homesteading

Source: news-bulletin.com

In 1984, a determined back-to-earther named Jules Dervaes Jr. brought his wife and children from a 10-acre farm in rural Florida to study theology in Pasadena but ultimately decided on a different ministry: creating a self-sufficient urban farm on a rundown residential property less than a block from the 210 freeway.

Jules Dervaes Jr. didn’t have a long-range plan when he started an organic farm in the front and back yards of his Pasadena home, but he did have a vision of creating a simpler life that his children continue today, nearly eight years after his death.

His wife left not long after — homesteading was not the life she signed up for — but his four children, now in their 40s, remained and today three of the four still work the farm known as the Urban Homestead, providing produce and flowers to more than 100 subscribing families every week, along with multiple restaurants and caterers.

“At first we were just gardening to grow food for our family, but then Dad took on organic gardening as a business,” said Anäis Dervaes, the eldest daughter. “In 1989, we took out our front yard — even the concrete — to grow more food, and our neighbors thought we were crazy, but the business took off, so you can make a living by removing your lawn.”

And, as all farmers know, working very hard.

Dervaes died in 2016 from a pulmonary embolism, but his children Anäis, 49, Justin, 46, and Jordanne, 41, keep building on his vision. Through the nonprofit Urban Homestead Institute established in 2001, they provide food boxes for needy families, offer internship positions to volunteers who want to help at the farm and welcome scores of schoolchildren to see how real food is grown — a program that started after Dervaes encouraged Anäis to try a new thing called blogging in 2000.

It was a time of big protests against genetically modified food, and Anäis wanted to join the demonstrators, “but Dad said, ‘What if we just write about what we’re doing here on a daily basis, living a simple life?’ And I think I said something like, ‘So I’ll write, ‘Today I harvested corn?’ Nobody is going to care about that.’”

But as it turned out, people did. The family got a following, and teachers from Compton High School wrote, asking if they could bring some students to tour their urban farm, “and we’ve been doing outreach with students ever since,” Anäis said.

Not as much as they’d like to, because space is at such a premium they can only accommodate small groups. The garage is now a small store and distribution center for food boxes. The covered patio is a place for classes, demonstrations and their homemade pizza oven. The driveway is lined with trays of plant and flower seedlings. Chickens and ducks live in a rustic L-shaped structure in the back and fruit trees line the property’s perimeter. The rest of the yard is filled with raised beds planted thickly with vegetables, herbs and flowers, accessible by narrow walking paths.

Volunteer and customer Tristan Lahoz, left, and Jordanne Dervaes tend to the densely planted beds at Urban Homestead.

Chef Onil Chibas, left, picks up his order of edible flowers and salad greens from farmer Justin Dervaes.

But you don’t have to do much walking to see plenty at the Urban Homestead. Almost every bed has dense plantings of something — lettuces, spinach, arugula and red-stemmed dandelions (a zesty salad green) — embellished with sunflowers. There’s a big bin of compost-enriched soil where a handheld seed block contraption gets regular use, pressing out four uniform cubes of soil in one squeeze that can easily fill a tray and just as easily be planted once the seeds sprout and grow — a critical tool when you’re constantly harvesting and replanting.

The garden is busy with butterflies, bees and other beneficial insects, especially out front, where flowers are the predominant crop, a jungle of red Flanders poppies and fragrant sweet peas (for bouquets) and sunny nasturtiums, calendulas and roses (for eating).

Dervaes’ children aren’t getting rich, but they’re making a living, thanks to long hours, few expenses and the courage to experiment. The family installed solar panels back in 2003 and a greywater system that keeps their water bill under $1,000 a year. For a time they even recycled cooking oil from local restaurants to make their own biodiesel for their diesel truck, and in 2009, they made a short film called “Homegrown Revolution” that won awards at multiple film festivals.

A few years ago, they used a rent-to-buy plan to acquire a neighbor’s home two doors down and expanded their farm to its front yard. Jordanne, and Anäis live there now, while Justin lives in the main house, oversees the main farm operation and rents out a couple of the bedrooms.

Anäis calls herself the “cook and educator,” making products like jams and teaching workshops in knitting and other home skills. Jordanne, the youngest, oversees their bee hives (kept at another location) and their flock of chickens and ducks, a job she’s had since she was a child. All three do outside consulting on various aspects of gardening, homesteading and raising chickens, which led to Occidental College recruiting Jordanne to teach a popular class in regenerative gardening and sustainable animal care, with occasional input from her siblings. And just recently, Jordanne got her real estate license to pursue her interest in preserving old homes.

The Urban Homestead’s poultry eat much of the farm’s garden waste and provide plenty of nutrient-rich poop to feed the soil. Their eggs are an added bonus for the family.

