If you had a little 2-bedroom bungalow (completely paid off) on 1/10th of an acre in Pasadena, CA, what would you do with it?
How about turning it into your livelihood -- a fully operational urban farm that pays the bills and puts food on the table? That's what the Dervaes have done.
This 2-minute clip from CNN quickly tells the Dervaes' story.
On 1/10th of an acre they grow just about every fruit and vegetable you can imagine, utilizing every square-inch of their property (they even have strawberries growing on the driveway). They sell their produce to local chefs and feed themselves with what's leftover.
It seems a little extreme for those of us with day jobs and 700-square-foot apartments, but it's still inspiring.
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I doubt I'd got that far but I'd LOVE to grow a few things that would happily grow in my climate but STILL cost a fortune at the grocery store. Like passion fruit, artichokes, peonies (not a food, I know but I'm newly hooked on them), lemons and such. But mostly the passion fruit. The last time I saw it at the grocery store it was $2.99 a piece!
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I blogged the Devraes family as well, and must say that I wish we all this kind of initiative. I realize that not all land is arable, but wouldn't we be doing ourselves (and our planet) a load of good if we could sustain more of our needs?
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I heard an interview with them on the CBC the other day
view Hollie's profile
I just read Edible Estates (kind of along these lines) and found it really inspiring - my husband and I have had a vegetable garden as long as we've had our house, and I (attempted) to grow herbs when I was in an apartment (they always died), but Edible Estates made me rethink how extensively we could do that.
We haven't expanded it hugely this year, but managed a few additional pepper plants and a teepee for beans and snap peas. We do plan to keep planting more edibles in our landscape. Next on the list: a peach tree and an apple tree. I would love a chicken coop, but my dogs would love that too, and so the chickens would not.
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