Founded by Jules Dervaes (Dur-VAYS) in 2001, Path to Freedom is a grassroots, family operated, viable urban homesteading project established to promote a simpler and more fulfilling lifestyle and reduce one family's "footprint" on the earth's dwindling resources.
Since the mid 1980s, all five members of the Dervaes family have steadily worked at transforming their ordinary city lot in Pasadena, California, into an organic permaculture garden supplying them with food all year round. They also run a successful business, Dervaes Gardens
, providing salad greens to local restaurants. This helps them fund their purchases of solar panels, energy efficient appliances, and biodiesel processor to further decrease their homestead's reliance on the earth’s non-renewable resources.
What is unique and makes PathtoFreedom.com different from other sustainable living sites on the Internet? The Dervaes family isn’t just writing about the latest eco-practices or products that should be incorporated into their lives. Instead, they are sharing with you the changes and steps to sustainability they already have implemented in their lifestyle.
Furthermore, you, the readers, can "visit" the family daily at their journal and witness their first-hand accounts of struggles and joys, defeats and successes, as they journey along the path to self-sufficiency to accomplish more.
It is the family’s hope and desire to live by example as they strive to become earth stewards on a journey towards a sustainable world.
Through the Dervaes Institute founded in 2006 as a legacy for his father, Jules Dervaes and his family's mission is to expand Path to Freedom's worldwide outreach program, which will provide sustainable solutions in the present and for future generations, honoring the legacy of Jules Dervaes, Sr.
PathtoFreedom.com is designed, created, operated, and maintained and by members of the Dervaes family. The family operates the website as a non-commercial, home-based effort with no commercial advertising. They are committed to maintaining this site as an ad and commercial free sanctuary.
This site documents the daily struggles and triumphs and seasonal activities of Path to Freedom with additional links and resources about environmental issues and sustainable living. Recently, Path to Freedom has been open to the public for tours and educational workshops.
In addition, the Dervaes family participates in a number of events and festivals. The project is slowly becoming legendary worldwide and has attracted local and national media attention, including television, magazine, and newspaper coverage.
The website continues to grow. As of 2006, the site receives over 75,000 unique visitors a month/3,000,000 hits from over 100 countries.
While Path to Freedom's urban homestead has enjoyed widespread recognition, only the earth stewardship outreach activities of Path to Freedom receive outside tax deductible funding through the Dervaes Institute Path to Freedom itself strives to be a true, working homestead model not just a showcase.
Projects that the Dervaes family have undertaken in the past and plan to accomplish in the future are self funded with the earnings of their produce business and savings.
The homestead operates a viable home business. Path to Freedom does not depend on tours, teaching, writing books, lectures, memberships, grants, donations or consulting fees.
