By Mike Templeton
The people who left the Appalachian regions for places like Cincinnati carried with them knowledge and skills that were indispensable for life in the mountains. They continued to pass on those skills in the city as a way of surviving urban life. Of particular interest to the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition has been the ways these skills have been preserved and transformed over the decades within urban areas that both demand these traditional skills and force them to be adapted. A desire to return to a way of living that is more attuned to the ways of life of our Appalachian forebears is now being brought directly into the urban areas with what has come to be known as urban homesteading.
The skills passed down from one generation to the next formed the basis of survival for early Appalachian people. These skills were preserved well into the 20th century because mountain life most often entailed small single-family farms on small plots of land. The only things these families bought from a store were the most basic staples like flour, sugar, and salt. Everything else was produced on the farm. Food is the most obvious place to start with this, but when you imagine all the things you use in a day, it gets more complicated. This kind of homestead living demanded the ability to make your own soap, laundry detergent, medicine, etc. This is what modern urban homesteading is trying to reproduce but for different reasons. Urban homesteading has grown out of the recognition that the disposable and easy access lifestyle is destructive to just about everything that matters. Mass production is one of the main drivers of global climate change. It is destructive to communities by cutting people off from each other and the sources of everything that lays the foundation of life, and is simply not sustainable in the long term. Urban homesteading has grown out of the belief that we need to return to at least some of the skills and lifestyles that were once the common ways of living for Appalachian people.
There has been something of a quiet revolution in urban land use over the past couple of decades, and Cincinnati has been part of these changes. Urban farming has emerged all over Cincinnati. Most of this has been driven by private entrepreneurs and activists, but the city itself has gotten involved in this kind of land use. Community gardens have also popped up around the city, opening urban space for local gardening and small farming. These spaces have developed skills of using small spaces to build growing spaces vertically rather than spreading out. These were skills that were once vital to mountain farmers who farmed on mountain sides with access to extremely small plots on which they had to feed families throughout the year. The Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden is one such example of a community garden. Located on McMicken Avenue not far from Findlay Market, this garden allows local growers to build small plots in raised beds for any use they choose. Many of these plots are flower gardens, but others are devoted entirely to vegetable gardens that people use to supplement the way they live. The City of Cincinnati offers information on this kind of land use and how to develop urban land toward urban homestead purposes. Growing Food is a full section of the city’s website devoted to urban farming.
Once the food is produced, the next step is to find a way to keep it around for the year. This was the real trick to survival for Appalachian life, and it is becoming a central part of urban homesteading. Canning, preserving, and pickling were key skills for the Appalachian family farmer. These skills can be complex, and they require careful attention to safety. Improperly preserved and canned foods can be extremely dangerous. Books like Feral House provides detailed instructions on how to preserve and can food. The Ohio State University Extension offers webinars on how to properly and safely preserve and can food, and these are generally free. As a side note, the OSU Extension is a magnificent resource for all things Ohio agriculture. The university is a proud supporter of the very best of Ohio agriculture.
Growing and preserving food are the foundations of urban homesteading. From this, everything else that fills the home can be developed as an urban homesteader. You will find endless sources for things like soap making, DIY crafts, and simple home remedies. Some urban homesteaders have taken to things like weaving their own cloth. The website for Healthy Fresh Homegrown offers ten skills they view as necessary for the urban homesteader. These include things covered above, but they also provide a discussion on things like time management and how to prepare your home for the kinds of changes that come with urban homesteading. They emphasize forms of living that can include switching your power sources to a solar system in your own home, how to do plumbing work, and woodworking. The Grow Network is another great resource for some of the skills you need to begin urban homesteading. They have, for example, an entire section on home remedies and hygiene that will help you begin healing at home like our Appalachian ancestors did and remain healthy without modern chemical dangers.
Perhaps one of the best ways to adapt to our modern world is to return to skills and ways of living that are quite old. The ways people lived on small Appalachian farms are now being adapted to the twenty-first century city in the form of urban homesteading. While the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition has always sought to preserve the folk ways and knowledges of Appalachia, others are now seeing the wisdom of this kind of thinking. It takes only a small plot of urban land to grow an abundance of food, and the old skills of canning and preserving can make that food last for months. Old-fashioned community sharing makes all of this work for everyone. Much of what we need in the home can be made in the home, and the goal of urban homesteading is finding ways to return to these kinds of practices. From food, to soap, to building and plumbing, urban homesteading is finding ways to keep life local, connected, and healthy.
You can find out more about the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden on their Facebook page: facebook.com/OvertheRhinePeoplesGarden.
Previous blog posts on similar topics include:
Our Harvest Cooperative, a cooperative farm right here in Cincinnati, and one of the most visible projects at the forefront of what we now call urban homesteading. From their presence at local farmer’s markets to the ways they open the space to individuals who want to begin urban farming, Our Harvest Cooperative is engaged in land use within the greater Cincinnati area that is focused on agriculture rather than conventional urban development.
Toward re-discovering the skills of homestead mountain life, we profiled Jason Strange from Berea College and his research on people who have moved back to rural homesteading in the Appalachian region.
Michael Templeton is a writer, and independent scholar. He is the author of The Chief of Birds: A Memoir published with Erratum Press and Impossible to Believe, published by Iff Books. He is also the author of Collected Apoems, forthcoming from LJMcD Communications and the awaiting of awaiting: a novella, with Nut Hole Publishing. Check out his profile in UACC’s Cultural Directory. He has published numerous articles and essays on contemporary culture and works of creative non-fiction as well as experimental works and poetry. He lives in West Milton, Ohio with his wife who is an artist.