Anäis Dervaes tidies up the kitchen at her family’s house, built in 1917.

But the family farm is still their main focus, and it keeps them so busy that it interferes with their dating lives, said Anäis. All three are single and would like long-term relationships someday, but it’s hard to find people who share their priorities.

“The dating life is just something we haven’t mastered yet,” said Jordanne, laughing. “I can take on any challenge, but this one baffles me.”

Partly it’s time and partly it’s priorities, Anäis said, like when she gets frost warnings on her phone and has to cut a date short so she can run home to cover crops to protect them from damage.

“We live a farming lifestyle in the city, so we look at things different than most city dwellers, and they don’t always understand,” Anäis said. “But this is our livelihood; this is our life.”

It wasn’t always wonderful, she said. They became a vegetarian household when they were all very young, and as teenagers they all had moments of rebellion. They were homeschooled, but neighborhood kids taunted them about what they were missing — Nikes and hamburgers and sodas in a can.

“We were just granola kids, running around barefoot on the street, and I was feeling like I didn’t fit in,” said Anäis. “I’d say, ‘Dad, why do we have to shop at thrift stores? Why do we only eat out of the garden? Why don’t we eat normal stuff instead of Swiss chard?’”

A plaque memorializes Jules Dervaes Jr.

Handmade jams are available at Urban Homestead.

But once she read the book that inspired her father’s vegetarianism, John Robbins’ ”Diet for a New America,” “It was like a light bulb went off,” she said, “and this lifestyle became mine.”

It wasn’t like their father forced them to do what they didn’t want to do, Jordanne said. “We had a lot of pushback, but he always encouraged us to question everything in our lives,” she said. “And we had responsibilities. There was a sense of pride in growing all these plants, and the business was ours. Dad would always say, ‘If you want to do it, read about it and go do it.’ He challenged us to learn and do our own problem solving.”

There were some limits — Jordanne’s desire to have a horse and a cow just wasn’t possible — but ultimately, it was the freedom to experiment that drew them back whenever they strayed, Anäis said. “There was a sense of identity here, and family survival. It gave us purpose and a passion. I would plant on the moon if I had to.”

The farm is open to visitors the second Sunday of every month, during two-hour “Learning Tours” (tickets are $75). But Justin has a few tips for people who want to remove their lawn and become urban microfarmers — or just landscape with food.

Salad mix seeds planted at Urban Homestead.

Source: latimes.com

The Adams County Farmers Market and Gettysburg Green Gathering have once again partnered to host their Homesteading & Green Living Expo on July 13, 2024, at the Gettysburg Rec Park.

Gettysburg Green Gathering (GGG), in partnership with Adams County Farmers Market (ACFM) and the Gettysburg Rec Park, will be hosting their Homesteading & Green Living Expo on Saturday, July 13, 2024 from 8am-1pm in conjunction with the regularly scheduled farmers market.

The Expo has grown, and in 2024 will include more vendors, demonstrations, and resources. Some of the new vendors scheduled to attend in 2024 include Thomason’s Herb Farm, an East Berlin-based business with a focus on herb gardens; The Fertrell Company, highlighting their organic fertilizers; and Ethical Energy, a group specializing in residential solar panels. Many of last year’s groups will be returning as well, including the Watershed Alliance of Adams County, the Land Conservancy of Adams County, and the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington DC, who will have information about electric vehicles and various EV models on display.

Another highlight of this year’s event will be a presentation and demonstration by Debbie Naha-Koretzky, also known as “The Wild Edibles Lady.” Naha-Koretzky, author of Foraging Pennsylvania and New Jersey: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods, will be offering a presentation on foraging edible plants at 10:00am. This will be followed by a walk around the park, where Naha-Koretzky will take a group to look for and identify wild foods.

“I think one of the most important aspects of this event is that it brings the best of the old and new together,” said ACFM Market Manager Reza Djalal. “It’s important for people to see the value of traditional homesteading knowledge, as well as the benefits of emerging renewable technologies. These two things together can be really incredible.”

Organizers hope that the Homesteading & Green Living Expo will help foster the creation and growth of new, sustainable businesses in Adams County that will be able to offer affordable services to the community. “The Gettysburg Green Gathering is really excited for this year’s event, as we have a diverse group of vendors that are offering real-world actionable steps people can take to lower their environmental footprint at a local level,” said Gettysburg Green Gathering board chair Matt Crowner. “With our partnership with the Adams County Farmers Market we are able to reach all sorts of Adams County community members that may not typically participate in an event like ours.” This event and educational activities are free to attend.

Anyone interested in learning more can visit the GGG website at www.gettysburggreengathering.com or the ACFM website at www.acfarmersmarkets.org.

Featured image caption: Kids learn about soil science and microbes at the Homesteading & Green Living Expo in 2023.

