Now that fall is just around the corner I can honestly say this was the COOLEST summer (ever), well, that I can remember. From June-August there were only two or three “really hot” weeks. So Cal gardeners, how did the cool summer affect your garden? Did you find it an easier or harder growing season?
The baby ducky episode is quickly coming to a close. Pretty soon these “quacker doodles” won’t want to be seen in public and there’ll be less and less pics of them here at LHITC.
Raising chickens naturally and holistically has been a passion for Jordanne these last nine years. During those years she’s acquired a lot of knowledge and know how which is now available to help you naturally boost your backyard flock.
[the] Dervaes Gardens sits practically on top of a Pasadena, California, freeway and is only blocks away from the famous Rose Bowl. Outside are all the trappings of twenty-first-century life: automobiles, satellite dishes, supermarkets, car washes, and stores…
June is the tipping point month were things can either go up hill or downhill … and fast! So far, we are holding steady. Some things are growing well, while others not so much.
Beekeeping is slightly more involved than say keeping ducks or chickens. Sure the bees do most of the work, but you have to stay on top of your hive maintenance – no slacking. Besides, bees are independent – they don’t listen to nobody!
On a cold, drizzly, gray day in February two chefs were dropped off at the Urban Homestead.
See what happens when they have to whip up a tasty meal with ingredients from the garden and pantry in this “foodie’s” drama.
Good little article but there are some slight misstatements. 1.) We grow 99 percent of our PRODUCE not diet 2) We do buy supplement animal feed (grains pellets) oh, and our goal is “ZERO” food miles!
Path to Freedom conserves water while cutting ‘food miles’ from Dervaes family’s carbon footprint
By Carolyn Neuhausen PASADENA WEEKLY
On a quiet [...]
Some folks have streets, buildings, parks named after them. But here’s one of our youngest fans (left photo), Tristan, who named his chickens after Jordanne (right) and one of her favorite chickens, Clementine (left).
So sweet and Jordanne is flattered!
The right photo shows Jordanne with her black cochin Clementine.
Like to take time and swap howdies with [...]
Actually I’ve come to dread going into the animal yard with a camera. Why? Because I end up with like a bazillion photos. These guys, er gals, are just too fun to be around.
So this time around Jordanne took the camera into her possession and snapped a few photos
You just saw synchronized preening and here’s [...]
Now to the biggest, best farming conference in the West!
Monterey Bay/Asilomar, EcoFarm Conference Jan 20-23
Before the conference started, we needed a place to stay for night or two before we were given our designated rooms on the conference grounds and were blessed with a place to stay beachside. (A big thanks to the Bakke family [...]
Meadow Vista Jan 17-18
Saying our goodbyes to all the wonderful folks at Nevada City Wild & Scenic Festival (read all about it in case you missed it!), it was time to mosey down the mountain to a little one stoplight town nestled amongst the pines, Meadow Vista, where we were to meet up with a [...]
“With Pomp, Power & Glory the world beckons vainly, In chase of such vanities why should I roam? While Peace & Content bless my little thatched cottage, And warm my own hearth with the Treasures of Home.” — Beatrix Potter
Not sure if you are getting tired of these pictorial posts since comments have been sorta [...]
Here at LHITC we’ve dedicated lots of entries to the crazy antics of our chickens and goats — even our cats. The ducks have quacked their objection, informing me they are just as cute and would like equal coverage.
They are right (sorry) and I’ve obliged them their request.
Because of the rain, we turned over the [...]
Looking to the right…..
To the left. The garden is all tucked in under covers
20, 26, 28 It’s not, um. shall we say “measurements” but what the thermometer’s read these past three nights. BRRRRR
Homesteading, urban homesteading for the matter, in the city – especially in Southern California– one really has it “easy” when it [...]
“The Freedom Garden Harvest challenge was started to get more people growing food and also adding up what they grow and harvest, instead of going to the store. Many are surprised by the amount of food that they can actually grow in a small space.”
From our 1/10 acre plot, our November harvest weighs in at
Produce [...]
The menagerie of animals that live here on the urban homestead provides us with countless hours of entertainment and free “therapy” – bringing smiles to our sometimes stressed brows.
Here’s Lucie (aka Lucie Goosey) digging her way to China (well, grubs or bugs more likely)
Diggity dig!
