Dervaes Family

[fundiefun]

What os the Dervaes family deal I know they were featured in Jocelyn's feelin feminine but in their interview she asked them specific questions related to farming and not the stay at home patriarchy drivel she usually spews. I came across their facebook page that had a photo of the two oldest girls bedroom and I'm not one to hate on tastes, but their bedroom looks like very little girlish and they are in their late 20's I believe.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =3&theater

[ophelia]

this shows once again how these poor SAHDs are forced to stay little girls until prince charming comes. as a women your only purpose in life is to breed and as long as you are not married you are worth nothing and remain a child. how sad. and how insane!!

[browngrl]

Looks a bit young to me too

Don't you find that all the fundie SAHD seem very young? Hell, listen to Michelle Dugger - she talks in a high pitched baby voice at 40 something.

Maybe it is just me but I stopped with the frills and stuffed toys and princess obsession when I was a young child, but fundie girls never seem to leave that phase behind. Wasn't there some fundie girl who had a "Tangled" party when she was 20?

I think it has a lot to do with the fundamentalist need to control and limit women. An adult woman might actually want to think/act on her own. It is ever so much easier to control a powerless child. Fundies also seem to think that any woman who is not sweet must surely be a bitch. With that mindset - is it any wonder that SAHD act like little girls?

[Jessica]

My room looked a lot like that when I was 20. I think it's cute. Our room now is somewhat like that. I say "somewhat" because I do have a spouse to share it with, so some of his stuff is out in the room so it's not quite so foo-foo. ;)

[NurseNell]

I like it. Maybe the teddy bears could go although I still have my 65 y.o. teddy bear on my bed. My cats like it.

[Black Aliss]

Jules Dervaes was a follower of Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God. He moved his family to Pasadena so he could study theology at Armstrong's seminary. He got into a huge drawn-out theological battle over HWA's successor, his son Garner Ted Armstrong and was eventually excommunicated. Jules and the three adult children are at some level Torah-observant Christians. The mother left the marriage and the children when Jordanne was a toddler, I believe. Jordanne's is now in her late 20's, Anais about 9 or 10 years older. There's another son, Jeremy, who is, I think between Justin and Jordanne in age. He seems to have nothing to do with the family. Certainly their website doesn't hint at his existence. There's a ton of dirt about Jules' battles with the church, and his wife's struggle with submission buried in their domain. Try thehiddenyears dot org.

[NurseNell]

Jordanne's is now in her late 20's, Anais about 9 or 10 years older.

So these are the 2 girls sharing a bedroom? I can see early 20 adults sharing a room but at some point it would be nice if they could each have a room. Of course the best thing would be if they could be out living on their own.

[NurseNell]

I've just started reading their blog. I must say I'm impressed with their urban gardening. I really want to have a container garden on my balcomy this next summer. The more food a family can grow on their own the better it is for them, cheaper and safer.

[Rosa]

They really scrubbed the God stuff from the website when they started getting better-known as urban farmers, and then last year or the year before there was a big fooforaw because Pa Dervaes tried to claim he owned the word "urban homestead" and nobody else could use it without linking to him or paying him or something, and the whole green living blogosphere got mad at them and THEN noticed they were scary fundies as well.

[Miss M]

They really scrubbed the God stuff from the website when they started getting better-known as urban farmers, and then last year or the year before there was a big fooforaw because Pa Dervaes tried to claim he owned the word "urban homestead" and nobody else could use it without linking to him or paying him or something, and the whole green living blogosphere got mad at them and THEN noticed they were scary fundies as well.

Yes, this WAS huge in the urban farming/small homesteading community, people were so pissed off!

[koolmom]

Heard of these folks through community gardens and permaculture activities in my city. What's the backstory on what happened to Mrs. Dervaes? I'd known they'd split, but as to why? And do the children even see their mother? Details or links would be appreciated!

[flojo]

They apparently spent some time living in backwater nz...

It's like the botkinettes as they age

ETA: Anais was born in NZ. Jules' profile on their site states the fmily lived there from 1973-75, making her around 36/37

[Jewess]

How do people discover that non obviously proselytizing people are fundies?

I heard of the Dervaes, thought they were inspiring, got pissed off when I heard about them trying to claim the words Urban Homesteading as their own...

But I never put two and two together and realized they're fundies. How do people discover these things?

When there's a blog that doesn't mention religion or submissiveness or whatever, what would clue you in as to the fact that these people are fundies?

