Living on an Urban Homestead: An Interview with Jules Dervaes

By Judith Anger and Immo Fiebrig and Martin Schnyder
Updated on September 16, 2024
article image
by Jules Darvaes
The Dervaes’ front yard, which has been transformed to feed people, livestock and wildlife.

Idea: Jules Dervaes

Place: Detached residence outside Los Angeles, next to the Pasadena Freeway intersection, California, USA

Project: Urban homestead, 800 square meters with 400 square-meter garden

Jules Dervaes is a family man. In a previous life, he was a hippy – and now he is hip, as his youngest daughter Jordanne puts it. His first experiments in self-sufficiency go back to New Zealand in the early 1970s when he also learned to keep bees. He returned to the US in 1975 and settled in Florida before he and his family moved to Pasadena in 1984 to buy the land they still live on today.

Over the years he has worked as a landscaper, beekeeper, gardener, and leather craftsman. He has also found time to study theology. In the 1990s droughts became increasingly frequent, and water prices in California rose steadily. Jules realized that keeping a lawn in a dry climate is a completely pointless luxury. The family decided to cover the entire lawn of their home with 15 cm bark mulch and turn the area into vegetable beds. When genetically modified food arrived in the supermarkets in 2000, the Dervaes’ lifestyle changed radically yet again. It was important to them to avoid eating genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and to achieve a high level of self-sufficiency in food, energy, and mobility. Vegetable production was intensified in all available areas (paved areas, driveway, front, and back garden), and plantings were extended to multiple layers including vertical surfaces. Chicken, ducks, and goats provide them with eggs, milk, and manure. The pick-up truck is run on biodiesel produced in their own garage; the vegetable oil comes from the restaurants that buy their produce. These days, Jules and three of his children – Anais (37), Justin (33), and Jordanne (29) – are working full-time on the city farm. Any surplus they produce is sold and the money is spent on flour, rice, sugar, beans, and… chocolate!

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368