Estella, seeing Lucie’s hole is bigger, stops her digging and comes [...]
I don’t know what it is, but I find it very fascinating to watch our poultry molt when new feathers emerge from pointy white sheaths.
Now that it’s officially molting season the egg production has slowed while they put their energy into growing a new set of duds. Speaking of new duds, feathers are everywhere – in the [...]
Anaïs and Jordanne Dervaes give a video tour of the Pasadena homestead where they keep chickens, ducks, and goats (VIEW ONLINE VIDEO FEATURE running time 4:00 minutes)
LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE ONLINE EXTRA
By Wendy Witherspoon LAmag.com, October 19, 2009
If you’ve ever looked at your pet dog (especially after “cleaning up” the lawn) and wondered when he was [...]
Sweater on, sweater off, sweater on, sweater off. No, it’s not me that can’t make up her mind. It’s good ol Mother Nature who’s having trouble figuring out if summer’s over and time for fall.
For a couple of days it’s in the triple digits, then we drop like 30 degrees and by the end of [...]
View more photos of the day’s festivities here
On Sunday we packed up early and headed to “the beach” for the Blue Planet Film Festival. Sunday was day three of a four day film fest over the Labor Day holiday.
On tap for “Land Day” were gardening films (that included the inspiring Homegrown Revolution), clay pot irrigation [...]
We are on a canning spree here on the urban homestead and it looks like it won’t let up anytime soon. Today we put up some tomato sauce and sweet pickle relish (pictures coming…. probably Sunday)
This week the peaches have ripen and peaches means jam and a few (er bunch) eaten raw. Covered in sticky [...]
The July month’s total has been tallied and our family’s 1/10 plot harvest has weighed in
Produce: 648 lbs
Eggs (Ducks) 100 (Chicken) 87
Year to Date Total 2660 lbs of produce, 648 chicken eggs, 634 duck eggs and 17 lbs of honey
How’s your growing efforts been this season? Care to join our collective growing challenge?
Let’s [...]
A Homegrown Revolution Roots In Pasadena (PASADENA NOW)
By TRICIA AREND
Published: Monday, July 13, 2009 | 5:36 PM
Gardener and urban homesteader Jules Dervaes is growing a revolution in his Pasadena home. Dervaes’ little urban garden plot that could has led him to found the Path To Freedom and Little Homestead in the City, a sustainable resource [...]
This summer the season is ripe for more and more folks joining the modern urban homesteading movement. We are seeing more and more articles/books flooding the print and airwaves on the subject from growing your own food, raising backyard chickens even bees not to mention the preservation efforts that come with an abundant harvest.
Certianly a dramatic [...]
Our Freedom Garden continues to grow and flourish! Growing food security here at home.
Purple Top Turnips (via FreedomSeeds.org)
Clay pot irrigation/tomato bed
Lazy animals
Preening chickens
Snoozing chickens
Clusters of grapes (means homemade WINE soon!)
Sure, it’s exciting to get out of the blue calls from media outlets but it’s a superficial sort of excitement. It passes very quickly.
The other day we got an unexpected phone call which has me/us all excited still three weeks later.
It went something like this……
The person on the other line: “Hello, I was told by [...]
That’s what we playfully call our broody hens who tuck, tuck, tuck about ruffling their feathers and really are besides themselves once the coop goes under lock down in the afternoon to break the broodies.
When I put the chicken coop under lockdown the other day our bantie Estella (aka “Stells”) was frantic! Screeching and tucking, [...]
It’s that time again to empty out the simple cinder block compost bin that we dumped most of our green/yard and animal bedding waste in. It stands 5 bricks high and 5 wide. We use the lazy method of composting – dump, leave & empty. Yeah, we aren’t too big on the intricacies of composting – [...]
side of urban homesteading
As we meet more people, we hear things like “I am going to quit my job and start urban homesteading” (hearing that I was like “um, first ask your wife because we aren’t going to be responsible for a divorce”). Then there are those who , at the spur of the moment, get some [...]
Summertime garden
IN SEASON
By Deborah Geering
For the Journal-Constitution
Thursday, April 02, 2009
When I walked into the Urban Homesteading workshop at the Georgia Organics annual conference a couple of weeks ago, I was expecting a speaker who was —- well —- a little nutty. After all, what kind of person does it take to turn a 1/5-acre suburban [...]
