their hometown of Edwardsville, gradually collecting the 20 clues needed to complete the scavenger hunt.
When they found out they had been the first team to turn in all the clues, Wyatt called Cara's mother, Trisha Kielty. If you’re a pub and you do this, I love you | HealthRiD. ECOoler tile screen for analog air conditioning by Mey kahn and Boaz Kahn. Analog Cooling of Interior Spaces How would you like to be able to cool your house (assuming you live in a part of the world where it gets hot enough to need cooling) without the use of electricity at all, whatsoever?
What if instead of using electric power to stay cool in your home all day, all you had to do was run a bit of cold water in the morning? It appears that designers Mey kahn and Boaz Kahn have transported an ancient secret into the now that’ll do just that, and with a fantastically lovely bit of interior design as a conduit. The design we’re speaking of here is ECOoler, a sort of tile system that connects via water hose nozzles, creating a grid of essentially natural coolers that work by evaporating water. The aesthetics are brought to the project by one of the two traditional Middle-Eastern reference points used in this project: the Mashrabiya, an architectural element that acts as mediator between the inside and the outside. Designers: Mey kahn and Boaz Kahn. The Leopold adds solar panels on roof of historic building | BBJ Today. One of downtown Bellingham’s most historic buildings has made a modern move by installing a solar panel system.
The Leopold Retirement Residence, 1224 Cornwall Ave., installed 36 solar panels on its roof in March. The solar panels are expected to produce between 8,000 and 9,000 kilowatt hours of annual electricity, which is about 10 percent of The Leopold’s power consumption. “This continues our commitment to a triple bottom-line philosophy, implementing practices that create social, economic and environmental benefits,” said David Johnston, majority owner of The Leopold, in a March 30 press release. The Leopold was built in 1929 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Before installing solar panels, improvements were made to the building’s boiler system and lighting to save energy.
Johnston said the solar-panel project became possible with the support of the Community Energy Challenge, a joint program administered by Sustainable Connections and The Opportunity Council. Funny monkey experiment. Posted on February 7, 2012 in Humor If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . Thanks for visiting! Rate this Post Loading ... So... Check this out on our Partner Network. The City Repair Project - Non-Profit Organization - Portland, OR. EPA Releases Interactive Map of Facilities Guilty of Eco-Crimes. Image via EPA The EPA has released a new interactive map that lays out the locations of facilities across the US that have violated environmental laws, been caught by the EPA, and subjected to enforcement actions.
As facilities are caught for polluting air, water and land, the information about the actions taken against them by the EPA, the monies gathered from them as law suits are settled, and other criminal enforcement actions are recorded and the information made available via plots on the map. We can hop on this map to check out what is going on nearby, and have access to information about the polluters in our local areas. Cleantechies reports, "In the past, this information was difficult for the public to access, and in some cases either was not made available to the public, or required a Freedom of Information Act filing to obtain. This is changing as more states and the federal government is making this information available on line. " Long Island City lab on cutting edge of urban farming with aquaponic system
Christie Farriella for New York Daily News Rael Clarke works in his aquaponics lab in Long Island City where he grows heirloom vegetables and tilapia using a water-based system. A former Abercrombie & Fitch model has become a pioneering urban farmer without trading in his preppy clothes for overalls. Rael Clarke, the 24-year-old owner of LOFT LIC, transformed a Long Island City office into a laboratory where organic vegetables and fish are grown using an eco-friendly aquaponics system.
Clarke plans to turn the system into a business that sets up the water and space-saving designs on rooftops and vacant lots across the city. He is trying to raise $6,000 by March 1 on the fundraising website kickstarter.com for the project. “My plan is to spread the knowledge of how to grow your own food,” Clarke said. The growing system builds on the local food movement that has spawned urban farms and greenhouses all over the city.
The waste becomes food for the plants once they sprout. Moss graffiti making tips. Posted on February 23, 2012 in Humor If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Facebook or Twitter . Thanks for visiting! Rate this Post Loading ... So... What do you think? Check this out on our Partner Network. Why we should teach philosophy to kids. Turn-Toaster-Sideways-Get-Grilled-Cheese.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x414 pixels) Ultimate Vertical Hydroponic Farm on the Cheap.. Gift away green crops! *** for more info and pictures please visit my blog at Ok guys i apologize for the crappy instructable .. i kinda rushed it in order to make it to the gift contest... i obviously lost that one.. so i'm coming back to fix this one... maybe i can do better in the Shopbot contest :) Ok originally i said a lot of things about a concept.. i wrote a blog while building this and i reused the stuff i wrote back then.. of course this is no longer a concept.. i fixed it into almost a final design.. i'm going back and cleaning this up so if i left concept or past tense stuff please forgive me..
Looks like i lost all of the contests i entered and i'm not elegible for the gardening contest going on right now.. RIght now i believe my best chances of winning are on this Nano holder with earphone organizer. So please!! Tech. According to the World Health Organization, about 20 percent of the world’s people live in regions that don’t have enough water for their needs. With the global population increasing by 80 million each year, a third of the planet will likely face water shortages by 2025. This looming water crisis is inextricably linked to food production because agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all fresh water used, and obtaining irrigation water in arid regions has serious environmental impacts. Drilling wells can deplete groundwater, and desalination is energy-intensive and leaves behind concentrated brine. The Seawater Greenhouse, however, provides what may be an economical and sustainable way of producing fresh water and crops in hot, dry regions near the ocean.
Photo credit: World Bank Photo Collection A seawater greenhouse produces crops year-round in hot dry areas using only seawater and sunlight. Photo credit: Seawater Greenhouse Ltd. Kentucky man buys Kmart inventory, gives it all away | The Upshot. A Kentucky man purchased every last bit of inventory from a Kmart store that was two days away from shutting its doors. But he didn't keep the stuff for himself. Rankin Paynter gave it all way to a local charity. Paynter spent a total of $200,000 to buy the goods, which ranged from clothes to office supplies. According to a video from WHDH Boston, Paynter was buying supplies for his business when the idea hit. Paynter asked the cashier what they planned to do with the store's inventory when it closed down. The cashier responded that it would go to "Kmart power buyers. " Paynter became a power buyer, bought up everything, and then gave it away. Paynter is a successful businessman, but he had a rough time when he was growing up.
Not surprisingly, Paynter's massive gift to Clark County Community Services was the organization's single biggest donation ever. More popular Yahoo! • J.C. . • Walmart thinks like a start-up • Sears Holdings returns to a profit Society & Culture. LOOK: Guerilla Gardening with Pocket Change - Cities. When Daniel Phillips and Kim Karlsrud inherited five old cherry red candy machines, they considered filling them with sweets and placing them outside for neighborhood passersby.
“My dad was giving up vending and hoisted some machines on us and we didn’t know what to do with them,” says Karlsrud. But the recent Otis grads and Project H collaborators decided on a different solution. They filled the machines with seed bombs: balls of dirt packed with native wildflower seeds ready to land in unsuspecting sidewalk cracks, vacant lots, and parking medians.
“For anyone who has spent time in a city that actually has functional open public space, the lack of open green space in LA is shocking,” says Phillips. It’s not that Los Angeles doesn’t have green space. But Project Green Aid is less a cure for that urban ailment than it is a public awareness campaign—a kind of casual activism. Live Green - Ditch the Traditional Planter and Hang Your Plants Like Artwork!