GardenFork – Eclectic DIY – Page 60 – How To Videos, A Podcast, and Labradors.

GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

A Drive goes perpendicular to a Street : Queens, NY Food with John Baronian

Queens is that borough of New York City that many people don’t go to or know about. ( so is Staten Island, but that’s another story )

But Queens,NY is a giant polyglot multicultural crossroads, with a very confusing street naming protocol. All this means is that there is a lot of great food.

John Baronian, a Queens resident and appreciator of food is on this episode of GardenFork Radio to tell us where to go in Queens to eat good food.

John wrote out the show notes for you all, we could not find the exact number of neighborhoods in Queens, but lets just say there are a lot :

Queens is the most diverse immigrant community in New York City and has been for a long, long time. It is a true melting pot. Remember a melting pot is not homogenous, it is blobs of matter in this case cultures, and in the X number of neighborhoods that make up Queens each has its unique set of immigrant cultures. Watching the popular Food related tv shows you will typically see a tour of just one or two of those X number of neighborhoods surrounding Jackson Heights, where you will typically see Indian, Korean, and Chinese and a smattering of other cultures. In this episode John Baronian aka johnbaloney is going to talk abut his nook of Queens: Corona, Rego Park, and Forest Hills.

Friend and follow John at http://www.facebook.com/johnbaloney or http://www.twitter.com/johnbaloney or his Flickr photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnbaloney

Our Sponsor

First Stop Corona.
Make your way to CityField to watch the Mets win or if you think they might not do so well better yet check out the Queens Museum and see the Panorama of New York built for the 1964 World’s Fair then for some tasty treats nearby try:
Timmy O’s Frozen Custard

Timmy yo’s frozen custard a Review that does it justice: http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/10/timmy-os-frozen-custard-queens-corona-nyc.html

49-07 104th Street, Corona NY 11368 (at 49th Avenue; map)
516-242-1843

Lemon Ice King of Corona
Try the Fresh Fruit Ice

Look for some of the awesome Empanada stores and stands in Corona. My guess is each has its merits.

24/6 Kosher food Vending Machine in The Queens Zoo *It doesn’t distribute on Shabatt (Thats what keeps it Kosher)

Rego Park / Forest Hills
An Easy Subway trip from Manhattan to see Rego Park and Forest Hills Foodery on Queens Blvd Starting at 63rd Drive. Take the R or V train (Change from the F or E train at Jackson Heights) to 63rd Drive

Istanbul Restaurant – Dolmas, Sarma, rice, Kebabs, Doner it’s all around awesome Turkish Food located in Rego Park, 95-36 Queens Boulevard, Rego Park, NY 11374

Cheburechnaya Inc. – Russian meat and vegetable pies, borekas *note: They observe Shabbat and are closed about 2hrs before sundown Friday to 1 after sundown Saturday so check the website for when that is. http://www.cheburechnaya.com

Bens’s Best -Brisket, Corned Beef, Chopped liver – intense and delightful http://www.bensbest.com/

Carmel Grocery Ararat jams – sour cherry pits and all, Date Jam, Fig Jam, lamajun frozenpizza, humus and Locum (Turkish Delight) that is better than you will ever get. A good set of Yelp Reviews are found Here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/carmel-grocery-forest-hills its located at, 64-27 108th St in Forest Hills, NY 11375 (* Hint an address like 64-27 in Queensspeak alludes to it is near 64th rd, drive or avenue but doesn’t typically indicate which)

My local Deli At 99-63 99th Street (it doesn’t really have a name..) pickels, breads, Boreakas, Lox and cured fish and Russian candy *They observe Shabbat

Andre’s Hungarian Strudel & Pastries Strudelby the yard! They also sell prepared Hungarian savories like Goulash etc. http://www.andresbakery.com

Knish Nosh knish, giant pig in a blanket Motzah ball soup found at: http://knishnosh.com/

Metropolitan Avenue – Forest Hills
Aigner Chocolates – “Jellied” Fruit Slices, Marzipan and other handmade Chocolates. Krause’s Candy Kitchen / Aigner Chocolates, 103-02 Metropolitan Ave, Forest Hills, NY 11375 http://www.aignerchocolates.com/aboutus.asp

johnbaloney’s Favorite Foodies

Eric Rochow
David Lebovitz @davidlebovitz or www.davidlebovitz.com

February 21, 2010
February is a time for Planning

A time to look over what you have done. What has succeed and what has failed. And that other thing that failed. If you make a light weight cold frame, be prepared to search for it when it blows away. April showers bring May flowers and Mayflowers bring Pilgrims.

