PATH TO FREEDOM
PEDDLER'S WAGON
FREEDOM GARDENS
"LITTLE HOMESTEAD"
DERVAES GARDENS
URBAN HOMESTEADING
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August 5, 2008
Suburban farming might not be as crazy as it sounds
I have suggested from time to time that you grow at least a small portion of your own food. My reasons are many but the main ones are as follows:
· First, you gain an appreciation for what it is like to toil in the soil. While on a small scale you have the same battles as larger agrarians with weeds, droughts and insect pests. After you spend time in your garden, whether it is a window box or half an acre, food prices don’t seem so high.
· Secondly, you get to eat fresh, nutritious food grown by your own hands. There is a caution here, if you have never eaten a local or home grown tomato you are in for shock and disappointment. The shock is how great it tastes. The disappointment is you will now disdain the tomato you purchase in January. That began its travel as a green orb ripening as it journeyed to your local supermarket, burning that liquid gold we know as diesel.
….
John Dovan of ABC News puts it this way, “Is it neat or is it slightly odd that in this Los Angeles community called Pasadena a suburban mix of nice restaurants and well-tended front lawns there is a home wedged in with the other houses where the entire front yard is edible?”
Yes, this is the same place that is famous for its Rose Parade, not its produce. You would not have been surprised to hear a story about Jules Dervaes if he were growing onions or kale in California’s central valley, home to a substantial amount of the U.S. vegetable production. But, his farm is at 631 Cypress Ave. Another thing that sets him and his family apart is that the Dervaes Family Farm is on one-fifth of an acre.
On the Dervaes spread, kale, chives, peppers, guava, Swiss chard, even edible flowers can be found growing along the side of the house and into the backyard. To say the least, this family has been looked upon as odd on more than one occasion. However, Jules gets the last laugh as he along with the help of his children (now in their 20s) not only feed themselves, but support the family from the sale of the surplus.
….
I am sure by now you are waiting for me to make my point, since most of you do not want to live on the lunatic fringe where you probably believe the Dervaes family lives. Maybe it is not the lunatic fringe; surely you don’t have to take it as far as the Dervaes.
You need to think of this concept of suburban farming in a different context. Wylie Harris writing for the Land Institute’s Prairie Writers Circle says this, “Suburbia occupies vast swaths of former prime U.S. farmland. NASA’s ecological forecasting research group reports that the people living there already water about 30 million acres of lawn, three times the land planted in irrigated corn.”
Harris isn’t saying that the 50 million farmers-to-be should grow all their own food, or that the entire country’s food supply can come from former lawns, parks and golf courses.
Rather, he points out that growing as much of one’s own food as possible can be a cornerstone of sound household finance. The necessary land and water are already in the same places as many of the people who now participate only in the demand side of agriculture.
Now before you trade your lawn mower in on a rototiller, take small steps. Grow a few tomatoes or herbs. As with any new endeavor, walk before you run.
:: Field Hand Appreciateion :: This is a reader supported site and we appreciate GM’s $10 donation. We appreciate his continued and most generous support of this website and work.
(5 votes)
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Filed under: In the Garden, Posts by Anais, Urban Farming |
Tags: freedom gardens, grow local, grow your own food, homegrown, urban aggies, urban agriculture, urban farming
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August 5, 2008
Shiny happy people - a group shot. Left to right: Sascha, Eileen, Jordanne, Justin, Johan, Anais, Kelly, Jules, Struan, Lauren, Eitan, Cory, Janice (behind the camera)
Group of guys sporting the ‘Homegrown Revolution’ tees. Left to right: Sascha, Justin, Eitan, Johan, Cory, Jules & Struan
People filing past the six tables of delicious local foods
Corry, one of our volunteers, helps with the food line
A full plate of local foods. There was so much food, folks when back for seconds, thirds and fourths!
Food table spread
Folks enjoying a summer’s night with food and fellowship
Three Freedom Gardeners hook up - yeah!
Farmer D inquires if “this is the Freedom Garden table?”
Three in a row.
A full house
I had planned on posting a follow up to the event yesterday; however, the digital photo card somehow got corrupted. So we had to bike down to a camera shop so they could pull off the pictures.