[Rosa]

They gave me a weird Patriarchal vibe and weren't in my climate zone, so I mostly ignored them. The fundie stuff came up when some folks (I think inspired by the "homestead" fooforaw) dug up old cached versions of Pa Dervaes blog, or found documents that were still there but not linked to the main page? I didn't do it but it looked like basic websleuthing - maybe just looking at the old blog in the wayback machine? There was a "Use the word Urban Homestead on Your Blog Day" - Crunchychicken had a link list on her blog - so it's all in there somewhere.

[Jewess]

They gave me a weird Patriarchal vibe and weren't in my climate zone, so I mostly ignored them. The fundie stuff came up when some folks (I think inspired by the "homestead" fooforaw) dug up old cached versions of Pa Dervaes blog, or found documents that were still there but not linked to the main page? I didn't do it but it looked like basic websleuthing - maybe just looking at the old blog in the wayback machine? There was a "Use the word Urban Homestead on Your Blog Day" - Crunchychicken had a link list on her blog - so it's all in there somewhere.

Interesting. Web sleuthing I can figure how they'd discover it, but how do people decide who to web sleuth?

Its interesting, their older daughter didn't give me a patriarchal stay at home daughter vibe. She looks distinctly unfeminine to me... I assumed she just was asexual or had something funny going on with her daddy... lol.

[Rosa]

Well, Pa Dervaes started basically a fight with the entire green/sustainable/homesteading/urban farming internet over another issue, so people went looking.

Truthfully, I don't know what gave me the bad feeling about it - the kids being only in the family business, never having left and come back (left and come back is a pretty common story with family farmers of all types, just never leaving isn't), but also the monetizing/authoritarian tone of the site turned me off -they softened it up over time, but back in 2003-2004 it was pretty stark. I think if I were in the same climate I would have paid more attention but their methods aren't at all applicable where I am so there was no reason for me to stick around with the bad vibe.

[GenerationCedarchip]

They really scrubbed the God stuff from the website when they started getting better-known as urban farmers, and then last year or the year before there was a big fooforaw because Pa Dervaes tried to claim he owned the word "urban homestead" and nobody else could use it without linking to him or paying him or something, and the whole green living blogosphere got mad at them and THEN noticed they were scary fundies as well.

I have a feelance writer friend who was doing a profile on them for a publication. From what he told me, they come off as lovable if slightly eccentric and hippie-ish farmers. They're really committed to green living and my friend was about to write this really glowing piece on their agriculture but then someone sent him an anonymous tip with links to a complete goldmine. The piece ended up never happening but all the wayback machine goodness on Darvaes and his Church of God fundy-ness was pretty amazing. This was a couple of years ago but I remember 1 page mentioning links to Dominionists because I had to explain to my friend what that meant.

I do think it's interesting how Dervaes has managed to get a mainstream following while hiding some of the fundy stuff beneath the surface. They have even been featured in the Green Issue of the NY Times.

[batwing]

I have a feelance writer friend who was doing a profile on them for a publication. From what he told me, they come off as lovable if slightly eccentric and hippie-ish farmers. They're really committed to green living and my friend was about to write this really glowing piece on their agriculture but then someone sent him an anonymous tip with links to a complete goldmine. The piece ended up never happening but all the wayback machine goodness on Darvaes and his Church of God fundy-ness was pretty amazing. This was a couple of years ago but I remember 1 page mentioning links to Dominionists because I had to explain to my friend what that meant.

I do think it's interesting how Dervaes has managed to get a mainstream following while hiding some of the fundy stuff beneath the surface. They have even been featured in the Green Issue of the NY Times.

I followed their blog for a while (must've been post blog scrub because I totally missed out on the Church of God stuff!) after they were featured on TV. I can't remember for the life of me what show it was. I'm thinking it was some sort of TLC/Discovery/National Geographic/PBS type of thing.

[Rosa]

Joel Salatin, too - I don't know about patriarchalist, but he went to Bob Jones and he's a libertarian Christian.

I think two things - one, we kind of expect serious environmentalists to be a little crazy, it's kind of written off as eccentricity (I mean, really, who chooses to work with shit all day for little money if they have other options?) and, two, the mainstream doensn't really *care* about people's religious beliefs. Regular people will overlook a whole bunch of religious nonsense, completely over whatever line anybody will draw as "way over into cuckooland", as long as it's not shoved right in their faces.

ETA: I just went and looked it up, and Salatin's pro-life, literal Creationist (I think YEC but I'm not sure), and home-churching. I am pretty sure I've read that farm interns have to attend services, too, but I couldn't find a source for that so I could be wrong.

[fundiefun]

Oh my word im laying in bed watching the VH1 show youre cut off and guess who pops up The Dervaes family on a promo for next weeks episode! I remember they did this show awhile ago since its a rerun but speak of the devil.

