Aliza’s enthusiasm is infectious, both in person and through her delightful posts online. It’s been fun watching her post about new urban homesteading skills she’s developed over the past year, and what I like even more is the incredible energy she devotes to being engaged with her community. You can see why I asked Aliza if she’d like to be my first interviewee on Permie.net, and lucky for you, she agreed!
Aliza, how did you get started with urban homesteading? Did you grow up in a family that did these kinds of things, or did something trigger your own interest?
Although I’ve always been a crafter and was involved in political activism in college, my first introduction to the world of permaculture and urban homesteading was through a presentation by Scott Kellogg, who wrote the book Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A do-it-Ourselves Guide
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What caught my attention was the way that urban permaculture reminds us that nature is always a part of our lives, even as we are turning on the tap or throwing trash into a dumpster. I am especially excited about the hands-on aspect of urban homesteading, where we actually deal directly with the objects (oil, water, food, air, plants) that affect issues all across the board, from political activism to the health of urban citizens. No more signing petitions to the government, I just want to host classes teaching people how to garden! By doing things like creating community gardens, we can improve the health of our bodies and our cities, use less oil, and rebuild our community structures all through one project, rather than trying to attack multiple issues from many different angles.
As many urban homesteaders know, once you start one small project, you suddenly have resources, tools, or questions that lead you to many related projects. Growing a single plant suddenly led me to other projects like composting, community gardening, learning how to propagate plants, making herbal teas, learning how to forage, eating locally, etc.
Making friends with other people interested in food-making and community gardening resulted in a lot of sharing of ideas and free seeds, plants, sourdough starters, sewing machines, etc. Start small, and everything will blossom from there.
Have you ever had a project go terribly wrong? What did you learn from that?
Sure, I suggest checking out my BaltimoreDIY posts about canning apples, smelly compost, and repeated mushroom kit failures! Lots of broken glass and wasted food, scooping out putrid slop, and a fruit fly invasion are part of the urban homesteading experience.
I try to post the failed projects along with the successful ones so that folks are aware that things can and will go wrong, and you just have to scrape up the pieces, salvage what you can, and learn from the experience. It’s interesting to see what does and does not work according to your lifestyle. I’ve learned that I don’t quite have the time to figure out mushroom farming, so that is a dream deferred for now. Composting was a project that failed, but it was really easy to dump the smelly failure in the woods and start fresh.
Pick a favorite DIY project or skill that you’ve developed; why is it one of your favorites?
I never thought that I had a green thumb, so my newfound gardening skills are definitely my favorite. The first year I started urban gardening I grew tomato plants indoors in buckets which grew over eight feet tall but never fruited, and a stunted eggplant which also never grew anything.
Instead of being discouraged, I got involved with a community garden, which helped because I wasn’t totally responsible for the plants from start to finish, and I learned from other helpful people. I started over again slowly with easy plants like aloe vera and hot peppers. The more time I spent with plants the more I got to know them, and my skills began to steadily improve. The information I was reading in books made sense because I had hands-on experience.
Growing plants is the most fulfilling skill for me because the end result is usually a food you can eat or an herb that has really interesting properties (antibacterial lavender, for example, which I use in teas and homemade cleaning products). Gardening also led to composting, which is really fascinating in that it completes the healthy cycle of eating locally and seasonally, and you begin to think about waste with a completely different perspective. Water is another issue that directly connects to gardening, and attracting local pollinators is another interesting issue. Plus gardening is great exercise and creates a relaxing environment for everyone in the city! Like all permaculture projects, gardens serve many functions all at the same time.
If we knocked on a door for a tour of your place, what evidence of urban homesteading would we see today?
I’ll take you on a brief tour of my studio apartment. We’ll start at the concrete pad in the back of my building, where there is worm composting going on in Tupperware bins and a few buckets growing medicinal herbs like lavender, black cohosh, mountain mint, hot peppers, and ginger. Just inside the door you’ll see stacks of books, a crate full of walnuts I foraged from my neighbor’s tree, and drawers of crafting supplies.
