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The Urban Homesteaders

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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







FREEDOM GROWS HERE

June 11, 2009



We’ve been getting back positive feedback from our first foray’s into offering safe, secure (and free) seeds (thanks!)

When we visited Freedom Farmer S’s plot on Sunday we were thrilled to see his Freedom Seeds growing so well. The veggies were so beautiful that I had to snap photos of the patch of Ashworth Yellow Corn, Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage (which had beautiful heads)  Supposedly I am going to get a few of those heads to make sauerkraut!  Yep, off with their heads!

Here are some of the other customer reviews….

————-

Hi, I bought some seeds from you earlier this year, many of which are doing very well, thank you :)

–Chris

————–

While this is an incomplete review not covering the tomato itself (yet) the seeds are doing quite well. I started 20 Valencia tomato seeds and ALL of them have germinated.

I had also bought tomato seeds from another heirloom seed company and only about half of them have germinated in the same amount of time. They are a different type of tomato, so Im not sure if that makes much difference.

I will come back for a follow up review after Ive eaten some of these Valencia tomatoes!

-DA

—————

Just wanted to thank the Dervaes family for their nice selection of seeds and placed another order. I do hope they add more heirloom tomato seeds to the website!

I had previously ordered some Valencia tomato seeds a month ago from FS and have 100% germination. Im impressed and proud to order again from you. Im not getting 100% from other OP/organic/heirloom companies seeds.

Im having a fun gardening season so far and thank Freedom Seeds for their selections. Cant wait to see the site grow!

–Dave

——————————-

I absolutely agree about the FG seeds.  I planted some zucchini and the plants are taking over my yard, they are so healthy.  I’ve already harvested 4 zucchinis!  In contrast, I had bought a zucchini plant at a big box store, it’s a fourth the size and finally producing, well, one so far.  And it was planted a couple of weeks before the seeds.  I’m a believer!!

–Aliska

Have you posted photos of your Freedom Garden plot filled with Freedom Seeds?  Care to share?

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BIODIESEL

June 11, 2009



Some more incoming links from Sunday

We aren’t one to laud biodiesel as the answer to the fuel crisis (two wheels, two feet or four would suffice), we look at it as a band-aid solution.  Once every one to two months Justin brews a 30 gallon batch (using recycled veggie oil from one of our restaurant clients) which lasts us quite awhile because we still conserve how many trips we take using the car.  In fact we clock in less than 4,000 miles a year on our bioburban.

Farmer J & Farmer S chatting at the Freedom Gardens Swap N Meet when Justin is asked a question about biodiesel

FYI I am the voice heard off camera inform Justin that it’s a moving camera…. hehe

Here’s a little impromptu interview with Justin Dervaes, the “Biodiesel Man’s” Biodiesel Recipe

Also thank you to Motherearthsoup for encouraging your readers to support out outreach.

Don’t forget FreedomSeeds.org for safe, secure seeds grown by the people for the people.

BTW the book Justin is referring to is HOMEBREW BIODIESEL GUIDE

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JUNE GLOOM

June 11, 2009



We’ve had dismal grey downright gloomy weather for over week now and it’s starting to get on everyone’s nerves.  Yeah, sorry could never really live in Seattle.  I like to see that brilliant bright yellow thing in the sky once in awhile, of course if the grey skies brought rain I’d be more akin to not disparaging over the weather and welcome any decent precipitation.

The “doom gloom” we dubbed it is, not very ideal weather for all the summer crops - in fact it’s perfect weather for breeding mildew and blight. We’ve spotted a few problem spots already on the eggplant and some tomatoes.    We’ve harvested a second batch of peppers and the first eggplants of the season; however with the cooler weather they are pathetically stunted.  No matter for us we could care less how puny and weird they look - it’s food!    A few tomatoes have  “ripened” well, just enough to eat.   A little less than ripe red but then again we’ve waited all year for fresh maters.  Lots of little green tomatoes waiting for the sun to come out though.

Checking the forecast that’s not going to happen to perhaps sometime next week.  So not only are the plants sun deprived the people are too and it’s getting to the point where we’ve had enough thank you very much.

So though it doesn’t feel summer the first crops of peppers, eggplant and tomatoes are here!

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BEETS then BRASSICAS - what’s next?

June 10, 2009



Thanks for one of the Freedom Gardeners for bringing this frightening article to our attention.

Pretty soon vegetables could be at risk now that big M has stopped their meddling with rice, corn and soy — looks like swiss chard is threatened  with contamination and cabbages are next!

BATTLE OVER BEETS

Organic seed producer Frank Morton has been warning people for years that genetically modified organisms pose a serious threat to the Willamette Valley’s vegetable seed industry.

Now he thinks his worst GMO nightmare may be coming true.

Roundup Ready sugarbeets — a patented variety engineered by Monsanto to tolerate the company’s widely used Roundup herbicide — have turned up in a soil mixture being sold to gardeners at a Corvallis landscaping supply business just a few miles from Morton’s fields.

Read full article

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GARDEN SPOT: Herb Quarterly Summer 2009

June 9, 2009



Check out this summer’s issue of The Herb Quarterly features a little piece (page 66) on our urban farming project.  They also have a great article on using edible flowers!

A few years after Farmer D smothered the lawn and planted a garden out front, we sold our first edible flower back in 1994 to a local tea shop.  Since then we have been providing not only edible flowers but herbs and heirloom vegetables and greens to local clients.

So not only does our little plot of land provide us with 99% of our produce but a viable income to boot.

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