Orach

"Strawberry Spinach"

Purslane

Chard & kale

New Zealand Spinach

Collards

Come summer, growing lettuces and tender greens can be a challenge.     We  do grow a "patch or two" in our movable planter boxes that we move to the northwest side of the house to keep the sun's rays from beating down on the poor things.    Sure, we'll get a few cuttings before they expire; bu twe  rely more on their hardy counterparts for our summer green crop.

Over the last 25 years of growing food in the city, we learned many things - sometimes the hard way.  The main lesson is to  adapt, growing along with the season and not against it.  Trying to coax things to grow out of their season means you just create more work for yourself.

In summer there's a higher turnaround  with the greens, like lettuce and arugula, because of bolting .   In summer, our salad mix has more hardy (less likely to bolt) summer greens like dandelion, purslane, tetragonia, orach, amaranth, mustards, etc.

Don't think your chances have wilted for growing  nutritious greens in the heat of the summer.  Grow out of your comfort zone!  There are  plenty  of different and exciting greens  from which to choose.

What's your favorite "hot weather" greens?

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!

Appreciate everyone's emails and letters of concern over the  possible arrival of  a radiation cloud that is "reportedly" coming our way.   For what it's worth, here's what the UN Weather Forecast has to say.

A storm is coming;  but, with the radioactivity, we are  not sure if rain is a good thing, However, we can't really do anything about it.  But, just in case, we are increasing our kelp intake  and putting extra kelp in the animal feed.

Barbara Brennan writes in her classic Light Emerging, “If you are having any kind of radiation treatments, consider going macrobiotic. According to Michio and Aveline Kushi, macrobiotics is very effective in curing radiation sickness. In his book Macrobiotic Diet, Michio Kushi states: ‘At the time of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945, Tatsuichiro Akizuki, M.D., was director of the Department of Internal Medicine at St. Francis Hospital in Nagasaki. Most patients in the hospital, located one mile from the center of the blast, survived the initial effects of the bomb, but soon after came down with symptoms of radiation sickness from the radioactivity that had been released. Dr. Akizuki fed his staff and patients a strict macrobiotic diet of brown rice, miso* and tamari soy sauce soup, wakame and other sea vegetables , Hokkaido pumpkin, and sea salt and prohibited the consumption of sugar and sweets. As a result, he saved everyone in his hospital, while many other survivors in the city perished from radiation sickness.’”  -  Read full article at Combatting Radiation Poisoning

There is certainly a fine line between facts and fear, truth and rumors.  Our government  says there is no cause for alarm and reassured us that we have nothing to worry about.   OK, fine.  If increased dosages of kelp isn't "necessary," our bodies will still benefit from taking this "miracle plant."

Speaking of rain, we are sure going to need it because the City of Pasadena has declared a Level 4 Water Shortage Emergency.   As a result, it has issued a 10-Day Ban on Outdoor Watering, March 18-27.   Edible gardens and nurseries will be exempt and even, get this, golf courses.  Yeah, seriously!

With our exemption to the outdoor watering ban,  we are going to take full advantage  and step up our water harvesting and conservation efforts.

Ollas - since we starting using the clay pot irrigation method over 5 years ago, we've cut our water usage by 1/2

Grey water - reclaiming used water to irrigate fruit trees

Water conservation - is the best (and cheapest) way to save water

Metal roof installation (safe for collecting rain for drinking water).  Although we have installed the right metal roof,  we have yet to install gutters to collect the rainwater.  Since southern California is so dry, we have postponed the completion.  However, that may soon change!

(FYI: If worse ever comes to worse, as, for example, an earthquake and we do run out of water, we know a place to go in the mountains to collect fresh water to filter into safe drinking water. I guess that is as natural and green as one can get! But, hush, don't tell anyone our little secret!)

