Po-ta-Toes! Boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew?" -

Time to harvest our Po-ta-Toes!

Here in So Cal, where we have a "to be desired" growing season,  I started the potatoes back in December.   Sometimes I have a few little "seed potatoes" leftover; but, each year, I get a couple of pounds of  organic potatoes from the local health food store and sprout them.

I like to plant the potatoes in 15 gallon tubs with an olla (clay pot irrigation).  Seems to be successful.

Digging up the tubs filled with potatoes

Cutting down the potato greens to get to the tubers

Olla and purple potatoes

Pulling out a clump of fingerling taters

Colorful spuds

Potato au gratin

You can tell by the photo line up, it  pretty much sums up what our weather's been like.  Hot, for a couple of days, then cold.

This season, I grew purple, fingerlings, yukon gold and red ones  which all turned into a pretty decent harvest of nearly 100 lbs.

If you never had a homegrown potato before, you are missing a real treat.  We've been enjoying  potato salad with pickled squash and carrots from the pantry.

Back in the old days, seems folks would eat potatoes raw like apples.  Watching the Lark Rise to Candleford series, there's a scene  with Mr Timmins munching on a raw potato.  Hmmm,  I thought, eating raw potatoes are bad for you; well, that's what they tell you.

Not quite sure I'll try raw potatoes anytime soon.  When we roasted potatoes, I'm often reminded of Wilder family in Farmer Boy.

After two years of being screened at many film festivals and community viewings throughout the world, we have published (in its entirety) our award winning short film Homegrown Revolution for free viewing on YouTube.

It has been a crazy ride and exciting to have an award winning film and we sincerely thank those of you who supported this film in many ways.  A big THANK YOU goes out from our hearts to those  who supported us, purchased this video, screened it, shared it or simply let the film's message lead you to a new way of looking at your yard. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! We really appreciate it.

Our unlikely little film was a surprise success story.  For those of you who don't know the history, I'll recap briefly.  For those of you already know it, go ahead and skip to the end of this post to watch Homegrown Revolution.

Homegrown Revolution was made in a whirlwind three days after a last-minute invite for Dad to speak at Peter Sellars' UCLA class in 2007.  Jules Dervaes was to be the lead-in and local authority on sustainable food to Michael Pollan's presentation.

By now, we had given so many presentations, the explaining of our project and "Urban Homesteading" was becoming a tad redundant - there are only so many clever ways we could explain what we have been doing the last 16+ years.  Plus, the fact that this was a night class had many of us expecting a room of yawning and under-caffeinated students blinking sleepily at their laptop screens and surfing Facebook, content to get class credit simply for being a body in the seat.  Short of handing Red Bull out to everyone, we seriously thought NO ONE would wake up for this Urban Homesteading and sustainable food presentation.

Looking back at the time, I realize how far the movement has come to the point it is today.   It wasn't long ago at all, but in 2007  the movement was just blooming and I was finding out that most students didn't care or know about Urban Homesteading -- or even anything environmental or sustainable.   There's always the usual small but core group of students who were into changing the world and activism but we knew we had to reach to the others in the class that might not even have a first thought about the food they ate or about gardening.

At the family meeting / lunch following the invite, Dad turned to me (since I have unofficially become the tech geek / "electronic gadget whisperer" of the family ) and inquired about a video slideshow we had put together for a virtual tour of the Urban Homestead called "One Step at a Time."  This video brochure had been published on our website at the time  since it was first uploaded in 2004 (soon to be uploaded to YouTube for kicks).

As I am not a video editor and had no training at all, my foray into  messing about with video clips had been a sink or swim experience.   After mucking about in Adobe Premier, I had managed to put together some footage that resulted in One Step at a Time and that short film seemed pretty cool when it was made; but I was now slightly embarrassed about it and wanted to give Dad something newer and peppier for the students.

Anais and I got to work in those three days before the presentation.   We had multiple tapes of footage of the garden, animals and various projects throughout the yard but very little of ourselves.  So, I spliced those with some of the news media interviews for a  narrative effect.

