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Family Grows 6000 Lbs of Food on 1/10th Acre Urban Farm


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Learn how this family consistently grows 6,000 pounds of food per year on their 1/10th acre urban farm that’s just a stone throw away from a major highway and only 15 minutes away from downtown Los Angeles.1

And the family is generating $20,000 a year in front porch sales to locals selling their organic grown food right from their property. Especially to local chefs for restaurants nearby.1

Think about it. That means a family with an entire acre can possibly do over $200,000 per year selling their crops. And now they’re teaching others how to do it, too.1

The family’s utility bill is up to $12 per month thanks to their solar panels. In addition, they provide themselves with their own recycled ‘gasoline’ (used cooking oil) thanks to local restaurants who deliver it to their front door.1

“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.”1FoodAbundance/YouTube

Family Grows 6000 Pounds of Food on 1/10 Acre Urban Homestead

urban-homestead-family-in-la-tiny-organic-farm-001

Images © UrbanHomestead.org

urban-homestead-family-in-la-tiny-organic-farm-002 urban-homestead-family-in-la-tiny-organic-farm-003

Images © UrbanHomestead.org

Video: Family Grows 6000 Pounds of Food on 1/10 Acre Urban Homestead

Video 2: Homegrown Revolution with Jules Dervaes of Path to Freedom

Learn more: http://urbanhomestead.org/

Did you know that you can grow that much food in such a small amount of space? Can you imagine doing this in addition to your tiny living lifestyle? And the incredible difference this can make in the world if more people start doing it?

Resources

  1. Video/Information on YouTube/FoodAbundance (accessed 3/27/15)
  2. Urban Homestead (family’s website) (accessed 3/27/15)
  3. SoCalConnected (accessed 3/27/15)
  4. Greener Living for an Urban Family (accessed 3/27/15)
  5. DIY Cozy Home (accessed 3/27/15)

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Alex

Alex is a contributor and editor for TinyHouseTalk.com and the always free Tiny House Newsletter. He has a passion for exploring and sharing tiny homes (from yurts and RVs to tiny cabins and cottages) and inspiring simple living stories. We invite you to send in your story and tiny home photos too so we can re-share and inspire others towards a simple life too. Thank you!
{ 26 comments… add one }
  • Holly
    March 27, 2015, 6:17 pm

    This is fantastic! Great post.

  • CathyAnn
    March 27, 2015, 8:48 pm

    What an inspiration!

  • Bev
    March 28, 2015, 3:21 am

    Wonderful! I am saving this to refer to as I build my own garden in a senior’s complex. We all need to eat healthy! Thank you.

  • Joseph Delgado Sr
    March 28, 2015, 12:23 pm

    Wow what an inspirational story! Bev you are right, we all need to eat healthy 🙂

  • Kathy Duckett
    March 28, 2015, 1:03 pm

    Here I sit on a half acre of land, 300 feet from the woods, 900 feet from the river, making excuses about ground hogs and deer eating everything I plant, and mowing grass. WOW. I think my city allows 5 chickens–not sure about goats, but this is going to be a summer of change for me. Thank you Jules Dervaes!

  • Cahow
    March 28, 2015, 1:09 pm

    LOVE IT!!!

    Normally, I have a hard time with long youtube videos as they are often so poorly constructed but this one was flawless: well produced, edited, no looooooong boring shots, and loads of information.

    I take my hat off to the entire family and what they are doing. When I saw the daughter with the hand-cranked blender, I thought, “Oh my goodness, they’ve gone Amish!”. I have a dear family friend who came from Amish families on both sides and we yearly visit her family in Ohio. The “modern” conveniences that they have that are hand-cranked are a joy to behold, and also ‘play’ with, too.

    My only question is: Where’s the wife????? Did she pass from an untimely death or did she not adopt/adapt to the lifestyle? It doesn’t matter to the success they’ve created but I am a tad curious.

  • pammy
    March 28, 2015, 8:05 pm

    This is great, but all of California and especially SoCal is experiencing an epic drought…soooo what about the water? I live very close to these folks and won’t/can’t have a garden because of water restrictions and costs.

    • Ginger
      March 29, 2015, 12:49 am

      I can understand your concern over the amount of water needed for a traditional soil garden. But, have you thought of putting in an aquaponics system. Go to You Tube and search for videos about Aquaponics. I am in the process of putting one in here in Houston, TX. It doesn’t take a lot of room and you can put your veggies so much closer together than soil raised veggies. Also, you get the bonus of growing fish to eat or sell to others. I plan to put tilapia in mine.
      Your plants grow in a rock, clay pebbles, or other type of media instead of soil. The water is in a closed system that purifies the water from the fish tank and nourishes the plants with the organic nutrients they need for optimum growth.

    • No Thank You
      March 29, 2015, 11:37 am

      California is in a crippling drought which is killing it’s commercial farms. Call me crazy but I have a feeling this backyard business probably uses more water and labor per square acre than those thousand acre commercial farms.
      Not to mention this in California which means they have longer growing seasons than other places so not all backyard gardens are going to produce 6,000lbs of food.

