Moving Right Along

Summer is going by so fast! I didn't realize how hard it would be to make time to blog. When morning glory vine and crab grass try to take over your garden, fighting it becomes more of a priority than sitting at the computer.

Many of my grand summer plans have fallen by the wayside. There will be no outdoor kitchen. The chickens didn't happen. I needed to build a new coop, but no time or materials killed that project. What has happened though is the ripping out of my backyard. The area where my dad parks his camper is still in turf, but the rest of the back yard has been made into beds and are currently in production. I have allowed my blackberries to spread in the back half of our lot so I hope to have a good harvest next year as long as we don't get a citation and have to clear it all out.

The other night Tom and I were working on dinner and it just hit us how amazing it was that what we were preparing came from our yard. I needed another pepper and so I just ran out back. There was no abandoned recipe or quick trip to the grocery. The fruits of one's own labor do indeed taste sweet. There is no describing the sense of freedom that comes from having what you need just outside the door.

At home we currently have beans, squash, carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, and pumpkin growing. We are going to be starting kale, more beans, more carrots, kohlrabi, cauliflower, peas, spinach and more cabbage when we get back from our beach vacation. I am nervous about being gone a whole week, but I have a friend who is willing to tend the garden while I'm away.

Also when we get back the tap and meter should be installed at the church farm. This process has gone much slower than I could have ever imagined, but we will have time to get in our fall crops and be able to hit the ground running in the spring.

I am already making my plans for next year. The chickens will happen. I just need to work out the logistics. Maybe I can get someone else to build the coop in exchange for food??? The outdoor kitchen might be a bit pie in the sky, but I think we can at least do the rocket stove. I'll have plenty of time to plot over the winter. Right now I have to go attack some morning glory that wants to take over my peppers.

Summer is in Full Swing

Wow. It's a good thing the days are longer in the summer, I wouldn't get anything done otherwise. This morning I spent three hours doing garden work that should have taken less than one because I had to keep running for cover from the lightning. I can work in the rain, but even I'm not crazy enough to be outside during the light show we had this morning. I've been in Kentucky for fourteen years and I've never seen a summer like this before.

Today I was clearing out the lettuce beds. The unseasonable weather had the benefit of keeping the lettuce around longer. Yum! However, it is past its prime and must make way for other wonderful veggies. I'm going to put buckwheat in that area as a cover crop to encourage pollinators and put in some more summer squash in the adjacent bed that is currently in clover. I want to keep my bees happy!

The kitchen is full of jars as I am trying my hand at several new skills this year. I have always been interested in food preservation, but I am fearful of putting all my faith into my chest freezer. We lost power for a few days in the winter due to storms and I lost a huge amount of food. All I had left were the tomatoes I had canned. This year I plan on drying quite a bit. I wanted to make a solar food dehydrator, but since it seems THE SUN NEVER SHINES to rain frequently, I don't think that is where I should start this year.

I received a book for Christmas full of food preservation recipes that do not involve canning or freezing, so I am reading about traditional/ old fashioned/ whatever you want to call 'em  preservation techniques. I made my first foray into the world of lacto fermentation yesterday. I have a excess of kohlrabi and dill, so it seemed  natural to make lacto fermented kohlrabi spears with dill. Although they could be called pickles, I refuse to call them such because of a family curse. I may elaborate some day, but for now just go with it.

I'll leave you with a picture and an empty promise to post more frequently:

Busy Busy Busy

The rain stopped!

Kentucky didn't have a spring. We had monsoon season and then it got HOT!

Planting is going like crazy, so I have had no time to post.

Here is what we've been up to:

We've set sweet potatoes, onions, and more greens, planted okra, carrots and are receiving more transplants for the community garden today thanks to our wonderful KY farmers. Faith Feeds has been instrumental in getting the word out to farmers and making it possible to get plants and food that would otherwise be wasted into the hands of those who need it.

A plumber is coming today to set the frost free hydrant that is needed for irrigation of the big field. I will post pictures of the Bike to Battle Hunger event later, if it storms. I can't make any promises about today.

On the home front, we have put in cilantro, basil, peppers, tomatoes, carrots and pumpkins! The kids are really excited about the pumpkins. To be honest, I am too. I think it is my favorite plant this year because its potential for family fun.

