Interview by Tia Graham

One day about 6 years ago, I was sitting at my computer in the family room, feeling more than a little down that we seemed trapped in Suburbia, unable to realize our dreams of a country lifestyle, or of being more self-sufficient in how we provided for our family. Books sat on the shelf of how to garden, how to raise small animals, how to live off the land…but our lives seemed to show no sign of changing anytime soon to allow for more than a few container plants here and there. I needed a vision, an example, to push my mind out of the box I had it in; the box that said sustainable living could only happen only in wide, open spaces. Somehow, link by followed link, I ended up at pathtofreedom.com and a hero was found, a deliberate-liver if there ever was one!

Jules Dervaes lives smack dab in the middle of a major city, in it’s inner city, next to a school, on a small city lot. Over the years, while he home schooled his children, they re landscaped their yard into more than just gardens; it’s an edible eden. They’ve added animals, kept records of their harvest, and had excess they’ve been able to sell to restaurants. One feature on the site included their grocery list and food tallies…this was the very first pantry plan that inspired my budgeting-self…it was not full of pre-packaged convenience foods bought on the cheap but rather comprised of very real foods, bought in bulk, meant as a supplement to what they already grew. I began to glimpse how organization and planning like that could harmonize to provide a bigger picture of sustainable living.

They had just begun back then another of what I call a “hero project”…the making of their own biodeisel fuel from used cooking oil for their suburban. They were looking at, and working on, ways to radically reduce their dependence on the power grid. Taking advantage of the temperate climate in which they lived, and not letting “but we live in a neighborhood” hedge in their minds, this family became a profound example to me of “blooming where one is planted”. Through their projects and progress, my mind began to realize what COULD be done, in ways that could possibly be mimicked in cities all over the globe to increase local, more sustainable living. The reasons it’s not becomes “we won’t do this” rather than “we can’t do this” because Jules and his family are proof that it CAN. The obstacles change and the strategy to overcome them morphs.

It was a little dream-come-true when I got the returning email that said yes, Jules would indeed agree to an interview!! This, with a rather ordinary housewife who can’t pay for it and who hasn’t managed to get it to “blog press” anywhere near the targeted date. But this spring I learned another lesson, one that I don’t doubt Jules himself has confronted time again: life happens and sometimes we rearrange our plans, which is not always to their detriment. In order to farm, small scale or large, one submits to unpredictable circumstances. Weather happens, disease…harvest comes in and our routine stops to accommodate it. It was only a little ironic, and mostly fitting, that my writing has had to wait while I mothered children, got the garden in, broke down a wall so we could build another, and started a new business. When one lives a seasonal life, somehow everything fits in place, in a rhythm, and not all at once.

And so here it is…my interview with Jules, one of my very favorite deliberate heroes:

Tia: I first found your website a few years ago; we were living in the suburbs of North Florida, on a similarly sized lot and in a very similar climate to yours, and I was instantly inspired by what could be done! When you began, did you have any vision, any inkling of what it could develop into and become? Where you setting out to create just a great place for you to live, or did the idea that it could have such an impact for others occur to you and effect affect the planning?

Jules: The creation of an urban homestead, Path to Freedom, was a result of my long-held beliefs in simple living and care for the environment. At the start, I did not imagine it would come to have such a worldwide impact. In 1990, during a period of severe drought in Southern California, I did away with my moisture-challenged lawn replacing it with wildflowers, drought-tolerant plants and, eventually, edible landscaping. Even though for many years I had been gardening, including homesteading in New Zealand in the 1970s and, later, on ten acres in Florida, I hardly relied on these plantings for my family’s “daily bread.” In 2000, however, I took the radical action of becoming an urban pioneer, in angry reaction to the news that U.S. biotech firms were bent on introducing GMOs into the food system. I wanted to protect my family from this mad experiment and provide them with the real food we could grow ourselves. In the midst of the urban wilderness of Los Angeles County, I began to turn my city lot into a homestead, fanatically planting every available space to the four corners of our small world. In July 2001, my family started documenting our homestead’s progress and our journey toward self-sufficiency through an online journal, PathtoFreedom.com. After the first full year of gardening in 2001, we had raised 2,300 pounds. By 2003, we met our goal of 6,000 pounds (three tons) of produce harvested from one-tenth of an acre of garden area. By 2004 we were involved in an active outreach program, including tours of the homestead, workshops and eco-documentary film screenings, and more than 30,000 visitors to our website a month from over 100 countries.

