What Does ‘Urban Homesteading’ Mean to You? (Giveaway)
I’ve been thinking about the words “Urban Homestead” and “Urban Homesteading” a lot lately. Mostly because a family in S. California recently trademarked those very words (in late 2010) and then sent letters to folks who were already using them in their publications. The Dervaes family claims they’re victims and everyone simply misunderstands their intent. Honestly, I wasn’t really angry until I read the letter they sent to folks using “Urban Homestead” and/or “Urban Homesteading.” Here’s the part that annoyed me the most:
We realize that your use of Dervaes published words and/or trademarks may have been inadvertent. We are generally able to resolve any such uses without involving our legal counsel. This would require that you update your websites and articles to properly cite our works.
You can click here to read the full letter they posted to their site. In short, they won’t need to get their legal counsel involved if you just give them credit for all your hard work. It’s that simple. I apologize in advance if I read that incorrectly.
Personally, I feel they don’t have the right to trademark those words. I feel that they’re being greedy. I don’t think they’re really interested in helping folks or the community – unless it brings them further fame or profit. I also feel they’re delusional if they think everything related to urban homesteading is their “works.” I’m pretty sure my interest in being self-sufficient started with my grandparents who had a veggie garden, fruit trees and chickens in Seattle starting in the 1940′s.
One of the books that could potentially be impacted by their new trademark is The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen. Even though their book was published in 2008 and the Dervaes family didn’t get their trademark until late 2010, they may still need to change the title of their book. That’s why I recently bought TWO copies! After all, they could be collector’s items one day and I want to give one away to you.
Did I mention they also had Facebook shut down fan pages that included their newly trademarked words? Actions speak louder than words.
Anyway, in order to win the book The Urban Homestead, simply leave a comment on what “Urban Homesteading” means to you on this post before Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. PT. Travis and I will pick our favorite response for a copy of the book.
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WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT!! We picked Jenn’s response below but haven’t heard back yet. I hope to hear from her soon so I can get her new book in the mail!! Thanks to everyone for playing along.
Your link was just above mine on the Back to Take Back Urban Home-steading(s) FB page, I would love to get a copy of this book! The term “urban homesteading” means to me anyone who is actively doing things around their home that helps them to become as self-sufficient as possible according to their abilities. I don’t think everyone has to follow the same exact path, I would just like to see people become more aware of what kind of impact their everyday activities have on our world and to make adjustments to the way they live their everyday lives accordingly. The “urban” part comes into play when people who have little or no space still work on raising their own food in the space they do have.
i believe urban homesteading means using your resources that you have available as much as you can- as opposed to relying on outside sources by paying for everything. perhaps generating your own energy, hang drying clothes,growing as much food that you can-sewing clothes- etc etc. i like the idea actually and would like to do more of it.
This is a shame, what has happened. I used to follow them way back in the beginning, even exchanged seeds once with them when they were starting out. I quickly lost interest in their blog when it started feeling more commercialized and less of a how to inspiration. Of course I know everyone has to make a living somehow, and i fully support home grown business— soap making, crafts, plants and produce, but what they have done is become part of the monster a lot of us are trying to avoid. To me it says “we were unable to truly support ourselves with this venture so we are giving up the fight and going commercial” And no, the trademark certainly doesn’t belong to them. My grandparents and great grandparents were urban homesteaders, they farmed right in the city where I grew up so the idea certainly was not theirs to begin with, it was just how things were done back then.
I am not an urban homesteader, I am a wanna be. I do what I can with what I have on my rented lot, craving my own real piece of land someday where I can hang laundry and be rid of all my lawn and not be forced to remove all the yummy and useful dandelions by a housing association. To me, homesteading is a freedom, something to strive for, a way of bettering our lives and our neighbor’s lives and our world. It’s the freedom to nurture our little piece of the world, our community, our families and friends and the creatures we share it with. But mostly, it’s freedom.
No giveaway for me. Just wanted to let you know that I’ve added you to my blogroll and I support Urban Homesteaders!
I truly admire Urban Homesteaders. The term to me implies a way of life, not a business. In a perfect world, I would be one too. As my life currently pulls me in other directions, I content myself with the dream of backyard chickens. A dream I don’t see as that far fetched! Recently local municipalities have including Metro Vancouver have started to allow back yard chickens. It’s just a matter of time, and my continued nudges at our city council before they too implement this program!
