Finding an Urban Homestead on Craigslist

March 15, 2012

Backyard of the “Lee Street Homesteaders” You know the urban homestead thing has caught on when the phrase shows up in a Craigslist rental ad: Imagine… living at the edge of a city and at the edge of modern society. Growing your own food and medicine in your backyard. Raising poultry and harvesting your own eggs. Brewing your own beer and kombucha. Fermenting your own raw sauerkraut and pickles. And living within s...

Urban Homestead Book Signing and Lecture

Mr. Homegrown

June 18, 2008

Thoughtstylings

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We’ll be delivering a lecture and and book-signing on the theme of “Low-tech is the new high-tech” at the Eco-Village Thursday the 26th of June. Here’s the 411: Los Angeles Eco-VillageCRSP Institute for Urban Eco-Villagesand the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalitionpresent THE URBAN HOMESTEADTalk, Slide Show and Book-Signingwith Kelly Coyne and Erik KnutzenThursday June 26th 2008 7:30pmat Los Angeles Eco-Village117 Bimini...

Mutant Squash

Mr. Homegrown

August 1, 2006

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

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Today’s incredible picture comes from photographer, bike cultist, and composting Culver-Town revolutionary Elon Schoenholz. It’s a freak squash that grew out of his regular old household compost. The funny thing is that nobody at the Shoenholz Compound – neither Elon, wife Bryn nor new bambina Nusia eat squash – so the origin of this new hybrid compost squash is a mystery. This brings up a bit of botany. Plants “...

Urban Homesteading

Mrs. Homegrown

February 21, 2011

Urban Homestead Trademark Dispute

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UPDATE: Our super lawyer, Corynne McSherry, Intellectual Property Director of the EFF, has a blog post up on the EFF site: Riding the Fences of the “Urban Homestead”: Trademark Complaints and Misinformation Lead to Improper Takedowns summarizing the situation and the important issues at hand–issues that affect all of us. That post also has links to a letter she sent to the Dervaes Institute on our behalf. *** This has been such a big fla...

Behold the Squash Baby

Mrs. Homegrown

September 9, 2010

Gardening, Squash Baby

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He’d lay down his life for his squash baby Mrs. Homegrown here: It’s 36 inches long as of today, and mystifying passers-by. I think I underestimated its size in the first post, where I claimed it was 20 inches. It was probably closer to 30″ at that point. The curvature makes it hard to judge. (I love the way it arches out of the raised bed–see the pic below). The thing is actually inching into the driveway no...

The Food and Flowers Freedom Act

Mr. Homegrown

August 10, 2009

Events

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Local food is coming back to Los Angeles. Homegrown Evolution is proud to be a part of a new group, the Urban Farming Advocates (UFA). Not in LA? Start your own UFA branch. City codes need to be changed everywhere! UFA activist Glen Dake posted the following notice on the Garden Council website: Problem: In 1946, a Los Angeles municipal code known as the Truck Gardening Ordinance was written to allow the growing of vegetables in a residentia...

Remember to Label Those Jars!

Mr. Homegrown

June 13, 2012

Food, Food Preservation

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“Label, label, label!” This was one of the most important lessons I learned in my Master Food Preserver training. You’ll note, from the jars above, that I’m not very good about this. When were those jars canned and what’s in them? I have no idea. They were probably the result of some late night canning frenzy two years ago. At the time I probably thought to myself, “I’ll label them in the morning.”...

In August, Way Too Much Squash

Mr. Homegrown

August 17, 2008

Gardening, Mistakes, Vegetable Gardening

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On the left a zucchini. Do I need to say anything about zucchini? What to do with it, perhaps, since prodigiousness is the zucchini’s modus operandi, but that bottomless subject would be best left to the proprietor of a an all zucchini blog. Rather, let’s take a brief look at the specimen on the right. Meet the awkwardly named Early Prolific Straightneck Summer Squash. It’s an open pollinated heirloom variety named as an “...

Winter Squash Disaster

Mr. Homegrown

July 19, 2011

Gardening, Mistakes, Vegetable Gardening

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Those of you who follow this blog may recall last summer’s “squash baby” fiasco. This year I planted a few Marina di Chioggia squash plants (technically a pumpkin) in one of my vegetable beds located in a more secure location. Instead of some homo sapien making off with my squash bounty, it looks like the neighborhood raccoons are having a gnocchi party somewhere. All I’ve got to show for three Chioggia plants is one sm...