The Dervaeses of Pasadena – the story of an inspirational family | Canalside Community Food

Many of you will know Ali, one of our longest standing workshare volunteers, who has recently taken 6 months out to travel round the world visiting different friends and family. Her first stopover was the States and a couple of weeks ago she sent me the following link to an article about the Dervaeses, a family living in downtown Pasadena doing inspirational things from their very own backyard. Here’s a snippet from the article to whet your appetite:

“For the past eight years, the Dervaeses have worked every inch of their 4,356 sq ft garden (including the front drive, which is covered in buckets of strawberries) and have produced more than 6,000lb of fruit and vegetables a year. From this modest tenth of an acre, which wraps around the front and back garden, situated 150 yards away from an 11-lane motorway, the family produce enough food to meet 80 per cent of their dietary needs in summer and 50 per cent in winter (the remainder is anything they can’t grow, such as oil, flour, rice, butter and cheese). They even have enough left over to sell to local restaurants.”

Want to read more…? Then click on The Dervaeses for the whole thing. There is also a link in the article to the Dervaeses’ own website (pathtofreedom.com) which really does make for amazing reading.