Looking back, I started researching planting by moon phase last year on Gardenfork discussion forums. I’ve hashed some thing out and have found that it’s common sense. In the Chicago Land Area, Mother’s Day is the start of the gardening season. About five weeks before Mother’s day is the full moon. The full moon causes a gravitation pull that may be beneficial to root vegetables. Either way, it’s five weeks before the latest frost and when you can-weather providing-start root vegetables, like beets, carrots, radishes.

The new moon is good for lettuces, greens, broccoli, cauliflower, and grains. This is about four weeks before the latest frost. The increased moon light helps to bring leafy vegetables up and out. I’m going to start my amaranth and quinoa, and most of my flowers about April 17th, outside from seed, weather providing.

The second quarter, a week after the new moon, is good for tomatoes, peppers, squashes, beans, and other plants that grow with seeds inside. This makes senses when looking at the traditional calendar since these are warm weather plants.

The third quarter is a time of pruning or resting. I don’t think many of us take the time to enjoy what we have done. The best time I had in my garden last year was watching a pair of yellow finches go after one of my sunflowers. They were funny little birds, with the female “yapping” at the male.

By my plan. I will start, from seed outside as soon as April 3rd with the root vegetables, then wait a week, plant the greens and flowers, and finally the peppers and tomatoes. If everything freezes and fails, then I have enough seeds and sense just to try the next month.

Ps. There are exceptions. Broad Fava Beans like to be sowed super early. I’m thinking about March 27th for those.

February 19, 2010
My V-Day Gift: Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller

I don’t own a lot of cookbooks. I don’t think a lot of them have a voice. This one does.

ad hoc at home

I only know a bit about Thomas Keller. He is the owner of Per Se in NYC ( never been there, would like to someday ) and The French Laundry in Yountville, CA. He is a very good chef.

But often very good chefs don’t publish very good cookbooks. Thomas Keller does.

Part giant food picture book, Part you-can-cook-this, All comfort food is how I would describe it in one sentence. What I like here is the dishes Mr. Keller cooks here are super approachable.

Even I can cook some of them. I will do the short ribs recipe this weekend.

I think I heard a story Mr Keller on NPR about how he reconnected with his father after after years of not much contact, and that the elder Mr Keller moved to Yountville and in his last years he became a fixture at the restaurant. The younger Mr Keller cooked him his last meal, and ate it with him.

Can’t ask more than that from life.

February 17, 2010
I like the smell of compost.

Nature Mill Composter

There. I said it. I enjoy it. There’s compost buried in the veg garden. Compost in the rotating container. Compost “aging” over the winter in planter boxes. There’s a lot of compost. I like the musty, sour, earth smell of it.

Eric had mentioned on a GardenFork Radio Show how I use the Lasagna method of composting. My method is based on Patricia Lanza Method, Lasagna Gardening. Five years ago, I started with a clay based lot, and have transformed it into dark, rich, worm filled soil, layer by layer.

In the fall, I empty my compost bins into the gardens. I’m not big on chopping down stuff so it’s not uncommon to find an avocado skin, or citrus peel. I’ve kneeled in one rotten potato and that is a stinky mess. A good poking stick will help break down your compost while in the bin with out a lot of turning or lifting. I’ll cover that with some leaf mulch and let winter do it’s work. Come Spring, I have Black Gold! One beautiful dry spring day, I’ll hit the gardens with a hoe and stir everything up. Inspect areas that didn’t break down and pick out any nasty bits to recompost. Make it all pretty and ready for planting.