The front yard is going to get some new beds this year. The landscaping close to the house has blackberry brambles that volunteered last year that I didn't have a chance to clear out, so I'm not going to clear them now. They are setting fruit! That area is such a mess right now, but I can't justify wasting food. I was going to replace the landscape plants with herbs, but I have transplants now and they can't wait. I have created a small circular bed in the front lawn for my basil and surrounded it with German Chamomile. They are both quite happy. I plan on creating more of these small beds for my herbs.

I have already been able to harvest basil and cilantro and today will be the first day for sugar snap peas. The rain really slowed them down. I hope to be able to get a few good harvests from them, but I am not optimistic. It is super hot here. I really wish we'd had a spring this year.

Speaking of hot, I must get to work now. It will be oppressively hot by 11am today. Chores beckon. I love my life! Next post will have pictures. Promise!!

Making Do With Less

We live paycheck to paycheck. I'm in school full time and my husband works his butt off.  During the summer months food is plentiful, but about this time of year the shelves are close to bare. My husband's paycheck comes on Thursday and we don't have enough to mention in the checking account. Going to the grocery store is not an option today.

We are not going to starve. We have one final can of tomatoes, plenty of dried beans, lots of cheese, six eggs ... I'm not gong to bore you with the contents of my pantry.

I realized that I cook the best when I am forced out of my routine. Last night I made a casserole of left over boiled potatoes, cream sauce, bacon, and cheese. Everyone loved it. It was simple, hardy and very tasty. I can't wait to add some green stuff to that ingredients list. I almost put some wild garlic in, but it was so rainy I didn't go outside to grab some. My kale is almost ready, I overwintered it in a low tunnel to get a head start on spring,

Tonight I am going to cook beans and maybe add some of the leftover bacon and whatever else catches my fancy while I'm cooking. The process is more fun when I'm doing it on the fly. I don't use recipes for anything other than inspiration.

So are your shelves getting bare? What do you do when your reserves run low? Do you like to make each meal an adventure, or do you have neighbors you can barter with when things get tight?

Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) Day of Action 3

So by now my readers know that The Derveas family trademarked the terms "Urban Homestead" and "Urban Homesteading." The use of these terms is prohibited on blogs, facebook page names/ titles, print (book or article) or any other form that can be used for profit. If you use the term you must use the TM symbol and "specifically identify products or services from the Dervaes Institute." The Dervaes family have had facebook pages with the terms Urban Homestead and Urban Homesteading in the name shut down without first notifying the owners of the pages.


We in the Urban Homesteading (there will be no regard to their improperly awarded trademark here) community have come together to fight the injustice of the actions taken against those who use those words. 


Today it is our goal to help Denver Urban Homesteading by spreading the word  about donating to help them file a petition to remove the trademark on the words urban homestead and urban homesteading! Thanks for your support. Click on the link below to donate:

http://www.denverurbanhomesteading.org/ 

If you want to join the wonderful community of Urban Homesteaders that have connected through facebook go here.

Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) Day of Action

Check out the group working to take back words that should belong to us all.

Chickens And The Neighbors Who Hate Them

I love chickens. They are easier to deal with than dogs or cats. All of my dogs and cats have had emotional issues that I do not have the patience to deal with. Chickens on the other hand are wonderful in their simplicity. I do not doubt that they are just as capable of being emotional, they just aren't the attention whores that dogs and cats are.

My favorite chicken in the world was a Golden Laced Polish Hen named Tina. Tina came to us as a foster bird. She had been so terribly pecked by the other chickens where she lived that she had to be separated. She was very social and loved to be held. She knew when I returned from the farm that I would have greens for her. She loved kale. It was by far her favorite treat.

Tina was a hit with the neighborhood children. They would come to our house to play with my kids just so they could pet her. The neighborhood children were curious and Tina was a great ambassador for her species.   She never acted aggressively and was rewarded for that with lots of treats.

One of the children was so excited by this wonderful bird that she asked her grandfather, who lives about three blocks away if she could have a chicken like we did. The next day he walked his dog using a special route that brought him right to my doorstep. I was pulling weeds harvesting dinner (yummy dandelions) in the front when he passed by.

