Urban Homesteading? What’s that?
A little over 5 years ago my wife and I decided that we were going to pursue a dream. That dream consisted of growing our own fruits & vegetables, raising chickens for eggs, and harvesting meat all from our own property. We only had one problem; we lived in the city, on the outskirts of Detroit no less!
That didn’t stop us. We decided that happiness shouldn’t be determined by where you live, it is determined by what is in your heart. So, we just went for it and haven’t looked back since.
We started off with one large raised bed and a thrown together chicken coop from scrap and free materials. We had a 3 year old at the time and a newborn, so money was practically non-existent. We made the best out of our situation. We were fortunate, chickens were not allowed by the city ordinance, but we had amazing neighbors and we always gave them fresh eggs, so we never had any issues.
To say we barely knew what we were doing was an understatement, but we had determination on our side.
The first year went pretty well, we harvested a lot of veggies and had the best eggs of our entire life. The rest is history.
Since then, we have since moved and bought our first house. 1/3 of our backyard is a dedicated garden area. Our garage? Well, let’s just say it’s more of a barn! Currently we keep chickens, quail and rabbits. Everything we do seems to help out one another in some way. For instance, the chickens give us eggs (duh), but they also give us amazing fertilizer and compost! The quail? Well, they give us powerfully healthy eggs, meat and fertilizer for the garden. Our rabbits, well we have to break this up into two parts. We have two breeding pairs of rabbits; mini lops and meat rabbits. The mini lops are strictly for breeding and for pets. The money generated from selling the kits helps to pay for the food cost of the rest of the urban livestock; not to mention the fertilizer they produce too! Our meat rabbits are just that, raised for meat. We have discovered that rabbit meat is not only healthy for you but can be used as a supplement for chicken is just about any recipe!
Along with the urban livestock we generate our own compost too. Egg shells, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, etc., they all go into the mix! Also, we grow heirloom varieties of vegetables and save seeds (and money) and grow year to year.
All of this is done in the suburbs about 20 minutes outside of Detroit. With enough ambition and determination you can accomplish just about anything you put your mind to.
Every year gets better and better for us and we couldn’t be more grateful for our decision to have our little farm in the city!