Urban Homesteading: The Permaculture Way/NEW BOOK

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.

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

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.

* 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.

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.