Little Homestead in the CityLittle Homestead in the CityLittle Homestead in the City

The Urban Homesteaders

visit the Dervaes family on
  

Technorati Profile

Cast of Characters

In Memory

Urban Homestead Facts

LOCATION
Pasadena, CA
(Northwest Pasadena, one mile from downtown Pasadena)

PROPERTY SIZE
1/5 acre (66' x 132' / 8,712 sq.ft.)

GARDEN SIZE
~ 1/10 acre (3,900 sq.ft. / ~ 66' x 66')

GARDEN DIVERSITY
Over 350 different vegetables, herbs, fruits, berries

FOOD PRODUCED
6,000 lbs annually
challenging for 10,000 lbs in 2008 (read more)

URBAN HOMESTEAD SUPPORTS
4 full-time adults, volunteers, and many clients

ENERGY USAGE
6.5 kwh day (and going down!)

SOLAR POWER PRODUCED
9000 kwh ( as of 10/20/08)

GALLONS OF BIODIESEL MADE (since 2003)
1,500 gallons (as of 2/12/08)

"EARTH IMPACT FOOTPRINT"
5.2 acres per person

Tally Ho 2008

PRODUCE
4,340 lbs (9/31/08)

EGGS
Chicken 921 & Duck 1028 (10/22/08)

HONEY
25 lbs (10/20/08)

Steps Taken

Everyday Steps

Growing 99 % of produce
- 6,000lbs on 1/10 acre

Food Preservation/Storage:
- canning
- drying
- freezing

In the Kitchen:
- baking/cooking from scratch
- yogurtmaking
- breadmaking
- cheesemaking
- sprouting
- cast iron cookware
- no dishwasher or microwave

Food Choices:
- buying in bulk
- organic
- local
- eating seasonaly
- reducing "food miles"
- fair trade
- vegetarian(over 17 years)

Raising Small Farmstock:
- chickens (eggs/manure)
- ducks (eggs/manure)
- dwarf rabbits (manure)
- dwarf/pygmy goats (milk/manure)

Composting Methods:
- making/using EM Bokashi
- vermicomposting
- composting food, garden and green waste

Fuel:
- homebrewing biodiesel
- running diesel car on biodiesel(~4,000 miles a yr)

Energy Conservation:
- "powering down"
- cut daily energy use in 1/2 12 kwh to 6 kwh a day
- 12 solar panels
- "green" power
- rechargeable batteries
- line drying clothes

Energy Efficient Appliances:
- washing machine
- refridgerator
- water heater(gas)

Energy Efficient Electronics:
- computer/printer/copier
- TV(no cable)/VCR/ DVD

Energy Efficient Lighting:
- compact fluorescent bulbs
- olive oil lamps
- oil lamps filled with biodiesel
- homemade soy & beeswax candles
- daylighting
- solar tube

Non-electrical Appliances / Hand-powered
- blender
- toaster
- grinder(s)
- popcorn popper
- solar oven(s)
- hand washer/wringer
- pedal powered grain mill
- straight razor
- handcranked radio
- mortar & pestle

Natural beauty/no makeup
Homemade Non-toxic Beauty Care Products
- toothpaste
- deoderant

Biodegrable/Non-toxic Cleaning Products:
- vinegar
- baking soda
- lemon juice

Natural Health Practices:
- homeopathy
- herbal remedies
- prevention

Water Conservation Efforts:
- low flush toilets
- toilet lid sink
- reusing laundry water
- limit toilet flushings
- limit baths/showers - mulching
- handwatering
- clay pot irrigation
- solar outdoor shower
- front load washer
- food not lawns

Hand powered garden tools:
- push mower
- broom, rake
- trowel, shovel
- hand clippers

Self-employed Working at home:
- honey business
- produce/flower business
- craft business

Crafts & Skills:
- winemaking
- survival skills
- edible landscaping
- sewing
- leatherwork
- fiber arts
- animal husbandry
- holistic care
- tinctures
- carpentry
- plumbing
- building
- haircutting
- bicycle repairs
- soapmaking
- candlemaking
- herbs
- urban farming
- website design
- photography
- self publishing
- video & graphics

Living Simply:
- making use or do without
- bartering
- monthly shopping trips
- reduce, reuse & recycle
- second hand clothes
- salvage/thrift store
- consume less

Passive Cooling:
- no AC
- wood floors
- blinds
- windows
- screen doors
- edible forest
- "living" screens
- solar attic fan

Heating:
- no central heat
- woodstove that uses scrap wood
- dress in layers

Walking the old paths:
- tithing
- day of rest
- stewardship

Saving seeds
Unschooling
Beekeeping

DIY Projects:
- solar oven
- cob oven
- solar outdoor shower
- depaved driveway/patio
- installed solar panels
- roofing
- sheds, etc
- animal enclosure, etc
- this website
- urban homesteading

Using canvas bags on shopping trips / no plastic

Transportation:
- biodiesel "veggie" vehicle
- 4 "car free" days a week
- walk
- bike
- carpool
- mass transit
- cross country train trips
- 2 airplane trips in 25 years

"Green" Home Upgrades:
- metal roof

Outreach/helping others along the path

CURRENT TRAILS

Growing 10k on 1/10
Rainwater
Waste water recovery

Support





iSearchiGive.com


We Support








« 100 FOOT DIET/VICTORY GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS | Main | HOMEGROWN EATS »

100 FOOT DIET/VICTORY GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS

February 22, 2008



usetheland1.jpg Welcome to all new participants who signed up - the challenge is certainly growing by the week! Jordanne informs me that the 100footdiet.org site is slowly creeping towards a launch date, so grab your seeds, shovels, hoes and let’s get this challenge growing!

