The setting: month of May, permaculture homestead.

My husband is away and I don’t like grocery shopping. Time is right for some creative cooking with local foods and whatever could be found in the pantry, the refrigerator. I have one full month to work on my writing, in the garden, and experiment with Eating Local Foods. After all, our permaculture homestead is in its 8th year of evolution. So what can I find in my garden/orchard/chicken house?

• Cooking greens (both outside and in the greenhouse) – chard, kale, cauliflower & broccoli greens, French sorrel (great in soups);
• Wild Greens – lamb’s quarters, tumble weed (delicious when very young), wild mustard, stinging nettle (great in soups);
• Salad Greens are abundant. Garlic greens and chives everywhere, of course.
• Eggs from chickens and guinea fowl – lots
• Meat in the freezer from our own turkey butchered last fall
• Meat from a local beef ranchero
• Milk from my two goats – lots. With milk comes cheese and yogurt.
• Winter squash from last year’s harvest
• Canned goods  – peach jam, tomato sauces, beets, chutneys
• Some honey

I only have one more week to go until real shopping. It is all working out quite well!

Midsummer, hot and rich with garden life. Blossoms everywhere, plants and animals busy. Garlic is finishing its growing season, leaves yellowing, bulbs large, swollen and juicy.

Eighty feet of garlic plants in a permaculture mandala garden, stalks forming their own pattern of beauty. This quantity should be enough for two people for the year, plus some put aside for seeding in the fall, plus some to give away. Garlic harvest is coming up, once stalks collapse on the ground. Fresh garlic laid in shade to cure for two-three weeks, then stored.

The main gardening lesson stands out: focus on growing plants that grow really well in your climate.

The basic approach to permaculture gardening

The other name of gardening self-sufficiency is inter-dependence. Self-sufficiency is often misunderstood, seen as an effort in which you meet all your needs, on your own. In reality, no such thing is possible or even necessary. Building community is by far more essential in achieving self-sufficiency than growing every possible vegetable in your garden. Trade with your friends, weave the net of inter-dependent connections in your bio-region, and that will bring you to self-sufficiency faster than you thought.

For me, onion is the crop that is over-abundant, happy and beyond easy. Onions like our climate, our soil, my very unfocused gardening approach (in which I lose interest in my plants once ambient temperatures begin to climb at the end of May)….. They like my drip irrigation system… And, my onions don’t mind being neglected. We have figured things out and know how to work together.

How many onions to plant?

In our household, with two adults and one young child, and with all the canning and cooking from scratch, 250-300 (planted) onions meet our annual needs.  I say “planted” because I harvest less than I plant – there is attrition in the process (things die, fail to thrive etc). I harvest sometime in July-August, cure and store the bounty in a cool mudroom into mid March of the following year. Onions make it onto my shopping list for a few weeks in early spring.

How to plant onions?

Starting onions from seed is a job meant for the most organized, patient and focused gardeners with extremely well developed fine motor skills. Little onion plants are slow to germinate, seed is fast to lose its viability, the sprouts are thinner than hair, and it is during transplanting when most fatalities occur. Thin onion blades are easily overrun by weeds, and are very hard indeed to keep alive. Here comes the solution: buy so called onion sets – these are plants that have been grown into pencil-thin size, with fairly robust little bulb that is easy to handle, plant and keep alive. Onion sets have to be purchased from someone, but it is worth it! My favorite grower is Dixondale Farms, I recommend them highly.

Onion sets come in bundles, and they are easy to handle and plant. They are very tough, able to survive hard freezes and very cold soils (conditions they seem to like at the beginning of the season).

When to Plant Onions?

As soon as soil is workable after the darkest time of the year, it is time to plant onions. Depending on your region that can be in January or in March, sometimes in April. Planting onions early in season really worked out for me, they seem to get going strong in cool soils, and are posed for rapid growth and making sizable bulbs once the summer heat arrives. Onions don’t need to be protected from cold temperatures in the spring.

How to Grow Onions?

Onions seem to like average to rich garden soils (build your soil with compost, use mulch to keep weeds at bay). I garden organically, so there is not much that I know about correcting any soil deficiencies by any methods other than compost or overwintered goat manure. Nourishing your soil is a ticket for a happy garden, and happy onions.

