This past summer I visited my college friend Enicia who is a “homesteader” in Wildomar, Calif. What makes my soft-spoken, gentle friend a homesteader? Maybe it is the 14 variety of heirloom tomatoes she grows, the flock of heritage breed chickens that scratch around her porch, and the .22 handgun that she used to blow away a squirrel who was ” thinking that we have been growing everything for him!”
Foolish squirrel.
Urban homesteading, or urban farming, isn’t exactly new, but it seems more people are growing things in the backyard or on the back deck as a way to cut food costs, revive lost “heirloom” skills like canning and pickling, or just get their hands dirty in a hyper-techno world. Others see it as a way to be an environmental activist, as a way to lessen their carbon footprint and have more control over knowing where their food comes from.
It’s a combination for Enicia, who first raised chickens beneath her children’s swing set in a suburban tract home not far from where she lives now. She grew wildflowers in her front yard to attract birds and butterflies. But she envisioned something bigger and so the family moved to a property with more land in a canyon that’s full of rabbits and coyotes. And now she’s trying to run out the mice who “take one bite out of every tomato.”
But she’s happy, I can tell. And she uses science and art inspired by the garden and kitchen to teach homeschooling lessons for her kids.
“It’s so empowering for myself and the kids so we can learn and research and find out how to do it ourselves. It’s just really freeing to realize that you aren’t dependent on corporate American for your everyday needs,” says Enicia. “But it’s not really a political agenda, it’s more just a fun hobby, really. If wasn’t a fun hobby I wouldn’t be doing it because it is a lot of work and most of the time there is a challenge – something that happens that you don’t plan for and it causes major upheaval.”
Like the day the dog nearly tore up the vegetable garden trying to corner the squirrel who had sauntered in for a snack one too many times. Poor planning on the squirrel’s part.
Enicia started her quest to become an urban homesteader in 2007 when she read a challenge on Path to Freedom to eat once a week out of your own garden. She started with one salad a week and then progressed to creating an entire meal from food that she grew. “Then I just started upping the challenge to try to have one thing a day from my garden,” she says.
It isn’t always easy. Hours in the garden don’t always yield a bounty of beautiful and flawless food for the table. And it can get lonely.
“Those moments when I feel insolated in my world I think of Ma Ingalls and think if she could do it, I could do it,” says Enicia.
Anyone who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s watched “Little House On the Prairie” or read the series knows who she is talking about. Now it’s our turn to prove we can make our own butter, sew our own clothes, and make apple pie from pumpkins. Maybe we’ll save the planet, or maybe we won’t. But at least we’ll have fun doing it.
I wrote more on urban homesteading for the cover of The Culture section for CSMonitor.com, “The rise of urban farming.”
Related post: Chicken and Dumplings
Related post: Mock Apple Pie
Kitchen Report 
Kendra – thanks for reminding me exactly why I’m so happy to be moving in three weeks – for garden space, woods for the kids to play in, and possibly…chickens in the near future! When packing gets me down this weekend, I’ll just remember Ma Ingalls. Thanks 😉
I will come visit you and your chickens!!
There’s something very attractive about the idea of being a self-reliant urban farmer. Especially if I get to compare myself to Ma Ingalls!
We have childhood fantasies to live out!
Fun article, Kendra! Sylvia the hen has no idea she’s an internet star. End of summer update: The rodent population remains well-fed and I have to buy tomatoes at the farmer’s market because I still intend to can my own marinara sauce this year!
You are hilarious!! I’m glad to know that is Sylvia. I couldn’t remember her name…
Great story! I agree with your friend: thank goodness backyard farming is fun, because it’s a lot of work. I thought this last night as it took me one hour to pluck all the seeds from just two sunflowers (and I still have a pile of flowers yet to go). Makes you really appreciate those .99 cent bags chock full of them on the grocery store shelves. 🙂 I am also secretly longing for your friend’s squirrel-elimination prowess. Naughty, naughty squirrels!
So true! It can be fun, it’s hard work, the garden doesn’t always produce picture perfect veggies and it can be lonely. All reasons why we’re building a self-sufficient community on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. Everybody owns their own homestead, but we do a lot together – like having a community garden in addition to our private plots, Sharing our 2,000 square foot greenhouse to extend the seasons, trading time with a community member’s tractor, performing on the stage or watching movies under the stars at the amphitheater. For those wanting the homesteading community lifestyle check out my blog http://1stvillager.wordpress.com/
or website http://sewaneecreek.com/self-sufficient.php
[…] read an article called, “Are you an Urban Homesteader” in a fabulous blog called Kitchenreport. It’s written by a woman living in Boston who talks […]
I’ve decided to become an urban homesteader. The word homesteader has a little different meaning in modern times. It used to be about taming the wild frontier and starting a “homestead”. I have found “homesteading” to be the best keyword to describe a philosophy of pursuing a simpler lifestyle, being more self-sufficient vs. depending on our fragile system, and rediscovering those “heirloom skills” that were almost lost by our push button generation. Thanks for sharing this post.
[…] fantasies of homesteading will have to be lived vicariously through others like Reese, or my friend Enicia. I just don’ t have the time to babysit warm milk as it transforms into thick, creamy […]