About Farmora Living
A quiet, practical journal for people slowly making their kitchens, balconies and backyards a little more self-sufficient.
Why we started this journal
Farmora Living began on a small back porch in 2021. The first issue was a single sheet of paper, photocopied at a stationer’s shop, listing the equipment we wished someone had warned us about during our first season of growing food in pots. Friends asked for copies. Then their friends did. Eventually it became this online journal.
We write about urban farming, small-scale homesteading and the everyday habits that quietly make a household less wasteful. We try to write the way we’d talk on a porch: honest about what works, honest about what fails, slow on the hype.
What we are not
We are not a prepper site. We do not believe a balcony herb garden will replace your grocery bill in year one. We don’t sell courses. We don’t film perfect harvest hauls in soft light. We do believe that small, consistent steps quietly add up, and that the most useful guides are the ones written after the second or third season, not the first.
Our editorial team
Articles are written and reviewed by a small group of practising growers and homesteaders. Maren Hollis edits the journal and writes most of the long-form guides. We deliberately keep the masthead small so every piece can be checked against actual lived experience rather than aggregated information from elsewhere on the internet.
What we publish
- Beginner guides for people staring at their first patch of soil, balcony or kitchen window and wondering where to begin.
- Equipment notes on tools and setups we have used long enough to have an honest opinion about.
- Seasonal field notes that walk through what we are actually doing each month rather than what the calendar says we should be doing.
- Maintenance pieces on the unglamorous work that keeps everything functional: cleaning, sharpening, mending and rotating.
How we keep things slow
We publish roughly two long-form guides a week. We don’t chase trends, we don’t aggregate, and we don’t run sponsored editorial. If we recommend a piece of equipment, it’s because we own it, have lent it to a friend who also owns it, or have spent at least one full growing season testing it. Where we earn small affiliate commissions, that is disclosed on the affiliate disclosure page.
A note on tone
Sustainable living writing can drift toward either fear (apocalypse-prep) or polish (lifestyle aesthetic). We try to sit between the two, in the practical middle where most real homesteading happens. Our default tone is warm, calm and a little dry, which is roughly how the writers actually talk.
Get in touch
If you spot an error in a guide, want to suggest a topic, or simply want to share a photograph of your own setup, you can reach us through the contact page. We read everything. We answer within a week, usually two.
What we do not do
We do not run sponsored roundups presented as reviews. When we cover a raised bed, a hand tool or a grow light, we say clearly whether we bought it, whether it was sent to us, and whether the recommendation is based on a season, a year, or several years of use. If we have not actually used something, we do not write about it as though we have.
We do not publish generic gardening or homesteading content that could be lifted from any other site. If a topic cannot be told through a specific season, a specific balcony or a specific batch of compost, we set it aside.
What you can expect from a guide
Every published guide on Farmora Living includes at least one worked example with real numbers, one place where things went wrong, and a small FAQ answering the questions a reader most often has after finishing the piece. Guides are updated as our own setup and understanding change, and the date of the most recent update sits under the byline.
How to reach us
The Contact page is the fastest way to send a story idea, a correction, a note about your own setup, or an enquiry about editorial collaboration. We are a small team and every message reaches a human within a working week.