Sorry for the lack of postings recently. Two weeks ago our family feel victim to a nasty flu bug that has been going around. Though we took considerable measures like herbs to combat the sickness the virus just had to take its natural course (though the symptoms were considerably less, thanks to mega [...]
(please note post was written yesterday – Wednesday )
Amen and pass the pitchfork. It’s a clear and sunny day! Honestly, the rain was getting a little much – too wet all at once.
No more soggy clothes and mucking boots for awhile at least.
It’s been so dreary and wet that we had to rig up a [...]
All our urban homestead critters are characters. We like to tell people we don’t have cable we have chickens, ducks and goats.
In our eclectic flock, these Belgian banties chickens are somewhat more personable than the rest. Though all our chickens are extremely friendly, there is just sometime special about these banties that just captures your [...]
This is one of those eclectic postings, lots of thoughts and stories all rolled into one.
Sorta like a jumbled post… you’ve been warned.
An easy up and salvaged canvas curtains protect the last two beds of tomatoes. Looks like a circus tent!
Protecting the crops with tarps and row covers
First Frost
The storm blew out late Wednesday night [...]
Rain is making everyone giddy and jumping for joy. Rain, rain come & stay is our ditty. Or we can sing the phrase that Jordanne likes to say when she’s thrilled about something — “happy, happy, joy, joy”
It was pouring last night and showers still lingered throughout the day and well into this evening with an [...]
Oh dear, I look so raggedy and upkempt. I must look frightful.
I wish my neck feathers would grow out, I’m starting to look like a plucked chicken – meanwhile no mirrors.
No more fluffy (or puffy) cheeks – really makes my neck look so long. Does anyone have a scarf?
While a few of our flock molted early there [...]
From sweaters to tank tops back to sweaters again. The seesaw weather pattern that was so prevalent this year continues to play havoc both plants and people.
One week the goats are growing their winter undercoats and the next they are wishing they hadn’t started! This week the heat was really intense – with the sun [...]
Plots of opportunity on urban eco-farms (The Natural Food Merchandiser)
by Vicky Uhland
The Dervaes family’s 1,500-square-foot vintage Craftsman bungalow, set on a standard city lot a mile from downtown Pasadena, Calif., is an unlikely homestead for a working farm. And yet Jules Dervaes and three of his children manage to grow 350 varieties of plants and [...]
Hey Lucie, got any teeth in that beak of yours?
The unsolicited media request haven’t stopped. That’s good, in a way, because it means that urban sustainability and food security are important and relevant issues.
With the recent Living Green Channel, KPFK radio and largest Spanish paper La Opinion highlighting the urban homestead lifestyle this week [...]
click here for more videos like this
Host Elizabeth Chambers chats with Jordanne about the benefits of citified farm animals.
Since 2002, Jordanne and her family have shared their urban homestead with a menagerie of animals — chickens, ducks, two rescued cats, red wiggler worms (which compost garbage) and two goats (Nigerian Dwarf and a Pygmy goat. [...]
That’s our nickname for when our hens go broody. Don’t you just love it when the go around puffing themselves up and shaking their little bodies – it’s hilarious.
Ms Dora (bantam gold cochin) is the broodiest of the lot (of 8 chickens) While the others, will go broody for a couple days, she likes to [...]
Well, not exactly. We don’t have a ‘goose’ per say, but it’s our nickname for Lucie, one of the Belgian bantie chickens. A small chicken with big (and quirky) personalities.
For some reason this week, Lucie Goosey, has boycotted using the chicken nest that all her fellow “inmates” use. While other are content to use their nest, [...]
More photos from the animal farm….
Old Clem, our chicken matriach, rules the animal kingdom. Always in everybody’s business.
Lucie “Hey you gotta little something there on your chin”
Sissy comes over to help Lucie out.
Sissy “Sheesh, I know, she’s soooo sloppy. “ Sairey “Who me?”
Dinner time!
Knock, knock. Hey, Fairlight, can I come in? No, you may not. [...]
Our citified farm animals, bringing smiles to so many people
As oldest living chicken here on the urban homestead (over 6 years and still clucking away), Miss Clementine has been featured in by quite a few media outlets that have been done about our urban homesteading project. She’s our little star and she knows it. And [...]
