Urban Homesteading: Chickens, Bees, Vegetables, Small Livestock

Urban homesteading is about creating modern victory gardens for growing vegetables, raising small farm animals and working towards a path to freedom. Freedom to food security, self-sufficient living, and freedom from pesticides.

Most people who live in the suburbs with back and front yards, whether they own the property or are just renting, fail to see what potential they have in owning some land. I keep saying, and you will find it in my other pages, that you DON'T need a farm or a homestead for growing vegetables. You can turn to urban homesteading on a piece of land the size of 1/5 of an acre. See others who have done the same with their backyard gardening and learn more about mini-farms.

Urban homesteading is a concept that is now sweeping America and other countries who are growing vegetables and raising small livestock in their backyards like they used to do during the wartime where victory gardens were encouraged. Victory gardens are becoming popular once more, and more and more people are looking towards self-sufficiency and food security. More people are also concerned about the monopolies of seed companies and so when planting their victory gardens do so with open-pollinated seeds rather than the hybrids and saving heirloom seeds for the next season.

What is the point of having a lovely lawn and nothing else? You can't eat it. It is purely decorative. What a waste! Dig up your lawns and grow your lunch. You will be surprised just how much produce you can get from your suburban block.

For example the videos below show Jules Dervaes living in California on a fifth of an acre, but is able to produce 6000 pounds of food every year! He not only feeds himself, his 2 daughters and a son from this land, but he now runs a business supplying hotels and restaurants with his organically grown vegetables, eggs etc.

Nowadays, we are so far removed from growing food for ourselves that our young kids probably recognize hamburgers and milkshakes more readily than knowing that the wheat that the buns are made from, and the beef cattle that provide the meat. Not only that, many kids don't know that milk isn't pink, brown or green but it's actually white, and comes not in bottles from the factory, but from the udders of a cow.

Jamie Oliver, well-known UK Chef has just done a food series on the the plight of eating habits in America. And America is not alone. Australia, the UK, the UAE, all across the globe people feed their faces with fat-saturated rubbish, their medical bills rise, their cholesterol goes sky-high, the diabetes kicks in and their health deteriorates.

Think of small livestock that you can keep on your suburban blocks:

Chickens and perhaps if you are really tight for space the smaller bantams.

Bees for honey

Rabbits for meat

So spend some time watching these inspiring videos on urban homesteadsand being self-sufficient and hopefully you will be growing vegetables in your backyard! Come and tell us what you think through our comments page.

URBAN HOMESTEADING ON 1/5th OF AN ACRE

URBAN HOMESTEADING AND LIVING MOSTLY OFF THE GRID

URBAN HOMESTEADING AND KEEPING CHICKENS IN THE CITY

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