dispatches from Rhamnous

On March 1st, I moved into an apartment with Noah, of CitySlickers fame. Since then we've been doing our damnedest to live a sustainable lifestyle and furnish our apartment with minimal budget.  This is part one of our twisted saga.

We live rather close to Fiesta Farms. I support their business in theory, but the reality is they have the same shitty atmosphere as every other fluorescent-lit supermarket, regardless of their philosophy or politics. I had to find another way.

The Goal: No Supermarkets.

Cheating Chicken Stock

By Braeden

One of the biggest frustrations I've had with cooking for myself at home is that every seemingly tastey recipe calls for one thing: chicken stock.

Hmmm....let's see. I need to add chicken stock if I want to make risotto. But do I have time to roast an entire chicken, gut it, roast the the bones, prep and add in vegetables, reduce the hell out of if, chill it, and skim off the fat? Once I'm finished doing that I'll only be 1/10 of the way done with the original risotto recipe I was attempting. Screw this.

Organic Food - Part II

By Noah

A beautiful sunny March afternoon spent in Whole Foods Market in the heart of Yorkville, and I felt positively on top of the world. I had a grocery cart brimming with veggies, fruits, meats, bread, cereal, nuts and pastas – and all of them had the word ORGANIC plastered on their side. After some 30 minutes wandering the aisles of this aesthetically stunning grocery store staring at rows upon rows of produce, it dawned on me that it looked somewhat identical to any other grocery store, with 2 major differences.

A) Almost everything was organic.

Sweet.

B) Everything was uber expensive.

Not so sweet.

Update: DIY - Unlimited Onions

Hey Everyone,

For those of you that have been following our earlier stories, I would like to give you an update on my unlimited onion and indoor garden undertaking.  Of the three onion bottoms that I planted, one is doing quite well, the second only has a ton of new roots, and the 3rd died. As this project was not 100% successful, I have determined that the onions will only take if the heart of the onion remains intact.  It is for this reason that I attempted another cutting technique to plant another onion bottom.  I cut the onion in half and then slowly removed the layers to expose the top of the onion heart.  By this time you should have a ping pong ball sized onion that is ready to plant (root section intact).  The success of this one should be much greater than the instructions in the original article as there is relatively little open surface area exposed to desiccation.

DIY - Unlimited Onions

By Andrew

A flavourful meal is something that we can all appreciate.  I personally like to add some savor to my dinners by adding some onions, especially caramelized ones!  So you can imagine my surprise when I stumbled across an article explaining how I can get an almost limitless supply of onions… for free!  Remember folks, spring is on the way.  The steps to do this below are so

Organic Food - Part I

By Noah

While walking through the aisles of the supermarket a few days ago I noticed there were a number of items on the shelves that had the word ORGANIC plastered on the side.  I considered this bold claim, and decided it was a strange label to put on a food.  In high school, they taught me the word “organic” meant living, and that “non-organic” meant….non living.  To me the case was clear: lettuce vs. cue-tips… potato chips vs. my driveway.  So while staring at a can of “organically certified tomatoes” I wondered if this was simply stating the obvious.  Aren’t all tomatoes certifiably … from a tomato plant?