[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.
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.
The harvest weigh-in is in for the month of April
Produce (veg, fruit, herbs) – 555 lbs
Eggs (chicken) 83 (duck) 51
2010 Year to Date Tally
Total: 1,220 lbs
Eggs (chicken) 260 (duck) 132
Coming up!
Reckon ya’ll are ready for another pictorial post?
Giving her warm baths during the egg binding crisis
We’ve dealt with our fair share of problems & pain – having more animal increases the chance of one running into some illness, injury and even death. That’s a farm life – nature gives and nature takes away.
Dawn had a leg injury awhile back – with a [...]
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 [...]
Front porch farm stand
Getting to know your farmer and where your food comes from.
Our urban farming foray’s started back in the early 1990’s when Farmer D smother the front lawn to grow food. After 15 plus years supplying local restaurants we are now expanding our homegrown produce sales to be csa-like.
These days, folks are dropping [...]
Sorry, a little tardy on posting our harvest totals for February.
Here they are
Produce (fruits, veggies, herbs) 138 lb 13 oz
Eggs Chicken 63 Duck 19
Psst, join our growing (free) social network for gardeners
“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 [...]
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 [...]
The Freedom Gardeners are weighing in this month and boy what a harvest!
Kudos to you all for such an outstanding weigh in!
Initial August Harvest Challenge numbers show us over 2,900 lbs for August alone, for an annual total of over 15,000
The first part August we had cooler than normal temps so the summer veggies were [...]
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 [...]
As I suspected our harvest total for June is slightly down from previous years thanks to a cooler than normal June which delayed the ripening of quite a bit of our crops here on the urban homestead.
July is, well, looking like normal July so we should easily get back on track with our average harvest [...]
Thanks to FreedomGardens.org we been able to barter with a local farmer in the area. The most recent trade was for a couple pounds of cabbages for a few ollas and a couple jars of finished sauerkraut.
Have you hooked up with a FGer in your area and swapped yer crops. If not what are you [...]
Weighing in for the month of May
748 lbs of produce (vegetables, fruits and herbs)
90 Duck eggs
80 Chicken eggs
17 lbs of Honey
Grow Your Own Groceries
Here how you can join us in our collective growing effort
Tally Guidelines
Any “poundage” grown by you on your property, patio, window sill or community plot including fruits, vegetables, herbs, nuts that [...]
Jordanne lookin cute with her apron answers animal questions
Volunteers and Freedom Gardeners field gardening questions from the fair goers
Later in the day Farmer D & J come in to check in and chat with the volunteers
I just love this statement – “WILL WORK FOR FOOD SECURITY” because this lifestyle is one that’s in need of [...]
Though our schedule was slightly interrupted with a slew of different community events, here’s what we enjoyed eating last week.
SATURDAY
out
SUNDAY
Breakfast – out
Dinner – homemade pizza topped with homegrown, marinated peppers, homegrown-made tomato sauce, organic cheese and homegrown salad
MONDAY
Breakfast – homemade skillet granola
Lunch – homegrown-made kimchi (made with homegrown daikon, carrots and locally bartered cabbage) raw [...]
A big thanks to FGer “MrsMeyers” for her vigilant tallying efforts from all those participating in the challenge. Here’s the figures so far.
March’s Tally Totals
735lbs of produce (plus blackthorn’s 12.6 grams:)
1525 eggs (1437 chicken, 88 duck)
39 quarts of maple syrup
Total Harvest Tally
2257.75lbs of produce!!!!
3184 eggs (chicken, duck and turkey)
68lbs of meat/eggs
55lbs of produce traded/collected from [...]
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 [...]
Spent the morning tallying up the harvest figures for March and considering we’d been gone for 6 days we didn’t do too bad.
March Tally
Produce: 265 lbs produce
Eggs (duck & chicken): 213
Care to join in our collective growing effort to grow and harvest 1 million pounds.
Folks are posting their March harvest tallies here {note you [...]
Harvest (herbs, fruits, and vegs) 5,500 lbs (or there abouts)
Eggs: 2,155 (duck & chicken)
Honey: 25 lbs
If you have been following us this year, you know that the weather played havoc with our summer crops. Many such as cucumbers and tomatoes were lackluster and poundage considerably down than in previous years. From our records we “normally” [...]
Once again not much in the way of photos showing off our meals. I’ll try to do better.
Liquid sunshine is expected this week – tonight or early tomorrow! The garden really needs a good deep watering from a natural source.
We are looking forward to going over to our friends house this Thanksgiving. Given that we [...]
Even though it feels like fall (for now) we are still enjoying fresh tomatoes and peppers from the garden. Actually, Justin commented today that we are harvesting more tomatoes than we got all summer! He’s right ya know, it’s been a terribly odd year. Summer still lingers on down on the farm.
As you can see [...]
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 [...]
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The salad greens are finally coming along, so we were able to enjoy some tasty salads this week. The fall batch of tomatoes are still growing – even producing red ripe tomatoes. So summer still lives on here on the urban homestead.
HG = Homegrown
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade pomegranate pancakes (made with HG eggs) and homegrown honey
Dinner [...]
