There are some great classes coming up this month! The Institute of Urban Homesteading has some great classes coming up this month. The available class topics includes Hand Tools for Homesteaders, Raising Rabbits, Lacto-Fermentation, Tempeh, Home Butchering, Cheesemaking, Nut Milks and Cheeses, and Canning Fruits and Tomatoes. You can find more info including dates and…
Our female dog spazzing out with the sprinkler No, I’m not going to talk about my nutso dog. Instead I’m going to share my experience at the Oakland Urban Ag meeting last night. I’m not going to be nice for once and I’m definitely going to call shit out, so consider yourself warned. And for…
With the vast majority of Americans eating meat, sometimes you have to wonder why this statement is controversial. But it is. For some Americans, a very small minority of Americans, meat to them is akin to murder. They are incredibly loud. Any news article I read there’s always the same ones commenting about how people…
Here is our updated garden photo. The corn is about 12′ tall and some of the other stuff has grown in more. Our lemon tree surprised me this week. It’s always been about 4′ tall. This week while walking by it Tom pointed it out. I looked over and all of a sudden it was…
I sent this letter to the mayor, city planner, and city manager of Oak Park, Michigan. If you haven’t heard, the City of Oak Park is threatening Julie Bass with 93 days of jail time for having a very nicely maintained vegetable garden in her front yard instead of lawn. Mrs. Bass and her family…
I’ve got quite a few books on vegetable gardening, some are great, some I wish I had never bought. So to help other gardeners, especially those just starting out, I’ve decided to review some of my books. I’ve included a rating, but for some books, while they are great, they may have a low rating…
This is what it’s all about. Someone told me once that rural commercial farmers are not all that forthcoming with advice or support. I am thrilled that the urban farming community is the exact opposite. I have met some of the most awesome people in our urban farming community. Some of them have become great…
Once a month I’ll be answering your questions! Ask them in an email (if you want to be anonymous just say so) or just leave a comment – I’ll find them and answer them the best I can. So here is one I found in our comments that I haven’t had a chance to answer…until…
For those of us that raise our own chickens and have had the experience of dressing them out you are well aware of the physiological differences compared to commercial meat chickens. The above photo was a 20-week old Black Australorp rooster. Now compare that to your standard grocery store chicken which generally is no older…
I’ve been feeling unorganized with the blog lately. We used to have a pretty well defined schedule but as time wore on the schedule disappeared and I started to feel like I was flailing through posts. So last night I sat down and forced myself to get organized and create a new schedule for posts. Wednesdays,…
Dog Island Farm is a small urban farm in the San Francisco Bay Area.