A step backwards, clay pot irrigation

We bought a couple dozen olla’s from you last year but only had two beds and few oak whiskey barrels at that time. This year we made a few more raised large beds and added a few more barrels (barrels perfect for the olla’s) installed drip lines to water all of the ollas at once by turning the handle on the hose. OH MY OH MY. We have a few whiskey barrels with just drip irrigation 360 sprayers and no olla’a and what a difference the olla makes, all of the whiskey barrels (holding tomato plants surrounded by herbs or strawberries and herbs combined are thriving, just thriving, taller than the no olla barrels. Plants love them, when removing them this past winter, they were hugged by roots of vegetables that had grown with them that past summer. They work and work well, we all have been utilizing the plant nanny a clay spike that holds a wine bottle. They have the same concept as the olla yet can not be filled with the drip lines. look very nice in the whiskey/wine barrels. very vineyard feel to our courtyard now.
We love it. - Patricia

Plant Pottery That Works

We can't sing the praises enough of clay pot irrigation, an ancient method of plant irrigation - considered the original drip irrigation system. And yes the ollas are 100% LEAD-FREE

Sure they are somewhat pricey but here on the urban homestead we've been slowing putting ollas [pronounced OH-ya] throughout the yard and over the last three years have cut our water usage in 1/2 while maintaining our annual poundage of close to 6,000 lbs. {our water bill for the entire year is $600}

It's great to hear of others who too have success with this ancient yet highly efficient watering method, thanks for sharing Patricia.

What about anyone else, care to share your olla experience? O yah!

Or better yet, share what water wise efforts you are doing to reduce your water use in the garden. Are you getting rid of the lawn to grow more food, mulching or planting crops closer together all in an effort to save water?

Here's our latest Water Saving Projects and list of Water Wise Ways

:: Resources ::

Buy Ollas from our Urban Homestead Shop

Using Ollas in Your Garden

Pictures of Ollas in Raised Beds

Ollas FAQ

Make Your Own SWC ("self watering container") Ollas in Containers (pics sent to us by another LA urban homesteader)

Unpacking the ollas

Ollas in the driveway

So purty!

Going shopping - hmmm  "does this one fit?"

The other day we received our spring shipment of ollas - so ya'll who have been waiting for them we are shipping them out this week!  Thanks for your patience.

For you local yokels, if know someone who is an avid gardener/homesteader and you need gift for Mother's Day just click on the "local pick up" option after ordering (we are closed on Saturday but will be open on Sunday - Mother's Day- for local pick ups)

Not only were we excited about getting the ollas to put more in our garden but we also do a bit of shopping.  You see the ollas are packed in second hand clothes to keep them from breaking.   After the ollas are unpacked we "recycle" the clothing - getting first dibs on "new" duds and the ones that don't fit/aren't our style we re-use them as packing material when sending the ollas out!

This time around we picked up a few sweaters and shirts...  think the shirt that I am wearing in the pic came from the last olla shipment.

Pretty neat huh?

:: Resources ::

Buy Ollas from our Urban Homestead Shop

Using Ollas in Your Garden

Pictures of Ollas in Raised Beds

Ollas FAQ

Make Your Own SWC ("self watering container") Ollas in Containers (pics sent to us by another LA urban homesteader)

:: Recent Article ::

From Farm To Fork (Pasadena Weekly)

...In fact, the Dervaes’ have cut their watering bill to $600 annually, and they did it by reusing water, reducing water use and using old irrigation methods.

Rich soil is the key to having a bountiful garden and getting the most out of scarce water resources, which is why the Dervaes’ have mulched and composted their soil extensively. Over the years they’ve added so much natural fertilizer to their soil that they now have a foot and a half more soil than their next-door neighbors.
“We don’t waste anything and we have five composting areas around here. When you put the good soil [dirt with animal fertilizer] on the plants they immediately have a kind of insurance against water stress and drought because the soil’s good and the plants have good root systems because they go down,” said Dervaes.

To learn more about conserving water, Jules Dervaes and his family turned to the Internet. Researching old methods of irrigation, they found a system used in ancient China, Rome and Egypt and still used around the world to this day. The system is called “ollas,” the Spanish term for bottle or jar.
Ollas irrigation is based on burying unglazed clay jars in planters or garden beds, near produce, and filling the jars up with water. Unglazed clay pottery leeches moisture, making it a poor container for holding water for long periods of time. When the ollas are buried to the throat in soil, the jar loses water, dripping deep in the soil, near the roots of the plants. It acts as a constant drip irrigation system, but because water is below the surface, it’s not lost in the sun’s evaporating rays and the plants get only the water they need.

The family’s “computerized, automatic-timed waterer,” son Justin, also waters the garden beds by hand, using a watering wand and a hose, which means water is used appropriately where it’s most needed. Each type of plant is watered based on its needs and its size. This customized watering is much different than the sprinkler irrigation systems used in large commercial farms, where sprinklers shoot water over acres and water is lost to evaporation and scatter.

