Remember when we told you about the new magazine Urban Farm? Well, while browsing their site today hoping to download the Spring issue, we came across their list of online resources for all things local and sustainable, including their recommended beekeeping, gardening, and backyard farming blogs. We'll share a sampling of their list, and then YOU can tell us what blogs/websites you read!
Here's just a sampling from their list:
Blogs:
- Homegrown Evolution: written by Urban Farm contributor (and Re-Nest Guest Columnist) Erik Knutzen plus the other half of his urban-farming team, Kelly Coyne.
- Leda’s Urban Homestead: Leda Meredith’s living-green adventures in Brooklyn.
- The Urban Farmer’s Almanac: gardening, canning and chickens in Seattle.
Balcony Gardening: container gardening for the masses.- Burbs and the Bees: suburban homesteading and beekeeping.
- L.A. Farm Girl: urban farming, agriculture and gardening.
- Ghost Town Farm: author and urban farmer Novella Carpenter.
Chickens:
- The Chicken Revolution: helping citizens shape chicken-keeping ordinances.
- The City Chicken: encouragement and information for keeping chickens inside city limits.
- Mad City Chickens: backyard-chicken-raising advice from Madison, Wis.
Green News & Resources
- Clean Water Action: protecting water and building communities.
- Friends of the Earth: grassroots environmental network.
- Green Edge Collaborative: N.Y.C. social network connecting people with resources for building a sustainable future.
- H2O Conserve: Focuses on water issues and solutions.
- Off-grid : covering issues and advice for a sustainable future.
Local Food:
- The Eat Well Guide: directory of fresh, locally grown and sustainably produced food in the United States and Canada.
- Food Routes: nonprofit organization reintroducing Americans to their food.
- Sustainable Table: celebrating local, sustainable food, providing information about food-related issues and building community through food.
Urban Beekeeping
- Beesource Beekeeping: online social networking and information community for beekeepers.
- New York City Beekeepers Association: Nonprofit organization for sharing knowledge and interest in beekeeping.
Urban Farming
- Added Value: nonprofit organization providing youth empowerment and farm-based learning through a South Brooklyn urban farm.
- Urban Farming: Creating an abundance of food by planting gardens on unused land across the U.S.
- Urban Farming Advocates: individuals, business owners and organizations seeking to legalize urban farming in Los Angeles.
Urban Gardening
- D.C. Urban Gardeners: network of hundreds of people greening and making Washington, D.C.-area growing projects happen.
- Los Angeles Community Garden Council: connecting people with community garden space.
Check out the full list here. What blogs/websites do you read on a daily basis? Tell us below!
Click here for more of our posts on urban homesteading and click here for more posts on backyard farming.
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I found Ghost Town Farm through Novella's sister, Riana, who is doing her own farm thing in France. Both sisters are amazing women, forging these bountiful lives out of what the universe provides for them.
Although it's not about urban farming, I love http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/ which is more about self sufficiency in a small space. They don't live in the city but are doing their best to grow a lot of what they eat in a small country plot.
Thanks for the great list!
Balcony Gardening has not posted since 2006...why would you put them on the list?
Ooh! I loved Novella Carpenter's book and had no idea she wrote a blog. Thanks for the list!
The eat well guide doesn't have too many listings in my area (they mostly keep pointing me to whole foods), so I use local harvest (http://www.localharvest.org/) to track down farms, csas, and farmers' markets.
I like Wild Suburbia : http://wildsuburbia.blogspot.com
It's all about how to turn your garden into a sustainable, water friendly garden (especially helpful for those of us from Southern California). Plus, the writer has a great vegetable/herb garden goin on. Lots of pretty pictures of wild flowers too--good eye candy1
Great resources! Just in time for our first ever garden experience: http://craftscafe.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/back-yard-project/
Locally we have a great small non profit business 2 Brown Chicks Family Farm http://www.2brownchicks.org/ who help urban gardeners get going with the mission of helping families become self-sufficient. Awesome organization!
If you live in Houston there is a fantastic urban gardening/farming organization - urbanharvest.org
Urban Harvest is incredibly well run and offers classes, organizes community and school gardens, operated an urban farmers market, organizes fruit tree sales (since we are almost a tropical climate).
Thanks for all of the great suggestions. I'd also love to throw Philadelphia's GRID Magazine (www.gridphilly.com) into the mix -- and, if you'll forgive the plug, maybe even www.plantsondeck.com.
Check out Perennial plate at http://theperennialplate.com/
It is a free web show about eating locally for a year in the midwest. It is pretty cool.
My favorite is http://www.greenwala.com. Its a great place to connect with all sorts of like minded green people in tons of different topics.
This was my introduction to what an urban homestead could be: http://urbanhomestead.org/
The Path to Freedom family is absolutely amazing!
Another great site is www.localdirt.com ... allows you to buy, sell, feature and find local food anywhere in the country
I couldn't get the link you provided to the DC urban gardeners to work. Perhaps this is the correct link: http://www.dc-urban-gardeners.com/
My favorite site needs to be included in this list as well. http://www.uBuilderPlans.com
They have lots of information for the beginning chicken keeper, articles on container gardening, small space urban gardening and how to lessons on many self sufficient topics. Really a go to site.
My neighbor started a cute blog apartmentfarmer.wordpress.com
I started a blog toward the beginning of February to chronicle my adventures creating a homestead on a trailer park lot. It is http://adventuresofathriftymama.blogspot.com
I'd say I like writing my blog and maybe some folks would like reading it. I'm a new young small farmer and my blog is about my new small farm. Check it out if you're interested: www.homesteadyear.com. I'm hoping to have more informational, how-to articles soon.
Hurray!! Just when I think I'm completely crazy for all this urban farming I've got going on, I find that there are plenty of other crazy people out there working on homesteading projects of their own! So excited!
Www.moregreenlessgrain.blogspot.com
(I guess it's okay to put a link up on a post like this, Lords of Re-Nest please don't smite me)
I'm inspired by those who pass along real wisdom as they farm. The two very best?
The Contrary Farmer by Gene Logsdon, http://thecontraryfarmer.wordpress.com Logsdon is the author of amazing books like Living at Nature's Pace, The Contrary Farmer, and All Flesh is Grass.
And Bit of Earth Farm by Laura Weldon http://bitofearthfarm.wordpress.com/ with advice on making the easiest homemade cheese, living through hard times, and laughing at our notions of what it means to be new pioneers. She's also the author of Free Range Learning, more about that on her author site http://lauragraceweldon.com/blog-2/
Keeping Chickens Newsletter is another good one for chicken keeping. It features subscribers stories and tips so there is a mix of urban and country backyard chicken keepers. There are some posts from their blog at the bottom of the page.
LinaMaeFoods
is a good site I've used for tips about backyard farming. I'm recently learning and trying to convert my lifestyle into a more self sufficient one.
thanks for the tips, it really helps me..