Last year I got the Nature Mill Composter. It has an arm that spins and is heated. Well, here’s the thing. It’s marketed as an indoor, fairly odor less machine and we have not found that to be true. One of the good reasons for that is, I throw just about everything in the composter with out chopping it up. I also toss in paper towels. It’s my lazy way of balancing the dry with the wet compost ingredients. This year we have it on the back porch. While it does get below freezing, the porch provides some protection from the wind.

I’m happy to say, it’s working pretty well. When it does get clogged up, I’ll dig it out and toss it in the other compost bin. There are days where it smells pretty strongly, but it’s not bothering us. It will sure help with the amount of compostable materials Jim and I produce in the winter, but it’s not our main composter.

All the stems, roots, leaves, plants, crazy tomato plants that developed legs and walked across the yard, makes up most of our compostable stuff. It’s also caused me to spread tomato seeds through out my yard. At least we don’t have to plant tomatoes. Yard waste pretty much ends up in a pile in a corner of the yard, until the compost bin is emptied in the fall. I fill it with all the yard waste for winter. The freezing and thawing seems to help break stuff down quickly.

Composting is pretty easy. Just like anything worth doing, it just has it’s disgusting bits too.

February 16, 2010
Eric’s Garden Seed Choices for spring

I over-ordered. Do you?

I got my seed orders this week, and I now know I probably over-ordered. Kinda like going into Costco or BJs and buying the whole case of mayonaise.

I buy seeds from Fedco and Johnny’s . The bulk of my seeds come from Fedco, and then from Johnny’s I get some special stuff, like pelleted carrot seed.

What is pelleted seed? Its is seeds that have been coated with clay, or something like clay, to make the seed larger and easier to handle. You can buy pelleted seeds that use organic or non-organic seed coatings.

Why pelleted carrot seed? Its a lot easier to plant. I’m not getting nearly as many carrot seeds, but the seeds I’m getting will more likely sprout, I think. It also means less thinning, as its a lot easier to see the seed, so I can space it better. I’m thinking about covering my carrot seed with plain sand this year.

Early Nelson carrot seed, pelleted from Johnny's Seeds

Jean Ann Van Krevelen, who appeared on GardenFork Radio, described Fedco Seeds, and the people who work there ( it’s a coop ) as having Seed Integrity . That’s a real good way to describe them.

But that is not to diminish Johnny’s Selected Seeds, which is also independently owned and they also have Seed Integrity, just in a different way.

I’ve decided to focus on growing winter squash this year. I will grow it here in CT, and on the roof of our apartment in Brooklyn. The Brooklyn roof will be a low-tech simple green roof experiment, with vegetables as the plant material.

PMR seeds from Johnny's

Why winter squash? It stores easily, and it stores for a long time. And I love the idea of cooking stuff from my own yard in the middle of winter. Plus squash is super healthy for you.

Here are some highlights:

Carnival Acorn Squash Fedco

Uncle David’s Dakota Squash Fedco

Eastern Rise Winter Squash Fedco

Metro PMR Butternut Squash ( from Johnny’s )

the PMR squash means it is Powdery Mildew Resistant. My yard is a fishbowl surrounded by woods, so we get a lot of Powdery Mildew, and I’d like to see how this squash does. Last year we lost our pumpkin crop because it was so wet all summer.

I’m also growing some PMR pumpkins from Johnny’s as we just like to have pumpkins in the yard. I like it because we let the pumpkin vines crawl thru the yard, so that means less lawn to mow.

When it comes to lettuce and mesclun, I don’t select specific seeds, I go with Fedco’s Lettuce Mixes. They blend one for each of the seasons and that works well for me. For the summer blend they pick lettuces that don’t bolt easily, for the winter mix, its cold hardy ones. You get the picture.

And since Fedco is in Maine, these seed mixes do just as well, if not better in here NW CT.