The Dervaes’ reuse their water as well. During the summer, family members use an outdoor shower shed and biodegradable soaps, so water is rinsed off into the ground, nourishing fig tree and sugarcane poles; clothing is washed in an Amish-style crank washbasin, water and biodegradable detergents siphoned off to water their avocado tree.

Read full article>>

We hosted a FOOD INC screening & potluck on Sunday night and you can too - in your own home!

Tomorrow night at 9 PM (April 21) PBS POV will air FOOD INC in its entirety and is encouraging folks to host a potluck too

Here are some ways you can help (I've taken the liberty to copy from via the POV website )

1. Share your recipes — Enter your best potluck recipes in the comments section of our recipes page so that viewers and potluck hosts can check them out.

2. Feature POV's Food, Inc. potluck party on your site — Encourage your readers to host their own potluck parties on April 21 (or from April 22 to April 29, when the film will be streaming online). Post about the potluck and link back to our party kit and checklist. Then, have your readers who hosted potlucks tell us about their party for a chance receive free gifts — including autographed books from Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, a DVD of the film, coffee from Equator Coffees, coupons for free Amy's Kitchen products and more!

3. Host your own Food, Inc. potluck party and blog about it — We would love to feature bloggers who hold their own potluck parties in the next few weeks as examples to viewers who are interested in doing it the night of broadcast.

4. Get the word out — Tweet/Facebook about the POV broadcast of the film and the potluck and let your friends, family, fans and followers know how they can hold their own potlucks. We'd love it if you used the hashtag #foodincparty when you tweet so that we can track, retweet and respond to your messages.

Here is a sample tweet that we encourage you to retweet if you're short on time.

FOOD, INC. airs on @povdocs (PBS) 4/21. Host a potluck and talk about food issues? http://to.pbs.org/a4Q1BT #foodincparty

Go to POV website and sign up

Our Film & Food Event

Here's what went down at our screening Sunday Night

Nearly 80 people attended our local screening of FOOD Inc in Pasadena Ca

The food spread was incredible and delicious.  Folks were encourage to bring something (preferably vegetarian) to contribute to the potluck. The primary focus of the ‘Locavore’ potluck is to promote eating whole foods, in their nature-made state, focusing on fresh food from local sources (or as local as possible).

If not FROM BACKYARD then locally produced.

If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.

If not ORGANIC, then Family farm. If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.

If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.

Folks were also encourage to bring something "HOMEGROWN" to trade and swap at the Freedom Gardens table

Good food, good times

Fellowship, networking - growing community

People crowd around the Freedom Gardens table - there were herbs, worm compost, fruits, plants, veggies and more to swap!

Justin demonstrates making soil blocks with the soil block maker

Jordanne talks about keeping citified farm animals

I explain how to use ollas/clay pot irrigation in the garden to conserve water

Farmer D introduces FOOD INC

Film was followed by a pop quiz and very thoughtful discussion.

Thanks to all who participated and the amazing food spread - great job everyone.  Not to mention, thank you to our wonderful volunteers who pitched in - couldn't have done with without you.

Last but not least, we also want to thank PBS POV for choosing Path to Freedom's "Little Homestead in the City" to be a participating blogger/site for this national event.

To view more photos from this event go to our FACEBOOK page

On the homestead in New Zealand, there was a huge cistern that collected rainwater for the household. On the Florida homestead, we had a well; but, here on our city homestead, it's all about conservation and collection of potable water.

Our water journey started back in early 90's when So Cal was going through a servere drought and Farmer D took the first "radical" step by smothering our front lawn to grow food.   Mulching heavily and hauling buckets of greywater from the house, we started on the path towards cutting our water useage.

What about rainwater?

In 2006, we removed our old (slightly dilapidated) shingle roof and installed a metal one that's better equipped for rainwater harvest; however, our "official" rainwater harvesting project is still on hold tuntil we put gutters on this old house; but, in the meantime, we use buckets and 55 gallon drums to collect the water.  Every bit helps!

One of the most frequently asked questions is about water and awhile back I put together a list of some of the "Water Wise Ways" we've adopted here on the urban homestead.  Check out the list

Since this list, we've successfully cut our water useage in 1/2 while maintaining our high harvest yields.  Our water bill for the entire year (including personal use) is $600

This month, we are taking steps forward on the water front.   We are converting even more beds and garden space to the highly efficient clay pot irrigation method and almost completing one of our greywater projects that will divert the used bath water to water our trees and garden.