The kitchen is where the magic truly happens. I try to keep my materials streamlined, with a kettle, one soup pot, one frying pan, and one very large pot. There are stacks of canned pickles and fruit. A small bookshelf holds paper sacks full of dry herbs foraged from plants around the city, garlic, onions, and herbal tinctures. The essential oil distiller is stored in a cardboard box on top of the fridge. One cabinet is dedicated to materials for making cleaning supplies, and a shelf in the fridge is dedicated to storing root vegetables saved from my summertime CSA share.
Ball jars are pretty much my favorite thing in the whole world.
How do you manage to do all of your projects in a small Baltimoreapartment?It seems like storing the equipment, tools, and materials would be quite a challenge!
A place for everything, and everything in its place! I spend many hours cleaning and getting organized. It’s easy to complete a project quickly when you know where all your tools are and you have a clean and open workspace. I actually feel like having a small apartment helps me get more done because everything I need is in such close proximity.
Layering projects also helps, and it helps to think creatively about how to use all elements of an object. For example, red clover is an easy plant to grow over the winter as a cover crop. Not only do the roots hold nitrogen and other vital nutrients in the soil, the flowers attract local pollinators and can be used for tea. I often get multiple uses out of one item! White vinegar is another multi-use favorite for everything from pickling vegetables to making natural cleaning products.
The fact that Baltimore City has a lot of really amazing collectives is also helpful, because they provide additional workspace and tools. See below!
Readers of your blog know that you are very active in your community.Can you tell us a little about some of the projects you’re involved with?
I think I’ve outgrown my five gallon bucket garden, so this coming year I’ll have my very first plot at the Remington Community Garden. My favorite part about the garden is that there are individual plots for rent, but there are also many communal plots. So if you show up and weed or water for a little while, you can walk home with whatever produce is ready for harvest that day, even if you didn’t grow the plant from seed. It’s a great way to get involved with a garden slowly, instead of being overwhelmed by the pressure of starting everything all at once on your own. Watching other gardeners and helping out with their projects is a wonderful way to pick up skills you never even knew were out there.
Another great project is 2640, which is an events space run by volunteers. We host everything from low-cost yoga classes, movie screenings, music shows, etc. to large scale community activism events. The space is affiliated with Red Emma’s, which is a local independent bookstore and coffeeshop where many other events are held. Red Emma’s also recently opened up the Free School, where people can take classes on everything from the peace movement to how to be a clown, or can host a class of their own. To say that Red Emma’s folks are busy is quite the understatement!
Baltimore Foodmakers is another amazing group that has gotten organized in the last year. We have a monthly potluck that often has a theme to be discussed, such as foraging or fermenting. A lot of times that will translate into a hands-on project, such as gathering wild greens and mushrooms, or sampling various homebrews or kombucha. We have a website (www.foodmake.org) that we use to plan the potlucks and hold discussions about various foodmaking tips.
Velocipede is a very useful collective bike workshop where people can use tools and get help from volunteer mechanics. Sometimes I go there to learn a few things and fix up my bike.
Baltimore Node is a hacker-space created by one of the Baltimore Foodmaker members and others, and is along the lines of projects created in MAKE magazine. So far I haven’t been able to make it out to one of their events, but I hope to soon.
There is also a plan in the works to start a community kitchen in Mill Valley, which is an amazing garden center where I go to pick up local produce, dairy, eggs, and meat. I hope to get more involved with that project as it develops. It should be a great way to support local foodmaking entrepreneurs and to teach healthy eating habits. We are planning a preserves swap for our first fundraiser next month. I’m sure I’ll be posting about it!
, The Making of the Counter Culture, The Making of an Elder Culture, and Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind
. Lloyd Khan is the author and publisher of wonderful books on (among other things) DIY home building: 
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, and the most recent, 
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