We like to eat fresh and pickle cucumbers, and I had a good crop of Super Zagross Middle East Cuke from Fedco, so I ordered them once again. I’m betting they will be even better this season if we have a drier summer.

What are your seed favorites? Tell us below:

February 16, 2010
VendrTV is one year old today

About a year ago, this guy calls me and asks if he can meet me to talk about producing a video show for the web. We met, and he talked about this show he wanted to do about street food, and how he would grow it on the web.

OK, I said, Good Luck.

Well one year later Daniel Delaney and VendrTV have a larger audience than Gardenfork.tv .

So now I’m the one asking Daniel the questions.

We’ve talked about VendrTV here before, but go check out his show here

Below are a few photos of the party I took. The club we were in was packed with street food foodies and Daniel’s friends. People from other countries flew in to be there.

February 15, 2010
The Biscuit Cutter: Twist the Cutter or Just Press Down?

While making biscuits for the Biscuits and Gravy Recipe Show, we were using a short glass to cut the biscuits.

Cut the cold butter into quarters lengthwise

The biscuits came out OK, but I was underwhelmed by the rise. Watch the video here to see the epiphany of using freshly made baking powder.

cube the butter

My food processor is not great at cutting butter into flour

But I was also thinking about the glass we used to cut out the biscuits. I was wondering if the glass, which is fairly thick, was actually kinda pinching the biscuit dough as it pressed down and twisted the glass.

On the Gardenfork.tv website, I read some comments that a thick glass does indeed pinch the biscuit and that you should not twist the cutter either, as that also binds the edges of the unbaked biscuit dough.

I thought I should go buy a stainless steel biscuit cutter, but I’m in the woods here ( in more ways than one ), and not into filling my kitchen with more stuff.

I looked around the kitchen for what was round and similar to a biscuit cutter. Online someone suggested a tuna fish can, but still it seemed the lip on the tuna can might hinder rise.

I then saw one of my salt shakers, and had the eureka moment.

Salt shaker as biscuit cutter

Here I'm just pressing down and not twisting

I pressed out my biscuit dough, and cut the biscuits with and without twisting. Its much easier the get the biscuits to cut with the twist.

I put them on parchment, marked the biscuits sans twist, and baked them

Not a terrific rise with any of the biscuits

None of the biscuits in this batch of dough were amazing, but they were not bad. But my very unscientific test ( we’re not America’s Test Kitchen here ) shows that twisting the cutter has no difference on the rise of the biscuit. A number of the biscuits that were twisted were taller than the non-twist biscuits.

Not a significant difference between twisting and not twisting

Biscuit on left is no twist, on right is cutter with twist

I still need to work on cutting the flour and butter together. Maybe I can find a food processor at a garage sale. The bowl of mine seems too big for the blades. Not sure why, might have to embark on more America’s Test Kitchen style adventures. Where’s my apron….

Added:

Pat, who commented below, makes a good point. You can just use a pastry blender to cut together the flour and butter. But you’ve got to have a good pastry blender, like the one Pat has linked to.

February 14, 2010
Grocery Gardening a new cooking gardening book that works

Our whole show this week is a chat I had with Jean Ann about her new book, Grocery Gardening, and how much she likes Gardenfork. (right…)

here are the links to Jean Ann and her co-authors

Jean Ann Van Krevelen’s blogs: Portland Foodie Good Enough Gardening Podcast Gardener to Farmer Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JeanAnnVK

Teresa O’Connor’s blog: Seasonal Wisdom Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SeasonalWisdom

Amanda Thomsen’s Blog: HortMag Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kissmyaster

Robin Ripleys’ blog: Bumble Bee Blog http://twitter.com/robinripley

Listen to GardenFork Radio on iTunes here

February 12, 2010
How to make Biscuits and Gravy, the Eric Recipe

I love biscuits and gravy, and this recipe is super simple. First you make biscuits with this recipe, then you make the gravy with some of the leftover fat from cooking the sausages. Then you eat.

