Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I AM AN URBAN HOMESTEADER


I was an urban homesteader at the ripe ol' age of 9.  I built my first veggie garden to prove that I could grow one.  I begged my parents to help me out.  We tilled up the yard in the backyard, they helped me build up my raised garden, because after all, our neighborhood was built on an old arsenic site.  I grew veggies, I shared my veggies, and I even sold some of those veggies.  I had rabbits for many years.  I even tried my hand at chickens and ducks only to have to give them up because of city ordinances at the time.  All before 1985.

I was an urban homesteader.  I am still an urban homesteader, even though my urban homestead is located in a very rural community.  I live in a community with an homeowner's association, with strict rules.  I homestead my .66 acres like there is no tomorrow.  I will stick up for my fellow homesteaders, whether they are rural or URBAN.  Why?  Because I was an URBAN HOMESTEADER long before someone decided that they needed trademark the term.  Claim it for themselves, claim they were saving it from big companies.  Saving it for the true homesteaders.  Yet, anyone who uses the word or phrases must refer back to the them.  And they must state that it is a trademarked phrase.  You can't trademark a lifestyle.   And you can't trademark mine.  I AM AN URBAN HOMESTEADER!

3 comments:

  1. From one URBAN HOMESTEADER to another! Well said! and shame on them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am an urban homesteader too and have been for years. I am happy to share the term with the family who has done urban homesteading well but they can't claim it as their own, after all they nicked the term from others who had been doing it before them. Come to think of it my grandmother was an urban homesteader over 100 years ago with her pig in her back yard along with vege garden.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The absurdity of these people! I am also an urban homesteader. We have .8 acres, which includes our home, pool, three greenhouses (where I grow more than 5,000 heirloom plants), a large vegetable garden, a forest garden, a mushroom garden, a potager near the house, an herb garden, and edibles scattered throughout the landscape and co-mingled with ornamentals. We also have a raised bed garden for the kids and containers filled with edibles (fraise des bois), plus we're adding chickens to the mix. All of this in a subdivision with a homeowners' association. Trademark "urban homesteading"? PUH-LEAZE. I wonder what these people are actually growing in their yards--a money tree?

    ReplyDelete