‘Note From the Urban Homestead’ Archive

Notes From the Urban Homestead 3-3-10

What’s going on in sustainability:
I can’t wait until I can start these blogs with “what’s in the ground,” but soon enough. For now I guess we must settle for what’s on our windowsills. If you haven’t already, now is the time to start those collard, kale and chard seedlings. If you have a window that [...]

Notes From The Urban Homestead 2-24-10

What’s Going on in Sustainability:
Although I owe much of my voice to the internet, reading my farming updates would be a lot harder if blogs didn’t exist, I was reminded last Thursday that the power of community truly comes from people sitting in a room, and working off each other’s energy.
After a year of being [...]

Notes From The Urban Homestead 2-17-10

What’s going on in sustainability:
For this installment, I really have no one underlying message, just a few observations
The first is that I understand the winter is the perfect time for eating or ordering out. Cold kitchens and the small selection at the farmer’s markets don’t make for the most exciting cooking experiences. I made the [...]

Notes From the Urban Homestead 2-10-10

What’s going on in sustainability:

The common thought is that a farmer lives in the country as far away from the city as possible, concentrating on the land and little more. And a band, they live on the road, playing music and partying in each city they find themselves in for the night. Yes, some city [...]

Notes From the Urban Homestead 2-3-10

What’s going on in sustainability:
I’m sorry that our state has to be the bearer of bad news, but Phil saw his shadow, and this winter will last six more weeks. Although the science of such traditions can be called into question, we’ve had a pretty harsh winter up here in the northeast and it seems [...]

Notes From Urban Homestead 1-27-10

What’s going on in sustainability:
As I said in the last blog, the winter time for me is a time of great reflection and planning. After witnessing a huge boom to the Iceland economy, an NPR reporter once asked a resident the cause of Icelandic success to which the man responded, “It’s our cold winters. We [...]

Notes From the Urban Homestead 1-20-10

What’s going on in sustainability:
Hopefully many of you will be able to make the Bee Keeping event in Germantown tonight. For more information, please look at the last blog.
As for this blog, I would like to offer something that has been on my mind for some time, and resurfaced last night while brewing beer and [...]

Notes From the Urban Homestead 1-13-10

What’s going on in sustainability:
Although a week and a half in Vermont can really tempt the sustainable person to pack up and move the homestead to the Green Mountains, I can honestly say that I’m very excited to be back in Philadelphia. I’ve only been back for one day and already I’m overwhelmed with all [...]

Notes From the Urban Homestead 1-06-10

I won’t be doing a normal post this week, as I am currently in the midst of a very intense writing retreat at Goddard College. I’ll be back next week with our first forray into a sustainable New Year. However, I’m in the writing mood and want to tell a quick story.
Last night while standing [...]

Notes From the Urban Homestead 12-31-09

What’s going on in sustainability:
A year passes, another begins, the earth renews itself. As you can see, it is so incredibly hard to avoid cliche when talking about the passage of yet another year. And it’s especially hard to not subscribe some transcendent importance when looking back over a decade of so much change. But [...]