Urban Homesteaders
From Karen Brown
| 00:05:38
Producers: Karen Brown
Kristin Brennan, Daniel Staub, and their two young children are attempting a homesteading experiment -- they live almost entirely off the food they produce themselves, they don't own a car, they hardly use any electricity, gas, etc. But what makes this lifestyle experiment different from, say, a rural homestead in Vermont, is that they live in a poor, inner-city neighborhood in Springfield, Massachusetts. They hope to show that living a simple, fossil-fuel-free life is possible even in a modern, urban setting.
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Review of Urban HomesteadersThis is a nicely mixed, well-edited piece with good use of sound and actualities. Karen Brown's writing and narration is crisp and pleasing to listen to. I would have liked to get a feeling for whether the family that is attempting a homesteading style of life is actually having any fun doing it, but we do get a good picture of what they have accomplished in this feature. The only flaw in the piece for me was a jarring 15-second phone actuality at about 3:55 into the piece; it is the only phone interview in the piece and I think it would hold up just as well without it. Other than that, it is a nice sound portrait of what it is like to homestead in an inner-city neighborhood. |
Broadcast History
This aired on WFCR in Amherst, MA in May, 2006, and again that month, in a much shorter form, on NPR's Morning Edition.
Transcript
URBAN HOMESTEADERS
INTRO:
NOT EVERYONE IS DESPONDENT OVER THE COST OF GAS AND FUEL THESE DAYS. ONE YOUNG FAMILY IN WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS BELIEVES IT'S POSSIBLE -- AND PREFERABLE -- TO LIVE ON ALMOST NO FOSSIL FUELS, AND STILL LEAD A MODERN LIFE. KAREN BROWN REPORTS.
AMB1: BACKYARD
amb2: chickens squawking.... ABOUT A DOZEN HENS ARE ROOTING AROUND RECENTLY TURNED SOIL IN THE BACKYARD OF DANIEL STAUB, KRISTIN BRENNAN, AND THEIR TWO YOUNG CHILDREN. THE HENS LAY ABOUT TEN EGGS A DAY -- THE FAMILY'S MAIN SOURCE OF PROTEIN. THEIR GARDEN IS STARTING TO PUSH UP KALE, COLLARD GREENS, TURNIPS, AND STRAWBERRIES. LATER IN THE SEASON, THEY'LL HAVE SQUASH, CORN, AND POTATOES. AND WHEN THEIR LITTLE ONES DEMAND SOMETHING SWEET, THEY WHACK THROUGH THE BRUSH TO A BACKYARD BEEHIVE.
AX1: KRISTIN: ' it was just one hive and they produced 80 lbs of honey this year that we actually harvested....(...
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Timing and Cues
5:38, plus intro
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Additional Information
- Produced: May 01, 2006
- Added to PRX: May 26, 2006
- This piece is in English
Aaron Henkin
Posted on August 24, 2006 at 09:27 AM | Permalink
Review of Urban Homesteaders
Producer Karen Brown has been making radio stories for WFCR for nine years, and her reporting experience makes this story shine. Brown introduces us to a young family that's made a social and environmental experiment out of their inner-city life together. They grow their own food, they don't own a car, and they light their house with candles at night, all in an effort to prove that living a simple, sustainable life is possible even in the middle of a modern city.
From the opening moments of this piece, we know we're in capable narrative hands. Brown takes us into the homesteaders' backyard, where hens cluck in the background and a vegetable garden sits next to a honey-producing beehive. Brown's writing is crisp and spatial, her delivery is a pitch-perfect combination of 'warm' and 'reporterly,' and on the technical front, this piece is mixed flawlessly, with plenty of ambient sound and a wide array of voices.
I really like the inclusion of the idealistic homesteaders' older, less 'visionary' relatives, like the uncle who points out that he has to drive them around because they don?t have a car! By the end of this story, I feel like I've been given a thorough, balanced introduction to the goals and the limitations of urban homesteading. It leaves me feeling inspired to try it myself one day, (like all the other things I'm going to do if I ever get organized).