Biscuits and Gravy Recipe:

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 stick of *cold* butter – 4 tablespoons

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk, or put 1 tablespoon white vinegar into 3/4 cup milk and let sit for 5 minutes for a quickie buttermilk substitute. you can also use yogurt, but you may need to add a bit of water when mixing the dough in the processor.

* to make your own baking powder, combine Cream of Tartar to Baking Soda in a 2:1 ratio. mix well and only mix what you’ll use in a few weeks.

Preheat oven to 450

Add all the dry ingredients to the food processor, pulse to mix.

Cut the cold butter into small pieces and drop in.

Pulse food processor until the flour looks grainy like cornmeal. do not over-pulse this mixture.

Slowly pour the buttermilk into the food processor while the unit is turned on.

Mix until the dough balls up.

Turn dough out onto a floured board, and press out to 1/2″ thickness

Use a muffin cutter to cut out round biscuits, and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake about 11 minutes, until the biscuits rise and brown a bit. Cool on a wire rack.

Gravy Recipe

After cooking the sausage, leave about 2 teaspoon of the fat in the pan. Dust in the 1/2 the flour, and mix it around until the flour starts to brown. Slowly add 1 cup of the milk. The gravy should thicken nicely slowly stir in the remaining 1 cup of milk and stir to thicken.

To plate the biscuits and gravy recipe:

split open 2 biscuits and place the sausage gravy over them. Season with plenty of pepper and enjoy.

©2010 Eric Rochow

February 9, 2010
No Cable Tv

I love tv and hate commercials. Two years ago we got Apple Tv so I could connect to Boxee and watch Internet Tv. Jim and I brought home our first tv and canceled Comcast(1) Cable. For about six months, we were able to watch almost all programs, online with limited or no commercials. All we had to do was down load Boxee and install it in the Apple Tv and have the patience to watch our program after they aired. It was good, but Apple didn’t like it, and configured software download thingy to block Boxee.

photo by Alvimann

However, with an HD antenna and Apple Tv, Jim and I didn’t miss cable. Most of the programs we watched were on network tv and now there are more network channels to watch. In Chicago we have WCIU. They show all the old Twilight Zone episodes and the like. Plus Kora and Max did a commercial for WCIU. (as much as I hate commercials) We were never at a loss for programing.

Our No Cable lasted about a year. We have At&t cable since it’s packaged with our internet and phone deals. I’m still not happy with it, but that could also be because I’m not thrilled with television. This is where I get into the whole how much I hate commercials. Why are we paying for cable tv and watching commercials? The commercials are so close together and so frequent that I can not “get into” the program that I’m watching. I’ll get up during the commercials and go do something else. Which, you know, isn’t always bad. There are just times when I want to relax and be entertained by tv.

When Jim and I got our kitchen done, we designed a space for a second tv. This tv is also my computer monitor. I got a Mini Mac and wireless keyboard and mouse, plugged everything in, and I can watch GardenForkTV and cook. Follow recipes online and watch some of my programs. Networks pull their programs off of sites like Hulu.com and Slashcontrol.com all the time. I rather not “steal” programing.

Eric mentioned on Gardenfork Radio going cableless. I totally support this since I am not happy with the service from either of the two cable providers. Boxee is coming out with it’s own “box” that hooks up to the internet. So do some of the video game machines. We’re living in an interesting time when it comes to how we watch tv.

All information for how to go cableless I found on sites like lifehacker.com and tuaw.com

(1) I don’t like either available cable company and hate having to pick the lesser of two evils.

February 6, 2010
Does Eric like Guy Fieri?

On GardenFork Radio: the effects of the NYC calorie posting rule on coffee drinkers, how to wash mushrooms, does Eric like Guy Fieri, Facebook – Identity Theft – and your private life, Cable Free TV, Steve Garfield’s new book: Get Seen, Slow Cooker BBQ from Chris Prosperi, and donating to Haiti relief orgs on Guidestar.org

Links:

Starbucks gains on Dunkin Donuts

The Three Facebook Setting Every User Should Check Now : NY Times

Cable Free TV : NY Times

Steve Garfields’ new book: Get Seen

Guidestar.org Research charities working in Haiti and in general

Chris Prosperi of Metro Bis in Simsbury , creator of Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs:

spare ribs: beef back ribs

dry rub: salt pepper onion powder smoked paprika

rub on ribs

chopped onion put ribs and onion in ziplock bag

push air out of bag zip it closed

fill crock half water turn on high, put ziplock bag in crock for 10 hours

pull out, put ribs sheet pan brushed with BBQ sauce, put under broiler until crisp bubbly.

