The guy love wearing caps -- it's a must in their urban farmer apparel.  Um, that and camos.  Farmer Justin digs camo's and for a down and dirty guy camos make a lot of sense - you can wear dirty clothes and not look dirty (saves on laundry and water). Yep, Farmer J is one practical guy!    Oh, yeah right.  We were talking about caps. Well, you see, Grandpa wore 'em.   Like father, like son, like grandson.

So when we had these caps embroidered with the new logo, folks kept coming up and wanting one for themselves.

Well, now you can order your very own stylish khaki cotton twill cap with hunter green Path to Freedom logo.

They are now in stock,   ( BUY NOW )

Remember I said we don't have cable....

Yeah, well even Fairlght's got her own cap.  Little bit of farm girl meets home girl.

Look at the diva. Actually the diva has a bit of a beauty problem.  Yep, even goats are subject to skin disasters and need some pampering just like humans.

Actually she could use a bball cap these days.

You see, now that it's "spring" she got, um, winter itch.  It's better now (we applied some natural oils to soothe her dry skin)  But in the meantime she has a wee lil bald patch on the top of her head!

If you do meet Fairlight, just forget we ever mentioned it.  This is just between us you know.

She's rather embarrassed over the whole thing.

A major tv media outlet is looking to:

" profile someone who is in the LA area (from San Diego to Santa Barbara) that is in process of transforming his/her life as a combined result of the economic conditions and who is taking the Dervaes’ message as the inspiration for that transformation.  The more radical the shift the better.

Eg. The investment banker who is becoming an urban farmer would be an ideal candidate.

Of course I realize that something like that would be a real long shot…but you get the idea.  Someone who is making a gradual shift from one life style to another will work, as long as the long range vision is to end up somewhere very different from where they are today…and the shift is very visibly underway."

Is this you, or know someone who is?

Contact us at info@urbanhomestead.org

Growing Your Own Food
Benefits, Techniques and Resources

Monday, May 11, 6:30PM
Santa Monica Main Library, 2nd Floor
601 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90401

Money is tight and putting your yard  to productive use by growing
fruit and vegetables seems like a great idea, but how realistic is
this goal?

This event will explore the just how easy it is for one to get started
with growing their own food. Presentations will provide information on
materials and programs available to new and experienced gardeners as
well as the experiences and advice of an active urban farmer. Brief
presentations will be followed by discussion and Q&A where our
experienced panelists can offer advise and input on how you can begin
growing your own food.

Panelists:
Jules Dervaes, Path to Freedom Urban Homestead
Danny Price, Santa Monica Community Gardens
Wes Thompson, Santa Monica Backyard Composting

Dusting off the archives, just kidding.   But, seriously, this CBS story was actually shot back in June 2008 and then a small snipped again in August 2008 when Mr Whittaker actually come to shoot his stand up walking in the garden sound bite,

After 9 months and many false alarms, the piece FINALLY aired last night.

(CBS) Jules Dervaes and his three children are groundbreaking pioneers. CBS news correspondent Bill Whitaker reports they are at the forefront of a fast-growing movement in these hard economic times: getting rid of the sacred front lawn and replacing it with the urban farm.

"We turned ours into a garden in the front yard, and the side yards," Dervaes said, where they grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, grapes and apples.

This veritable Eden is on a standard lot on an average street in Pasadena. In fact the whole lot would fit on the football field at the Rose Bowl down the street seven times.

"We are cultivating one-tenth of an acre and can grow up to 6,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables per year.

So much food, they started selling organic produce to upscale restaurants. They say they're saving the earth, and they know they're saving money. Daughter Anais says they spend a few hundred dollars a month on staples they can't grow, like flour and rice.

"Everything else is homegrown," Anais said.

Spending on vegetable gardening in the U.S. shot up a whopping 21 percent in just the last year. For the Dervaeses, it's a full time job, but anybody can garden, they say.

"Most of this stuff was picked just this morning," said Michael Fonti, showing off a bounty from his front lawn in suburban Los Angeles. Architect Fritz Haeg helped them transform their lawn.

"It happens to be one of the most wasteful, useless spaces," Haeg said of lawns.

Eyeing some 30 million front lawns in America, he's the Johnnie Appleseed of gardening, sowing his green revolution from California to Kansas, New Jersey, Baltimore, and even London.

"It's such a natural thing, to grow your own food and yet, such a radical thing," Haeg said.

It's seeds of change, taking us back to the future.

Courtesy of CBS Evening News

A little history

We were first contacted by Fritz Haeg back in 2002 after hearing about our project he wanted to tour our garden.  We were then invited to show off our edible landscape, mini farm and urban homestead in 2004 at Haeg's Garden Lab project at the Arts Center College of Design.