Give them plenty of sunshine, and water. Keep weeds away. That is about all there is to say about specifics of growing onions. If you build conditions in which they thrive, they will thrive, most likely.

Onion Harvest

Onions ripen between midsummer (4th of July seems to be the earliest) and mid August. Of course you can eat unripe onions (that means their bulbs will be small, but the plant is still edible).

A ripe onion displays wilted top that falls flat to the ground. Once you see your onions collapse like this, it is time for harvest!

On a dry day it is ok to pull your onions and simply lay them on the ground to dry. Be sure it does not rain on them,  though. If rain is possible, move onions to a covered location where there is natural air movement. Lay them out flat to cure. Curing takes some time, around 2 weeks or more  – during this time onion stalks will slowly wilt and became frail. Onion skins will develop. Roots will dry out. Even onions with very thick “goose necks” will often cure beautifully in open air.

Onion Storage

When shopping for your onions, double check if they are storage type. I noticed that my favorite Dixondale Farms understates the storage capacity of their onions – i.e. they will say that a variety stores for 2 months when in reality it stores for 5! Their Yellow Candy is an excellent storage onion, that lasts into March (7 months)!

Onions with thick necks (such as Walla Walla) are not good storage onions – check your varieties so you know how to handle your bounty.

Thin well cured neck is key for storage success, no matter what the onion type.You cannot store onions that have failed to cure their necks – if the neck is still thick, then eat such onion soon. Onions store well in dry (35-45%) cool conditions. A frost-free garage, unheated mud room and the like are perfect locations for storing onions. Storing them away from any light is best, especially once the wheel of the year rolls past Midwinter and the day length begin to increase, the onions itch to sprout and will do so if any light is available.

Four-month old baby in arms, fabulous garden, lots to do. Time to can, freeze, bake. The idea of having my own home-grown pumpkin as baby food was brilliant, though pumpkin is way too huge for any baby to eat!

An entire meal – home-grown

I love being able to make entire meals that are home-grown, not now and then, but regularly, or even every day! With each year of permaculture gardening, it is easier to grow right things, cook them into delicious meals with confidence and trust. Autumn brings winter squash and pumpkin abundance.

Varieties, taste, size…

There are heirloom varieties of pumpkins that offer a range of taste and texture, and we are learning that savory type is our choice. American Dill Pumpkin has very beautiful color, and is one of those super-sized varieties that are such a pleasure to grow. Come harvest, its large size poses questions – how to lift, where to store. Additionally, when cut, it spoils fast – and it takes some planning to figure out how to handle 70lbs pumpkin! One approach that works well with a cut-up pumpkin, is to make a dish, freeze a bunch, and share excess with friends.

Savory Pumpkin Dishes

Using what is in season in the garden, make a casserole.

• Peel and cut pumpkin flesh into 2″ cubes, bake with rosemary, olive oil and salt, until fork soft
• Saute onions, garlic, chopped up garden greens of the season (chard, kale, spinach)
• Mix together, and freeze in glass containers.

With a splash of goat milk this combo becomes a very good and nutritious soup. Or, the mix can be sprinkled with grated cheese and re-heated in the oven.

Store some extra for pumpkin bread, pancakes or muffins:

• grate raw pumpkin flesh, squeeze extra liquid, and freeze in glass containers.
• de-frost when needed, and add to sweet breads, muffin batter or pancake butter (about one pint per one cup of flour). Enjoy!

Sweet Pumpkin Dishes

The more typical, sweet pumpkin varieties are also good for soups. They seem to be smaller in size, and are less of a project, as you can usually prepare single pumpkin at once and not worry about storing the remaining 50 lbs! Soups and pumpkin bread/muffins are wonderful alternatives to the pumpkin pie.

Sweet pumpkin soup:

• Peel and cut your pumpkin into 2″ cubes
• Add water or stock to cover and bring to boil, cook until fork soft
• Add milk, sauteed onions, spices, and blend

Sweet pumpkin bread/muffins:

• Use raw grated pumpkin flesh as you would mashed banana or zucchini, to add to quick bread or muffins.

I feel like a field mouse lately, the cold nights and cool days of late September inviting actions directed at keeping warmth in the house, gathering the food stuffs for the long winter ahead. Preparing the firewood, knitting a few more garments to keep the family cozy…. searching for the slippers that were put away for the summer. The autumn at our permaculture homestead is always filled with the pleasant worries of putting food up – there is harvest, canning, curing, drying, freezing, lacto-fermenting…  – and lately, herbal infusions, and drying of tea herbs. Since I grow most of our food, I place a great importance in keeping the harvest well taken care of!