Source: gettysburgconnection.org

Hidden within a dense forest of the Kitsap Peninsula is a quaint 1.25 acre homestead the houses chickens, rabbits, quail, honey bees, and a large garden filled to capacity with fruits and vegetables. Rainwater caught on the roof of the house is channeled through a gutter and collected into a barrel, providing a sustainable water source for the garden throughout the year. The scent of freshly baked sourdough bread floats out from the kitchen, enveloping the homestead known as Terranova Gardens in a welcoming ambiance.

Inspired by the effects of the Covid pandemic, Anita Terranova, a physical therapy assistant, and her husband, George Gasson, a grief counselor, decided to take steps to become more self-sufficient. That turned into running a permaculture homestead. Unbeknownst to them, their newfound passion for homesteading would pique the interest of others interested in a stronger connection to living sustainably. Soon, the couple’s hobby had evolved into a part-time business. 

The practice of homesteading, or living a lifestyle of complete or near complete self-sufficiency, has a lot of elements that may feel old-fashioned in today’s era of convenience. But in a pandemic world where food prices began to soar and supply chains were disrupted, the concept of being self-sufficient received renewed interest.

“People want to learn how to homestead… they want to learn how to be sustainable,” Terranova said, “…also the quality of our food just isn’t what it used to be.”

While Terranova and Gasson had always kept a garden, they didn’t start serious production until 2020. They also decided to start raising livestock, with the goal of being able to rely on their homestead for the majority of their food.   

Over the past four years they have worked to create a permaculture farm, using no pesticides or chemicals, and now process their own chicken and rabbit meat, gather eggs and honey, and grow a variety of vegetables and fruits. 

They began learning methods of production for the crops they produce, such as brewing beer and making sourdough bread. It was addictive, Terranova said: the more independent they became, the more self-sustaining practices they wanted to learn.

Friends took interest, sitting in on a chicken processing day or asking for basic homesteading advice. At the request of her daughter, Terranova taught a class on how to bake sourdough bread last April. The word quickly spread and requests poured in for more sessions. And an “Intro to Sourdough Basics” was born. 

Terranova Gardens is already far beyond just bread instruction, with a list of classes that includes mozzarella cheese and pizza class, beekeeping basics, jams and jellies, vermicomposting, beer basics and more. Classes are limited to a maximum of about eight people, to accommodate the intimate workspace and allow a more personalized experience. Each class costs about $50, though some combined classes (pizza making and beer brewing, for example) cost more. 

In tandem with offering homesteading classes, Gasson had been working on a platform called My Farm Trade. Tired of facing the difficulties when trying to connect with other small farms and homesteaders, the couple created a platform where customers and farmers can connect to sell or trade livestock, goods, and advertise their farm. 

This website, myfarmtrade.com, may be an instrumental piece in connecting local communities and encouraging small farms. The site’s most recent update allows the first 10,000 farmers that sign up to receive 4 free ads (to advertise baked goods, livestock, etc.), and these ads will last for one year before needing to repost for a small charge. 

“It’s not about the money, it’s about the community. We really need to get people back to growing their own food… (If everybody had a homestead), we could all have (local, fresh) food just by buying, selling and trading amongst ourselves…” Gasson said.

More information about classes, including sign-ups for courses this summer, can be found at terranovagardens.net or through their Facebook page. More information about My Farm Trade can be found at myfarmtrade.com. 

Source: kitsapsun.com

Since the early 2020’s, the homesteading trend has exploded in popularity. Off-grid in theory, but often online in practice, millennials in particular have heeded a desire to move to the country to grow and raise their own food. Some romanticize a simpler, more traditional life (see the adjacent “trad wife” trend). Others are looking to reject the burdens of technology. The trend even got a boost from the backyard chicken craze, which is sometimes referred to as the “gateway animal” as more homesteaders are looking to farm their own meat. But the rise in homesteading has a dark side: countless stories of animal farming and butchering gone awry. Despite the wholesome fantasy you see on social media, experts warn would-be homesteaders that raising animals for meat is harder than it looks.

Push past the “cottagecore” Instagram reels and the “how-to build a chicken coop” YouTube videos, and you will find numerous online discussion groups and threads packed with homesteaders seeking how-to guidance. On Reddit, for example, the homestead subreddit currently boasts 3 million members, with questions about tree care, jam-making, weed control and tractor repair. But deeper into the subreddit, you will come across homesteaders asking more difficult questions — sharing their troubling concerns about animals, including sick livestock, wild predators and slaughter screwups.

