Roundin' up the reviews

2009-03-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

This side page is dedicated to an ongoing round-up of reviews and mentions of The Urban Homestead, as well as a log of assorted media blips, such as interviews with us, podcasts, etc. Soon we hope to have a more sophisticated way to present this information, but at least it's in one place. If you end up here and need to get back to the regular blog, click the link just to the right.

The more recent the item, the nearer it is to the top.

*****

"The husband-and-wife authors Erik Knutsen (sic) and Kelly Coyne, inspired by their adventures in their Los Angeles kitchen and garden, published “The Urban Homestead,” the contemporary bible on the subject." This Big Farm Called San Francisco, The New York Times, by Jamie Gross, April 23, 2010

Wouldn't you know that when Erik finally makes Time Magazine, the subject would be pooping in a bucket? Humanure: Goodbye, Toilets. Hello, Extreme Composting, Time Magazine, Dec. 4, 2009

Kelly quoted on why it's good to grow arugula in the LA Times Home and Garden section, 11/25/09

David Scott Bruce for The Journal of the AIA California Council 09.3: Coyne and Knutzen show sincere concern for the planet and all its people with a deft roadmap that pays tribute to our need to be respected, as well as entertained.

Got a mention in the HuffPost's 9/2/09 Eco-Etiquette column regarding green cleaning.

Kraut Fest 09 featured on NBC Los Angeles, 9/1/09 : Saurkraut School

Nice Urban Homestead review at the Conversationalist ("a thorough, plainspoken and playful guide..) made extra special by his suggestion that there be a movie about our life and that we be played by Amy Adams and Chris Messina!!! Such bodacious pulchritude! The truth is we really should be played by extras from The Seventh Seal.

Erik has a bunch of nice quotes in this 7/27/09 Newsweek article: As the Economy Struggles, Urban Gardens Grow

Sarah Henry@Lettuce Eat Kale does a nice round-up summary of the urban homesteading movement and is kind enough to plug our book. "The Urban Homestead: An Old Idea is New Again." (7/20/09)

The Big Parade stopped by our house on July 18th. For a few wonderful minutes we were invaded by sixty-odd intrepid urban hikers. Erik left with them.

Janet Stemwedel@Adventures in Ethics and Science: While some friends... jokingly refer to this as "that hipster survivalist book," The Urban Homestead is not a book about how to be a green poseur. Rather, it is a book that breaks down various elements of living greener and lays out a variety of strategies -- some easy and some ambitious -- to make it happen.

We are featured prominently in this article in the Pasadena Weekly: The Urban Homestead, City slickers revive the family farm, by Ilsa Setziol (4/30/09 )

A great letter from Tracy Gabidge:

Thanks to inspiration from your book, my husband and I have been working on a guerrilla gardening project in our town. We live in a condo and don't have any land to speak of so we knew that to increase our growing power we would have to get creative. We noticed a long, narrow plot of land along a fence that always appeared neglected and pretty sad. Now it's the home to a 200-foot strip of vining vegetables that will be free to whoever walks by. My husband maintains a blog about it here: http://200footgarden.blogspot.com/.

The Urban Homestead is mentioned as a green cleaning resource of note in the LA Times "Idealist Realist" column, 1/31/09

The Foggiest Idea: The authors strike me as the sort of educated Ready-Made readers who live in Berkeley or Brooklyn and fetishize mid-century furniture....

The Urban Homestead has been honored as a Living Now Book of the Year for 2008 by the Independent Publisher. "The Living Now Book Awards recognize books that help readers help themselves, to learn about enriching their lives in wholesome, Earth-friendly ways."

Jay Babcock @Arthur Magazine: Just sayin’ this book seems to be more valuable/pertinent by the week. It’s certainly getting a lot of check-out time from residents and guests alike at Arthur’s Philly bureau…

Off Grid Ebert @Living Off Grid: I was expecting the usual, having already devoured every book I’ve ever come across about homesteading. What I got was better than expected....This book is a real asset. It is something that you can act on NOW, rather than many of the other homesteading books, which have content that you can dream about for the future.

