Family grows 7000 pounds of organic food per year on a tenth of an acre, supplying 90 percent of their diet… They spend less than $2 per day per person on other kitchen staples and make over $20,000 a year selling excess produce Fifteen minutes from downtown Los Angeles, just 100 feet away from a major freeway, a small city lot was transformed into a mini paradise. A fifth acre lot, minus the house, garage and driveway, the family has converted the remaining tenth of an acre into a tiny food forest that produces 7000 pounds of food per year with no synthetic fertilizers. What’s the secret to their abundance? Permaculture methods that mimic Mother Nature to create nutrient-and-bacteria-rich soil. Conventional agriculture methods strip nutrients from the soil until the land becomes barren and desertified . Permaculture not only does not strip the soil, it regenerates it , says permaculture guru Toby Hemenwa y. When Jules Dervaes moved to his Pasadena home in the 1985, there was no soil, only adobe-like clay. He and his family spent years bringing the earth back to life with rock dust, chicken and goat manure, fermented compost and effective microorganisms. The Dervaes’s haven’t […]
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