Tia: I’ve linked to your site on my blog for the past year and told many others about you along the way, usually using your work as an example of what things can be done. So often the people I come into contact with are discouraged, feeling trapped and powerless. If you had to pick 3 things that you do that have had the farthest-reaching impact in your lives and lifestyle, what would they be?

Jules: Paraphrasing Theodore Roosevelt, I encourage people to do what they can, where they are, with what they have—right now. Begin with small steps. The most important step we have taken has been to grow some of our own food. During the summer, up to 75 percent of our vegetarian diet comes from our garden. Not only do we have the assurance of knowing where our food comes from and the satisfaction of having grown it ourselves, we enjoy produce that is unbeatably fresh and tasty.

Second, we tackled our energy usage on a variety of fronts. From simple steps such as installing CFLs, using only energy efficient/Energy Star appliances, and not using a clothes dryer, to more radical steps of forgoing electrical appliances altogether and installing solar panels, we reduced our average daily usage from 10.6 kwh to 6.0 kwh and produce much of that energy through our solar panels.

Finally, we addressed the transportation energy problem by owning only one car for a family of four adults; cutting back on the number of trips made; and learning how to brew biodiesel in our garage from waste vegetable oil. Last year, we made just two emergency trips to the gas station to buy diesel.

Tia: I love that quote! We also use this idea with our financial goals and really anything that we are convinced has merit but feel daunted by. Would you say that living this way costs less money? I know it seems like it would, like that might be obvious, but a consistent criticism of “green” living is that it costs too much for the average middle-classer to do.

Jules: Living green does not necessarily mean spending a lot of money. Granted, you can “buy your way” green, but there are other ways. A basic principle of living lightly on the earth is to cut back — cut back on the amount and type of travel you do; cut back on the amount of energy you use to heat or cool your house; and cut back on the number of single-use items you buy. As you are able, you may want invest in green technology that may initially have a high outlay of money, solar panels for example, but that provides savings in the long term. Some costs of green living, such as eating organic food, can be offset by “doing it yourself.” One of the reasons I started growing my own food was that I wanted the benefits of eating organic vegetables and fruit, but I couldn’t afford to buy them in the grocery store.

A future step is to cut back further on our water usage. In addition to the water conservation steps we have already implemented, we plan to install a gray water filtering system and collect rain water off our metal roof.

Tia: That’s project that has my interest! Where I live in TN the water costs more than the electricity and it is very unreliable in it’s safety. The well water isn’t great either. In choosing a place to live I can see how investigating the water supply is an important detail to remember and that even in America, it’s can’t always be taken for granted. Are you on city or well water currently? Do you use a filtration system at all?

Jules: Path to Freedom is connected to the city of Pasadena’s water supply. About 40 percent comes from local groundwater supplies and about 60 percent is imported from the Colorado River and Northern California. We do not filter the drinking water but do pay close attention to the annual water quality reports published by the city.

Tia: What about the neighbors? And the city zoning laws? Have you ever encountered battles or resistance to having city animals?

Jules: Our property is bordered on two sides by a school so we have residential neighbors on only one side. We have not had any issues with our neighbors over the animals. The animal enclosure is located on the school side. The enclosure is kept clean, and the animals do not make much noise””usually. The city of Pasadena zoning laws allow a limited number of farm animals to be kept as pets if they are housed at a minimum distance from a residence.

Tia: I think I like how that’s written! I think city chickens make better pets than dogs and frequently tell people that they are quieter than many “acceptable” pets too. You keep chickens, goats, and rabbits right? Has the school shown interest in your project over the years? What a neat thing for urban children to witness!

Jules: Our micro-farm includes two goats (Nigerian Dwarf and African Pygmy), three ducks (Khaki Campbells), and chickens (heritage breeds). The neighboring school children have visited on a number of occasions, as have other school groups. Besides seeing the animals, the children love operating the bicycle-powered grain mill.

Tia: I read that the Dervaes kids were home schooled; we also home school as do a good portion of my readers. One of my favorite things about homeschooling is that my children have a larger access to a wide variety of people of all ages and backgrounds that formal schooling doesn’t provide. For instance, when we shop at our natural foods co-op, they see lots of different people who value healthy eating and a strong, local community and know this isn’t just “Mom and Dad’s” thing. Now that the Dervaes children are grown, what is your perspective on homeschooling in hindsight? How has it better empowered you to participate in a project such as Path To Freedom?