To me, Urban Homesteading means doing what you can to make your home productive and less of a burden on the environment. That could mean anything from growing a few lettuce plants in a window box to a full-on self sufficient farm in the backyard,to a photovoltaic panel to add in energy efficiency. For me as an apartment dweller, iot meant turning my modest balcony into a vertical food garden, and adding an air drying rack for clothes. One day, I hope to be a home owner with a kitchen garden instead!
I actually posted about this very topic on my blog. This is what it means to me:
It’s about security and health. But most of all it’s about community. Not just the urban homesteading community, but the community we live in.
Our security comes from knowing where our food comes from and that as long as we know how to grow it and raise it, we’ll always have it available. It’s about knowing what’s on and in our food. It’s about eating food that a corporation hasn’t touched and adulterated so far from it’s natural state that it’s no longer distinguishable.
But it’s the community. The community is the part I love. We have met some wonderful people in the urban farming/homesteading community that we are honored to now call friends. It’s about people that ask us questions and being able to help them be successful.
And it’s about helping feed our community. Extra food goes to our neighbors. It helps build relationships with them. And when your have good relationships with your neighbors it means that we all watch out for each other – a must in our community.
To me, urban homesteading simply means making a true home in the city, surrounded by things that make a home a home. Growing things. Plants, animals. Establishing deep roots in one’s place, so that one can stay there through hell and high water – financial stress, supply stress, the winds of change. A homestead is a refuge for you and yours, and an urban homestead is simply that home in a city setting, hopefully as a neighbor to others who feel the same.
to me, urban homesteading means making a life for yourself where you are, using what you have, as best as you can. some of us can “go all the way”, and have what amounts to a little working farm–and some of us, for whatever reason, can only do a portion of that. every little bit makes a difference.
I’ve been following this whole debacle since word got out very quickly last week. Like many, we may not be ‘Urban Homesteaders’ per se; we’re more backyard gardeners in a rural setting. Location is the only thing that sets us apart, maybe. We garden – a lot – when the weather smiles on us. Flowers and veggies and trees and shrubs. Like so many —over 4,000 on the “Take Back Urban Home-steading(s)” Facebook page, I cannot fathom the fact that someone could trademark a well known and practiced way of life, or that the trademark was even issued to begin with!!! I’d love to read this book by someone who lives that lifestyle, not owns it. Thanks for the chance.
To me, the term means a lifestyle, but not in the sense of something fancy, or bought, or only available to a few people. It means being responsible for yourself, and for your environment. It means living in a way that is as sustainable as possible, and relying on yourself and community rather than corporations to get things done.
I live in an apartment in a city. For me, this means growing radishes, spinach, basil, dill, cherry tomatoes, peas, and anything else that I can on my patio. It means a drying rack outside, limited water use, reusing, recycling, buying second hand, cooking from scratch, joining the local food co-op, shopping at farmers’ markets, and anything else I can do in my small space, in the city, to live a more sustainable, healthy, environmentally-friendly life.
I think it means that the next time I am sitting in my living room looking at my front lawn I might want to think again.
I might want to visualize other crops there on my city lot besides grass; maybe cabbages and berries and fruit bushes.
I might not make that concrete patio I was thinking of in the backyard, and instead I might plant blueberries and sit among the bushes.
I might use that old shed in the back yard and put in a few chickens and get a few dozen eggs.
I might do all this. I am an urban person, so I might do it bit by bit, slowly, but I might do it.
Urban Homesteading means that I have the choice to think like this and get into the soil more, out of the supermarket more and out in the yard.
I think any activity you participate in to create more sustainability to your urban lifestyle can make you an urban homesteader. Whether it’s raising small container gardens on your apartment balcony or raising a brood of chickens in your backyard. Urban homesteading is reaching out for a more authentic lifestyle while working within the limits of your circumstances.
Wikipedia pretty much sums it up here:
What is Urban Homesteading
The most common association with urban homesteading is gardening. In an urban area, this often occurs in a community garden, though backyard, rooftop, and school gardens are becoming increasingly popular. Urban homesteading is also associated with urban agriculture.
According to UC-Davis, “an urban homestead is a household that produces a significant part of the food, including produce and livestock, consumed by its residents. This is typically associated with residents’ desire to live in a more environmentally conscious manner.” [1]
I wonder if anyone has pointed out to the Dervaes’ that the urban homesteading concept has apparently been around for quite some time?
I have commented about this in my latest blog post. Hope y’all visit. Thank you for reading.
http://chardlady.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-urban-homesteading-means-to-me.html
Excellent blog post. This whole thing is insane on it’s face.