I really wanted to do little interviews on our  own footage; but given the short amount of time and our aversion to being filmed by one another, it just wasn't happening. (NOTE: Seriously, I did try.  I approached Justin with a camera as he did his biodiesel brewing and asked him in  my best TV reporter voice to explain what was doing.   I received an  "are you kidding me?" stare for my troubles.  Turns out, it's hard for  us to be enthusiastic about giving each other interviews.  Try explaining to someone who already knows what you are doing, what you are doing.  It isn't easy. )

For fun and to appeal to the college kids who were my own age, Anais and I added in some well known musical favorites to create a edgy  mash-up type music video.

Turns out, as R.E.M's moody guitar in "Drive" snapped up the students' attention at  the first minute to the final frame of the fist-in-the-sky rallying  image and the drumming strains of "Revolution Cry", we had gained this class' full focus and subsequent and  enthusiastic ovation and shouts.   Yes, even the too-cool-for-school jocks of UCLA's NCAA basketball team were into it.

Later that week, we decided to publish Homegrown Revolution on YouTube (cut to 10 minutes since YouTube wouldn't allow videos of  longer lengths at that time) and it kind of went viral for a time and gained over 500,000 views.

We started to use Homegrown Revolution for an intro to Jules Dervaes' workshops and presentations and considered it a type of "video brochure" or "infomercial" to Urban  Homesteading.  Fast forward to late 2008 and we received a phone call from the awesome  folks at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival asking if we wanted to  submit our film for consideration.

I seriously had no idea what they were talking about!   Film?  What film? We don't have a film, I thought.

They soon convinced us that they were really asking for Homegrown Revolution which one of their members had seen on YouTube.  This touched off a flurry of more video editing.  Since the original version contained a lot that was not our footage, we began to re-shoot a lot of scenes and I soon had Homegrown Revolution up to over 25 minutes long.  But because Wild & Scenic had accepted Homegrown  Revolution into their program as it appeared on YouTube, we knew we  had to keep it to 10 minutes.

In the end, the final product came out  at 15 minutes after we all refused to cut out anything more.  There was also concern from some of Film Festival folks about remaking  Homegrown Revolution so much that it would no longer feel like the  original version so we felt a little restricted in our creativity.     I did try to obtain the rights to some of the footage / interviews that appeared in the original version but with so little time to  remake the film, it turned out easier to just re-speak most of it  instead of dealing with all the paperwork.    Again, all this had to  be done in a short amount of time - definitely not enough time to be at one's full creativity.

Unfortunately, although most of our words as they appear in the 2009  version of Homegrown Revolution had been spoken to interviewers  previously, it was hard getting family members to say the same lines  with enthusiasm and with the same passion as they had when speaking to  someone "new" and curious to what we were doing.  Looking at the film today,  I can see all the mistakes and where it could all have been better.

But this was a collaborative project done by all of us -- with each family member taking part in the filming, editing and structure of the film.  Neither of us had any previous film editing / filming experience but we hope the passion and enthusiasm show through any technical flaws and other problems.

It's also important to note that the film was made entirely in-house on computers powered by solar/green sources.  All transportation was done in a biodiesel-fueled car and all camera/mic batteries were rechargeable and charged with solar energy.  Waste was kept to a minimum – paper composted or recycled and all publicizing materials printed  on post consumer paper.

We are humbled by the impressive impact Homegrown Revolution had in  the film festivals both nationally and internationally. It  was never created for a film festival circuit but has a true homegrown, homemade story behind its creation. Today,  whenever I am frustrated by learning something new or seeing where I fail in trying to get something perfect, I just need to look at where our little film that could has taken us.

I am compiling a  tally of the festivals and known public screenings to be published at HomegrownRevolution.com but here are the AWARDS and HONORS Homegrown Revolution has gained so far:

WINNER

Best Environment & Ecology Film North America,
Swansea International Film Festival, UNITED KINGDOM

Prize of the Mayor of the Capitol City of Slovakia
Ekotop Film Festival of Sustainable Development, SLOVAKIA

Best Short Documentary
Southern Appalachian International Film Festival, TENNESSEE

El Capitan Film Award
Yosemite International Film Festival, CALIFORNIA

Best Sustainability Film
Green Screen Environmental Film Festival, CALIFORNIA

Robert T. Nanninga Award for Excellence,
Cottonwood Creek Film Festival, CALIFORNIA

