PATH TO FREEDOM
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"LITTLE HOMESTEAD"
DERVAES GARDENS
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December 28, 2009
Hope everyone had a lovely holiday.
Want to thank those of you who sent warm season greetings via email - and a special thank you to the Smith family of VA who went out their way to send us a box filled with yummy homemade spice cookies, a lovely card and $20 donation. Our family was truly touched and appreciate your generosity and kindness.
You wouldn’t believe how much the gift meant to us - thank you!
If you just getting back to the computer, and haven’t already read about it, we are commemorating 10 years online with a 2010 calendar featuring a few of our favorite photos.
Don’t miss your chance to purchase these inspiring calendars and help us grow. BUY NOW
There’s lots to catch up on from our little homestead in the city. First, I have two week’s worth of meal wrap up’s that I got to post (coming soon)
Also, there are a few highlights to share
First, a review of Robert McFall’s HOMEGROWN
Chuck Jaffee: Wild & Scenic Film Festival cooks up a food them
Homegrown
There is no farmer film more impressive than the story of the Dervaes family. Needing good farmer stories is basic, almost like needing food.
The film “Homegrown” tells the story of a farm scrunched around a 1500-square-foot home less than a mile from downtown Pasadena. It butts next to the intersection of Interstates 210 and 134. They grow about 6000 pounds of food in a year on one tenth of an acre. There’s also a goat and some chickens.
The popular term is low carbon footprint, and the Dervaes family have been intensely active in this regard for 20 years. Their commitment, however, seems to be more fundamentally fueled by a dedication to self-sufficiency. Jules Dervaes and his children, Justin, Anais, Jordanne, live and work at a modest yet ambitious ideal. Their shared devotion includes the evolving direction of papa Dervaes and his grown children.
Their bounty includes being satisfied with fresh produce that’s in season and generating satisfaction from the kitchen labors that follow their farming labors. It includes struggling for money when the cost of watering their compact crop rises significantly and restaurants buy less from them in a struggling economy.
Just the name of the film, “Homegrown,” and the name of their Web site, www.pathtofreedom.com, tells you much about the Dervaes family. They are inspirational. Most people will not walk the talk as thoroughly as they do, but they are an exemplary family.
Don’t forget ya’ll that our family will be up at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival Yep, we are back! This time, not as producers of our little film but as subjects of Robert Mcfalls’s documentary.
“The finest exampled of urban homesteaders in all the world!”
Then the next issue Urban Farm magazine will be profiling the leaders of modern urban homestead/sustainable movement. Being the founder of the modern urban homesteading movement, our family’s is one of them (in the photo me and sis are wearing the new LHITC aprons that were handmade in Italy)
I love this part in the article where it says:
“Jules Dervaes and his family don’t see sustainable living as a trend. They see it as life. Plain & simple.”
Also there’s been some interesting conversations of late - “deep green” conversations as we like to call them with the family and friend. Some things touched on is “why” we are doing what we are doing. For a book or movie deal? Well, one of those did come to fruition but we weren’t searching for it in the first place. The “why” does mean a lot to who you are as a person. Why do we choose to live like this - for points or praise? Nope, the answer is simple and sometimes we think to ourselves “who in their right mind would live like this.” Truth is this path takes someone who isn’t in their right mind. Someone who is not interested in just “doing everything green” but someone who is willing to sacrifice and work their a** off!
These days as urban farming, homesteading and the trappings that come along with it become trendy, folks to often dwell on the “what’s” and forget the “why.” Plain & simple!
Well, that about ends this mismatch post. In queue, our weekly meal wrap up and pictorial post of happenings around the urban homestead.
Stay tuned.
:: Field Hand Appreciation :: Of course the Smith family $20 (and their tasty treats!) and KM $30
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Topics: Homestead, PTF Spotlights, Posts by Anais | Tags: holiday, homegrow, homegrown, homemade, little homestead in the city, urban farm, Urban Homestead
December 30th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Great site! I grew up on a forty acre subsistence farm. We raised 99.9% of our food and my personal transportation was a saddle horse. Your site gives me hope and encouragement to homestead on some level here in town, even though my health is questionable, money is tight, and, although we live in a rural town, there are ordnances prohibiting homesteading in any way, shape, or form (Some of us are trying to get these ordnances changed). Thanks