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

Rice and veggies

Veggie patty

Mashed turnips and carrots with parsley

Squash, tomato, basil pasta with mashed turnips, carrots herbs

Strawberries for dessert

Peaches too

Cherokee purple tomato

Tomato, cucumber purple basil salad

WEEK OF EATS AT THE URBAN HOMESTEAD

All food items are homemade/homegrown/home preserved unless otherwise specified

Our Food Pledge

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 local business, then fair trade.

SATURDAY

Breakfast - blueberry pancakes with strawberries
Dinner - flour tortillas with spanish rice, topped with sauteed green peppers and red onions

SUNDAY

Breakfast - apricot apple crumble
Lunch - Saturday dinner leftovers
Dinner - squash blossoms stuffed with herb cheese with tabbouleh (mint, parsley, tomatoes, red onions and cucumbers)

MONDAY

Breakfast - apricot apple crumble
Lunch - veggie patty with green beans
Dinner - veggie patty with tomato, cucumber and purple basil salad

TUESDAY

Breakfast - apricot apple crumble
Lunch - zucchini, tomato, basil pasta with mashed turnips, carrots and herbs
Dinner - zucchini, tomato, basil pasta with mashed turnips, carrots and herbs

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast -apricot apple crumble
Lunch - avocado and tomato sandwich
Dinner - out

THURSDAY

Breakfast - apricot apple crumble
Lunch - green beans and herb rice pilaf
Dinner - herb pizza dough topped with tomatoes, basil, peppers, garlic with carrot, raisin citrus dressing salad

FRIDAY

Breakfast - french toast and honey
Lunch - avocado sandwich with carrot, raisin citrus dressing salad
Dinner - no knead bread, fresh tomato sauce (tomatoes, onions, peppers, parsley, basil) over spaghetti with salad

What summer time treats/feasts are you enjoying in your neck of the woods?

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.

Organic matter is known as the “soul of a healthy soil.”

Adding compost to your yard or garden soil will help your plants grow bigger and healthier. The organic matter in compost helps soil hold on to nutrients and water.

Composting saves you money

Using compost as a soil conditioner or mulch reduces your need to purchase these lawn and garden products.

Composting is practical and convenient

No need to bother bagging leaves and other garden/yard wastes. Simply add them to your backyard bin and watch these items turn into rich dark humus.

Composting is a good alternative to landfilling or incinerating

Yard and garden wastes account for almost 20% of the total amount of trash thrown every year.

Here on the urban homestead we are striving to become self sufficient and reliant.  One aspect in that is growing our own soil.  Thanks to a couple million (worms), a menagerie of barnyard critters, and religious composting efforts we are able to produce enough soil to replenish each year.

I've published many a post on this very subject

Check out

Back to the Earth

and

Growing Tips

There's probably more!

We contribute much of our success and the "superior" taste of our produce to our soil.  As Farmer D likes to say soil is not just something to hold the plants.  Grow the soil and you will reap healthy plants!

Here on the urban homestead, we are even "going up in the world" (quoting from a classic line made by Farmer Justin in Homegrown Revolution - purchase your copy here) , "we are about a 1.5 higher than our next door neighbor!"  It's true.

That's due to 25 years worth of mulching, composting, mulching and composting.

Let It Rot

Cinder block "passive or "pile"" composting.

We believe "compost happens" and we have many different composters here on the urban homestead: solar cone digestor (one of our faves!), solar scrap eater, handy dandy tumbler, stackable one's (got those from the City of Pasadena) worms and our favorites off all - our animal menagerie (aka "pet organic composting systems")

But the cinder block composter is by far the cheapest and simplest to use.  We made ours out of recycled (free) cinder blocks.   We just pile up yard waste and let rot.

Turning the compost pile

Compost activators helps speed up the process along with a good bucket dose of nettle tea.

Smokin'!  With all the rains we've been having, it was full of red worms and....

Grubs!

Come and get it!  The compost pile not only supplies us with soil but treats, treats for the critters that is.  Didn't get any photos but the chickens and ducks gorged themselves with juicy grubs.