-----------------------------

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Westpac Award Best Short Film Runner Up
Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, NEW ZEALAND

NOMINATED - Best Film, Climate Change & Sustainable Technology
CMS Vatavaran Environmental & Wildlife Film Fest, INDIA

FINALIST
European Spiritual Film Fest, FRANCE

Footage aired on Oprah's 2009 Earth Day show

You can still purchase the DVD here for community screenings or to just own a copy. We're still sending the film out to festivals who request it, so if you know of any film festivals or other opportunities, continue to send them our way. Thanks!

Pssst...!

Sharp eyed or observant readers might notice we now have a new YouTube address:  http://www.youtube.com/urbanhomestead

We'll still have the http://www.youtube.com/dervaes one but we might FINALLY be getting into sharing how-to videos.  We are launching this new channel for video clips showing snippets of life from the Urban Homestead as well as some how-to videos.

So be sure to subscribe to this new channel to get all the latest videos - thanks!

Wacky weather whiplash pattern continues.  Last week it was a scorching 95 degrees; then quicker than you can say  "summer's here?" a  few days later it's cold, overcast and raining (what a BLESSING!).

The poor plants are totally confused and so are we - sweater on, sweater off, on, off?

In the garden, the elephant garlic is just about ready to harvest and we've been digging up pounds and pounds of tasty potatoes!  Just today made a potato salad with home canned pickled carrots and homegrown celery - so yummy!  Can't beat the flavor and texture of homegrown potatoes!

The summer crops are slowly replacing the spring greens and brassicas. Justin informed me that they already spotted the hated (invasive) bagrada bug due to the heat. Bugger!

As head manager of the front porch farm stand, my duties include not only managing the operation, taking orders and such but also  filling them. Think that's my favorite part: to be out in the garden early in the morning harvesting the lovely bouquet of greens.   I do declare that one morning we all picked nearly 30 lbs of greens to fill the orders that morning!  Whew!

Bouquet of greens, indeed.  One of our customers exclaimed, "If I ever got married, this would be my bouquet."  Awwww.

APRIL HARVEST

276 lb produce

Eggs 141 (Duck) 73 (Chicken)

2011 YEAR TO DATE

939 lb produce

Eggs 486 (Duck)  190 (Chicken)

The Carter Family

It’s been awhile since I picked up a guitar. This new year was just about as good a time as any to scratch off some things on my  "to do" list.  (Doesn’t seem to get any shorter, does it?)

I’m hardly an expert; but, I can say if you are wanting to play an instrument, start easy with a song you like to sing that has easy chords.  Basically, don’t bite off more than you can chew – admit you aren't going to be Neil Young anytime soon!

The first week my poor fingertips hurt like heck.  I made sure to practice chords every night. But, the next morning, I could barely feel the keys to the computer keyboard.   After about a month rubbing alcohol on my tips after each practice session, as sis prescribed, my fingers have calluses. Now, the chords don’t hurt as much (well, except for the durn "D").  Yeehaw!

We like “folksie” music  - grew up listening to Joan Baez, John Denver, Peter Paul & Mary, Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens and many many more.  A few years ago, I  got hooked on Gillian Welch and loved her simple song "Winter's Come and Gone." It turns out that it is an easy song with fairly simple chords changes.   Although I would like to think I have pretty good hand/eye coordination, changing chords and strumming was as challenging as patting my head and rubbing my tummy.  URGH.

Original music tracks are great but they are done in a studio.  If you can search YouTube for someone who has done a good “raw” cover (like this one), you can copy the strumming style.  Jordanne is up to the finger picking level (she does an awesome Redemption Song on guitar).   But, for now, nothing fancy for me!  I’ll just continue to "pat my head, rub my tummy!" Er, I mean, stick to the Three P’s (practice, practice, practice), plain strumming and working on faster chords changes.

What I learned is that when I think I don’t have enough time to do something, it’s all about MAKING time.  It’s there, you just have to find it.

Love this UK site full of lyrics and chords to traditional tunes

There are loads of helpful how tos on YouTube, too.