Also, there seems to be issues with both LHITC and Freedom Gardens site - very slow and experiencing periods of down time. URGH, we are just as frustrated as you are.
It was a perfect day for Sunday’s event. It was once again a huge success and I got my wish of all volunteers wearing the ‘Homegrown’ tees to poise for a picture.
A huge thanks to our 9 wonderful volunteers, we couldn’t have done it without you!
A full house, full spread, full plates, full of laughter and inspiration
Have to say this was the best spread ever of local foods! 6 tables packed with lovely, mouth watering dishes. I wish I could have gotten an aerial view of the table spread it was outstanding. Kudos to all who contributed - you guys rock.
The school facility was perfect making it a very family friendly event with picnic tables, grassy area where folks could sit and eat and kids could play. We are so blessed to be such a facility next door!
Also, we had quite a few Freedom Gardeners in attendance (yeah!) and they used the event as a FG rendezvous. Hopefully recruiting more members as we speak - nearing 700 members and growing!
With nearly 180 reservations taken, 135 folks from all over the southland (coming as far as Palos Verdes, Long Beach and the high desert) attended PTF latest screening of the inspirational film One Man, One Cow, One Planet. We sold out of the dvd copies we had available, and today we have more in stock so feel free to order your copy today.
Oh, and we even found a great home/family for an abandoned bunny. All in all it was a successful and inspiring summer’s night.
A sincere thank you
The Dervaes Family,
We would like to thank you for another wonderful evening of food, conversation and inspiration.
Both events have been well worth our while (even though we aren’t helping the peak oil problem making the drive down from the high desert). We have only spoken twice, but each time you make us feel like we have known you for years. What a gift. (We hope your tomatoes turn around soon, as well as ours)! It is not often we find ourselves in the company of like minded people, not only pertaining to gardening, but all of the issues we hold dear. I believe Gandhi said, “When we forget how to turn the soil with our hands we forget who we are.” In this crazy world, gardening and homesteading, has become our anchor. It truly is empowering, and your family has known this for years. I hope visionaries like yourselves don’t mind a family on their coattails!We will be adding our homestead to the Freedom Garden site soon. We would love to share our experiences, and more importantly, learn from others. See you soon at the next event and if you are in need of volunteers don’t hesitate to let us know.
Namaste,
K & S
Oak Hills, CA
With such events, your tax deductible donations go towards
Facility rental
Purchase of bio-degradable dinnerware and eco napkins
Video licensing fees to show film (we have to pay for screening rights) and cost of dvd
Promotional material, efforts and work
Sound system & video projector payments
Additional outreach
Thank you for your support.
Hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll be hosting another film & food event next month. We’d appreciated some film suggestions to gauge what our audience wants to see.
Let’s do it again next month, shall we?
P.S.
Sorry forgot to thank Craig for the Belgian chocolates and Eitan & Eileen for the book, Modoc. We appreciate your gifts.
(4 votes)
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Filed under: Events & Outreach, Mixed Greens (News), PTF Spotlights, Posts by Anais |
Tags: community, event, events, freedom garden, freedom gardeners, freedom gardens, Garden, homegrow, homegrown, inspiration, outreach, support, tees, video, water
Keep This Site Growing: Did you get some inspiration or glean an informative tip from this post? Please support this site by either making a tax deductible donation or a purchase from our online store. Thank you!
August 3, 2008
The garden has yet to produce like gangbusters, but that’s good because otherwise I’d be crushed under a heavy load of so much fruits and veggies. Slow and steady harvests are good, but I have a feeling that August will be, God willing, a heavy harvest month.
The weather is still cool for this time of year, so the weather really hasn’t regulated back to “normal” just yet. A few of our tomatoes are looking shabby so our resident urban farmers are on top of the succession plantings that need to be done. For a small plot, succession planting is key to a productive harvest. You gotta have a planting rhythm - out with the old, in with new and no lag time. This takes years of practice and learning and it’s still, after 20 years, a challenge for us to fine tune our succession plantings.
I think what makes our garden “successful” is that we depend on it for food. We don’t grow it, we don’t eat it and that simple manifesto and mentality makes all the difference. When you grow from hobby gardening to growing your own food, you take yourself and your garden to a higher level of dependency. You come to realize how much we depend on six inches of soil, ourselves and each other. By growing our food closer to home, we are freeing ourselves from food miles, oil dependence, contributing to a better environment for our community/family and creating local food security.