Not to mention the aquaponics project. We gals have our critters and Justin, well, he's just crazy over these fish.  We tell him you can't pet fish and our critters are cuter.  hehe

But he's really stoked about his new project - think it's because it reminds him of the time spent fishing on the bay (Tampa Bay) with Grandpa.  I dug up this "flash from the past" pic of Justin fishing with "Pop Pop"

Speaking of fish and water.

Back on our 10 acres in Florida, Farmer D made a huge pond and filled it with fish.  I remember plowing through the tall grasses with our bamboo fishing poles, hanging out at sunset (good fishing time), always on the look out for slimy water moccasins and the ever imaginary phantom gator that we hoped never stalked our pond, though there were signs of a visit from one!

What is 'Aquaponics'

Aquaponics by definition is the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. Nutrient rich fish water is pumped from the fish tank into gravel beds, where plants growing in the gravel extract the nutrients from the water. The water then drains back into the fish tank cleaned of excess nutrients and freshly oxygenated.

With this system we can grow a supply of fresh herbs, vegetables and fresh fish growing right outside our back patio.m with no chemicals and no wastes, using about one tenth of the water required for normal vegetable growing.

More on that later.  But now for pictures!

Digging a trench

Bathwater diverted out into the yard

and out into the garden

to the raised beds

and under the raised beds

In goes our homegrown dirt - last year's compost!

More ollas in bed

A study by the University of Pretoria showed results of "water savings between 50% and 70% are achievable with the clay pot irrigation system.”

You can purchase ollas via our online store

Putting ollas into the established herb garden out front

Clay pot irrigated herb bed - done!

Hey,  fishy fishy

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 street off Orange Grove Boulevard, about a mile from the Rose Bowl and Old Pasadena, members of the Dervaes family pull about 6,000 pounds of edible flowers, vegetables and fruits from the raised beds and pots on their micro-farm each year.

Jules Dervaes and his children Justin, Anais and Jordanne have been growing their own food on their one-tenth of an acre lot since the 1980s. The family produces 99 percent of its entire diet in the family yard in what Jules calls the “100 foot diet,” since produce and eggs travel 100 feet or less from their source to the Dervaes’ kitchen.

The Dervaes’ urban homestead, Path to Freedom, symbolizes a victory in cutting out food miles from their carbon footprint. What makes this feat all the more remarkable is the family’s ability to use water-conserving techniques to grow their produce.

Food miles are “the distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is ultimately purchased or consumed by the end user,” states a paper published for Iowa State University’s Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture.

The farther a product travels from its source to a store, the more gasoline, energy and packaging is used to bring that food to the consumer. The longer food takes to get from the farm to the consumer, the more nutrients it loses, since food starts losing its full nutritional value after being picked. For this reason, consumers have been growing their own vegetable gardens and attending local farmers markets in increasing numbers.

“Food miles are important [because of] the carbon footprint that’s hidden in our cheap food. It’s like ‘look at our cheap food’, but someone’s paying somewhere for something because it’s not cheap when you ship. [Food] coming from Chile or New Zealand, that’s a lot of trucking. If you can’t see it [the cost] right off the bat on your bill you’re going to see it in the health care bill for the planet,” said Jules Dervaes.

When the Dervaes’ harvest a surplus of heirloom tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and peas, they sell the surplus to restaurants in Pasadena such as Marstons, Elements Café and a catering business, Kitchen for Exploring Foods. At the most, Dervaes produce travels a mile and a half to get to these restaurants, which also represents minimal food miles.

At zero food miles for the family, Path to Freedom is certainly environmentally friendly, but the Dervaes’ have used other methods and systems to decrease their environmental impact and increase their Earth friendliness.

Animals are a part of closing the sustainability circle at Path to Freedom. A food chart produced by the Dervaes family shows that, in a good year, they consume 60 percent of their harvest, 30 percent is sold to restaurants and 10 percent is fed back to their farm animals. The homestead farm is entirely sustainable, because the family re-uses and composts droppings from their two goats, five ducks and eight chickens, which enriches the soil for next year’s garden. Because the urban farm produces enough food for the family and the animals, the Dervaes’ don’t even need to use their cars or gas to get food from an animal-feed supply store. Everything they need to keep their farm fed and producing happens in their yard.

