event | Backyard Roots

You’d think these city folks have never seen a cow…oops, I guess I was one of them…

Cocoa, Ginger’s three week old calf drinks 1-2 gallons of milk a day.

I went back and visited Soulflower Farm this past Saturday on the Institute of Homesteading’s annual urban farm tour. Their large 2 1/2 acre urban farm in El Sobrante is definitely the biggest urban farm I visited and there was a lot to see. Nevada and Maya gave tours all day and I was excited to share Backyard Roots with visitors.

Ginger, the Jersey cow stole the show with her three-week-old calf, Cocoa. Maya gets 3-4 gallons a day from Ginger and to keep up with it, she makes cheese every day. According to Wikipedia, “Jersey cows are a small breed of dairy cattle, originally bred in the Channel Island of Jersey. The breed is popular for the high butterfat content of its milk and the lower maintenance costs (because of its smaller size), as well as its genial disposition.” Ginger was not only an easy going mom, she was a beautiful creature. Maya hopes to breed her in the future for smallness, so her lineage could benefit urban farmers.

Their hillside farm is shaping up and although some visitors mentioned they wouldn’t want to farm on a hill, Nevada explained how irrigating a slope with greywater and rain catchment tanks has advantages, mainly how easy it is to work with gravity. They use greywater from their washer and shower as one of their main irrigation methods. They also use rainwater catchment that has the advantage of not being treated with chloramine (an ammonia based derivative added to tap water that kills bacteria) The problem with chloramine is it kills the helpful bacteria in the soil that plants need. Nevada has several large tanks to catch rainwater and he wants to collect more. He said an hour of rainfall can fill his 350 gallon tank!

Another interesting idea they are trying out is using their large flock of broiler chickens for pest management. Read about it in their latest blog posting and to find out about upcoming workshops. The next one is building with super adobe. Check it out.

Nevada explains how the greywater and rain catchment system works on his hillside farm-(hint—gravity helps a lot).

Maya holds another new addition, a three-week-old kid

I don’t know how I missed visiting Ruby’s place while I was working on Backyard Roots– I guess it was because her book, Urban Homesteading was about to come out. What an amazing place..

Her yard is an average sized Oakland lot, about 1/10 of an acre but it is packed with around 250 species of plants, she estimates. Every inch is used. When she moved in about nine years ago, she cut down two badly placed trees. But since then she’s replaced them without 25 new fruit trees that she’s planted around the borders. Her herb garden is conveniently located at the bottom of her steps and you can see the influence of permaculture ideas in her garden design. There’s mushrooms in the shady side yard, compost in the back corner, rabbits in another shady spot, and bees and quail too.

The garden is not just food though. She says she grows more food than she can eat, so she also devotes space for fun things like flowers, two water gardens in old tubs, succulents and carnivorous plants. She likes flowers not only because they’re beautiful but they attract pollinators and draw other insects away from the food crops.

Another unique thing about her backyard farm are the quail. She never wanted chickens, they eat up a lot of real estate. Instead she went with quail, the perfect micro farm animal. She has four including a male for gender diversity. The hens lay about one egg each day through spring and summer and they are beautiful speckled works of art that she eats hardboiled, sunny side up and barters too.

She also keeps two bee hives and rabbits and that will be coming up in another post. The best thing is you can learn it all from Ruby. She founded and teaches classes at the Institute of Urban Homesteading. Coming up next Saturday June 8th, The Institute has its annual East Bay Urban Farm Tour. It features seven east bay urban farms. See them all for $30 or pay as you go for $5/farm. I’ll see you there.

Raising quails takes up very little space, you could put them on a deck.

Hops growing up ropes.

Ruby does not generally baby her vegetables, but she loves peppers so she got this tiny greenhouse that keeps them hot and humid. It collapses when its not in use.

a wetlands greywater system made from an old bathtub

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Soulflower Farm-Institute of Homesteading Tour

K. Ruby Blume