He informed me that this was a residential neighborhood, not a farm.
I told him I was quite aware of that.
He told me he didn't think farm animals needed to wander around the neighborhood.
I assured him that the chicken coop was completely enclosed and that would not be a problem.
He told me he would call the city and complain.
I cited the ordinance that allowed me to keep the bird in my backyard.
He told me he heard her crowing early in the morning all the way at his house and he would find some way to ensure that damn nuisance of a bird would be taken off to a farm where it belonged.
I know that dominant hens have been known to crow, but my poor pecked up barely laying hen didn't give off more than a cluck at a time even when she seemed happy. He was lying because he didn't like the idea of an animal "out of its proper place."
I said good day to the unfriendly neighbor and told him to do as he wished, but if she went by order of the city, 10 more would replace her and his granddaughter would have the best birthday of her life.

It is my hope the each one of us that participates in some level of urban homesteading can open the dialog with those that disapprove. I think that a gift of a few fresh eggs and some herbs or veggies straight from our gardens will soften their hearts if not inspire them to scratch in the dirt some themselves.  That gentleman that complained to me had me angry for days. When I finally (at the behest of my incredibly patient husband) calmed down about my encounter with my neighbor, I sent a box of veggies to him through his granddaughter.

Again this comes back to building community. We will not always agree with those around us, but that diversity of opinion could eventually make us stronger. We must be ambassadors in our communities and bring  what were doing into the mainstream. We do have an advantage...Everyone likes to eat and what we are growing will taste better than its grocery store counterpart.

Gleaning

Glean: to gather grain or other produce left by reapers

Food Justice has been a passion of mine for quite some time. Many people I meet think of starving people in Africa if you ask them about hunger. That is not always the case. There are hungry people in America. A fair few of them are FAT! It is hard to look at someone who is pushing the limits of plus size and imagine them as a hungry person. However, these people are eating what they can to quiet the rumblings in their ballooning bellies. Crappy high calorie foods are less expensive and more available than nutrient dense foods. Many low income areas of cities don't have grocery stores within walking distance which makes access to nutritious food even more difficult. 

I was at one time obese. I wasn't poor, I just loved sugar. I had my epiphany, lost weight and in my arrogance thought I could save people by becoming a Dietitian. My first time shadowing an RD, a single mother of two came in. The RD asked about the children's diet. I could tell the mom was uncomfortable. At the end of the consultation, the dietitian recommended to the mother to add more fresh fruits and veggies to their diet. The mom visibly paled. It was then she looked straight into the eyes of the dietitian for the first time. "Where," she said, "am I going to get them? Are you going to come babysit and let me use your checkbook?" 

Just telling people to eat good things isn't going to make it happen. It isn't that easy. There is a way, though.

When I was working as an intern on an organic farm last summer, I had the opportunity to see just how much food is "not marketable" and would end up in the compost pile. This was not bad food. It just didn't have "symmetry" or "even color."  All I could think of was how picky the American consumer is if they wouldn't eat this wonderful food! I had already been working at the garden at the church, but this had the potential for something bigger. What if instead of compost it became dinner?

Turns out that there were people were already working to this end in town. In fact, a good share of what these gleaners were distributing was coming though my church! This group, Faith Feeds, would go the farmer's markets in town and collect from some awesomely generous farmers. Instead of taking the food home, these farmers gave what they had left. I have some serious respect for that! Also, an orchard here in town, allowed gleaners from Faith Feeds to go and glean fruit every week. 

To me the journey of homesteading is more about building community than providing enough for your family so you call wall yourself off. We're all in this together. You know all that squash you have to give away at the height of the season? See if there is a feeding program in your area that is willing to take it.

Plant a row of something extra for others. If you have a small area and can't grow for more than yourself, what about buying extra pears (they are easier for those with missing teeth) at the farmer's market to donate to a shelter?  

I am an Urban Homesteader

Urban:  of, pertaining to, or designating a city or town.

Homestead:a place where a family makes its home, including the land, house, and outbuildings

My husband and three kids, along with our critters, make our home in the city. We have a (blessedly huge) .38  acre lot where we grow our own vegetables and herbs, have had chickens, and hope to some day have goats. I also farm deeper in the city at a church in a food desert. It is our goal to empower the community towards food and income security through agriculture and entrepreneurship.  

I farm, cook, sew, knit and attend college full time pursuing a degree in sustainable agriculture. 

My husband is an avid cyclist and a musician. He supports my work and inspires me to follow my passions. 

I had been considering blogging our adventures as we move towards self-sufficiency, but the recent events surrounding the trademarking of the descriptors of our lifestyle have pushed me over the edge.

I am an Urban Homesteader! I welcome you to follow our journey.