Humble root vegetables

Parsnips, turnips, and rutabagas are cheap and underused.

American indian music

Unadorned singing, with simple drums. Recommended listening: the Turtle Dance Songs of the San Juan Pueblo indians.

Pencil sharpeners

Wall-mounted manual sharpeners are getting rarer.

Sowiesoso

Cluster's 1976 album is music floating from far away down a dirt path through golden haze.

Enduring Seeds

"Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation." Gary Nabhan writes about seeds' rich genetic information.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring

In this movie, a hut floats in the middle of a placid lake. An old monk raises a boy.

Everett Ruess

A teenager who wandered the deserts of the southwest United States and made woodblock prints of what he saw. He disappeared in 1934 at age 20. His diaries survive.

DJ Krush

Calm, atmospheric trip-hop.

The Way Things Go

A short movie showing levers and flames and pendulums doing their things.

Public mailboxes

Those tough blue metal boxes accept simple hand-addressed letters.

Skillet cornbread

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 egg

1 cup plain yogurt

3 Tbsp honey

3 Tbsp melted butter

Bake in a skillet at 350° for 20 minutes.

Parthenocissus tricuspidata

Boston Ivy.

Walden

A pond and a book. At least the pond is free of contradictions.

Taiyo Yuden CD-R

CDs are reliable and accurate, but burnables can lose data in a few years. Taiyo Yuden is known for longevity.

White tea

A delicate variety.

Westerly windows facing trees

The sunset dapples through.

Reel mower

Quiet and effective. Hire someone to push it, and it becomes effortless, too.

Brother Nikanor

Used to be Hristo Mishkov, a stock broker at Bulgarian firm Karoll, until he became a monk in the Tsurnogorski Monastery.

"Milk is not produced by computers, bread doesn't come from a good company PR. It is necessary to plow, sow and harvest before that."

Beans

They are cheap, nutritious, and their growth improves the soil.