[Rosa]

Awesome! And weird.

[Black Aliss]

Heard of these folks through community gardens and permaculture activities in my city. What's the backstory on what happened to Mrs. Dervaes? I'd known they'd split, but as to why? And do the children even see their mother? Details or links would be appreciated!

As I said in my earlier post, look at thehiddenyears.org. I'll warn you, it'll be a slog. I found it when I googled "Jeremy Dervaes" because I knew he'd been part of the family early on, but then he disappeared and even the caption on a photo of the three oldest kids, taken shortly after they'd moved to Pasadena, pretended that it was a photo of Justin, Anais, and Jordanne, even though the three were wearing very gender-specific outfits.

The Torah-observant part you can pick up from their blog posts. They observe all of the Jewish holy days, and frequently make passing reference to those observances. Also, on their e-store site:

"A day of rest, a Sabbath request. We ask that wherever you may live to refrain from purchasing from this website between Friday sunset and Saturday sunset. "

As for the father's control over his kids, Steve Maxwell has nothing on Jules Dervaes.

From http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5776991/The-Dervaeses-of-Pasadena-poster-family-for-greener-living.html:

"On Saturday, their day off, they go for outings and hikes with friends (Jordanne usually brings along her goats) and the family holds a monthly potluck dinner for 30 friends. But none of them has a romantic interest. Jules says he has asked the children to put their romantic lives on hold 'until we can make a move’.

The move they are planning is to a larger piece of land where they can create a community of like-minded people. 'We want a couple of hundred acres and we anticipate a village of 60 families,’ Jordanne says. 'We want somewhere with mates and children,’ Anais says. 'And we want more bees,’ Justin says. This plan isn’t a mere fantasy – they have been making offers on properties for the past two years.

Jules, who has been listening to his children talk excitedly about the new venture, says he is considering buying 600 acres 'somewhere in South America, somewhere safe but isolated’. The financing of the project, which Jules estimates at several million dollars, will come from the 'villagers’ or future residents, who will each purchase their own individual homestead. The family’s income is currently about $40,000 (from sales of their produce and items on their websites plus donations to the Dervaes Institute, set up in 2006 to support the Dervaeses’ mission), but not nearly enough to finance a utopian vision. "

I am in awe of what they are able to do on such a small plot of land. It was their website that motivated me to start growing more of my own food, although my PNW microclimate will never allow me the kind of harvests they enjoy.

[Black Aliss]

Joel Salatin, too - I don't know about patriarchalist, but he went to Bob Jones and he's a libertarian Christian.

I think two things - one, we kind of expect serious environmentalists to be a little crazy, it's kind of written off as eccentricity (I mean, really, who chooses to work with shit all day for little money if they have other options?) and, two, the mainstream doensn't really *care* about people's religious beliefs. Regular people will overlook a whole bunch of religious nonsense, completely over whatever line anybody will draw as "way over into cuckooland", as long as it's not shoved right in their faces.

ETA: I just went and looked it up, and Salatin's pro-life, literal Creationist (I think YEC but I'm not sure), and home-churching. I am pretty sure I've read that farm interns have to attend services, too, but I couldn't find a source for that so I could be wrong.

The Sanders family (and I think the Mortons also, but I'm not positive) have made pilgrimages to Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia. Read the description of Polyface in Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food. Fundy or not, Salatin, like the Dervaes family, is doing something remarkable.

[Rosa]

Oh yeah, I'm a big fan of Salatin as a farmer. The question was, how do folks like this get such a following among people who don't share or even abhor their religious views. Salatin especially links his farm practice with being pro-life pretty specifically; Dervaes tones it down a lot in public (but then he's not as famous as Salatin, either, or as reasonable-sounding in his religious writings.)

[NurseNell]

Jules, who has been listening to his children talk excitedly about the new venture, says he is considering buying 600 acres 'somewhere in South America, somewhere safe but isolated’. The financing of the project, which Jules estimates at several million dollars, will come from the 'villagers’ or future residents, who will each purchase their own individual homestead. The family’s income is currently about $40,000 (from sales of their produce and items on their websites plus donations to the Dervaes Institute, set up in 2006 to support the Dervaeses’ mission), but not nearly enough to finance a utopian vision. "

I am in awe of what they are able to do on such a small plot of land. It was their website that motivated me to start growing more of my own food, although my PNW microclimate will never allow me the kind of harvests they enjoy.

Is anyone else remembering Jonestown as they read of 600 acres somewhere in SA, safe but isolated? Scary.