6,000 lbs of food on 1/10th acre - Urban Farm - Urban Homestead - Growing Your Own Food

[DeSwiss]

FoodAbundance·Published on Mar 20, 2012

Over 6,000 pounds of food per year, on 1/10 acre located just 15 minutes from downtown Los Angeles. The Dervaes family grows over 400 species of plants, 4,300 pounds of vegetable food, 900 chicken and 1,000 duck eggs, 25 lbs of honey, plus seasonal fruits throughout the year.

From 1/10th of an acre, four people manage to get over 90% of their daily food and the family reports earnings of $20,000 per year (AFTER they eat from what is produced). This is done without the use of the expensive & destructive synthetic chemicals associated with industrial mono-cropping, while simultaneously improving the fertility and overall condition of the land being used to grow this food on. Scaled up to an acre, that would equal $200,000 per year!

To follow the Dervaes and their Urban Homesteading activites, you can find them at http://urbanhomestead.org

Urban and near-urban farming can be highly productive, causing whatever size of land you have to work with to produce with more abundance. It is time to solve hunger worldwide, through creating local food abundance.... Anyone can do it, once you learn how.

[BobbyBoring]

1. I surprised someone hasn't shut them down.

Things this good usually are~

[DeSwiss]

3. The tide it turning. :-} n/t

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. We grew a ton of produce in our driveway last year in containers. at least.

It is doable...we will likely be around that this year as well.

[DeSwiss]

4. We're in the beginning stages of developing our own urban permaculture farm.

(Sample, not mine)

The past is the future.

[IrishAyes]

5. Thanks for the link

As a retired person I do a lot of home gardening, all organic; the very first issue of Mother Earth News got me started on that, and I've been learning more all my life since. I look forward to benefiting from urbanhomestead.org as well.

[Quixote1818]

6. I just liked their facebook page. :) nt

[Richard D]

7. So inspiring.

[handmade34]

8. rec nt

[pengillian101]

9. What a great video.

Recommended and cross-posted in the frugal and energy efficient group.

[Atman]

10. We started a "farm" this year.

An old farm owner willed 135 acres to the town when died several years ago. The proviso: it had to be held in trust for community farming and recreation. So, there are a couple of acres residents can sign up for for organic-only farming. The rest is wooded, cut up into hiking trails.

We're farming a 30x40' plot this year. Everything from brocolli to hot peppers, spinach, tomatoes, you name it. All organic, grown from seed -- no store bought plants. We already harvest some of the lettuces. We'll be canning a LOT of food this year! It's awesome knowing exactly where the food is coming from, and how it was grown!

[pengillian101]

18. Good deal!

Wow, what a neat idea and a great service this farmer left to your community. Good luck in this year's crop!

Post some pics, would you? It would be fun to see your site.

[WinkyDink]

11. S. CA. weather conditions. :-)

[NoMoreWarNow]

15. yeah-- this would be much harder to do in northerly climates, I imagine

it's not impossible, but requires much more planning, to survive cold winters.

[pasto76]

12. urban homesteading is awesome. This guy is kind of a dick

he and his family have in the past issued cease and desist orders to groups like "[your city] urban homesteading/ers"

they claim to have a copyright on 'urban homesteading'.

we have a single certified urban farm in my town....[my town] urban homesteaders. and yeah, they received a cease and desist letter from this guy in the article.

[summer-hazz]

13. How odd they would

have such a beautiful way of living,

then turn around and want to stop

others from using a name... The earth

belongs to all of us... "Live and Let Live"

for goodness sakes! Who cares about a name?...
You have fresh food and shelter.

ughhh...

[fasttense]

14. Well, I'm glad he is able to do this but...

As a small farmer I know he could NOT do this without the 6 people he has to help him. My husband and I are trying to farm organically with just the 2 of us and it is non-stop work seven days a week. Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't trade our life for 9 to 5 job ever.

And when you grow so intensively, you use a lot of water and compost/manure. But it can work, if you don't get sick, get a sudden frost, or get a hail storm that wipes out your seedlings.

[02potato]

16. WOW! and I'm sure they have no restrictive covenants

some SERIOUS journalism here...

[limpyhobbler]

17. I like this alot.

It's a good experiment in a different way to live.