DIY Soil Test in a M...

Growing your own food and gardening the day away can be fun and relaxing. It can also be frustrating and downright disappointing. One way to mitigate the possible frustration is to do your homework before you ever start planting. Trust me. I wish I had taken my own advice. A great (and pretty...

Building for Free with Papercrete Sep02

Building for Free with Papercrete

You have WAY too many newspapers on your stoop. Junk mail accounts for as much as 50% of your garbage. Your printer is evil and spits out hundreds of misaligned pages. Even if, by the grace of all that is holy, none of these descriptions currently fit your life, the odds are that there is excess paper somewhere in your vicinity. Good news! You can build something out of it. Up-cycle. Recycle. Reuse. Whatever you want to call it, re-purposing old materials to make something amazing is something of an art form. Papercrete is the medium by which some of the most amazing reuse projects are completed (including much of the house to the left). A...

Crowly Folk School Aug14

Crowly Folk School

Remember those things your grandfather just knew how to do? Almost like the knowledge came down from the heavens in the form of flannel-and-hat manna. And, just like the Hebrew people, you grew tired of the gift. Well, thankfully, all is not lost. Folk schools teach skills that are being...

Homemade Feta Cheese Jun06

Homemade Feta Cheese

Sometimes, you just need a little cheese. Most of the time, you don’t have the money for it (or at least I don’t). From the prolific blog Foodie With Family comes one of the most comprehensive recipes for making delicious, savory feta cheese. Here at Cultivated, we love the...

DIY Jar Comb Honey May05

DIY Jar Comb Honey

Just to preface this, there is no one article to rule them all when it comes to beekeeping. There are, however, thousands of dedicated beekeepers who give their advice freely on sites like the BeeSource Forums. It’s a good thing, too. Bees are integral to the ecosystem. Without them,...