03/09: We won Low Impact Living's green home contest. Next stop, Survivor!

Chris Smith @Englewood Review of Books: The Urban Homestead should be read cover-to-cover by anyone seeking to live lightly and redemptively in an urban place. Afterwards, I suspect that it will also become an excellent reference book that will find frequent use in the urban home or church community.

Kelly and Erik interviewed on KCRW's Good Food, February 21, 2009. (But we had nothing to do with the carrot cake smackdown.)

Jack Sweeney @Bike Commuters: ...if you are interested in living a greener life by growing some of your own food and saving money on electricity costs, this book would be a great place to start. It’s a fun read and can be really eye-opening in the sense that some of the mystery behind smart environmental living has been removed. I recommend this one!

Haas14: This book really got me rolling this summer and has helped me grow at least thirty pounds of the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my life.

Eylon Israely @Eco Libris: The book is a well written fun guide that explains the hows and whys of urban sustainability without being too preachy about it. You get a sense of the authors' philosophy, but you certainly don't feel that you need to wholly subscribe to it, in order to adopt and adapt any or part of their methods and techniques.

Stephanie Rogers @Earthfirst: What I love most about this book is the authors’ refreshing attitude about the amount of work it takes to be an urban homesteader (and the occasional joking references to using these skills in the event of a zombie attack). From the outside looking in, urban homesteading is an awful lot of hard work, but Kelly and Erik make it seem far less overwhelming with a ‘work makes work’ and ‘just do what you can’ take. It gives you the confidence to start your own journey toward self-sufficiency, even if you start in very small ways.

Mark Frauenfelder @BoingBoing: Unlike many self-sufficiency books, this one isn't preachy, unrealistic, or dogmatic. Instead, it's honest and often humorous. Kelly and Erik (who run the Homegrown Evolution blog) are wonderfully lucid and accessible writers. They also walk the walk...

Kelli Best-Oliver@Sustainablog: The Urban Homestead makes the DIY ethos seem incredibly possible, particularly for those on a budget, utilizing would-be waste into productive re-uses in accessible, entertaining language, and don’t shy away from lamenting failed projects or frustrations with this type of lifestyle.

Chantel C. Guidry @Feminist Review: The Urban Homestead is a fantastic introduction to living off the land, even when there’s not much land available. It's not meant to be read once, cover to cover. It’s meant to be kept on hand as a resource, a book to refer to again and again in the garden, in the kitchen, in the workroom. There’s a lifetime of information packed in to these 308 pages, and the time to start using that information is now.

Pamela O'Malley Chang @Yes Magazine: The Urban Homestead is a good-natured (in all senses) guide for urbanites who want to live off the land without leaving the city limits, by such means as greening their homes and growing, preserving, and composting their own vegetables. The authors offer Homestead asan affirmation of the simple pleasures of life.

Julie @Feministe: ...surprisingly, this stuff is fun. Coyne and Knutzen have chosen projects that are exciting enough to get even the most jaded urbanite revved up about harvesting worm poop.

Except of The Urban Homestead and a lively comment section @Alternet

A long excerpt from our introduction was featured on Environmental News Network

Edan Lepucki @The Millions: Coyne and Knutzen live and farm just two neighborhoods away from my own, and their accessible guide to "revolutionary home economics" and "livestock in the city," is not only inspiring, it's also practical and useful.

Christina @Green Mom Finds: Who says you need ten acres in the country to create a homestead and live self-sufficiently?

Kelly and Erik interviewed on the Homegrown Podcast via Talkshoe, Sun, Jan 4, 2009

LA Times article: Chickens as pets: city living with a farm feel, by Deborah Netburn, December 6, 2008. The same article is duplicated at the Huffington Post.

Interview in Common Ground Magazine by Jeanne Storck, July 2008: Grow Your Own Way Believe it or not, with a little ingenuity, you can turn dirt into food!

LA Streetsblog Chat with Author and Cyclist Erik Knutzen, by Damien Newton on June 3, 2008

Emerald City @ latimes.com: The Urban Homestead co-author Erik Knutzen talks city gardening and solar cooking

Reviews and Interviews

Roundin' up the reviews