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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
We Support
« CONSCIENTIOUS CONSUMER | Main | PRODUCT REVIEW »
March 31, 2008
CHOW MAGAZINE: Photos courtesy PathtoFreedom.com… Yep, them’s our gorgeous figs, tomatoes, swiss chard!
Lawn Liberation
Back in 1990’s Jules Dervaes was fed up with his lawn. Fed up with the time and water spent caring for it and getting nothing in return, he smothered it under a layer of newspapers and mulch the yard was transformed into an urban edible garden providing not only food but income for his family. Recently Chow magazine interviewed longtime lawn liberator, Jules Dervaes, about his growing efforts and how a new wave of urbanites have recently join in transforming their lawns to gardens.
Excerpts from EAT YOUR YARD
Aesthetically Pleasing Edibles
Pasadena, California, front-yard vegetable grower Jules Dervaes stresses that because the front yard is essentially a public space, it’s important that edibles be planted in an aesthetic fashion. “If you are going to do something different,” says Dervaes, “you’re gonna get nailed if it’s not beautiful.” Rosalind Creasy, author of The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping, uses flowers and pretty blue-glazed flowerpots in her front yard in Los Altos, California. “Most people when they get in trouble is when they just take out a piece of lawn and put in tomato plants,” she says. “Why not be kind to your neighbors and put in a nice-looking vegetable garden?”
Dervaes—whose former lawn now sports more than 50 different plants, including fig, plum, quince, and apple trees; herbs; broccoli; fennel; greens; onions; and edible flowers—says that he and his family are “very conscious” that being different comes with responsibility. “I put [in] a lot of money and a lot of time,” says Dervaes. “Almost every Sunday my son and I are out there working on the front yard so nobody can say they don’t like this.”
Back to the Land
Dervaes believes that a desire for self-sufficiency—spurred by food transportation costs, the economic downturn, and global warming—is motivating people to reevaluate the idea of lawns. “They’re actually taking matters into their own hands.”
In Pasadena, Dervaes says he’s gotten requests to hold weddings in his yard, and folks stop by to take photos. “In the city if you can turn ordinary cookie-cutter lots to where people are saying they want to be married here, well, that’s special,” he says. Others use his yard as a model, bringing spouses by to see what can be accomplished. One man even told Dervaes that after visiting Dervaes’s garden, he couldn’t fall asleep. He was still up at midnight planting seeds in his front yard.
More about PTF’s lawn liberation
Care to share your lawn liberation experience?
Tags:
eat your lawn,
eat your yard,
edible landscaping,
growing food in front yard,
lawn liberation
Topics: Edible Landscaping, PTF Spotlights, Posts by Anais | Tags: eat your lawn, eat your yard, edible landscaping, growing food in front yard, lawn liberation
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PATH TO FREEDOM
PEDDLER'S WAGON
FREEDOM GARDENS
"LITTLE HOMESTEAD"
DERVAES GARDENS
URBAN HOMESTEADING
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March 31st, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Working on it! About 1/4 of the way there, not including the parking strip. Ripped out godforsaken birds of paradise and palms, and have planted peach, apricot, orange, tangerine and pomegranate trees. More a hummingbird garden than a food forest so far, I’d eventually love to have no lawn at all–just lots and lots of sage!
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I have NO lawn at all in the back and have dug out a plot about 10X12 and planted native plants, some herbs and cacti. On the other side of my yard, which is kind of big I have planted 4 rasberry bushes but haven’t yet dug out the rest of that crab grass. I’m working alone and on the cheap so I imagine its going to take some time but i’m getting there!!
April 4th, 2008 at 6:17 am
Greetings fellow lawn liberators!
Kudos to all for taking back their yards and growing food.
Change takes time, it’s a slow organic effort. We’ve been working at our place for 20 years now!
Small steps eventually do have BIG impact.
You are certainly all on the right path.
Keep up the good work.
January 4th, 2009 at 5:28 am
[...] to mention that our urban homestead was featured on Chow Magazine, ABC’s Nightline, The New York Times Magazine, CNN, Living Green Channel, PBS’s California [...]