January 31, 2010
Practical Green Building and Renovation : GardenFork.tv

Doing a green renovation or building a green building? Watch as I talk with Gennaro Brooks Church of EcoBrooklyn and tour a Brooklyn brownstone he is renovating using practical and pragmatic green building techniques.

Do you use these techniques? Tell us below in the comments

January 30, 2010
How to make a bread peel or pizza peel : Gardenfork.tv

I needed a pizza and bread peel for our video shows on How to make pizza dough and bake a pizza, and our show on the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day method. Instead of buying a pizza peel, I decided to make my own. I went into my basement shop, look around for some scrap plywood, and make a pretty good pizza – bread peel.

You can make this peel from a piece of 2’x2′ 1/4″ plywood from a home improvement store, and a 1″x2″ stick. You’ll need two 3/4″ wood screws, some 60 grit sandpaper, and white or wood glue.

What do you think? Watch the show and let me know, have any suggestions? write them below. thx, eric.

January 23, 2010
Food Dehydrator Plans, a Solar Dehydrator from Encyclopedic Cookbook

The original book is from the late 40s

I’ve been talking about this book Tony loaned me, The Encyclopedic Cookbook, a lot lately. We even filled up most of a GardenFork Radio show about it. Link Here.

This book is truly encyclopedic and while we may snicker at a lot of the recipes, like Stuffed Crown of Frankfurters ( this is a Must Make on GardenFork ) the book does have some really interesting stuff in it.

I stumbled across a few pages of food dehydration techniques that I had not seen before, and I thought a few were pretty smart in their efficient use of heat and simple design.

A Solar Dehydrator, simple to build

The chapter is titled Drying Foods; today we would title it Food Dehydration.

Here are plans for an outdoor solar dehydrator, they call it a Sun Dryer, and its brilliantly simple, I like the simple tilt mechanism. Just use wing nut to tilt the solar food drier toward the sun.

The Range Top Food Drier

On the next page was something I had never seen before, and I know my wife would not let me build in the kitchen: A Range Top Dryer . The text was a little vague on this one, but it did say ” Strong flavored foods should not be cooked while food is being dried since odors may be absorbed” OK.

I’m guessing you have the burners on to dry out your food? Or does the heat from the pilot lights give off enough heat to be an effective food deyhrator? Not sure. Anyone know? A quick web search turned up nothing. Still, its quite fascinating to me.

A laundry stove food drier

This design uses heat from the Laundry Stove. I’ve never heard of a laundry stove before, but it looks like you would use it to dry clothes.

This chapter in the book list all the usual vegetables and fruits one can dry, but it also lists some I never considered.

Spinach:

“Steam 3 minutes, Remove excess moisture. Arrange in a thin layer. Start drying at 120F increase gradually to 140F. Stir the spinach carefully from time to time so that it will dry quickly thoughout. … Greens are likely to be of inferior quality if not carefully dried and stored. They dereriorate after long storage.”

January 23, 2010
Bees Don’t Poop in their Hive

With at title like that how can you not listen? Tracy joins us today to talk about our recent dinner at Roberta’s in Bushwick, The Encyclopedic Cookbook, and DIY Wood Fired Pizza and Bread ovens.

Our New Sponsor: Allison House, http://www.allisonhouse.com/ a data aggregation and integration company that specializes in weather and weather related data. Look for our high tech weather station – that Allison House has provided for Gardenfork – to be on our website soon.