But if you are like me, you might have experienced the years when too many tomatoes, peaches,  or cucumbers thrive in your garden, and after canning 50 jars of catchup, you start asking yourself, is it really feasible to give it all away at Christmas for gifts? Can you really consume or distribute all the eggs, milk or peach pies that you are blessed with? Is half of an acre of chamomile flowers too much for one family? Here is where the Harvest Swap, organized here, in Santa Fe, NM  by the Radical Homemakers of New Mexico, comes very handy!

Harvest Swaps (also known as Food Swaps)

Food Swap Network is a national movement, with independent events in many urban areas across the US – offering gardeners, homemakers, slow food and slow living practitioners an opportunity to meet the like-minded people and swap food. Home-made, home-grown or  foraged, it is all welcome. Swappers give home-made goods a place to go!

More than food swapping goes on – traditional recipes are shared,  heirloom seed is passed along, friendships are forged, inspiration and encouragement from fellow gardeners, urban farmers and homesteaders are delightful to all. At a food swap you might be able to trade peach spread for freshly baked bread, eggs for medicinal herb infusions, sauerkraut for raw goat milk.

At a food swap you learn that your town is full of creative people, who are good with their hands, with their gardens and in their kitchens. You learn that you are not alone in your love for dipping your own beeswax candles, skimming lard or making sugar-free, gluten-free crabapple cookies from scratch (that is, beginning at a crabapple tree with meticulous harvest!). You might even score a hand-made item – beautiful dry flower wreath, an apron stitched from vintage fabric, or a felted baby hat.

You return home satisfied in your field mouse urge to fill up the pantry, to decorate and winterize the home – carrying home boxes with concoctions and creations that all make sense to you.

Overabundance is Pollution (or at least, it might become it!)

One of the permaculture design principles is just that: overabundance or overproduction is pollution. There is no sustainability in growing bushels of apples and letting them rot in your compost pile. There is nothing good about making 5 gallons of Echinacea tincture for your family – it will not get used! Permaculture warns us against creating such polluting situations: too much of a good thing is ultimately not good.

Food Swaps help us to deal with such overproduction in the most effective and sustainable manner – considerable effort of growing or foraging your food is reciprocated in the setting when your product is swapped for something local and made with equal care and intention, something you actually truly want and need!

Swapping in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our town is blessed with several amazing permaculture initiatives – it is a home of the Permaculture Credit Union, of the Santa Fe Time Bank, and of the Santa Fe Harvest Swap (which is the annual event offered by the Radical Homemakers of New Mexico). Erin O’Neill, gardener and activist, shepherded the Harvest Swap into existence for our region, getting inspired by the Food Swap movement. In its 3rd year now, the event draws a circle of gardeners, farmers, urban homesteaders and radical homemakers from the larger community. A variety of food stuffs is swapped, a joyful party-like event a catalyst of inspirations and better gardens of the forthcoming year.

When you are a grower, gleaner and gatherer like me, sometimes you simply just have too much of one thing and not enough of another. This whole thing started with an early frost, resulting in a ton of not yet ripened tomatoes and a tired new mama (me). I knew green tomatoes could be chutneyed, fried, jellied, etc…but I simply didn’t have it in me to do so that year…So the Harvest Swap was born to share, trade and circulate the wealth and work among lots of households, not just mine! Erin O’Neill

Third Ethic of Permaculture

The Third Ethic of permaculture (read here more about all three of them) encourages us to Share the Surplus for the Benefit of Earth and People. That surplus comes in many shapes – fruit, time, knowledge, skills.

What  and  how we share our surplus tomatoes, knowledge and time in our community, how capable are we of valuing our own and other people’s surpluses – that is what defines our community’s ability to sustain itself. Sharing our surplus at joyful occasions of food swaps, clothing swaps, in mentorship situations, or at the skill-building workshops we all gain tremendously. And, perhaps the most important outcome of that sharing is our renewed sense of joy from walking the paths of sustainable living – through permaculture, or radical homemaking, or slow parenting or urban homesteading – walking it in a diverse community of friends and supporters, who have just what we need, when we need it!