HG = Homegrown
SATURDAY
Breakfast - homemade, HG blueberry pancakes (made with HG eggs) and homemade, HG strawberry sauce
Dinner - homemade whole wheat tortillas, homemade spanish rice (HG tomatoes, peppers) topped with HG peppers, tomatoes and organic cheese
SUNDAY
Breakfast - homemade granola and HG fruit
Lunch - leftovers
Dinner - leftovers
MONDAY
Breakfast - homemade granola and HG fruit
Lunch - stuffed HG peppers (CA organic rice with HG green onions, celery, basil and tarragon) with baked HG tromboncino squash
Dinner - fig spaghetti (HG figs, basil, peppers)
TUESDAY
Breakfast - homemade granola and HG fruit
Lunch - HG green beans organic CA rice
Dinner - fig quesadilla (HG figs, peppers, tomatoes)
WEDNESDAY
Breakfast - homemade granola and homegrown fruit
Lunch - HG green beans organic CA rice
Dinner - HG eggplant parmeasan with homemade HG tomato sauce
THURSDAY
Breakfast - homemade granola and HG fruit
Lunch - HG eggplant parmeasan with HG beans
Dinner -leftovers with HG cucumber salad
FRIDAY
Breakfast - homemade granola and HG fruit
Lunch - summer pasta medley (HG peppers, tomatoes, green onions)
Dinner - organic whole wheat pasta with homemade tomato sauce with HG tomatoes, peppers & herbs with summer salad (HG cucumbers and heirloom tomatoes), homemade no knead bread and HG/homemade wine
(5 votes)
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Filed under: 100 Foot Diet, Homegrown Diet, Posts by Anais |
Tags: 100 Foot Diet, bread, eating closer to home, eggs, Fruits, Garden, Herbs, homegrow, homegrown, Homegrown Diet, homemade
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August 1, 2008
The preservation efforts continue here on the urban homestead. Like our pioneer predecessors would say ”make hay while the sun shines.” It’s preservation time!
More scrumptious strawberries
Homepreservation efforts continue
An afternoon’s worth of canning: figs, strawberries and peaches
Collection of scented herbs and roses drying for homemade herbal teas
A day’s harvest of beans from the garden.
Homegrown Anna apples waiting to be turned into apple butter
A peek inside the primary kitchen “food” cabinets here on the urban homestead, showing a weeks worth of preservation.
Cabinet contents: home preserved canned goods and “staple essentials” like organic sugar, flour, salt, vinegar, oil and pasta. These three cabinets are the primary food storage cabinets in the urban homestead kitchen (besides the fridge/freezer which you can see the insides of here) - yep that’s it folks! It’s all about basic essentials, free of too many pre-packaged goods.
Care to “say ahhh” and shout out your pantry, fridge, food cabinet contents? More homegrow/local, less store bought the better!
(8 votes)
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Filed under: Harvest Keeper, Posts by Anais, Storage & Preservation |
Tags: Back to Basics, canning, harvest keepers, home preservation
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August 1, 2008
Eggplant loaded
Eggplant and tomatoes
Handful of lovely yard long beans
Basil bed
Weighing the harvest
How Does Our Garden Grow
…. so, so
The garden is growing, though not as well as normal summer gardens are for this time. Instead of the harvest peaking, it seems to be going up steadily. We have the harvest tally’s for the month of July. It’s impressive but not as much as we estimated if it had not been such a cooler than normal July.
And we are not alone, urban aggies all across the country are also experiencing similar observations with their gardens.
I can’t leak out the July tally just yet because we are going to having some fun this summer! We’ll be putting on a “Tally Hoe Contest” for those over at Freedom Gardens next week. If you guess our poundage for the month you win a prize (1,2,3 prizes available!)
So sign up at Freedom Gardens for your chance to win and stay tuned for the contest details early next week.
(3 votes)
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Filed under: In the Garden, Posts by Anais |
Tags: Garden, in the garden
Keep This Site Growing: Did you get some inspiration or glean an informative tip from this post? Please support this site by either making a tax deductible donation or a purchase from our online store. Thank you!