HUGS International : Homestead and Urban Garden Society

"Inadequate income and persistent poverty have always been the most formidable obstacles to asset development.... If every dollar is going to necessities, saving and investing are impossible."            ~ Betsy Leondar-Wright et al. I don't know about you, but the top three expenses in my household every month are debt, housing, and food -- in that order.  So imagine if I never had enough earning power for banks to extend credit to  me in the first place; I wouldn't be able to accrue debt, so my biggest expenses would be housing and food.  Now imagine I didn't make quite enough to cover the cost of housing and food, or made just barely enough to cover those basic needs... the first fever or cough that starts going around can easily wipe out any meager savings I've managed to stash away. When there isn't enough money to go around, families are faced with two options: increase their income, or decrease their expenses.  The best practice is a combin

I hate the thought of having to go back to work tomorrow.  I've had a reprieve from the stress, disrespect, and idiocy because a co-worker backhanded my ovaries repeatedly in order to kill a bee that landed on my shirt.  This resulted in a flare-up of myofascial pain in the pelvic floor muscle, making it excruciatingly painful to sit up or walk around. It did, however, allow me time for reflection.  My vision for HUGS has become very clear, and as I've relaxed at home I found the motivation to actually get started!  That's huge for me!  I'm no stranger to entrepreneurial ideas (the last one was a co-op model for growing and manufacturing chocolate in Haiti... or maybe it was the ammo subscription service...) but this is the first one that is easy to execute AND something I'm excited about! A domain name was purchased for the blog.  Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts have been created.  I'm starting to check out the local farmer's markets to resea

I used this recipe for my first attempt at bird seed ornaments.  Okay, well not that recipe *exactly*... I tried using my mama's cookie press to form the shapes, but the gelatin just gooped out all over the counter -- it was a disaster.  But I didn't give up!  I just grabbed the closest candle holder and turned it upside down on a pile of goopy bird seed and pressed it into something like a shape.  The principal was the same, but the picture doesn't do them justice... they're so much uglier in person I gave them to my mama!  For my second attempt I went to the dollar store and bought actual cookie cutters.  Those came out much better, but I was so *not* confident I didn't even bother saving space for the thread hole.  Turns out wrapping the outside of the ornament tightly with twine in an attempt to hang them up will only cause them to crumble, so no pictures of those. The third attempt is setting now.  This time I used straws to act as a place-holder for the

Working on an idea to raise money: outdoor tree ornaments made from seed paper!  Some seeds to consider planting in your Central Florida garden during December are: parsley thyme sage dill fennel cilantro celery cauliflower lettuce cabbage carrot

These are the seeds I encountered and saved today.  Each of these tiny kernels has the power to germinate an entire forest! 

Urban Agroecoloy: 6,000 lbs of food on 1/10th acre - Urban Homestead - Urban Permaculture

Plant Abundance YouTube Channel

Justin Rhodes' YouTube Channel

We see them but we don't like to think about them.  We prefer to look away or stare straight ahead when they pass by our window holding a cardboard sign asking for help.  The same folks, on the same corner, almost every single day.  People so similar to us, it's scary to admit it.  "We could be them."  And yet we are them . Homestead and Urban Garden Society is an idea founded from the love of teaching people how to grow their own food.  We are rooted in the belief that if you give a person food, they will eat once that day, but if you teach a person to grow and cultivate their own food, they will eat well for a lifetime. This first fundraising campaign is will be used to file the Articles of Incorporation (Non-Profit) in the State of Florida on January 1, 2018. Our five year plan starts with seeds - saving, storing, and sharing them; encouraging others to do the same and sending saved seeds to us for disbursement.  We will be putting together care packag