Brentwood Urban Farm: A Sustainable Homestead in the City of Los Angeles
Owned and operated by green farmers: Emily Richards and John Nogawski. Learn more here.
Just because you live in a city, that doesn’t mean you can’t homestead. Such is the case for this organic urban farm. Brentwood Urban Farm is located in the heart of Los Angeles with a focus on water-preservation, organic ingredients, and building a green community. Everything they grow either gets consumed or goes back into the earth, and every product used is recycled and conserved; the house itself features solar panels and a rain water collection system, making this the ultimate sustainable homestead.
Brentwood Urban Farms has a community garden they call Communigreen, where homesteaders within the community can share and help grow their own vegetable, fruits, and gardens. We will be filming with them all season long, stick with us and watch as Brentwood Urban Farms grows their organic garden and helps improve the community! Along the way we’ll also pick up many more sustainable tips. But what are you waiting for? Keep reading to get started on growing onions from scraps.
Watch this video and learn how to grow your own onions from scraps!
Urban farmer John takes us step-by-step through the process of planting, harvesting, curing, and storing onions. Keep reading for more!
Follow along as John takes the rooting ends of store-bought onions and plants them. Then he shows us the life cycle of the onions, when they’re ready and how to harvest them, and how to cure them for long-term storage.
Like what you see? There’s more where this came from!
We’ll be trailing Brentwood Urban Farms all spring and summer long! We want to provide the best sustainable living tips & tricks straight to your browser. Be sure to subscribe to our emails so you don’t miss a beat!
Green Tip #1 – Function Stacking!
Onions can prevent the spread of grasses, like Bermuda grass. Plant onions around the borders of your garden beds to help keep grass from getting in.
Green Tip #2 – No More Tears!
When you cut onions, they release sulfur-based gases, and when they mix with the water in your eyes they form sulfuric acid. This is why you cry when cutting onions. To prevent this, chill the onion for 30 minutes before cutting.
Green Tip #3 – Stay Fresh!
Onion breath doesn’t have to ruin your evening. To get rid of onion breath, eat a sprig of parsley (also super nutritious!) or rinse with lemon juice and water.
Stay tuned for more of Urban Farmer’s, Emily and Farmer John’s green ideas, and sustainability tips & tricks. Follow along as they dive deeper into the homesteading world. These urban farmers are up to some amazing lifestyle changes in the Los Angeles Community, and we want to share it with you so you can reinvent your world and take your part in making the planet a greener place!
In a previous episode: watch as Emily takes to her organic garden and makes a delicious green smoothie – with no parts wasted!
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