Some of elements of a complete urban homestead: intensively productive garden, cob oven, solar ovens, outdoor shower, shed, solar panels (on garage), bees (can you see spot ‘em?) clothes line and at least three composters.
I finally got around to updating some of the harvest stats, egg count and honey production (see left hand column)
Even with [...]
With little or no surplus for our clients, we’ve been concentrating on just feeding ourselves and cutting back on unnecessary store bought food items.
We’ve cut out buying raw or organic milk (operation goat milk in the works, but that’s for another post) instead buying organic milk powder. We don’t use much (‘cept for baking) or [...]
Well, the summer garden’s slowing crawling to a close here on the urban homestead. Though, I am not quite looking forward to cooler weather, I am, however, ready for a change and perhaps a new chapter.
Thanks for everyone’s positive comments, they are greatly appreciated. We are blessed that you find inspiration and hope in our everyday [...]
What a welcome addition the hearty cow peas (or blackeyed peas) were to our 100 foot diet. These creamy white and black spotted beauties brought back childhood memories. Growing up on our 10 acres in Florida black eyed peas were one of the crops we grew and were readily available (and cheap) in local supermarkets.
Give me some [...]
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 [...]
Though there wasn’t that overwhelming onslaught of summer harvest the garden is still producing just enough for our family meals to consists of primarily homegrown. The lima beans are still producing like gangbusters providing us with hearty, wholesome and filling meals. Peppers and eggplants are still growing strong, another flush of green beans are almost [...]
HG = Homegrown
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade pancakes (made with HG eggs) and homemade, HG strawberry sauce and HG peaches
Dinner – homemade organic flour tortillas with homemade spanish rice (HG tomatoes, peppers, green onions) topped with HG tomatoes, peppers, cilantro and organic cheese
SUNDAY
Breakfast – homemade granola and HG fruit
Lunch - leftovers from Saturday
Dinner – HG roasted eggplant, [...]
It’s been an abnormally, unseasonable cool week. Feels like late October or even June. I wonder if this could be the coolest August on record? We don’t really know how the cooler weather will affect the last of the summer crops or if this just just temporary and September and October will be scorchers.
Farmer [...]
This is our type of economy – trading goods for goods.
View Video SIX EGGS FOR A PINT OF BEER
What’s In Your Wallet?
Are you growing a local economy? Have you barter, swapped, traded lately?
Food, goods and services are like the commerical says “priceless.”
Left to right: Jordanne, Blackberry (goat) & Jules, solar oven, backyard garden with earthen oven, outdoor solar shower
PROMISING RETURN TO THE PAST
A farm based in the middle of urban LA
August 9, 2008 La Opinion
Lourdes López
View Original Article
[English Translation]
The ordinary Dervaes house shines like any other one in the Pasadena area, located on the side of [...]
Another weekly meal wrap up of what we urban homesteaders ate last week.
With all the preservation that’s going on, meals have been simple. No matter the simpleness – this is homegrown gourmet! Nothing beats homegrown, sun ripe tomato or sweet fig sliced on top warm french bread, melted mozzarella cheese with a drizzle of olive [...]
Sharing the path, Anais & Jordanne give UCLA students a tour of the urban homestead
Uprising Radio KPFK 90.7
The recent spike in oil and food prices, and extreme weather conditions due to climate change have led many Americans to consider changing their eating and shopping habits and even their lifestyles. In Pasadena, the Dervaes family has [...]
DIY car maintenance
It’s a jungle out there
On the preservation front
On the Homefront
Well, it was bound to happen sometime. Didn’t think we’d escape the summer with out it. The dog days of summer are upon us with a bit of humidity thrown in for good measure.
The harvest is slowly picking up, though some of our [...]
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 [...]
What’s New On the Plate
This week – figs! Figs are one of those versatile fruit that can go both ways. Used in both sweet and savory dishes. Not only do figs make outstanding desserts they also are dynamite in quesadilla and pizza.
Growing up I was never really a fig lover (though did enjoy fig newtons [...]
It’s been another busy week here on the ’stead. Certainly not a dull moment that’s for sure. Something always going on!
Last week inspired by catching a brief clip of Bittman’s cooking show on our local PBS station made some tasty ‘leftover rice’ dishes with solar cooked rice.
And just incase you are wondering… No, we aren’t [...]
Normally this entry is posted on Friday – wrapping up what we ate last week. However, I got so busy on Friday that I figured I could post on Monday. So here it is!
SATURDAY
Breakfast – homemade, homegrown blueberry pancakes (made with homeraised eggs) and homemade, homegrown strawberry sauce
Dinner – potluck with friends
SUNDAY
Breakfast – homemade granola
Lunch [...]
One thing and urban homesteader learns early one – it’s all about records. Keeping records helps motivated you to better yourself each year, outline successes and failures, not to mention, tally up all those baby steps taken along the way.
Although we’ve always had a pretty productive garden since I can remember our growing efforts turned [...]
Tea time here on the urban homestead. Using our and a friend’s Grandmother’s fine china and silver tea sets for an eclectic yet elegant table.
Grandmother’s linens and a freshly picked bouquet… now all we need are our guests
Our dear knitting mentor,Betty (center), expressively shares a story with the ladies. Betty is an incredibly talented knitter who’s [...]
