Excerpt from “Hello Magazine”
June 2008

“The family bought a farmhouse near his old stomping ground, fixed it up and started spending weekends there unwinding. After coming across some seeds from Italy, he planted them and was utterly amazed when they bore plump, delicious tomatoes.

“Jamie had a professional gardener come and show him the ropes, and from there he was hooked. The produce that came out of his backyard was so sumptuous, it drove him back to the kitchen. Suddenly he was cooking some of the most inspired meals of his life for his loved ones.

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Book by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
April 2008

“The Urban Homestead is the essential handbook for a fast-growing new movement: urbanites are becoming gardeners and farmers. Rejecting both end-times hand wringing and dewy-eyed faith that technology will save us from ourselves, urban homesteaders choose instead to act. By growing their own food and harnessing natural energy, they are planting seeds for the future of our cities.

“If you would like to harvest your own vegetables, raise city chickens, or convert to solar energy, this practical, hands-on book is full of step-by-step projects that will get you started homesteading immediately, whether you live in an apartment or a house. It is also a guidebook to the larger movement and will point you to the best books and Internet resources on self-sufficiency topics.”

Link to book on Amazon here.

Link to the authors’ web site: Homegrown Evolution.

Film Clip: Perhaps the original guerrilla (chimpanzee) gardener in this WW2 Victory Garden clip.

Article By Joe Robinson,
LA Times May 29, 2008

“The activists see themselves as 21st century Johnny Appleseeds, harvesting a natural bounty of daffodils or organic green beans from forgotten dirt. It’s a step into more self-reliant living in the city,” says Erik Knutzen, coauthor with his wife, Kelly Coyne, of “The Urban Homestead” to be released in June. The Echo Park couple have chronicled “pirate farming” on their blog, Homegrown Evolution. Guerrilla gardening, Knutzen says, is a reaction to the wasteful use of land, such as vacant lots and sidewalk parkways. He’s turned the parkway in front of his home into a vegetable garden.

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