Jules: Starting homeschooling my oldest child back in the late 1970s when the concept was not widely accepted was difficult. Today people can be proud of it; back then the children were ashamed and could not be open about how they were schooled. The school authorities were not sympathetic, but because I had teaching credentials, I could placate the authorities. Other people thought that what I was doing was strange. My children had to apologize for and felt strange for being homeschooled. As adults, they still struggle with feeling not accepted and outcasts. I wish I had been better prepared and had had help. I was doing it alone with no outside support or understanding.

Tia: You are one of the true pioneers who deserves my thanks! So THANK YOU for doing what you did!
Jules: Thank you for expressing your appreciation. It is gratifying that homeschooling is more accepted now. An advantage of our homeschooling experience is that my children and I have learned to take on a project that at the beginning is not widely accepted or takes us into unfamiliar territory. The psychological barrier of fear of strange things is not as great because of our past experience. So tackling a project like Path to Freedom is not as overwhelming for us as it might have been.

Tia: This is one of my very favorite things about homeschooling and Living Deliberately with my children. We are raising kids are much less fearful than what we see in the past or around us; they are not afraid to go against the grain and take on a challenge!

Jules: Another advantage for self-motivated people is that education as a “do-it-yourself” adventure is installed in the children early. They learn to run with things, unobstructed. However, some children are not as internally motivated and require more of an external educational structure. A disadvantage of “unschooling” is that it doesn’t cover the wide range of things that could be learned.

Tia: Timely subject as we unschoolers (really more like “tidal schoolers”) evaluate yet again if we should start using more “canned” materials. Did you ever find you needed to transition from unschooling to a more traditional method in order to allow for whatever they were needing or wanting to pursue?

Jules: Because I didn’t have a background in music or foreign languages, I wasn’t able to teach my children those subjects. They could have benefited from tutors or curriculum in those areas. Overall, homeschooling has been empowering for my children, but I wish I had had a better start. My limitation of parent-as-teacher was that I had been trained primarily in book learning. I was deficient in crafts and “how-to” skills. For example, I didn’t learn mechanics for repairing my car until my late twenties. As any homeschooling parent knows, it is a struggle and a lot of work to keep up. I feel I’m better prepared now (my youngest is 23 years old). A second time around would be a nice, but unrealistic, option!

Tia: Global Warming has certainly been in the news a lot lately! With or without the latest research, I think energy conservation just makes sense; it seems obvious to me that resources can’t last forever and we harm our environment, sometimes irreparable, with our culture’s wasteful habits. In just a simple change like compact fluorescent bulbs though, I hear a lot of complaining about their different (less bright) light. What do you say to people who are interested in changing but struggle to adapt? (Not just with lighting but anything energy efficient).

Jules: If we truly believe global warming is a crisis, it is our moral responsibility to accept our culpability and do something to change our “carbon footprint.” A little voluntary pain now may help stave off much greater suffering in the future over which we may not have any control.

Tia: My dream car is a biodiesel Suburban because of you guys! One thing that really concerns me about Ethanol though is that it is still mono-cropping corn, along with all the hazards that causes. I wondered why recycled oil is not being paid more attention. What do you think of the discussion that is going on regarding this topic?

Jules: I was prodded to investigate biodiesel because delivering organically grown produce to local restaurants in a gas-powered vehicle was just not logical. Now I obtain used vegetable oil from one of my catering clients. My son, Justin, brews biodiesel in a converted hot water heater in our garage from the waste vegetable oil. I view biodiesel as a “band-aid” technological fix. Our understanding of and practice of mobility need to be radically revised. Living locally, including obtaining food from local sources, will become increasingly necessary for our future.

Tia: Do you think a project like yours is attainable for those still spending much of their time in the mainstream system?

Jules: Projects like Path to Freedom can be started while a family is still in mainstream society and certain aspects of “green living” can be undertaken. However, you will be limited by time restraints. In a whole life project such as Path to Freedom, you need total involvement, full immersion. As the world situation worsens, people will need to commit fully to a different, non-mainstream way of life. One can start a project of change whatever the circumstances, but one cannot keep straddling two positions. To quote Theodore Roosevelt again, “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”

http://www.sixredheads.com/2007/06/10/730/