Urban Homesteading at Sunstone

John takes spent hay from goat pen for sheet mulching new garden beds.

Friends, it’s time to give you an update on what we’re doing here at Sunstone since moving to New Mexico last fall.

Our intention was to live rural with larger acreage as we did in New York, but after much thought, we decided to explore the urban homesteading model, settling just 11 miles outside of the city of Albuquerque in the historically agrarian South Valley.

Instead of a 100 or 20 or 5 acres, we landed on 1.5 acres in the fertile Rio Grande Valley. This is a far cry from the greenbelt we once called home, but already our smallholding has the same peaceful feel of our farmstead in the Catskills.

The urban homesteading model is one that we are excited about exploring and encourage others to experiment and learn with us. With 98% of the US population living off farm, one of the ways to really increase local farms, local foods and local economies is for people to start their own urban jungle of fruit trees, vegetables and healing herbs. We can’t all go “back to the land,” but we can each do our part to create greenbelts of our cities.

Some of the projects we will blog about after our period of “long and thoughtful observation” are sheet-mulching, planning an urban farmstead, harvesting rainwater and creating micro-pastures and edible fences for our goats.

To see what one enterprising family is doing with their urban homestead, check out the inspiring Path to Freedom website. Si se puede! – Jen

Sunstone Goes to New Mexico!

Yes, it’s true. We’ve moved to the Land of Enchantment. Not to worry, we’ll continue doing our same Sunstone goodness here in a sunnier clime. We saved seeds and harvested overtime during the summer to keep us in stock while we design and plant our new gardens. For those of you with fond memories of our home and gardens, I’m happy to report that the homestead has loving new owners.

Can herbs grow in New Mexico? I’ve been asked. Yes! And they grow beautifully here. It’s only about 10 degrees warmer here than in New York. The difference is that it is almost always sunny here, and arid. The aridity makes drying herbs here much easier, without needing any supplemental heat. There will likely be a few herbs that we will not be able to grow here. But on the plus side there are many herbs that we will be able to grow for the first time or grow more easily, like pomegranates (ok, that’s a fruit), passionflower and vitex. And Rosemary grows outside all year round here, as do some varieties of fig! We will continue to grow and harvest the herbs for our products with joy and gratitude.

Why New Mexico? We came out to visit friends early in the year and fell in love with the big sunny blue skies, the friendly people and dry weather. We came back and said, hey, why not have an adventure! Jen is from the west coast originally and is glad to be closer to her family. Tree is having her first big adventure away from the east coast.

We are still getting settled, but are making friends and enjoying the community here. All the animals love their new home and sunny weather. Yes! We brought the goats and the chickens and dogs and cats. How could we leave cute Betty, Desi the princess and Tosca the queen?

Jen is taking a Permaculture Design Certificate course with Scott Pittman of the Permaculture Drylands Institute to jumpstart that learning curve of growing in the southwest. Jen and Tree have also become active in Sanchez Farm, a not for profit community farm project of La Plazita Institute, a wonderful organization in the South Valley. More on that in another blog.

We will miss all of our friends and community in New York but instead of feeling like we are losing friends or community, we feel like we’re bringing all those connections with us to New Mexico, to join our ever increasing web of friends committed to living lightly on the earth. Thanks to so many of you for your well wishes. We look forward to seeing you out here in the magical southwest.

About Us

In the Fall of 2007 Jen, the herbalist behind sunstoneherbs.com, and Tree, goat-herder and field hand relocated from our 21 acre farmstead in New York to the South Valley of Albuquerque, New Mexico. We raise goats and chickens, sell eggs, herbal products, some vegetables and other sundries, as well as offer herbal consultations and organize educational workshops… all part of our effort to foster sustainable relationships with the earth. We are excited about our chance to design new herb gardens in this beautiful sunny state.