Here are the links

Roberta’s Bushwick, Brooklyn

Cathy Erway and the Heritage Radio Network

Article on Roberta’s in Edible Brooklyn

Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook

A young person at Roberta’s

Mike Sense’s blog

Wood Fired Pizza oven video

January 21, 2010
From DIY Pizza Oven to DIY Near Space Camera

OK. This is one of those wow things. I was doing more research today on how to make a portable wood fired brick oven for pizzas and bread for an upcoming Gardenfork.tv show.

Via the Make Blog, I learned about PizzaHacker, who has an interesting Weber Grill cum Pizza Oven, and Machine Project, who made this temporary pizza oven – which looks pretty permanent to me. ( PizzaHacker on Twitter here )

Thru the Make Zine post I click on a link to pizza fanatic Mike Sense, who hosts two DIY tv shows, Science channel’s Punkin’ Chunkin’ and Catch It Keep It. (Mike on Twitter here.)

Photo from space.1337arts.com

I start reading thru Mike’s blog, and he has posted about these two MIT students who built a near space camera rig out of a styrofoam cooler.

wow.

I keep saying I was born a few decades too early. In college we did not have GPS cell phones and cheap digital cameras. Now they do, so you can build your own near space camera.

So you can make your own rig that will go up 17.5 miles into space, take great pictures, and then find the thing when it lands ( with a GPS cell phone ).

Preparing the balloon – photo from space.1337arts.com

Oliver Yeh , Justin Lee, Eric Newton did just that. Their website has great pictures and a PDF of how they did it.

Here is a complete how-to PDF on how they did it. And here is the home page of their space photography site for more info and consider donating a few bucks to further their projects.

Doug Clarkin built a space camera based on their PDF and here are some photos of his launch. I really like that Doug did this with his 6 yr old son.

Just super cool, i think. I doubt I’ll ever build a near space camera cooler, but its great to know you can for $150. I will build a pizza – bread oven. Thanks to Mike for the pizza info and the post about this.

Here is a video they made:

1337arts Icarus Project TimeLapse Video (Max Altitude: 93,000 ft) from Justin Lee on Vimeo.

January 17, 2010
The Art of Eating In, a new book by Cathy Erway

I’ve met Cathy Erway a few times, the first was at Emily Farris’ Casserole Crazy competition ( we made a GF show about it here ) She’s well known in the Brooklyn Food world, and I really like her blog about cooking in. Its not fancy food, its home food, but thought of in a few new ways.

Like right now Cathy ( according to her blog posts ) is really into using apple cider as a braising liquid. Something I would not have thought of – but then I don’t get many original ideas in the kitchen.

Now Cathy has published a book, The Art of Eating In:

Rediscover the joy of home cooking through the eyes of one Brooklynite who swore off restaurants for two years. The story behind the scenes of Not Eating Out in New York, The Art of Eating In chronicles Cathy Erway’s journey through the underground of NYC eating, and her favorite recipes along the way. Two years, three apartments, countless food events and some strange restaurant-free “dates” later, she was able to turn eating in into something of an art, rather than mere survival.

You can learn more about Cathy’s book here, and read her blog, Not Eating Out in NY here.

January 17, 2010
I Know How To Cook : The French Book

A special mystery guest on this episode of GardenFork Radio. You have to listen to learn who. You will know who it is when you hear their voice.

Here are all the links to all the stuff we talked about. there’s a lot:

The Humane Society of Missouri Long Meadow Rescue Ranch Barn Buddy Program

I Know How To Cook by Ginette Mathiot

Eric’s work blog: HandymanEric.com

Eric appears on Ken Druse’s Real Dirt radio show

To order The Gardenfork Labradors, click here

You can publish your own books with Blurb.com

We are going to try making cheese after Eric met Lisa Fain, author of the blog Homesick Texan ata dinner hosted by Jaden Hair of the blog Steamy Kitchen.

Song of the week is from Josh Joplin, I am not the only cowboy iTunes link here

Our favorite seed company is Fedco Seeds

Tony -our Kim Chi expert- his blog is Yarnmonkey.com

Eric bakes Brownies with Mom episode is here

January 14, 2010