Here’s a dangerous idea: take a step off the grid.

An urban homestead in Pasadena, CA Photo: Dervaes

We have no food bill, and our energy bill is practically nothing.
- Jules Dervaes

You wouldn’t be the first. From their 1/5th acre Pasadena lot, the Dervaes family of four annually grows 6,000 pounds of produce —up to 90% of their own food. Through their Web site, Path to Freedom, they teach others to live simply, with greater self-sufficiency. The family started down this road as a way to wrest greater control of their lives, a way to live a life more balanced, more empowered and respectful of the planet, and indeed, mankind. Their inspirational achievement has garnered headlines and fans the world over. People connect with them through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube.


The Dervaes backyard produces 6,000 pounds of food. Photo: Dervaes

What makes all this dangerous? As Jules Dervaes says, when one grows one’s own food, one is in danger of becoming free.

Since the eighties, the Dervaes family has worked to transform their city lot —located between two major freeways— into an example of sustainable, self-sufficient living. They garden all year, having built over 50 raised beds to cover half their property. The family keeps chickens, ducks, and goats, make biofuel and electricity, and sell their produce to caterers and restaurants.

Take a look:

Begin where you are. If you are good on the cooking end, start with that and expand. I was good on the gardening end, so that’s where I began.
–Jules Dervaes

For comparison’s sake: our family of two lives in a passive solar home with a large attached greenhouse on 2 ½ acres, grows about 45-65% of our food and spends an average of $75 per month on utilities. We produce pastured eggs for local sale. Most our landscaping is indigenous and/or edible, however we have at least 2 acres that are left wild. Though a portion of our hillside acreage is boulder-strewn, we could most certainly cultivate more edibles.

Russet potatoes from our garden. Photo: Self

This year I’m looking to expand our organic garden with intent to boost the percentage of our food that is grown on-site, and hopefully to offer fresh herbs and produce for sale, an action that will further reduce our carbon footprint while benefiting others.

Lettuce growing in our greenhouse. Photo: Self

As Jules says, this lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but some part of it is for everybody. Make no mistake, we cannot all live on wild acreage, nor can we all live on a fifth of an acre, but no matter your living situation, there is something useful, employable, deployable, transferable, and applicable in the Dervaes’s example. So, in honor of Earth Day, I ask this question: what portion of the path to freedom is for you?

Acorn squash growing in our garden. Photo: Self