In 2005, inspired by our edible front yard Fritz Haeg launched the Edible Estate project.  Since then Haeg has moved on and we recently got this email from him

hello dervaes family,
i've been so happy to see so many stories about what you are up to these days! i think it is really encouraging the way the media and culture have finally come around to understanding what you have already doing for years.
i get a lot of emails from various local people interested in helping out in a garden project, being involved locally in some way, or taking a workshop....but i am not really around much any more, and am not sure what opportunities to direct them to. do you all ever need volunteers, or would you be interested in having some of these people forwarded to you?
happy '09 & warmest regards,
fritz

Winter sunflowers.  That's right we have a huge patch of self sown sunflowers that are in full bloom in January no less!

Garden in winter - assorted greens, garlic, broccoli, peas and onions.

A gorgeous head of broccoli.

Kumquats almost ripe.  Though semi ripe, I just can't wait and have been nibbling on them already! Enjoying the pleasantly sweet and intensely sour taste.

First off, what is up with the weather?    It's hot, I mean really hot for winter.  Temperatures all this week are hoovering near 90!  It's middle of winter and we are barefoot and short sleeved.

So guess what? Off come all the row covers in the garden.  And lookie here we have a lovely garden growing underneath.  This week the covers are definitely not needed.  A little worried, however, that this spike will be followed by another but in the complete opposite direction.  Seems like the hot and cold roller coaster weather pattern is continuing this year.  Not a good sign I am afraid.    As urban farmers who depend on the weather for our daily break we long for a normal, even semi normal year.

Ok, so the weather's wacky what else is going on?

Lots.  In between breathing into a paper bag and demolishing a whole entire bar of chocolate (thanks to the swag bags we got up at Wild & Scenic) doing my best to catch up to everything.  It's times like these you start to hate the person who invented computers, emails and the likes.

Nice to get back and see so many great comments on the LHITC journal and the skyrocketing Freedom Gardens site which is growing by the day.  What is it now, over 2090 FGers?  Wow - way to grow!  Ah yes the Freedom Gardens site and movements was just featured on an online magazine.  I have to post about that too.

Huff puff, trying to catch my breathe!  So many things to catch up on.

Just when we thought we'd get back to normal after coming home, life has other plans.  We are juggling so many things at the moment one could consider it a real circus act.

The garden is looking amazing - well, for a winter's garden.  Though we are behind in a few plantings, this week we are sure to catch up on our sowing efforts.  The broccoli is growing bonanza and look forward to cooking a few decent spears soon.

Just like we anticipated our first shipment of seeds has arrived.  Now all we have to do is store, pack, label and market.  And that requires us to finish the website so all you wonderful people can start ordering.  Even though we are running a bit behind, we are excited that once launched the site will not only feature pure and secure seeds grown by the people for the people but it will be an educational site too.  Of course we have a few other ideas but then we are getting a little ahead of ourselves.

I am really excited about this latest venture into food security. First because this sort of stuff is in our blood (way back when the Dervaes had a nursery and plant catalog in Belgium) and secondly because of the news reports that the big M is tightening it's hold during some 'rural cleansing'

All the animals are doing well.  Except one who looks like a 1/2  plucked chicken.  Poor Bella, must be because of the weather but she suddenly went into an extreme molt.  So extreme that she looked downright ridiculous and pathetic.  I should take a picture but on the other hand I think she would be extremely embarrassed over her bad feather day.  So I will not humiliate her anymore than she needs to be.

Now that our trip is out of the way, it's back to urban homesteading.   I got one of my hanging pantries out to start sprouting (will post about that soon).   And get this, I am even knitting a scarf!  Knitting is like yoga for me and I need all the "serenity now" time I can get.

At this point I can't compete with the likes and writings of some other blogs here on the internet but I am going to try to do my best to bring you every day urban homestead life.

People ask how we do it all, honest truth is we don't.  Some stuff suffers - unfortunately.

Oh, and I have to post what we ate last week.  And boy did we splurge a little.  Stay tuned for the weekly meal wrap up and more.

:: Field Hand Appreciation :: GM $25 and DB tithe of $131.37  Thank you for your support.  I know I have said this many times before but thanks to these and other generous donors our growth and outreach couldn't continue.

A few of you expressed interest in the monthly donation option and I will post about that soon.

