About
- "Gardens are good for our souls. Not merely because they’re therapeutic or because they provide healthy foods or even because they give us a hedge against lean times but rather because, if you look at the big picture, they offer us that thing that we all crave so dearly. They offer that thing that drove our founding fathers to strike out on their own. They offer Freedom!" - Courtesy Grit Magazine, The Freedom Garden"
Think of it as Facebook meets the Farmer’s Almanac: A social networking site for 21 st century pioneers who want to fight soaring food prices, reduce their food print and climate change by growing their own food. On this site, novice and expert growers from all over the world can gather to post success stories, ask questions, and challenge one another to ever-increasing levels of self-sustained living.
That was Then, This is Now
In response to the heavy impact of World War II on the U.S. economy, Americans were urged to grow a victory garden (also called a war garden) in 1943. The gardens were planted by about 20 million families and would eventually provide nearly half of the fresh produce consumed during this troubled time. On rooftops, in back yards and even in containers on front porches, Americans produced eight million tons of fruit, vegetables and herbs in their own households.
Presently we are faced with a future that’s will be fraught with fuel scarcity, rising food cost and environmental implications. As the world encounters hard times - there will be need of practical and back to basics solutions.
Freedom Gardens is growing beyond victory garden a food security movement person to person, blog to blog, neighbor to neighbor. Whether you have a balcony garden, community garden or your own backyard garden this new online social networking community is where you can gather, grow and share.
Growing Forward
… “freedom” is earned and cannot be taken for granted. In fact, there are forces (lets call them market forces) trying to gain control of the food market for their profit. If they can control the supply of food through hoarding seeds, and the other means of production, we will pay them for their effort with whatever price they wish to charge. On a gut level we know this is wrong… we have the “freedom” to make our own food production choices."
Join together in a homegrown revolution ™ to liberate our lawns and break our dependence on the corporate powers and dwindling fossil fuel supplies, corporate controls, contamination and food miles while creating a sustainable future by promoting local food production.
With battle lines drawn in the dirt of our backyards, patios or whatever available place, we will take the WWII Victory Garden to even greater heights for today’s pressing ecological issues. Today’s new war is also a global war, which goes beyond nations and individuals. Now, the existence of the entire planet itself is in jeopardy. For this reason, Freedom Gardens grows beyond the narrow, national patriotism of the old-fashioned Victory Gardens.
Today, a global, radical revolution is needed, one that will transform the planet as well as the individual. With lines drawn in the dirt, you will not only liberate yourself from corporate controlled “frankenfoods” and petro-dependent foods, by growing closer to home you’ll be transforming your life, your health and your community. Through hard work and effort, armed with trowels and seeds, freedom is our fight for survival. It’s our only hope for the future health of our planet. And, most importantly, by working directly with nature we do the best thing to change the world–we change ourselves!
Let’s begin “IMBY.”
Behind This Site
Freedom Gardens is backed by the example of its founders, the Dervaes family, the urban-dwelling “eco-pioneers” who have been growing most of their own food since 2001. On their one-fifth acre residential lot in Pasadena, Jules Dervaes and his three adult children, Anais, Justin, and Jordanne, grow over 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers-with enough left over to run an award-winning “green” business selling fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.
Freedom Gardens is part of the growing social networks sponsored in part by the Dervaes family (www.UrbanHomestead.org)
The new, more interactive site uses social networking software to connect visitors with other gardeners in their area. They can share tips about local climate and soil issues, display which challenges they are participating in on their profiles, and find others nearby doing the same challenge.
Through FreedomGardens.org, people everywhere can take back control from the corporate food system. In the process, they can improve their health, reduce their ecological footprint, and save money.
Funding for Freedom Gardens is from the Dervaes Family businesses (Dervaes Gardens, Peddler's Wagon) and from their non-profit Dervaes Institute. Dervaes Institute is registered as a 508(c)(3) public charity and governed by the state of California.