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

For those of you who are internet savvy you can follow happenings on the urban homestead on FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

Weeks are going by so fast, by the time I turn around I am already behind in posting our week's worth of meals.   Oh well, better late than never I suppose.

A reader had a suggestion (a good one) so will take his advice.  He suggested have a disclaimer on each weekly meal wrap up that says something to the effect:

"All food items are homemade/homegrown/home preserved unless otherwise specified"

Will save some time and repetitiveness - a good thing, so thanks for the tip Cody!

Oh and once again I did a rather pathetic job at photographing the meals (too busy taking critter and garden photos!)  I'll do better next time (I hope)

I know many of you will be shocked that we changed breakfast eats.  Yep, I told you change was coming - gotta use up all those jars in the cupboards.

Guess you can tell by the menu what was in season, surplus this week - broccoli!!!!

SATURDAY

All food items are homemade/homegrown/home preserved unless otherwise specified

Breakfast - pancakes with strawberry sauce
Dinner - flour tortillas, spanish rice with organic black beans

SUNDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - leftovers from Sat dinner
Dinner - broccoli, green onion soup

MONDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - broccoli, green onion soup
Dinner - broccoli with herb butter with CA grown, organic rice

TUESDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - broccoli, green onion soup
Dinner -broccoli cheese casserole with salad

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - broccoli with herb butter with CA grown, organic rice
Dinner - broccoli cheese casserole with salad

THURSDAY

Breakfast - skillet granola
Lunch - baked squash with salad
Dinner -herb pizza dough topped with tomato sauce, pickled garlic, peppers and broccoli

FRIDAY

Breakfast - skillet granola
Lunch - broccoli with herb butter with CA grown, organic rice
Dinner -  no knead bread, tomato sauce and pasta with salad

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

All food items are homemade/homegrown/home preserved unless otherwise specified

Thanks to a recent gather we had loads of extra organic split pea soup (thanks Harold!)  and guess what was for dinner?  Yep, you guessed it - soup!

SATURDAY

Breakfast - pancakes with strawberry sauce
Dinner -potluck

SUNDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - leftovers from potluck
Dinner - leftovers from potluck

MONDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - leftovers from potluck
Dinner - leftovers from potluck

TUESDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - leftovers from potluck
Dinner - leftovers from potluck

WEDNESDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - broccoli with herb butter with CA grown, organic rice
Dinner - avocado, lettuce, squash pickle raw cheese sandwich

THURSDAY

Breakfast - fruit preserves & organic peanut butter on bread
Lunch - broccoli with herb butter with CA grown, organic rice
Dinner -herb pizza dough topped with tomato sauce, pickled garlic, peppers and broccoli with salad

FRIDAY

Breakfast - skillet granola
Lunch - broccoli cheese casserole
Dinner -  no knead bread, tomato sauce and pasta with salad

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

I will hopefully get to the travel  recap soon but, in the meantime, life moves forward - onward.

Guess what?  47 days till spring!

The garden, thanks to the deluge of liquid sunshine last week, has filled out.  Nothing better "growth hormone" for the garden than rain.

After more than a week on the road what a blessing it was to come home to fresh salads, dark green broccoli and navel oranges (from Farmer Sergio).  We hate to use the word snob but we are definitely spoiled being able to eat such nourishing, fresh food every day!   When one goes on the road, one starts to appreciate what a tremendous blessing it is to have a garden full of homegrown food.

The good news is the fish that Justin ordered arrived in the mail.  The bad news is that most of the fish were DOA. The rest died that night.  Closer inspection found the container package was damaged and leaking.  That's a bit of a setback, but we have our hands full as it is (right now). We will try, try again...

Coming back from the farming conference in Asilomar, we still are determined to improve our soil even more.   Why?  Because we really think we can do better and produce more (weather and God willing)

Before we left Justin left out 5 gallon buckets to capture extra rainwater to make a batch of nettle tea whenever Farmer Sergio comes up next and brings us a bunch of fresh nettles that I bartered for a handknit hat.

