Green Options

Urban food growing is not a new concept, but in recent years it has, perhaps, enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. As people look for lifestyles that return to basics — local, reasonably self-reliant, organic — many are picking up a seed packet and a trowel.

But what defines “urban” when it comes to farming, homesteading, gardening?

Spring is coming. In the Midwest, as in the other currently cold areas of the United States, that makes a difference.

As I think about expanding my own, as of yet, modest urban food and plant growing efforts, it’s a massive inspiration to review the work of the Dervaes family in Pasadena, Calif.

The family has popped up here and there on sustainablog.org in the past several months. You can listen to GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily’s conversation with them, or read about the family’s 100-Foot Diet Challenge, as posted by sustainablogger Brian Baughan last month.

GreenTalk Radio host Sean Daily talks with Jules Dervaes of Path to Freedom. Path to Freedom  is a grassroots, family operated, viable urban homesteading project established to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle and reduce one family’s “footprint” on the [...]

Dog days of August? Not at sustainablog!

While most people are wondering if the summer heat is ever going to end, we were hitting our stride here: many more posts, and much more variety. Perhaps it was the cool breeze created by fingers flying across the keyboard…

August 2008

• Kelli Best-Oliver reported on a couple of bloggers documenting the American urban homesteading movement.
• Low Impact Living discovered a much better investment than the stock market: green home improvements.
• Lisa Kivirist showed us how to adopt a neighbor’s fruit tree.
• Raz Godelnik of Eco-Libris wondered if free online open-source textbooks represented the future for college students.

Not everyone can do as my family did and buy an old homestead, build your own house, and live-off-the-grid. Jobs and social ties keep families in suburbs and cities, and there is a good reason people tend to congregate together in living situations.  Being self-sustainable does not mean doing it all alone.  Community is vital to green living, and in fact, many aspects of city life are greener than living in the country (i.e. public transportation, walking to work/school, etc.).  The fact that many city dwellers want to get back to the land has sparked an “urban homesteading” movement.  Here are five tips to help your family become urban homesteaders:

1. Grow food and herbs in your yard or patio: If you have a yard, plant it with edibles!  An edible lawn will be the envy of the neighborhood.  My friend’s lawn in Eugene doesn’t contain any grass at all.  The Dervaes family of Pasadena grows 3 tons of food on only 1/10 acre! Even if you don’t have a yard, many herbs and vegetables can be grown in pots.  I have grown habenero peppers, basil, and lettuce in pots during my college apartment years.

The idea of a little farm in a big city sounds daunting to some, impossible to others, but to bloggers who are reclaiming their bit of city green space and saying no to Big Farm, self-reliance is not only possible, but the preferred way to live a rich and rewarding life.  A small movement of people are eschewing the outsourcing of their everyday needs and are choosing, instead, to produce as much of what they need at home, transforming tiny plots of land into thriving gardens, raising chickens and goats for eggs and milk, canning, preserving, cheesemaking, soapmaking, and any other project on which Mother Earth News has advice.  And, in true 21st century form, they’re blogging about it.