      • Comet
        March 29, 2015, 9:46 pm

        California may be in a drought partially BECAUSE of the way they have farmed for many years. OR not. However–the way these aquaponics systems WORK is the initial “investment” in water is not LOST–like field crops lose water to evaporation and run-off—but rather the water is used over and over and over—growing not only plants but animals and fish if you want to. I would venture to say that if they are growing “field” or row crops those are on some sort of a drip system and with a substantial amount of soil cover (mulch) to KEEP that moisture IN the soil.

        Even here in far Northern Upstate NY where water is generally abundant we have some large hydroponic farms–and there is chat of re-using an older mushroom farm to grow medical marijuana–possibly hydroponicly.

        Where exactly the above poster expects our food to COME FROM—without using the same old same old wasteful practices—I dunno. We need creative, safe and sustainable farms. This looks like a good model to me.

    • Garth
      October 7, 2015, 3:54 pm

      They tell about their super-efficient use of water, at http://urbanhomestead.org/journal/2010/04/16/water-saving-projects/ . It looks like they’re doing an outstanding job of it. Even before their latest round of water-saving measures, their water bill was $600/yr, which averages out to $50/mo, which is about what ours is on an even smaller piece of land about 25 miles away when my wife grows a few vegetables and waters the lawn more in the summers (except that she has let the lawn go kind of yellow this summer, because of the water shortage). Some of our neighbors with no garden at all, only lawns, use quite a bit more water than we do.

  • Lynnette
    March 29, 2015, 7:02 am

    I adore stories like this!

  • March 29, 2015, 7:08 pm

    Both videos kept me glued to my screen!

    My camper is on a 5 acre lot in a rural area. I could do this on a smaller scale….when I retire. Getting close to that time. I grow what I can while working full time. Plus my place is chemical free and a bird sanctuary.

    Growing our own food “would” change the world. I am tired of the GMO crap they are selling and refuse to buy it.

    I have this quote above my front door so I read it everyday…

    “Be the Change you wish to see in this World.” Gandhi

  • donald tabor
    April 1, 2015, 12:29 pm

    Wish more people could see what your doing. Great job,God bless your work.

  • Bea
    April 16, 2015, 8:17 am

    I love their independence and what they are doing. Their work is difficult, constant and rewarding. I agree with most everything they are doing and said, but I believe climate is just what it has always been………
    changing. The changes have been there for as long as the age of the earth; it is an ever changing drama, from before the ice ages and thereafter. My congratulations to this family and I say BRAVO!

  • May 19, 2015, 10:49 pm

    PLEASE….do a little research on their trademarking of the term “Urban Homesteading” and then reconsider giving them any air time. They are not nice people.

    • Eric
      February 18, 2016, 3:54 am

      Nothing wrong with them trademarking the term. Trying to trademark the term Urban Homestead however would have been totally declined.

      So, they had the smarts to trademark a term… and you? Well sorry but it would “appear” that you have a massive sense of sour grapes inside your cranium.

      • Maureen
        February 20, 2016, 1:35 pm

        The first two sentences of your comment seem to contradict each other. They have trademarked the term ‘Urban Homestead’ tho the court battle is ongoing. When they originally made this move, they actively sought out anyone using the term, Facebook pages, published books, community organizations, and sent out ‘cease and desist’ letters to get them to pull those sites down…or pay. Didn’t seem to be a very community-minded thing to do.

        And since I in no way wanted to trademark the term, your sour grapes analogy doesn’t apply. I’m speaking out because the Dervais family has done harm to a lot of good people.

        • Eric
          November 29, 2020, 2:33 am

          Woooo, the term Urban Homestead has been declined, but Urban Homesteading has been approved.
          And I have no beef with the Dervais family using the trademark for any reason. It makes eminent sense. If they have sent out cease and desist letters then they have either had their trademark approved or they are using the process unlawfully. Either way they are a profitable business and I say good on them.

  • Mary Collins
    May 21, 2015, 10:12 am

    Oh they have been doing this for years now. Surprise folks just now coming across this family! The Dad (Mr. Jules Dervaes) been doing this since the 60’s! This awesome and he’s right! As soon as we break away from the mainstrem conditions our country has lead us to believe and we as a people gain control over our own growth of food we would then be free! Currently working on just that with 8 beds in our backyard and growing!

  • Jefferson Voltaire
    October 7, 2015, 6:18 pm

    Well, now it’s only a matter of time before there is a SWAT style police raid for some trumped up charges. People will be beaten/crippled and all their things & animals will be killed or destroyed. Can’t have people not participating in the consumerist/vulture capitalist way.

    • Eric
      November 29, 2020, 2:35 am

      Love…love… l o v e the sarcasm

  • July 26, 2017, 9:49 am

    This is really an inspiration article! I’m reading it now in 2017 and hope that the family will achieve more new good things in the future!

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