In an effort to decrease their environmental impact, Jules Dervaes took advantage of Pasadena’s many city rebate programs, upgrading his three major appliances to Energy Star brands, taking advantage of compact fluorescent light bulb giveaways, installing solar panels and planting trees. The solar panels provide two-thirds of the Dervaes’ electricity, and Jules chooses to pay an extra few cents per kilowatt hour to get wind-powered electricity through the city grid at night.

Running a farm in their backyard hasn’t always been easy for the Dervaes family; drought, natural aridity and California’s growing water shortage have posed problems and harvest shortfalls in recent years.

According to the state of California Web site and the state Water Control Board, statistics show California entered a severe drought in fall 2006. Three years later, the state may be gearing up for a fourth year of drought and is planning to reduce urban water usage by 20 percent by 2020.

The Pasadena Department of Water and Power placed a mandatory limit on watering to one day per week this rainy season and, as of April 1, residents can only water three times a week before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. — the latest efforts in a years-long water reduction effort.

The city charges households for water usage on a tiered scale: what used to be scaled in three blocks has now expanded to five, with five different costs of water. The more water used, depending on water meter size, the more a resident’s water bill.

The Dervaes’ at one point were in the fifth tier scale, costing them plenty of money and jeopardizing their ability to continue affordably growing their own food. But the city gave the family a chance to explain their unique needs for a lot of water and their conservation methods. The family wrote the city explaining the steps it was implementing to curb water usage and was granted relief, making farming more affordable.

In fact, the Dervaes’ have cut their watering bill to $600 annually, and they did it by reusing water, reducing water use and using old irrigation methods.

Rich soil is the key to having a bountiful garden and getting the most out of scarce water resources, which is why the Dervaes’ have mulched and composted their soil extensively. Over the years they’ve added so much natural fertilizer to their soil that they now have a foot and a half more soil than their next-door neighbors.

“We don’t waste anything and we have five composting areas around here. When you put the good soil [dirt with animal fertilizer] on the plants they immediately have a kind of insurance against water stress and drought because the soil’s good and the plants have good root systems because they go down,” said Dervaes.

To learn more about conserving water, Jules Dervaes and his family turned to the Internet. Researching old methods of irrigation, they found a system used in ancient China, Rome and Egypt and still used around the world to this day. The system is called “ollas,” the Spanish term for bottle or jar.

Ollas irrigation is based on burying unglazed clay jars in planters or garden beds, near produce, and filling the jars up with water. Unglazed clay pottery leeches moisture, making it a poor container for holding water for long periods of time. When the ollas are buried to the throat in soil, the jar loses water, dripping deep in the soil, near the roots of the plants. It acts as a constant drip irrigation system, but because water is below the surface, it’s not lost in the sun’s evaporating rays and the plants get only the water they need.

The family’s “computerized, automatic-timed waterer,” son Justin, also waters the garden beds by hand, using a watering wand and a hose, which means water is used appropriately where it’s most needed. Each type of plant is watered based on its needs and its size. This customized watering is much different than the sprinkler irrigation systems used in large commercial farms, where sprinklers shoot water over acres and water is lost to evaporation and scatter.

The Dervaes’ reuse their water as well. During the summer, family members use an outdoor shower shed and biodegradable soaps, so water is rinsed off into the ground, nourishing fig tree and sugarcane poles; clothing is washed in an Amish-style crank washbasin, water and biodegradable detergents siphoned off to water their avocado tree.

The family uses a sink-toilet combo from Asia; after washing their hands in the sink with clean water, the toilet bowl fills with that slightly used water, making the sink and toilet functional, water-saving and totally sanitary.

According to Jules Dervaes, citrus, once established, historically does well being dry farmed in California. However, dry farming in semi-arid conditions does not allow for lettuces, carrots, peas and other crops.

A testament to the power of a good rainy season, Justin Dervaes last hand-watered the family’s pea crop at 8 inches of height. They are now well over 8 feet tall, all based on the generous and steady rain Southern California received this winter.

For more stories on the Dervaes’ ongoing micro-farming and conservation efforts, visit urbanhomestead.org.

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 who made this possible.)  There we rendezvoused with friend and farmer, Sergio, who stayed the night with us and who also was there to attend the conference for the first time.

We did get a chance in between raindrops to take a small walk along the beach which was nice.

The 2003 EcoFarm Conference is where Farmer D gave his very first urban homesteading presentation.  Seven years later, we were back - to cover all that has happened here on the homestead.  The topic was perfect: "Big Rewards from Small Spaces."

