videos
Hester Street Fair: homemade, homegrown, hyperlocal shopping
For over a century Hester Street has been home to New York City's biggest and oldest pushcart markets, so when SuChin Pak (and partners Ron Castellano, Adam Zeller and Suhyun Pak) decided to start a flea market here in the summer of 2010 they pronounced it "established in 1895 ...
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23 hours, 50 minutes ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
Reclaimed, recycled, passive solar, tiny house on wheels
Jenine Alexander built her own home using reclaimed materials she found at the dump or off craigslist. Total cost: the price of a used trailer and some fasteners.Her tiny home on wheels was such a success she decided to build a second one, this time for sale, with fellow ...
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1 week, 3 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
A tiny home on wheels: breaking with minimum size standards
Many communities, counties and states in the U.S. have minimum size standards, meaning that there are homes that are just too small to be legal. They range from a not-so-tiny 900-square-feet minimum for New York State to a whopping 2,500-square-foot minimum for Hillsborough, CA.When Forge Ahead Construction ...
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1 week, 3 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
DIY home for less than $3,500
In a town where the median home price is over half a million dollars, Jenine Alexander decided to build her own. "It's a house that's mobile… For me it just made sense because I don't own any land yet. Land is so expensive around here like I ...
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1 week, 4 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
Homemade sauerkraut
The jury may be out on the exact effect of probiotics on the "good" gut bacteria, but protecting our flora is definitely important, given that we have ten times more microbes than cells in our body.One way to get probiotics into your diet is through fermented foods. Sourdoughs, yogurts ...
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2 weeks, 2 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
DIY scrap house
"Black Kettle" hasn't lived in a home since 1974 which might explain why he chose to build his own when he finally opted for a roof over his head. Short of the insulation just about everything is secondhand.In this video, Black Kettle shows us his windows from a ...
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2 weeks, 3 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff 1 comments
DIY solar shower
A solar shower is one of the simplest ways of using the sun's energy. It can be as simple as attaching a garden hose (that is left to sit in the sun) to a showerhead (as long as there's a bit of gravity involved)."Black Kettle", now a ...
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2 weeks, 4 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
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The case for raw milk (vs cardboard cow)
Before the advent of pasteurization, all milk was raw milk. There were also a lot more food-related illnesses. Universal pasteurization was introduced in the U.S. around the same time of rapid urbanization as a way to help control bacterial diseases. One might think this would be the end of ...
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2 weeks, 5 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff 1 comments
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Backyard goats for milk and play
They're as playful as dogs and they also provide milk (and if you chose, meat). Backyard goats may not have reached the popularity of pet chickens, but they're gaining ground.Even in some cities- like Seattle- you can have a couple small goats within city limits (see Where ...
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2 weeks, 5 days ago by: kirstendirksen staff 1 comments
A family bike: a bicycle built for 3 (plus 1)
If you prefer bikes to cars, having young kids doesn't mean you can't stick to two wheels. When the kids are really small you can use bike seats or even a baakfiets, but once your kids are ready to help pull their weight it's time to think ...
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3 weeks ago by: kirstendirksen staff comments