What’s new on your Re-Skill /To Do List this year?

This recent article stresses the importance of how we all should start taking gardening seriously.    Growing your own food in the city: it’s a challenge but a good one - an a very important on too!

Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Will - Alternet

There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up spade, rake and hoe, make compost and raise good soil and garden beds with a vengeance, starting this spring and with an eye toward forever.

READ MORE

It's officially Spring and what a rocky start  weather wise.   We spiked into the 90’s for a few days and then dipped back under 60 with gray skies  and drizzle.  Crazy!

Busy, busy, busy - bees, biodiesel, soil blocks, picking, packing, watering, planting, building, etc. Where does the time go?  Not complaining; it’s good to have longer days to work on the farm here in the city.

Sis handed me a “to plant list” of things she needs for her home canning operation.    She makes a mean jalapeno jelly and wanted to make sure that I didn’t forget to plant them!

Squash, tomatoes, peppers and beans are all up and ready to transplant into the garden.   The new strawberry starts are filling in nicely. We are expecting to harvest berries in early June and the potatoes are just about ready to be dug up.  I know I’ve been looking forward to homegrown potatoes – they are way better tasting than the store.

The small invasion of aphids is now under control, sweet!  We spotted a couple ladybugs and have already noticed a huge difference on the chard and kales.    Thanks to the exceptionally warm weather last week, the greens seem to have grown a few feet (ok, inches) overnight.  We are now offering a slew of assorted greens at the front porch farm stand.  Sis is manager and CEO ("chief" for short) of the front porch farm stand and she’ll be posting more of what the stand has to offer.   It’s a wonderful feeling to feed the family and be able to offer the surplus produce to folks who are wanting to eat closer to home.

The hennery is cranking out eggs – yeah!

Last week, I helped a friend who manages a few urban bees divide a few hives for spring expansion.  Of course, we had to suit up on the HOTTEST day of the year (so far).   It was sweltering!  Hive work waits for no man, so we both suited up.  Long pants (I HATE long pants), long sleeve shirts and were sweating buckets just after a few minutes work.   I got some delicious honey comb in trade for a couple of hours work. What a treat and worth the (sweaty) effort!

The rescued hive is still here, bees going to and fro. It’s a wonderful site to see bees working the citrus.

March Harvest Tally

252 lbs Produce

Eggs      Chicken 91   Duck 160

2011 Tally to Date

663 lbs Produce

Eggs      Chicken 117   Duck 345

Welcoming the kids

Kicking off spring with our first school tour of the season.

The tour started off by explaining what an urban homestead is and how it can reduce our dependency on outside sources.

"From the things we have to do before we can learn them; we learn by doing them." -- Aristotle

As we went through our front yard, we explained that not only is the yard our “grocery store" but it is also our "pharmacy”  as we pointed out all the edible plants and herbs.

Upon entering the backyard, the kids began to “oooh and aaah” as a whole new world opened up right before their very eyes.    We asked the students if they knew how many miles their food traveled and gave them tips how to eat more locally.

As we gathered into the main patio and the students took their seats, the fun began!   First,  it’s “Smell 'n Tell”  as we  handed  out fragrant herbs from the garden to test their olfactory senses.

It’s not only about smell but taste, too.  So,  I whipped up some fresh chard wraps stuffed with hummus and tabouli (made with homegrown mints, green onions , parsley and canned tomatoes).   Jordanne pedaled the bike blender to mix up some vanilla yogurt & berry smoothies.   Both were tasty treats for everyone.

Last, but not least,  the "Backyard Barnyard" circus got  paraded out over squeals of delight, as everyone wanted to pet the chickens, ducks and goats.   They were  fascinated how soft the chickens' feathers were and the way the black feathers shone with a tint of green.  The ducks never fail to get laughs as they waddled out. Blackberry, the pygmy goat, as always, was the star of the show and she loved every minute of it.

We wrapped up the educational tour with a Q & A, discussing what small changes they could implement in their daily lives to become a more responsible consumer and caretaker of the planet.

Take a tour along with us...

