RECIPE: Beth’s Crazy Mesquite Cake

After attending Peggy Sorensen’s recent talk on mesquite, I tried making flour using a coffee grinder, and wanted to try it in a recipe.  So I adapted a crazy cake recipe (it’s also called wacky cake or depression cake, since the recipe originated during the depression when eggs, milk and butter were hard to come by).  I needed to make it gluten free, and since mesquite flour is so sweet, decided to try to omit the sugar (it worked!).

The Future of Food ~ Native Bees

The Future of Food – Native Bees by Guest Blogger: Dave Hunter of Crown Bees: We know there are huge differences in how pollen is carried by the European honey bee and our native bees. Relatively unknown, people are surprised to learn that hole-nesting native bees like our mason and leafcutter bees are actually much better pollinators than honey bees.
Research shows that mason bees can significantly increase the yield of…

What 1.5 Years in Asia Taught Me About Food

By Guest Blogger Tayler Jenkins : I really like food. Eating food, cooking food, harvesting food, thinking about food. Truly, I can never really get food (and food systems) off my mind.

My activism started at a young age. From encouraging neighbors to vote on animal welfare propositions in 8th grade, to co-leading the organization Real Food ASU in college, to working for Urban Farm U, to gardening and…

Volunteer squash, melon, and gourds

Bonus surprises from soil experiments By Janis Norton. – What happens when you experiment in your yard? For me and my Two Peace in a Pod Urban Farm, it is an amazing bonus crop of pumpkins, squash, watermelons, sunflowers, and onions! For last several seasons, I have not been ready to do any serious new garden work since I was busy with work, and as a result…