‘Some of Them Went Quick, Some Did Not’

“Botched my first chicken slaughter,” writes one homesteader on the subreddit. “Knife was only sharp enough to hurt the chicken. Then we frantically ran around trying to find something to get the job done only to find not good options and hurting this poor cockrell [sic]. Finally, I tried to break its neck but couldn’t so I strangled it.” The lesson learned, according to the poster: “we both need to learn how to properly sharpen knives.”

“On butcher day we thought we were prepared,” writes another about slaughtering pigs, named Ham, Bacon, Sausage and Porky. “We had bought a .44 caliber rifle instead of a .22 just in case. The first 3 went down fine and were stuck quickly. The last one raised its head just as I was pulling the trigger and it hit her jaw. I felt gutted that she had to go through that pain and suffering till we could get her down.”

Some users are open to admitting their lack of experience. “I’d never slaughtered animals before,” laments one homesteader about killing ducks. “Some of them went quick, some did not […] some of the big ducks had a bad go of it.”

Meg Brown, a sixth-generation cattle rancher in Northern California, says she is surrounded by people jumping on the homesteading bandwagon, when many of them don’t understand just how hard it is to farm animals. “It looks a lot different online than it is in real life,” she tells Sentient. “It’s more challenging,” and not everyone has the knowledge or experience to properly take on the task.

“I had a friend that got a bunch of chicks and let her baby and her kid handle them,” Brown says, “and her kids got salmonella.” And many new homesteaders “want to get one cow or one pig, and they want me to sell them that, and I refuse to sell herd animals as single. I think that’s really cruel.”

DIY Homesteaders Turn to Youtube

Youtube has democratized how we learn, including endeavors as high risk and complicated as raising and killing farm animals. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about raising animals for meat,” one Redditor writes, “learning the basics through YouTube videos, etc.”

Videos that tick off the steps of how to kill and butcher animals at home are abundant on the platform. Yet, even basic professional butchering courses take several weeks of study and often require hands-on training.

For those homesteaders who express concerns about butchering animals, including the guilt they might feel, members of the online community are ready with tips on how to get the job done.

“I just don’t know if I would be able to do it,” writes one Redditor learning with YouTube. “Raise an animal from a baby to adult and then, right at its prime, butcher it…Do you have to wrestle with any guilt?” There is plenty of advice: ‘just commit,’ and “pulling the trigger on an animal you have cared for for months is never easy, but we do it for the good of the family.” A number of Redditors offer tips for how to promptly cut the jugular vein. Others advise how to get animals accustomed to human interaction “in the months leading up to slaughter to ensure they are calm when we walk up to pop the shot.”

Meanwhile, even lifelong rancher Brown won’t slaughter animals herself. “I have a professional come and do it,” she explains. “I would mess up.” Many would-be homesteaders don’t realize that “animals have personalities,” she says, and you can get attached to them. “Then you have to kill them after you’ve raised them,” something she herself admits she does not want to do.

Different Paths to Homesteading

Researchers of homesteading say there are some differences between newcomers and homesteaders who come from a farming background. In his book, Shelter from the Machine: Homesteaders in the Age of Capitalism, author Dr. Jason Strange explores the divide between what he calls the “hicks” — more traditional homesteaders with rural roots — and the “hippies” who are newer to the lifestyle and tend to be motivated by more counterculture ideas.

Strange’s book looks at homesteaders pre-social media, mostly older generations, including those who began homesteading in the early 1970s. Yet Strange doesn’t see the so-called millennial homesteaders as all that different. Today’s homesteaders are still interested in moving away from mainstream capitalist culture, towards greater “authenticity” and self-reliance.

Legacy of Vegetarian Homesteaders

For many homesteaders, a core part of the journey towards self-reliant subsistence, says Strange, is eating the animals they raised and slaughtered themselves. The ability to feed homegrown meat to one’s family is celebrated as an important goal in many online homesteading circles — it’s called a “blessing,” and cited as the ultimate proof of a successful homestead.

But there is another subculture within the subculture — homesteaders who are doing it without animals, a microtrend with roots dating back to at least the 1970s. Even back in the early days of the modern homesteading movement, says Strange, “particularly amongst the counterculture folks, the hippies, you would have found folks who were intentionally [not raising and slaughtering animals].”

The more vegetarian side of homesteading is also thriving online, with some accounts touting the benefits of “meatless homesteading,” and tips on “how to homestead without animals,” or even ways to make money on the homestead without selling animal products.

Last year on r/homestead, a subreddit dedicated to homesteading, a would-be homesteader was struggling with allergies to farm animals and zoning restrictions. “Am I a ‘real’ homesteader without animals?,” retromama77 asked. “It’s not a prerequisite,” one Redditor responded. “If you’re making efforts to be self-sustaining you’re a homesteader,” answered another. After all, as yet a third homesteader admits, “It’s actually not fun to raise animals to kill them.”

Source: sentientmedia.org