It means the fact that there is no grocery store in town isn’t so much of an “Oh, crap! I’m out of eggs!” when I’m baking or want to have veggies as munchies.
Except, of course, for the fact that I’m gearing up to go against the city for changing the ordinances so that I can’t have chickens like I did when I was a kid!
Urban Homesteading means to us to be as self sustainable as possible. Growing and raising as much as possible.
I find it amazing how anybody thinks they can coin a phrase or a word. It would be like coining the word “Computer Programing” and then sending every computer programer and company a letter saying change your ways or I will sue because I want your money or you to change your ways because I own this idea and now its mine. This is not helping the world, this is trying to control the world and its ideas. Do people really think Urban Homesteading is something new? Urban Homesteading goes back thousands of years. This problem is at the heart of the many problems with American and the world. When you die you can not take a word or an idea with you. So why spend so much energy trying to control people who are actually trying to make this world a positive one?
For me urban homesteading is the act of transforming a city or suburban home into a property that produces some or all of its residents own food and other subsistence needs.
For me, urban homesteading means getting back to my roots. Consciously striving to maintain a fine balance where I am giving back as much as I receive. To be a part of a cohesive group of individuals who value the pleasure and reward of a simple life, knowing that our food was grown and raised with love and respect for both nature and family. Attempting to step back in time where hard work is virtuous and good for the soul, reaching beyond this convince-wrapped, fast paced, plastic life that modern day has to offer.
I too have been following the past weeks events and I’m truly appalled by the level of greed and disrespect that is being displayed.
No need to enter me in the contests, my definition will pale in comparisson to the others here :) I love when you fight for what is right!
To me, it means living frugally and locally. Not only growing your own food when you can but re-using instead of buying new, mending instead of throwing things out and making do with what you have.
Urban Homesteading. Bring the memories of my grandparents way of living to life in my own backyard. Being called a survivalist without the camo. Having a fresh salad without burning the fossil fuels. A variety of veggies never before seen at the market growing just outside the sliding glass doors. Heirloom plants surviving another generation, one square foot at a time. Being called a farmer while living in a tract home. Having my daughters say they want to do the same when they get married!
I’ve been an urban homesteader for over twenty years now. It used to mean simply someone who bought a home in an urban area that was seriously decayed (often a house that had been abandoned but at least severely run down). Gardening wasn’t necessarily a part of it but community building, community healing/restoration and improvement were.
It often meant working on improving local schools and parks; running off drug dealers (yes, I have done that); nagging the city to provide services; tutoring neighborhood kids.
For the last 14 years, my husband and I have been homesteading in DC. A few days after moving in, there was a mugging directly in front of my house. As I and a few neighbors chased the perp, one neighbor shouted, ‘he’s got a gun’. That sure slowed us down some!
But today, I look out at beautifully planted tree boxes (previously filled with empty whiskey bottles) and haven’t witnessed a mugging in about two years!
In addition, several neighbors have joined together to grow herbs, hot peppers, cucumbers and beans, tomatoes and tomatillos in our tiny front yards. Last year, we grew potatoes in barrels but got only a few pounds. This year we intend to try sweet potatoes. We also worked to create a garden in the local schoolyard: It is used as part of the instructional curriculum and has already improved the eating habits of the kids!
For me, urban homesteading means working in my very urban neighborhood to provide food and create community. I guess I’ll still be doing this twenty years down the road, trademark be damned!
Green is another term, buzz word you see and we lived it in Maine long before it had a color associated with the approach to life on the farm I grew up on.
How dare they!!! I know it’s too late for book but everyone should register their disapproval of this greedy behaviour. the author s of Urban homesteading should have trade-marked their the name of their book.
this is a universal grp of words, in the general vernacular. did not realize that it was trade markable. same as many – my grandparents and great grandparents were avid urban homesteaders. anyone in the city who gardened/ s is an urban homesteader, where do they get off. I, myself have gardened in the city since the 70′s – only recently am i gardening in the country. actually I had more room in the city. Can we petition ? How is this right? In that case anyone anywhere can copyright anything. but this is the way of our world. Greed is everywhere there’s a buck to be made. how can a publication written before the Derveas be at risk?? the legality of this should be researched, peg marengo
Love your blog so much!! I too have a potting shed and chickens.
Would love to win the certificate.
Happy Gardening!
Keep up the good work. If you want me, I more times than not do love this web site when I’m not hanging out in Loch Lomond.