permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

Dear Permaculture Allies,

We are writing to let you know about the upcoming 
release of our book, Urban Homesteading: Heirloom 
Skills for Sustainable Living. This richly 
illustrated how-to and why-to for the urban 
homesteading movement is the first book of its 
kind with a specific permaculture focus. With a 
central chapter outlining the principles, and 
different ways to apply them highlighted 
throughout, this book will be an excellent manual 
for individuals, families and communities seeking 
to apply permaculture practices throughout all 
aspects of their lives.
We are hoping you will make your network aware of 
this book, and direct them to our website: 
www.Urban-Homesteading.org, to get more 
information and to order a copy. This book could 
be useful for permaculture design certification 
courses, especially those that have an urban 
focus or which include the urban permaculture 
experience.

Authors Rachel Kaplan and K. Ruby Blume are 
certified permaculture designers who trained 
under Penny Livingston-Stark, James Stark, Brock 
Dolman, Erik Ohlson, and others. They homestead 
in the San Francisco Bay Area and teach heirloom 
skills, personal ecology, and applied 
permaculture to individuals and groups. We are 
available to support your permaculture networks 
via our website's question and answer forum, our 
class offerings, and our availability as teachers 
and presenters in your community.

We are grateful to you for spreading the word 
throughout your network. Please contact us should 
you need more information, or to discuss ways we 
might be able to serve your community.

Mostly water,

Rachel Kaplan
K. Ruby Blume
Authors, Urban Homesteading
rachel kaplan <rachelkap@fullcup.info>

ORDER BOOK  http://urban-homesteading.org/

RADIO PROGRAM  ON RENEGADE FARMER
http://therenegadefarmer.com/TRF-031311.mp3

Šnurture all that is authentic by acknowledging 
three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is 
finished, and nothing is perfect.  To accept 
these realities is to accept contentment as the 
maturation of happiness, and to acknowledge that 
clarity and grace can be found in genuine 
unvarnished existence.  Filled with subtlety and 
depth, this way is a river flowing toward and 
away from you, and always within you.   --Richard 
Powell



Urban Homesteading
The Permaculture Way

Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living

 In cities and towns throughout the country, a 
growing movement of urban homesteaders is turning 
their homes, businesses and neighborhoods into 
mini-farms complete with chickens, rabbits and 
goats; water, energy and waste-saving oases of 
abundance that enhance neighborhoods and 
communities; and working models for a positive 
and inspiring way to live. "It's well past time 
for us to redesign our homes and our lives in a 
genuinely sustainable way. Homesteading in the 
city is a land-based action-oriented YES! to the 
possibility of remaking culture with people and 
place in mind," said Urban Homesteading author 
and homesteader Rachel Kaplan.

The connected issues of global change, 
non-renewable resource depletion, decaying 
municipal infrastructure, and economic 
instability has given rise to this movement of 
people who are ready to be the change, right 
now.  Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for 
Sustainable Living is not only about the skills 
you need to successfully homestead in the city, 
but about the movement itself. This is the first 
book of its kind to privilege the practices of 
permaculture as the best design tools for homes 
and cities of the 21st century, as well as bring 
forward the voices of homesteaders who are 
already living the dream.

Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for 
Sustainable Living is a richly written and 
illustrated how-to and why-to for this growing 
movement of urban localism, including interviews 
with homesteaders who share their successes, 
failures, and inspirations for eco-friendly 
lifestyles. Authors and urban homesteaders Rachel 
Kaplan and K. Ruby Blume focus on do-it-yourself 
projects ranging from caring for ducks and 
building a worm bin to implementing a rainwater 
storage system and generating resilient homegrown 
economies in our neighborhoods. The power of 
permaculture principles and practices are 
underscored in the beginning of the book, and 
throughout each section.

Urban Homesteading shares pertinent information on:

* Creating a personal sustainability plan based 
on your time, space, and energy needs
* Starting a community garden
* Implementing the essential principles of 
permaculture in your garden, your home and your 
community
* Turning any small urban space into a lavish food-growing zone
* Nurturing an interactive relationship with 
food-canning, fermenting, freezing and 
cheese-making
* Using homegrown herbs to make your own medicine chest
* Building mutually beneficial relationships with 
animals such as ducks, chickens, and goats
* Powering down your home-make changes in energy 
and water use in all climate types
* Finding time for healing rituals and self-care 
tips for sound body, mind, and spirit

Long-time community activists, artists, and 
healers, the authors bring a unique perspective 
to the homesteading movement and the application 
of permaculture principles to the daily tasks of 
repairing the world. Sections of the book focus 
not only on organic gardening, food preservation 
and small animal husbandry, but also on the 
essential work of self-care and people-care that 
are needed if homesteaders are to be successful 
over time.
The authors are available to educate the public 
on these and other issues covered in the book. To 
schedule an interview or to set up a workshop, 
please contact Rachel Kaplan at 415-269-2721, or 
rachelkap@fullcup.info.


www.urban-homesteading.org
Buying from this website, rather than the host of 
other discounted online sites, will more deeply 
support the work the authors are doing in the 
world.

About the Authors
Rachel Kaplan has been gardening in and around 
urban environments for over fifteen years and 
belongs to a bicoastal family of farmers and 
gardeners. She consults with individuals and 
groups on the application of permaculture 
principles to all aspects of living.  She is a 
somatic psychotherapist, educator and certified 
permaculture designer. She has written and edited 
numerous books, including The Probable Garden of 
Eden. Rachel lives in Petaluma, California with 
her partner and their daughter on a little 
homestead, Tiny Town Farm.

K. Ruby Blume is an educator, gardener, 
beekeeper, artist, and activist, with more than 
twenty years of experience gardening in urban 
settings. She has worked extensively in the arts 
and is the co-founder and artistic director of 
Wise Fool Puppet Intervention, an environmental 
justice project. In 2008 she founded the 
Institute of Urban Homesteading, a project 
dedicated to promoting localism, self-reliance, 
and urban sustainability through low-cost adult 
education. Ruby lives and works in Oakland, 
California.

Urban Homesteading: Heirloom Skills for Sustainable Living
By Rachel Kaplan with K. Ruby Blume
Skyhorse Publishing Paperback
Release Date: April 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61608-054-9
Price: $16.95