This year your support is more vital then ever,  so if you haven't done already please consider supporting this site.  Thank you

Plots of opportunity on urban eco-farms (The Natural Food Merchandiser)

by Vicky Uhland

The Dervaes family's 1,500-square-foot vintage Craftsman bungalow, set on a standard city lot a mile from downtown Pasadena, Calif., is an unlikely homestead for a working farm. And yet Jules Dervaes and three of his children manage to grow 350 varieties of plants and more than 6,000 pounds of organic produce each year on their fifth of an acre—with enough space left over for the family's chickens, ducks, two cats and a pair of goats.

The Dervaeses' urban farm not only provides 55 percent to 90 percent of this vegetarian family's food, depending on the season, but it also supplies three local restaurants, a catering company and a nearby country club with fresh produce and eggs. Years ago, the family also sold edible flowers to a Wild Oats store in Pasadena. They use the profits from their Dervaes Gardens business to make their lives even more sustainable—buying solar panels and energy-efficient appliances for their house and a biodiesel processor for the garden.

"We like to think that everyone is in this together—the business of growing and getting good food," says Jules Dervaes, a 60-year-old former teacher, beekeeper and leather crafter. The Dervaes family is only one of the many gardeners who are turning city lots into city plots, growing organic or natural produce. These urban farms and community gardens—where dozens of city dwellers farm small plots in gardens the size of a city block or larger—give natural foods retailers, particularly smaller, inner-city stores, another way to join the local movement.

...

The farmer in the 'hood

While stocking produce from gardens that are literally blocks from your store sounds appealing, the reality can be daunting. Short of peering over your neighbors' fences, it can be difficult to find urban farms, particularly ones that are willing to sell their excess produce. Dervaes turns away would-be customers because he can't guarantee he can provide all the food they want. "We can't just go over to our ducks and say, ‘Lay!'" he jokes. But at the same time, he realizes that urban gardening is a balancing act. "It's a hard thing to grow a lot but not sell a lot."

When he does have excess produce to sell, he posts a notice at www.localharvest.org, a clearinghouse for small, local farms, including urban gardens. You can also find nearby community gardens through the American Community Gardening Association, at communitygarden.org.

Waste not, want not

The key to working with urban farmers is flexibility. Unlike other farmers, their primary motivation is to grow their own food, not supply your store, so they may not always have the type or quantity of produce you want. "My favorite chef who buys from us tells us to just bring what we have," Dervaes says. But other restaurants place specific orders twice a week or more frequently, most often for salad greens and eggs. Dervaes likes this system as well. "The restaurants order only what they want, and then we go out and pick it. It's a no-waste system—they get the finest of our produce with none of it going to waste, and we get paid for what we pick so we don't waste our labor."

The same system could work for a natural foods store, Dervaes says. To get the most marketing bang for its buck, a store could set aside special sections of the produce department for each urban farm or community garden it deals with, while making sure customers know just how local that tomato they're holding really is.

"The key is to communicate that local connection well. If your only form of communication with your customers is a weekly circular on Thursday and the urban farm information is buried somewhere in the middle of that, that's not going to work," says marketing consultant Jon Schallert, president of Longmont, Colo.-based The Schallert Group.

Schallert recommends customer e-mails, fliers or signs in stores highlighting local produce. "Something along the lines of ‘in our store today' or ‘in our store this week' would work," he says. "It really takes very little marketing to have an impact and to make your customers' whole shopping experience more personal."

Safety issues

If salmonella or E. coli scares have made your store loath to buy produce that hasn't been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dervaes can put your fears to rest. One of the benefits of urban gardens is that the farmers almost always do their own processing and delivery. "At our farm, the person who picks the produce hands it over to the person who buys it, so it can't be contaminated in transit," he says. "Every person who lays a hand [on fresh food] is a possible contaminant, but here, you know exactly who to talk to if you have a problem: Me. So it kind of keeps me on my toes." Dervaes says he carefully inspects his produce and washes it before he sells it. In addition, "Some of our chefs come out and visit us so they can explain to their customers that they've actually seen what they're eating right there in the fields."

Vicky Uhland is a Lafayette, Colo.-based freelance writer.

GYO

Fed up with food prices, food miles and foreign oil?  Take back your food, take back your life and join thousands of fellow Freedom Gardeners who are growing freedom plots across the world.

:: Field Hand Appreciation ::  GM $10 donation.  We wholeheartedly appreciate your continued generous support! Congrats on your new grandchild.  Many blessings to you and your family.

Here on the urban homestead one never knows what strange creatures will show up on the kitchen counter.  This week's unusual edible is a tiny little cucumber with spiky warts - not very appetizing!   The urban farmers here tell me it's called a West Indian Gerkin

So these little spiky creatures not meant to be eaten fresh will end up in a pickle - a jar of pickles that is.

What sort of alien creatures are growing in your garden?  Care to share.

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