24 May 2010

Turning A Suburban Yard Into An Organic Farm

Posted in Howto, Project, Soil, Video

In this video, KVIE profiles Jules Dervaes, a man who has turned his small suburban yard into a profitable organic farm. Dervaes says what started out as a hobby became serious for him with the advent of genetically modified foods and rising food prices.
With the help of his family, they now produce over 6,000 pounds of food annually on their 1/10-acre land, though their goal is to hit 10,000 pounds. The 350 varieties of organic fruits and vegetables grown not only sustain the Dervaes family, but the large surplus is sold to local restaurants and catering companies.
Setting an example as to what's possible in city farming and sustainability, the Dervaes family even makes their own bio-fuel for their minimal vehicle usage. Huffington Post

Comments (5)

  • Jacob

    Jacob

    14 June 2012 at 23:16 |
    It's so important to stick to your pinlcipres , I very much admire the way Riverford has always done this it's one of the reasons I continue to get my fruit and veg from you guys companies that alter their stance do so at their peril I for one don't think the same about Innocent following their involvement with Coca-cola, for me it seems to go against everything I thought they stood for, so I'll get my smoothies elswhere in future
  • Desy

    Desy

    14 June 2012 at 21:18 |
    I started gitteng the veg boxes in January & absolutely love them. Everything is so fresh & tasty, so much better quality than any of the supermarkets. Any unused veg at the end of the week is turned into a large pot of vegetable soup, together with any bits & pieces of leftovers hanging around in the fridge. So as far as I am concerned you are all doing a great job so keep up the good work & please DO NOT WASH THE CARROTS!!!
  • Dnar

    Dnar

    24 May 2012 at 14:22 |
    I recently doeciversd your blog/website and have genuinely enjoyed reading this and some of the other posts. I thought I would dive out from the shadows and leave my first comment. I'm not certain what to say other than I have enjoyed reading and will continue to visit as frequently as I can.
  • Johni

    Johni

    07 April 2012 at 21:05 |
    Wood of any type works just fine. Hardwood does give a better qutliay than softwood. However, the only documented difference is from lab experiments. For everyone else (you and I) the difference won't be recognized in use. Use any hardwood or softwood that you have access to. Good luck and have fun!!!
  • Eagle

    Eagle

    07 April 2012 at 20:26 |
    The figure of 13 mioliln tonnes of forestry waste is nonsense (we only harvest around 23 mioliln tonnes of logs), at the most it is around 3 to 4 mioliln, and its not all equal, some will be very expensive to recover.
    The $400,000 per harvest site is also probably wrong, depending on how you define a site, agin they are not all equal.At least half of the forest harvest residues can be left in place, thats been the practice for decades, if they are looking at the waste disposal cost to drive the delivery of a free wood resource to their carboniser, think again, there a reason it stays where it is.

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