Crazy Useful
Your Guide to the Cottage Industry Revolution
Catalog
Meet the new Crazy Useful Journals, with daily excerpts from Crazy Useful Things, and cover art by Ernst Haeckel.
Crazy Useful Thing of the Day: Yeast
Yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is a species of fungus in the Saccharomycetaceae family that has been instrumental in human food production for millennia. It occurs naturally on the skin of some fruits, such as grapes and plums. It is believed that it was first used…
Crazy Useful Thing of the Day: Esparto
The name “esparto grass” refers to two species of perennial plants in the grass (Poaceae) family, Stipa tenacissima and Lygeum spartum. Both species are native to the Western Mediterranean, primarily North Africa and the southern Iberian Peninsula. Both are cultivated for the leaf fiber,…
Crazy Useful Thing of the Day: Nutmeg
Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is a species of evergreen tree in the nutmeg (Myristicaceae) family, native to the Moluccas (formerly known as the Spice Islands) of Indonesia, but now widely cultivated throughout the tropical regions. It is the best-known member of the Myristica genus, as…