Pointing out all the edibles in the front yard

Explaining about where our food comes from

Handing out the herbs

Handful of herbs

Smell n tell test

Slurping down pedal powered smoothies

Showing off the fish

and goats

Passing goodies to eat

Rainbow chard

Homemade tabouli

Chard leaf, hummus and tabouli

Makes for a yummy and healthful snack

Eating the chard wraps

Chopping up the pickles!

Quite colorful and tasty too

Anticipating the time in the future of adding some fish into our diet (see ETHICAL EATING),  we have been adding more tuna to the menu.

Since turning vegetarian in the early 90s, we’ve occasionally eaten fish.  So fish we is what we are  used to,  but it’s been awhile since we went fishing!  Actually, on our 10 acre homestead in Florida, we had a fresh water pond filled with bass.  I used to fish "Huckleberry Finn" style with a simple pole.  Sometimes, I got lucky!    Grandpa loved to fish and  he would take us kids with him on his fishing trips to Tampa Bay.    And Grandma would make a mean snapper dish that was famous far and wide.

We aren't fishing any time soon.   Canned tuna is cheap, so we figured we’d start with that.  We bought a couple cans of "dolphin safe"  from Trader Joes. I know there's probably a better (fresh)  fish selection at Whole Foods (or 'Whole Paycheck' as one of our friend likes to call it) but we've committed not to shop at Whole Foods since it  admitted to selling GMO's

Recently,  I decided I should make an easy peasy tuna pasta salad.  But, of course, my habit is tweaking recipes to fit what we have in our home canned pantry stock.

Opening up the cupboards,  I find sweet zucchini pickles and dilly carrots.   Hmmm, this could work!

PASTA TUNA SALAD
© 2011 Cooks.com - All rights reserved.

1 1/2 c. sm. pasta
1 (10 oz.) pkg. frozen peas, thawed  (substituted a two handfuls of homegrown celery)
1 1/2 c. chopped carrots  (substituted chopped dilly carrots & sweet zucchini pickles)
1/4 c. finely chopped onion  (substituted homegrown green onions)
2/3 c. mayonnaise
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dill weed   (too early for fresh dill in the garden yet, substituted fennel)
1 tsp. salt  (I used 'celery salt')
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 sm. can tuna

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain well. Cool (rinse with cold water to cool quickly; drain well). Thaw peas completely; drain well. Combine cooled pasta, peas, carrots, onion and tuna in a large bowl; mix well. Combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, sugar, dill weed, salt and pepper in a small bowl; blend well. Pour mayonnaise dressing over macaroni mixture; toss lightly. Chill. Garnish with paprika and serve on lettuce leaves if desired.

Happy to say, everyone enjoyed it!  Even Jordanne, who's not too keen on tuna.

ORGANIC GARDENING

SQUARE FOOT GARDENING

EDIBLE LANDSCAPING

VICTORY GARDEN

SEEDS OF CHANGE

THE PIONEER WOMAN

SIMPLE LIVING

LOCAVORE

HOMESTEAD GARDENS

BACKYARD FARMS

GAIA

VEGE

HONEYBEES

HOMEGROWN

BIODIESEL

BICYCLING

GARDENER

URBAN HOME & GARDEN

COMPOST MASTER

HOMEGROWN HARVEST

LIVING HOMEGROWN

HOMEGROWN HIPPIE

PLANT THE SEED

GARDEN GIRL

URBAN FARMING

HOBBY FARM

URBAN FARM

BIODYNAMIC

GROW BIOINTENSIVE

SLOW FOOD

CERTIFIED ORGANIC BY CCOF

If anyone is offended by these common trademarks, please contact the respective trademark owners!

Looking back on our goals from last year Justin (Jethro) got his fish project underway,  the grey water project too.

Jordanne (Ellie Mae) revamped our two social networks, Freedom Gardens and launched Backyards & Barnyards and did get around to organizing a lot of mess.  Not to forget the launced her super amazing Natural Poultry Supplement Mix which is receiving rave reviews!

As for me (Granny),  the mountain of fabric and yarn still looms like a huge shadow but the craft-music room is coming along nicely.  Not sure if I am talking less and listening more – guess I’ll have to ask my family & friends that.