This week we have a collection of wonderful homegrown/local meals along with musing over victory gardens plans and preparations.

Reading Dirt while winter gardening and foraging efforts have been limited was able to concoct a tasty homegrown/local meal with spring-wild greens and homegrown herbs and local potatoes - delicious!

Belinda’s had a bit of an oil crises and made a handy list of ingredients in her diet and mulls about spices. She also posts a delicious bean and tomato recipe (which we northern hemisphere gardeners will have to wait a couple months to try)

Red State Green proudly writes that she eats local every day and posts pictures of her “purdy Famous Salad”

War Road Garden is transforming her 1/2 “weed patch” into an edible eden and baked up some gorgeous winter squash for her family. She also adds about how blessed she and her family are to be able to grow their own food while folks in other parts of the world are sadly forced to eat dirt - point well made.

P~ jumps starts his 100ft diet by raising baby chickens. Oh dear, those adorably cute baby chick photos makes us wanna raise another batch again this year… and the next and the next. However, since we don’t slaughter our hens for meat consumption we’ll just have to make do by enjoying other folks cute baby chick photos instead. Happy chick raising.

Becca’s Life makes room for spring plantings and digs up the last of the winter vegetables turns them into mouth watering roasted vegetables along with sautéed green - yum.

Wildside Home once again show us those lovely homegrown eggs from her happy chickens - combine those eggs with homegrown vegs one has a very satisfying meal

Vintage Flapper eagerly awaits the growing season and is considering relocating her urban homestead. She’s contemplating a move to Alaska (perhaps I’ll hitch a ride)! Her seventh meal (congrats - she’s on a roll!) of the challenge consists of homegrown tomatoes (kudos!) and other local ingredients

Recent Web-Nods Relating to the PTF 100 ft Diet - Victory Garden Challenge

Deborah at Riot 4 Austerity writes

Just finished reading Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It’s convinced me even more that eating local, or even better growing my own, is the best option for feeding myself.

Also been looking at Path to Freedom’s challenge to eat what is home grown. It’s another call to plant a Victory Garden.

Read entire post

Eat Food / Change Alley

Pollan’s core message is that we should return to eating “real food”, and offers some recommendations on how to find it and get the most out of it. It’s a long list, here’s a few to give you a flavour:

Don’t eat anything that your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food. Going back several generations enables us to avoid the confusion of lengthy ingredient lists, most of which have dubious nutritional value and are included more for the food industry’s benefit than for ours.

Avoid food products that make health claims on the package. Anything with a package is more likely to be a processed than a whole food. And the whole issue of packaging and its environmental impact is another kettle of worms altogether.

Cook - and, if you can, plant a garden. Creating your own food chain, “from fork to fork” as Monty Don used to say, enables us to reclaim control from industry and science.

Pollan goes so far as to say that “cooking from scratch and growing our own food qualify as subversive acts”. This puts him firmly in the same camp as relocalisation groups such as Path To Freedom. It doesn’t matter how much or how little food you can grow yourself. If you can just grow some salad on a window-sill, that’s one less nitrogen-filled plastic bag of imported salad bought. After all, as Lao-Tzu said, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Read entire post

Thanks for the nods!

It’s good to see Jordanne finally posting [hiya, little sis]. The others will join soon enough. There are definitely lots of stories and tips to share and it will be wonderful to hear them from different perspectives. Hopefully, she’ll get some responses to her plea/request for help. Oh, she forgot to mention, you can also help by supporting this site either through donations or online purchase.

I’m off again to the English Tea Shop today - which I didn’t plan but they need help, we are like their family so we are obligated to lend a helping hand. I plan on posting the urban homestead’s weekly meal wrap up before I leave…. right now animals and chores beckon!

Tags: ,
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes) Loading ... Loading ...

Topics: 100 Foot Diet, Posts by Anais | Tags: ,

RELATED POSTS:

2 Responses to “100 FOOT DIET/VICTORY GARDEN HIGHLIGHTS”

  1. Simply.Belinda Says:
    February 23rd, 2008 at 2:07 am

    Hi Anais,

    Wow I am in awe of your skills if you are only looking at a couple of months to try that recipe.

    It seemed like it took ages for my beans to get to the whole producing stage.

    Kind Regards
    Belinda

  2. Charles Doty Says:
    February 24th, 2008 at 2:53 am

    Great site and great work. If I can help with seeds for these gardens please e-mail me, will do a SASE.

    Thanks

Comments