Jay Walljasper covers Detroit: Not Your Father's Motor City, The Surprise Behind Detroit's Emerging Comeback, Young People’s Fascination With Motor City is Only Part of Detroit Revitalization, A Food Commons Grows In Detroit. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns on Nov 27, 2012 - 31 comments

The old lady always called me her boy... and she kept me in her room from the time that I was born until her death, then willed me to her son Samuel. When she was dying she called me to her bedside... Taking my hand in hers she told me to be a good boy and stay with Samuel. To Samuel she said, "Keep my boy as long as you live to remember me by." Larry Lapsley began life as someone else's property, but he managed to break free from his mistress' dying wish by way of a remarkable journey that would lead him to becoming the first black homesteader in Saline County, Kansas: When I came to Salina I was twenty-five years old and was without schooling. I had never gone to school a day in my life and I haven't any education yet but there is one thing I have, a good home and plenty of friends. [more inside]
posted by amyms on Sep 18, 2010 - 22 comments

Back before refrigeration, humanity turned to fermentation for much of our food preservation. With the help of some friendly bacteria and/or yeasts, home cooks can transmute tea into kombucha, and milk into yogurt, creme fraiche and buttermilk. [more inside]
posted by mccarty.tim on Jan 18, 2010 - 66 comments

Free land. Northwest North Dakota has an opportunity for 5,000 people. Not the first 5,000... the right 5,000. odds are, you are not a candidate for nw north dakota. you have succumbed to the cities. all of your pleasure must be provided and you gladly stand in long lines to receive them. but if you are of those who is wondering what they are doing in that line, continue this may be the journey you have been waiting for, but had no idea where the line was to get tickets. it's ok; there are no lines in nw north dakota./small> They're doing it in Kansas, too.
posted by Kwantsar on Nov 22, 2005 - 49 comments

Manifesto: The Age of Plunder is over.

John Seymour, author of the manifesto, is the doyen of the British smallholder movement (US: read "homesteading" or "back-to-the-land"). John and his ex-wife Sally were "homesteaders" in England at a time when "self-sufficient" living was incomprehensible crankery to the mainstream. His books (e.g.) are witty, entertaining, and instructive. He has not dimmed with age; at 84 he was arrested and tried for partially destroying a field of GMO sugar beets in an act of civil disobedience.

(If the Age of Plunder isn't over, it can't go on much longer.)
posted by bricoleur on Feb 24, 2005 - 23 comments