Urban homesteading: Agitate, educate, pollinate!

Ryan Van Lenning Sat, 20 Feb at 5:49pm
tomato varieties

tomato varieties

Oakland can boast of yet another local resource that will help residents build their urban ag and home-making skills: The Institute of Urban Homesteading.  The 2010 season is now open for registration.  Starting in March, IUH-Oakland will be offering affordable workshops on everything from Organic Gardening, Rainwater Harvesting, and Cheesemaking to Beekeeping, Seed Starting, and Raising Backyard Chickens.  The workshops are held at the homes of individuals in Oakland and Berkeley, with some classes in Alameda and Marin.

The mission of The Institute of Urban Homesteading (as posted on their website) is to:

Offer affordable classes in the art of living in an urban environment
* Preserve a slower, more intentional, more sustainable and more pleasurable way of life
* Rescue the lost arts of the garden, the kitchen and things done by hand
* Imbue everyday tasks with wonder and beauty
* Promote self-determination and the ability of each person to educate themselves

Classes tend to fill up fast, so register early.  See the schedule here:

About Ryan Van Lenning
Ryan Van Lenning is a writer and organizer focusing on issues of social justice and sustainability. He is also passionate about food justice/urban ag, anti-militarism, and building alternative economies in resilient cities. His work appears in Ecolocalizer, Truthout, Huffington Post, Terrain: Northern California’s Environmental Magazine, and Matador Change. Prior to becoming caught in the web of Bay Area ink-slinging and activism, he taught in the Humanities Department at a community college in Ohio, where he created courses in Environmental Ethics and World Religions: Peace and Violence. He is both a hyper-localist and a globalist, a home-body and travel-addict, and a city explorer and nature aficionado, just a few of the many paradoxes with which he is afflicted. Contact him at ryan@oaklandlocal.com, follow him on twitter @vanlenning, and find more at his blogs Pull the Root, Travelin' Bones, and Rumi and the Cholo.