Prototype Issue
Sayonara, Supermarkets
By Cinnamin Twist
(page 1 of 1)Southern California sprawl can hide a lot of surprises. One of them is called Path to Freedom, and it’s about as huge an exception to the spirit of urban sprawl as you can imagine.
Path to Freedom, the home-based farm founded by the Dervaes family in 2001, is an experiment in urban sustainability. The Dervaeses, who live in a typical Pasadena home, say they grow 3 tons of food a year in their yard. Three tons. All from a tenth of an acre jammed with vegetables and young fruit trees.
During summer, more than 75% of the food the Dervaeses consume comes straight from their garden. In winter, about half the food they eat is grown there. And what they don’t consume they sell to restaurants through a family farming business that now practically supports them.
“Sayonara, supermarkets. That’s our goal,” says father Jules Dervaes. No dreadlocks or tie-dye here, just some old-fashioned plaid: The Dervaeses are a pretty traditional family. There are no pretensions of eco-hip yuppiedom either—Path to Freedom is about what’s practical. The Dervaes children, Anais, Justin, Jeremy and Jordanne, are in their early 20s and live with their father, helping him run an increasingly multifaceted home-based operation.
Jules Dervaes started the homegrown-produce business because of his concerns about genetically modified food: He didn’t want it on the dinner table, and the organic alternative was too pricey. A former beekeeper, he’d had some success growing and selling wildflowers, so growing food for his family—and selling the surplus, mainly exotic heirloom vegetables—was a simple progression from that.
The Dervaeses now grow 350 species of plants, most of which are edible.
“Right now, we’re using a lot of self-watering containers, so it’s mobile, and we’ll move stuff out of the sun,” Dervaes explains. “It also keeps the watering bill down. Less bug problems too.” The Dervaeses chose container-based gardening rather than planting directly in the ground, because their yard, once the site of an auto-repair shop, is likely saturated with oil and toxins.
“There’s a micro-jungle ecosystem back here,” Dervaes says. “We’ve got five chickens, two ducks, three rabbits, one freeloading pigeon, one turtle to eat the slugs and two cats that just sit around. Little birds come for the bugs; big predator birds come for the little birds. A kestrel and red-tailed hawk use this as a lunch stop—fast food. It’s a whole chain.
“The preying mantis is important; he controls the yard for a lot of the other bugs. We’ve got this Argentine sweet ant that was brought into the country, but there’s no known predator for it. We have to use boric acid.”
Aside from the boric acid, the Dervaeses refuse to use other chemical pesticides. “We use cayenne, and organic pesticides—extracted from plants’ own defense systems,” Dervaes says. “We also import predatory bugs.”
At first, the family had problems growing fruits, but now bananas, apples, oranges, peaches, strawberries, guavas, figs and grapes are kicking in.
Dervaes is pleased with the progress of his family’s garden: “It’s becoming a viable business, and we feel good about where we’re going. The soil’s improving, and we’re getting smarter. If we get a normal amount of moisture, we’ll be in pretty good shape this year.”
A layer of wood chips covers the family’s driveway and much of the yard. It soaks up excess rainwater. The Dervaeses plan to install a cistern to store roof runoff.
Last year, the family converted their garage into an urban sustainability center complete with solar panels and a biodiesel conversion unit for turning used cooking oil into car fuel. In the summer, they hold workshops on biodiesel, candle making and alternative energy resources.
"During summer, more than 75% of the food the Dervaeses consume comes straight from their garden; in winter, about half the food they eat is grown there."
“We’re trying to put as many options on the table as we can, to see what works,” Dervaes says. “I’d even like to be a beekeeper again. But that’s too much for this neighborhood.”
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