The 7K bonanza harvest wasn't the only highlight from 2010

We went back to Wild & Scenic located in the quaint mountain town of Nevada City and had a chance to meet our favorite author, John Robbins.  Had a workshop at the Eco Farm conference in lovely grounds Asilomar (didn't get to spend as much time on the beach as we'd like since it was soooo cold and rainy!).   Not to mention numerous articles and video pieces which all were featured here on the blog – our favorite being the recent So Cal Connect piece , I am Los Angeles , Private Chefs of Beverly Hills,  Sis and I were "Cover Girls" & with an article featured in this online magazine and I wrote about my home school experience for another

Our home made film "Homegrown Revolution" won  many awards including : Best Environment & Ecology Film North America - Swansea International Film Festival, U.K.; Prize of the Mayor of the Capitol City of Slovakia - Ekotop Film Festival of Sustainable Development, Slovakia; Best Short Documentary - Southern Appalachian International Film Festival, Tennessee; Honorable Mention: Westpac Award Best Short Film - Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival, New Zealand.  (You can purchase a DVD copy)

We traveled to back to the homestead in New Zealand where I was born (more pics and tales to come) and with our biggest turn out ever to a presentation on urban homesteading!

After the New Zealand trip: Other outreach opportunities included four university appearances by "Farmer D" and a presentation for a public school district's student gardens fundraiser.

On the urban  homestead

Keeping it real.  As with any journey, we had our ups and downs.

Passing of dear old Clementine (the poster chicken & darling of the UH movement) and our duck Amy after freak accident which never fully recovered from.

The cycle of life continued, Though there were sad deaths there was new life with four additions to our flock.  Our southern belles  - Annalee, Lulu Belle, Beulah and Opal.

Pushing the envelope in urban sustainability we added new projects:  hops for beer and 50 tilapia for aquaponics fish farming and wrote about the challenges that we face of growing food in the city.

Wrote about necessary Urban Homestead apparel and "Natural Beauty, "  "Homesteader Hygiene", & Living Without AC,  Washing Clothes by Hand & threw an amazing  "Girlie" Tea Party under $50!

Long time customer, Elements, who featured our many of our homegrown items on his menu unceremoniously dumped us (having money issues)   When one door closed, it opened up our produce to the public with the launch of the Front Porch Farm Stand featuring local foods and goods.

Weather continued to be a problem with a record heat wave in October & record rainfall in December

Though we had one of our best honey harvest in years, Varroa Mites (and early cold weather) wiped out all of our of beehives except one.

I dropped the ball on the Weekly Meal wrap ups (sorry readers) posts but I picked up guitar which I am enjoying relearning – well, except for the sore finger tips.   Ouch!

There you have it!  Some of the highlights of 2010,  I know I just touched the tip of the ice berg otherwise I’d be here all day.

So what our plans/goals for 2011?   That’s certainly a good question and a lot to digest ….  we do know are going to have sadly terminate some projects because of the lack of support.   It’s a bitter pill to swallow put sometimes you got to cut things that are weighing you down.  I’m talking to myself here… have to keep saying that!

Also like to thank all of you readers who have supported us via donations or purchases from our online store.    Not to mention all the wonderful letters, cards and emails.   THANK YOU!

While I try to shake off a awful case writers block, if you are new or a lurker to this blog, this is a good time to swap howdies or better yet TELL US what your FAVORITE post(s) of 2010 were!

So pull up a chair and give us a holler ya hear and hope 2011 is off to a good start for you!

Fairlight loves the attention

In the garden

Farmer D talks about how much food is grown on our little city plot

Filming gets you hungry! Sitting down to enjoy a homegrown and cooked meal

The KCET crew enjoys the food

Our first appearance on the local PBS station KCET was in 2003 which featured a little blurb about our garden.   We're back!

Val Zavala visits the urban homestead and this segment will be featured So Cal Connected and air

Friday Dec. 10th at 8:30 pm
Saturday Dec. 11th at 6 pm
Sunday Dec. 12th at 6:30 pm

Once it airs it will also on be on their website at kcet.org/socalconnected

Oh and don't forget the FREE URBAN HOMESTEADING event this coming Sunday.  Hope to see you there!