Time to Go, Time to Flow 5/1/26

Hello Dear Faithful Subscribers.

Happy May Day!  A time of renewal and growth….

I has been a great success and a great run. But it is time to shift. I have been gone from the Bay Area for 10 years and my ability to sell classes there in this digital era has dwindled to nuthin’.  Even my organic gardening course, a favorite that has always had enough interest to run, got no responses this year. My longtime email has been flooded with junk mail for months..close to 100 get past my filter daily. Ugh. But it’s a sign….I am not disappearing, but shifting with the times. Please read on for highlights of the past 18 years and opportunities to continue to connect!

Looking Back and Taking Stock: History & Highlights
I started IUH in 2008.  I had been part of an activist group who met for a year to think about making a project together.  A few of us wanted to start a skills based school, the rest wanted to do a think tank/study group. We were at a stalemate.  I left the group, made up a name, opened a bank account, printed a postcard, ran an old-school press campaign and the Institute of Urban Homesteading was born.  The time was right, people were excited about urban farming and many high profile articles came out about my new project.  See my press release here. See significant press from the first year and beyond here.   See our first postcard (and all the subsequent ones) here. 

The school was unconventional and cutting edge. We asked people to register ahead and pay via PayPal, which was almost unheard of at that time.  There was not yet an add to cart system, I had to create individual buy now buttons and embed them in my site. Everything since the beginning has been sliding scale. As well, there was no brick and mortar location, just urban homesteaders teaching from their own backyards.  Course offerings were designed to align with the growing and gardening season, including a rest during Winter. While I taught much of the core curriculum,  I engaged others to teach skills they were actively practicing, donating most of my admin time so that teachers could make a good wage.  At its height,  IUH presented as many as  90 classes a year by 25+ teachers. At the end of this email I have included a fairly comprehensive  list of classes we offered through the years and a partial list of teachers (some of this info lost to time).  For several years I offered an internship program, where interns helped me run the school and in exchange gained experience in small business skills, grant writing and event production. 

Farm Tours & Open Houses
Before I started IUH, I offered the occasional open house for my circle of friends to sell my ceramics and other goodies.  Once I started IUH, I included a tour of my garden.  In 2012 I asked a few urban farmer friends if they wanted to do open houses the same day and ask an admission fee for a structured educational tour.  I was sttill doing in-print press campaigns and this little event was picked up by the San Franscico Chronicle and featured in their Sunday edition with a 3 page full color article.  Over 350 people registered for the event and Urban Farm Tours was born. This much beloved and successful event show-cased properties and people doing innovative things in their own backyard, chicken coops, greywater oasis, urban goat dairies, rainwater catchment, vermiculture, natural building, food forests, small scale CSAs and more. One day, when I retire, I hope to produce and event like this again!  See the farm tour promotional posters & postcards here.

Newsletter Blog
I wrote a monthly newsletter, published the first of the month for over 15 years and somewhat less frequently the last 3 years. All told about 200 editions. I started writing before life was monetised.  Blogging was not yet a thing, Substack a distant future, Youtube was still fun and folksy. About 10 years of these newsletters are available at iuhoakland.com under the NEWS heading.

What’s Next?
Unfortunately you may not yet be rid of me!

• As this subscriber list continues to dwindle (down to 3500 from 5000), I will continue to write with updates &  photos as the occasion suits.

• A one-day 2026 Winter Open House is definitely in the works—that went so well in 2025!

• Summer 2026 I will start to craft some digital content which will be hosted at HomesteadCulture.com. I will announce and promote that to you when it becomes available!

• I will continue to host the BAHH list (Bay Area Homestead Hook-Up).  The list, which connects local gardeners and homesteaders, could use a few new subscribers.  Click here to subscribe.

• IUHOakland.com will stay up for awhile.  Use our contact form to communicate with us.

Sending Love. happiness & garden greens to all