We also brought back (way, way too many) seeds from the seed exchange there at the eco farm conference - Jordanne & I made sure to pick up some extra grains like quiona and amaranth.  We hope to squeeze out a plot of grains for animal feed.   Where, I dunno yet, but I am sure Justin will make out a space (hint, hint)

There's another storm that's supposed to dump more rain here in So Cal, so we are trying to get some of the outdoor project done before another downpour.

Oh, and for those of you who would like to keep tabs on us and happenings on the urban homestead, you can find us on FACEBOOK & TWITTER

As I un-jumble my thoughts and reflections from the recent travels (lots of interesting folks and exchanges), enjoy a few photos of the good life here on the urban homestead.

Snow peas

Dwarf Grey Sugar pea flowers

"Dwarf"  Grey Sugar peas topping the 3' cages.

Kale & clay pot ("olla) bed

Pssst, guess what?  It's that time of year again.  What time of year you ask?  With spring just around the corner it's time to ger yer ollas!

We are taking pre-orders as we speak.  Get 'em now while they are hot!

Kumquats

Elephant Garlic

Maaaaaaa!  Finally, the sun is out... for awhile at least!

Before signing off, we like to thank a few kind folk whose letters and donations greeted us when we got home.

:: Field Hand Appreciation ::

CE $20 and who wrote: " to the Dervaes family, I so enjoy your site. It is very generous of you to put so much of yourselves and your home/farm on the net fo the rest of us to see.  I am enclosing $20 to help pay for the website hosting cost.  I wish you continued success in all you do - Sincerely CE

KD $20 donation and a note that said " I received a calendar - its beautiful.  What a surprise!"

and last but not least LE $150 and touching letter which said " Dear Dervaes family  First of all thank you for all the effort you put into education those of us who for whatever reason are currently unable to live a life like yours.  I look at the photos on your website whenever I feel a disconnection with the earth.  I'd like to donate to your outreach program because it makes a difference to me that 4 of you can manage to do what you are doing with a grace and confidence and tact.  Thanks again for all the great ideas, I look forward to keeping up with your activities. - LE

Thank you all for your warmth and generosity - your positive comments and continuing support are what makes this site possible.

We interrupt our regular posting schedule for some important news.....

Path to Freedom Urban Homestead needs your support.  As the year comes to an end, please consider donating to help sustain our ever-expanding outreach and help us grow to the next level.

Our nonprofit is looking to raise some "grass roots" funds to help keep our webmistresses providing you with dispatches from the urban homestead here at Little Homestead in the City,  pay for web-hosting fees, upgrade our websites, purchase public screening licenses for documentaries to show at film nights, and further our outreach as urban homesteading and farming ambassadors.

Consider giving a small donation ($10, $15, $20 or more)

Help us, help you, help others

OR check out our SUPPORT page for other ways you can support this work by purchasing garden & urban homestead supplies and seeds!

2009 HIGHLIGHTS
• School tours of the urban homestead offering hands-on learning experiences
• Canning workshop with local Jr High School students
• Working with local college students in their sustainability studies
• Invested our time to help answer questions via phone, e-mail or in person
• Film & Food Night monthly community events
• 10 Elements of Urban Homesteading - Tips on living a self reliant life in the middle of the city presentation
• Composting 101 workshop
• Growing Food in Small Spaces presentation
• Save Our Seeds presentation
• Our free social network, FreedomGardens.org, of backyard gardeners grew to over 5,800 members
• Participation in and tabling at a slew of community Earth Day festivals and Eco Fairs
• Launching of a new seed company, FreedomSeeds.org, to save seeds from corporate control
• DVD of Homegrown Revolution film short made available for community, educational and individual showings, as well as screening at film festivals worldwide (Greece, Italy, India, Spain)
• Little Homestead in the City celebrates nine years online. First and most comprehensive blog on urban homesteading
• Newly designed and re-launch of Path to Freedom Urban Homestead main site, including new photo gallery, online calendar and more

Path to Freedom Urban Homestead is a project of non profit Dervaes Institute 508 (c)(1)(A)

Next, stay tuned for another HUGE picture post... spoiler alert....  There's a few candid shots!

I leave you with three "meaty" entries and one regarding an upcoming film screening for you to digest over the weekend.  There's a slew more where that comes from but there's urban homesteading duties that call.

Enjoy.