The setting: month of May, permaculture homestead.

My husband is away and I don’t like grocery shopping. Time is right for some creative cooking with local foods and whatever could be found in the pantry, the refrigerator. I have one full month to work on my writing, in the garden, and experiment with Eating Local Foods. After all, our permaculture homestead is in its 8th year of evolution. So what can I find in my garden/orchard/chicken house?

• Cooking greens (both outside and in the greenhouse) – chard, kale, cauliflower & broccoli greens, French sorrel (great in soups);
• Wild Greens – lamb’s quarters, tumble weed (delicious when very young), wild mustard, stinging nettle (great in soups);
• Salad Greens are abundant. Garlic greens and chives everywhere, of course.
• Eggs from chickens and guinea fowl – lots
• Meat in the freezer from our own turkey butchered last fall
• Meat from a local beef ranchero
• Milk from my two goats – lots. With milk comes cheese and yogurt.
• Winter squash from last year’s harvest
• Canned goods  – peach jam, tomato sauces, beets, chutneys
• Some honey

I only have one more week to go until real shopping. It is all working out quite well!

Midsummer, hot and rich with garden life. Blossoms everywhere, plants and animals busy. Garlic is finishing its growing season, leaves yellowing, bulbs large, swollen and juicy.

Eighty feet of garlic plants in a permaculture mandala garden, stalks forming their own pattern of beauty. This quantity should be enough for two people for the year, plus some put aside for seeding in the fall, plus some to give away. Garlic harvest is coming up, once stalks collapse on the ground. Fresh garlic laid in shade to cure for two-three weeks, then stored.

The main gardening lesson stands out: focus on growing plants that grow really well in your climate.

The basic approach to permaculture gardening

The other name of gardening self-sufficiency is inter-dependence. Self-sufficiency is often misunderstood, seen as an effort in which you meet all your needs, on your own. In reality, no such thing is possible or even necessary. Building community is by far more essential in achieving self-sufficiency than growing every possible vegetable in your garden. Trade with your friends, weave the net of inter-dependent connections in your bio-region, and that will bring you to self-sufficiency faster than you thought.

For me, onion is the crop that is over-abundant, happy and beyond easy. Onions like our climate, our soil, my very unfocused gardening approach (in which I lose interest in my plants once ambient temperatures begin to climb at the end of May)….. They like my drip irrigation system… And, my onions don’t mind being neglected. We have figured things out and know how to work together.

How many onions to plant?

In our household, with two adults and one young child, and with all the canning and cooking from scratch, 250-300 (planted) onions meet our annual needs.  I say “planted” because I harvest less than I plant – there is attrition in the process (things die, fail to thrive etc). I harvest sometime in July-August, cure and store the bounty in a cool mudroom into mid March of the following year. Onions make it onto my shopping list for a few weeks in early spring.

How to plant onions?

Starting onions from seed is a job meant for the most organized, patient and focused gardeners with extremely well developed fine motor skills. Little onion plants are slow to germinate, seed is fast to lose its viability, the sprouts are thinner than hair, and it is during transplanting when most fatalities occur. Thin onion blades are easily overrun by weeds, and are very hard indeed to keep alive. Here comes the solution: buy so called onion sets – these are plants that have been grown into pencil-thin size, with fairly robust little bulb that is easy to handle, plant and keep alive. Onion sets have to be purchased from someone, but it is worth it! My favorite grower is Dixondale Farms, I recommend them highly.

Onion sets come in bundles, and they are easy to handle and plant. They are very tough, able to survive hard freezes and very cold soils (conditions they seem to like at the beginning of the season).

When to Plant Onions?

As soon as soil is workable after the darkest time of the year, it is time to plant onions. Depending on your region that can be in January or in March, sometimes in April. Planting onions early in season really worked out for me, they seem to get going strong in cool soils, and are posed for rapid growth and making sizable bulbs once the summer heat arrives. Onions don’t need to be protected from cold temperatures in the spring.

How to Grow Onions?

Onions seem to like average to rich garden soils (build your soil with compost, use mulch to keep weeds at bay). I garden organically, so there is not much that I know about correcting any soil deficiencies by any methods other than compost or overwintered goat manure. Nourishing your soil is a ticket for a happy garden, and happy onions.

