About Me

Welcome to Urban Homesteading!

My name is Craig and this has turned into an unexpected passion project of mine. If you would have asked me even just a few years ago if I would be into gardening, food preservation, and urban homesteading, I would have given you a weird look and changed the topic. Nowadays, though, it’s become a core part of who I am.

It all started when my husband, John, wanted to grow some potatoes and squash to help cut down on the grocery bill and to give him a break in the day. (He’s self-employed and works from home, so it can be difficult to completely separate himself from work, but gardening lets him do that.)

In just a few short years, we ended up converting our entire property—which is not that big, mind you—into productive garden real estate. From there, we expanded onto our neighbour’s property; his back yard is all set-up for gardening but he’s not able to tend to it himself much anymore. Our current project is helping the neighbours on the other side build a garden in their yard.

With all this food John was growing, I needed to figure out what the heck to do with it all…and in that I discovered a passion for food preservation. You can read more about my food preservation journey here. You can read more about what urban homesteading means to me here.

Outside of urban homesteading, John and I run a book services company and operate a small publisher of various genres of fiction and non-fiction. I’m also an author of gay romance and gay young adult fiction, under various pen names. You can find out more about all these things at the links in this LinkTree. I’m also the co-host of Cali & Craig Talk, a biweekly podcast about books…and sometimes spicy things… You can find out more about Cali & Craig Talk—and listen to episodes—at the links in this LinkTree.

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If you’d like to connect on social media, the best place would be my Instagram account (@dylanjamesya), as that’s where I post all of my food and garden photos.