60th St. Homestead

I usurped my parents' South Minneapolis yard so I could grow organic food. We don't really know what we're doing over here off 60th, but I figure that's probably okay! Check here for updates from our humble homestead as well as other tidbits about urban agriculture and homesteading that I've gathered from around the internet!

[hitrecord]

“Solitude”

[60thstreethomestead]

Inspiration from the #outdoors is the bet kind of #inspiration.

[60thstreethomestead]

Labor Day weekend is 60th Street's canning and preserving weekend! Here's a sneak peek at our applesauce project. Look for more to come!

[60thstreethomestead]

I love this idea from Savvy Living. While I'm not sure this would work with our onions (as they are quite tiny this season), but I know that someone out there might be looking for creative ways to 1) store their awesome onions and 2) use up old pantyhose! Ours are currently braided and hanging in the basement. If someone tries this and successfully stores their onions, let me know! I'd love to try it out sometime!

[60thstreethomestead]

I am a huge fan of some these, including an herb garden in coffee containers and planting lettuce in gutters! While not all of these are practical, they are adorable. Enjoy!

[60thstreethomestead]

From WebEcoist:

"It’s predicted that by the year 2050, 80 of the world’s population will live in urban centers. As the global population swells and urban centers lose what little green space they once had, more countries are looking to urban farming to feed their people. The urban environment doesn’t have unlimited horizontal farming space, so the natural solution is to build up. Vertical farms can fit easily into the cityscape while providing a local source of food for inhabitants. Even better, they can be placed nearly anywhere that a building can go. Are these 26 innovative designs the future of farming? It certainly looks that way."

Click the link to go to the original page and from there you can explore just a few designs that are moving the urban agriculture movement forward with the help of fabulous designs!

[60thstreethomestead]

This is such an amazing video coming out of Project Grow in Portland, Oregon. Want some inspiration as well as a testament to how urban farming can really impact neighborhoods and lives? Watch this video!

For more information on Project Grow, check out their website. They've got some awesome systems set up in some small, urban spaces! What's more, there is some really meaningful work being done to involve some of our often forgotten and under-appreciated adults.

From their website:

We Believe That:

Meaningful work accompanied by fair wage is a human right.

All people have gifts to contribute to the community.

Everyone deserves a supportive environment, regardless of one’s challenges.

A sense of purpose, offered by a valued activity, is essential for all.

Art making is both a valid path in life and a valid career choice.

Everyone is unique and deserves a tailored, supportive environment so that they may thrive.

Everyone is an artist, student, and a teacher.

The relationship with one’s food source is essential for a healthy life.

Learning is a life long task and privilege

If you're in the Portland Area, go out and support The North Portland Farm!

[60thstreethomestead]

Onions! Shallots! Garlic! Oh my!

[60thstreethomestead]

First tomatoes of the season!

[60thstreethomestead]

Onions and shallots, braided and drying in the sun. We know they’re small, but we think it’s because we panted them too shallow and too close together…we’re obviously still trying to figure this stuff out.

[60thstreethomestead]

Basil, nasturtiums, and cat.

[60thstreethomestead]

Sunday harvest: summer squash, zucchini, green beans, cucumbers, shallots, onions, and an eggplant!

[jenniferdavisart]

Mycela

acrylic/graphite

12x16”

www.JenniferDavisArt.com

[60thstreethomestead]

Love this!

[60thstreethomestead]

(Photo Courtesy of Homesteading/Survivalism)

If only I could rip up the gross lawn at my apartment building! I guess I'll settle for foraging apples from the trees in the middle of the night and secretly composting in my basement storage unit instead!

[60thstreethomestead]

This is just an amazing article from Mother Jones. "There's been a growing body of research that suggests that urban farming and greening not only strengthen community bonds but also reduce violence. " Make sure you click the link and read this inspiring article. Not to mention look at these phenomenal photographs. Here is a beautiful photo to wet your appetite for social justice in the form of urban horticulture!

Things like this are just so inspiring—that food can change lives the same way sports, art, music, and other "urban culture"-types can. Urban farming doesn't just belong to the white middle-class yuppies like myself. Urban farming belongs to everyone in a city, including those we often forget about (or willfully ignore). Here's an excerpt from this article, describing how food changed the life of an ex-con:

"For Daniels, who spent eight years in prison—first for attempted murder, then for possession of cocaine—his life now revolves around food. In prison, he learned to cook, and when he was released he got a job at Growing Home. He tends the beds of Asian lettuce and Swiss chard (two foods he's come to savor), the tomatoes and beets, the carrots and spinach. He covers the arugula to keep away the flea beetles. He's learned about genetically modified food and chemical-free farming. He takes solace in prepping the beds, turning the compost, then adding and raking in alfalfa meal and potassium. He's now learning how to keep bees."

[60thstreethomestead]

I might need to add this book to my booklist. You know how I am with books and urban farming...

Here's an excerpt from City Farmer's book review:

"New York is not a city for growing and manufacturing food. It’s a money and real estate city, with less naked earth and industry than high-rise glass and concrete. Yet in this intimate, visceral, and beautifully written book, Robin Shulman introduces the people of New York City – both past and present – who do grow vegetables, butcher meat, fish local waters, cut and refine sugar, keep bees for honey, brew beer, and make wine. In the most heavily built urban environment in the country, she shows an organic city full of intrepid and eccentric people who want to make things grow. What’s more, Shulman artfully places today’s urban food production in the context of hundreds of years of history, and traces how we got to where we are."

[60thstreethomestead]

ArtFarms in Buffalo! "Urban vacancy in the East Side of Buffalo is widespread. With over 20% of its land empty, it feeds negative perceptions that discourage the city's redevelopment." What better way to build up community pride and work to build sustainability than combining art and farming!

From ArtFarms website (check it out!):

"In Buffalo’s East Side, urban agriculture is transforming once residential, abandoned land into small farms serving local groups. And although vacant land is abundant, it is often contaminated. Historically farmers used above ground grow structures to overcome poor soil conditions – an approach which could provide a solution to the contamination problem.

ARTFARMS invites recognized artists to design grow sculptures for the East Side urban farms. Made from lightweight materials, their ghost-like appearance highlights the neighborhood’s exodus of homes, people and activity.

Used as growth structures for fruits, vegetables and flowers, these large scale planted sculptures attract new visitors and attention.

ARTFARMS turns the area’s vacant properties into a new landscape of growing sculpture. It invites a wider audience to witness the formation of a new perception for the area that brings more visitors to the farm produce stores, more positive impressions of the area’s future, more potential of attracting other small business development. The result is a synergy where ongoing local reuse efforts are enhanced by their coordination with a larger cultural perspective."

(Found with the help of City Farmer yet again!)

[60thstreethomestead]

From Homesteading/Survivalism on facebook:

Homemade Mosquito Trap! Materials: 2 liter bottle glue 1 tsp yeast 1/2 cup sugar lukewarm water Instructions: Cut the top off a 2 liter bottle. Invert the cone and place it inside the straight part of the bottle. Glue the two pieces together. Add 1 tsp yeast and 1/2 cup sugar to some luke warm water, and pour the mixture into the bottle. Mosquitoes are attracted to the carbon dioxide that you exhale. The yeast feeds off the sugar and emits the same gas, so the mosquito enters the bottle, thinking it will find food there and is trapped.