Give them plenty of sunshine, and water. Keep weeds away. That is about all there is to say about specifics of growing onions. If you build conditions in which they thrive, they will thrive, most likely.

Onion Harvest

Onions ripen between midsummer (4th of July seems to be the earliest) and mid August. Of course you can eat unripe onions (that means their bulbs will be small, but the plant is still edible).

A ripe onion displays wilted top that falls flat to the ground. Once you see your onions collapse like this, it is time for harvest!

On a dry day it is ok to pull your onions and simply lay them on the ground to dry. Be sure it does not rain on them,  though. If rain is possible, move onions to a covered location where there is natural air movement. Lay them out flat to cure. Curing takes some time, around 2 weeks or more  – during this time onion stalks will slowly wilt and became frail. Onion skins will develop. Roots will dry out. Even onions with very thick “goose necks” will often cure beautifully in open air.

Onion Storage

When shopping for your onions, double check if they are storage type. I noticed that my favorite Dixondale Farms understates the storage capacity of their onions – i.e. they will say that a variety stores for 2 months when in reality it stores for 5! Their Yellow Candy is an excellent storage onion, that lasts into March (7 months)!

Onions with thick necks (such as Walla Walla) are not good storage onions – check your varieties so you know how to handle your bounty.

Thin well cured neck is key for storage success, no matter what the onion type.You cannot store onions that have failed to cure their necks – if the neck is still thick, then eat such onion soon. Onions store well in dry (35-45%) cool conditions. A frost-free garage, unheated mud room and the like are perfect locations for storing onions. Storing them away from any light is best, especially once the wheel of the year rolls past Midwinter and the day length begin to increase, the onions itch to sprout and will do so if any light is available.

Four-month old baby in arms, fabulous garden, lots to do. Time to can, freeze, bake. The idea of having my own home-grown pumpkin as baby food was brilliant, though pumpkin is way too huge for any baby to eat!

An entire meal – home-grown

I love being able to make entire meals that are home-grown, not now and then, but regularly, or even every day! With each year of permaculture gardening, it is easier to grow right things, cook them into delicious meals with confidence and trust. Autumn brings winter squash and pumpkin abundance.

Varieties, taste, size…

There are heirloom varieties of pumpkins that offer a range of taste and texture, and we are learning that savory type is our choice. American Dill Pumpkin has very beautiful color, and is one of those super-sized varieties that are such a pleasure to grow. Come harvest, its large size poses questions – how to lift, where to store. Additionally, when cut, it spoils fast – and it takes some planning to figure out how to handle 70lbs pumpkin! One approach that works well with a cut-up pumpkin, is to make a dish, freeze a bunch, and share excess with friends.

Savory Pumpkin Dishes

Using what is in season in the garden, make a casserole.

• Peel and cut pumpkin flesh into 2″ cubes, bake with rosemary, olive oil and salt, until fork soft
• Saute onions, garlic, chopped up garden greens of the season (chard, kale, spinach)
• Mix together, and freeze in glass containers.

With a splash of goat milk this combo becomes a very good and nutritious soup. Or, the mix can be sprinkled with grated cheese and re-heated in the oven.

Store some extra for pumpkin bread, pancakes or muffins:

• grate raw pumpkin flesh, squeeze extra liquid, and freeze in glass containers.
• de-frost when needed, and add to sweet breads, muffin batter or pancake butter (about one pint per one cup of flour). Enjoy!

Sweet Pumpkin Dishes

The more typical, sweet pumpkin varieties are also good for soups. They seem to be smaller in size, and are less of a project, as you can usually prepare single pumpkin at once and not worry about storing the remaining 50 lbs! Soups and pumpkin bread/muffins are wonderful alternatives to the pumpkin pie.

Sweet pumpkin soup:

• Peel and cut your pumpkin into 2″ cubes
• Add water or stock to cover and bring to boil, cook until fork soft
• Add milk, sauteed onions, spices, and blend

Sweet pumpkin bread/muffins:

• Use raw grated pumpkin flesh as you would mashed banana or zucchini, to add to quick bread or muffins.

I feel like a field mouse lately, the cold nights and cool days of late September inviting actions directed at keeping warmth in the house, gathering the food stuffs for the long winter ahead. Preparing the firewood, knitting a few more garments to keep the family cozy…. searching for the slippers that were put away for the summer. The autumn at our permaculture homestead is always filled with the pleasant worries of putting food up – there is harvest, canning, curing, drying, freezing, lacto-fermenting…  – and lately, herbal infusions, and drying of tea herbs. Since I grow most of our food, I place a great importance in keeping the harvest well taken care of!