Unfortunately, the rain just wouldn't let up - just went where there was a break, another deluge would drench the conference grounds.  Wave after wave of rain pelted the coast from the huge storm that covered the whole state of California.

So we couldn't really enjoy walks on the beach (bummer) but instead spent most of our time indoors - talking with people at our booth in the Exhibit Hall, checking out a few talks, attending plenary sessions with Wes Jackson, Eliot Coleman and Frances Moore Lappé,  taking part in the ever-fun seed swap (where we loaded up on more seeds) and hanging out in the dinning hall listening to some wonderful conversations about farm life.

At the farm conference, we met Chris of Chauffin Family Farm, who saw the film in Nevada City and invited us to visit their farm (will take a rain check on that, thank you!).  Thanks, Chris, for the wonderful and engaging conversation - not to mention the jar of olive oil from your farm.  You'll definitely be hearing more from us!

Also, Frances Moore Lappé signed a copy of Diet for a Small Planet for us. On the shelf here on the urban homestead, we have an old and tattered copy from the 1970s, so now we have a new, autographed copy (sweet!). We brought greetings from John Robbins, who is long-time friends with Frances Moore Lappé. She and her daughter, Anna, also work together - yet another example of passing a legacy to the next generation.

Saturday morning was time for Farmer D's Urban Homesteading presentation, which drew about 200 people to Merrill Hall, the main conference venue. (We didn't check the Chapel so don't know how many were there listening in to the live feed.)  The presentation must have been a popular one because when we got to the desk to pick up a CD of the talk, the stack was all gone!

Farmer D opened the presentation with a screening of the ever-popular Homgrown Revolution. We don't know quite what it is about this simple film-that-wasn't-supposed-to-be-a-film.  One of the EcoFarm vendors told us that her husband was in tears at the end of the film - it touches something deep down in people.

Farmer D then talked about what we had learned over the 20+ year urban homesteading experiment, especially when it came to front yard edible gardening (very timely with the bad PR some of these projects are getting - I'll touch on that in a later post).  Lots of people were taking detailed notes. He emphasized that

"Change happens slowly, but you must start now-small can be beautiful and productive"

Perhaps in our spare time (huh) we can have our friend Dan put up the entire talk on YouTube....lots to do!

On the last day of the conference, the sun finally came out - but, alas, it was time for us to go.  We all headed down to the beach after lunch for quick walk - the air, ocean and sunshine were mesmerizing.

We all were extremely tired - don't know why (actually,  in my case I think it's because of the sheets - yep, sleeping on bleached sheets something we aint used to here the urban homestead) and it's hard to be on the road moving from place to place.

Not to mention the worry of how things were at the urban homestead and Sergio's farm with one of the biggest storms we've had in years.  Thoughts of the long drive home brought us back to reality, and we said goodbye to the sand and surf.

With such a land based lifestyle, even when on the road, there's never really time off - your mind wanders back to the farm/homestead as you wonder what's going on and the projects that await your arrival.   We, and even farmer Sergio, were on the phone calling home - wondering the same thing: "How are things there - animals, garden OK?"

At the closing plenary session there was, shall I say, an "interesting" exchange with Elliot Coleman and Gary Hirshberg (of Stoneyfield) Definitely raised some interesting questions though we saw both sides seemed we sided more with Coleman.

Did leave us with a lot to think about - the future of food and organic agriculture.

Now for some photos!

Ahhh, the majestic ocean

Jordanne, me and Sergio enjoy a walk in the beach

Pelicans

Justin and Sergio wonder if they should bring some of the kelp home for their gardens

Enjoying the sand, surf and blue skies

Boardwalk

Welcome!

No better place to have a conference in the world than Asilomar!

Jordanne, Justin and Sergio checking out the tables of information

Justin and Sergio intently listen to a lecture about beneficial plants and insects.

Three farmer's hang out - Sergio, Chris & justin

Meeting up once again with Frances Moore Lappe

Jordanne & Sergio listen in on a talk in the lovely Chapel

Eating together

Hanging together

And now for the most anticipated event of the conference - seed exchange

Justin, Sergio and Jordanne check out tables full of all sorts of seeds

Justin and I fill up envelopes

Nothing makes a farmer happier more than seeds.... well, perhaps rain and a bumper harvest.

Man hands! Pen and little envelopes in hand, Justin fills up on seeds

Farmer D gives his presentation