Hipsters & Outhouses? Urban Farming in the Modern City
The move towards urban homesteading is a trend that is taking root in the counterculture twenty-something demographic in cities around the country, and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
As reported in last week’s New York Post, a peek at balconies, backyards and rooftops in neighborhoods like Brooklyn’s trendy Greenpoint or Bushwick sections will reveal a number of thriving vegetable and herb gardens, dwarf fruit tree orchards, beehives and now even rabbit hutches, where hipsters are raising rabbits—as in fluffy, cute Easter bunnies!—and killing and eating them in recipes like the “bunnito,” a rabbit meat burrito created by New York urban homesteader, Mike Caputo, whose girlfriend runs the blog site FarmTina.com.
Pasadena, California’s Dervaes family may have the trademark on the term “urban homesteading” (for real), but that doesn’t stop other people from actually doing it. Blame glorified outhouses as seen on too many episodes of “Little House on the Prairie,” but the retro quaintness of the olden days is oddly fitting for the 21st century social-media, tech-savvy, tight-jeans-wearing hipsters. Think of it as the perfect balance between two worlds that couldn’t be farther apart.
Sustainable living though is much more than simply a hipster trend. It’s been heralded for centuries, especially in the last several decades as global warming and the environmental impact of excessive consumption has come to weigh on many with every trip to the supermarket. Growing and raising food at home is not only cost effective and less of an impact on the environment, but in the case of 20 – 40 year-olds–many of whom spend hours a day in front of computers–it’s respite too, a meditation in the dirt, or in some cases, blood and fur.
Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger
Photo: pasa47