But if you are like me, you might have experienced the years when too many tomatoes, peaches,  or cucumbers thrive in your garden, and after canning 50 jars of catchup, you start asking yourself, is it really feasible to give it all away at Christmas for gifts? Can you really consume or distribute all the eggs, milk or peach pies that you are blessed with? Is half of an acre of chamomile flowers too much for one family? Here is where the Harvest Swap, organized here, in Santa Fe, NM  by the Radical Homemakers of New Mexico, comes very handy!

Harvest Swaps (also known as Food Swaps)

Food Swap Network is a national movement, with independent events in many urban areas across the US – offering gardeners, homemakers, slow food and slow living practitioners an opportunity to meet the like-minded people and swap food. Home-made, home-grown or  foraged, it is all welcome. Swappers give home-made goods a place to go!

More than food swapping goes on – traditional recipes are shared,  heirloom seed is passed along, friendships are forged, inspiration and encouragement from fellow gardeners, urban farmers and homesteaders are delightful to all. At a food swap you might be able to trade peach spread for freshly baked bread, eggs for medicinal herb infusions, sauerkraut for raw goat milk.

At a food swap you learn that your town is full of creative people, who are good with their hands, with their gardens and in their kitchens. You learn that you are not alone in your love for dipping your own beeswax candles, skimming lard or making sugar-free, gluten-free crabapple cookies from scratch (that is, beginning at a crabapple tree with meticulous harvest!). You might even score a hand-made item – beautiful dry flower wreath, an apron stitched from vintage fabric, or a felted baby hat.

You return home satisfied in your field mouse urge to fill up the pantry, to decorate and winterize the home – carrying home boxes with concoctions and creations that all make sense to you.

Overabundance is Pollution (or at least, it might become it!)

One of the permaculture design principles is just that: overabundance or overproduction is pollution. There is no sustainability in growing bushels of apples and letting them rot in your compost pile. There is nothing good about making 5 gallons of Echinacea tincture for your family – it will not get used! Permaculture warns us against creating such polluting situations: too much of a good thing is ultimately not good.

Food Swaps help us to deal with such overproduction in the most effective and sustainable manner – considerable effort of growing or foraging your food is reciprocated in the setting when your product is swapped for something local and made with equal care and intention, something you actually truly want and need!

Swapping in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our town is blessed with several amazing permaculture initiatives – it is a home of the Permaculture Credit Union, of the Santa Fe Time Bank, and of the Santa Fe Harvest Swap (which is the annual event offered by the Radical Homemakers of New Mexico). Erin O’Neill, gardener and activist, shepherded the Harvest Swap into existence for our region, getting inspired by the Food Swap movement. In its 3rd year now, the event draws a circle of gardeners, farmers, urban homesteaders and radical homemakers from the larger community. A variety of food stuffs is swapped, a joyful party-like event a catalyst of inspirations and better gardens of the forthcoming year.

When you are a grower, gleaner and gatherer like me, sometimes you simply just have too much of one thing and not enough of another. This whole thing started with an early frost, resulting in a ton of not yet ripened tomatoes and a tired new mama (me). I knew green tomatoes could be chutneyed, fried, jellied, etc…but I simply didn’t have it in me to do so that year…So the Harvest Swap was born to share, trade and circulate the wealth and work among lots of households, not just mine! Erin O’Neill

Third Ethic of Permaculture

The Third Ethic of permaculture (read here more about all three of them) encourages us to Share the Surplus for the Benefit of Earth and People. That surplus comes in many shapes – fruit, time, knowledge, skills.

What  and  how we share our surplus tomatoes, knowledge and time in our community, how capable are we of valuing our own and other people’s surpluses – that is what defines our community’s ability to sustain itself. Sharing our surplus at joyful occasions of food swaps, clothing swaps, in mentorship situations, or at the skill-building workshops we all gain tremendously. And, perhaps the most important outcome of that sharing is our renewed sense of joy from walking the paths of sustainable living – through permaculture, or radical homemaking, or slow parenting or urban homesteading – walking it in a diverse community of friends and supporters, who have just what we need, when we need it!