Grid Magazine April [084] by Red Flag Media

CRAFT MASTERS AND FOOD ARTISANS AN INSIDE LOOK AT HANDMADE ART AND EDIBLES IN PHILADELPHIA

GRID’S GUIDE TO SPRING FAIRS AND FESTIVALS TOWARD A SUSTAINABLE PHILADELPHIA APRIL 2016 / ISSUE 84 GRIDPHILLY.COM

HOW TO PLANT THE PERFECT PERENNIAL POT WILL “DEVELOPMENT” DESTROY YOUR COMMUNITY GARDEN?

PLANTING THE SEEDS OF WELLNESS. THE DELEMA G. DEAVER WELLNESS GARDEN AT LANKENAU MEDICAL CENTER

At Lankenau, we are committed to fostering a healthy and sustainable community. In collaboration with Greener Partners, we have planted a half-acre, year-round, organic gardenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the only one of its kind in the Philadelphia region. The Wellness Garden will serve as a source of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs for our community, and serve as a hands-on classroom for thousands of students. Because teaching children where wholesome food comes from not only encourages healthy eating habits, it plants the seeds of wellness for life. MAINLINEHEALTH.ORG/LANKENAU

Greener Partners Connecting communities through food, farms & education

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APRIL 29– AUGUST 14, 2016

Paper Louise Tiny Fishman Rock Descent Open Video Call

THROUGH AUGUST 14, 2016

Rodney McMillian: The Black Show Free. For All.

•

Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania icaphila.org

Free admission is courtesy of Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman.

The Clay Studio presents

Join us for a Spring Social Saturday, April 16 11am â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 6pm Join The Clay Studio in welcoming warmer days as we host an afternoon of tastings and demonstrations that celebrate the freshness of the spring season. Free tastings of locally made F kombucha from Inspired Brews, Gin from Palmer Distilling Co. and a flower arranging demonstration by Pilar Rivera of the Morris Arboretum, whose designs will focusing on handmade vessels to compliment the unique beauty of spring flowers. This event is FREE and open to the public.

Media Partner 137-139 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106 215-925-3453 www.theclaystudio.org

Event Partners morrisarboretum.org palmerdistilling.com inspiredbrews.com

Pictured artists Alex Watson Rebecca Chappell

CONTENTS D EPA RT M E N TS

INSID E THE ISSUE

To-Do List

The Plants Choose You

Spring has finally arrived, so make plans to reconnect with your garden and the farmers market

Creating the ideal perennial pot has a lot to do with where it will live, and how much love it will need

Comings and Goings

Is Your Soil Safe?

Find out which doors are opening and closing, and who deserves kudos

A novel use of funds from the Environmental Protection Agency may help support more urban agriculture

12 The Right Question Community gardens have many benefits. Is saving energy one of them?

ON THE COV ER

The Food We Grow Reflects the City We Love

Made in Philly Get your garden growing with compost, soil mixes and vermicompost made from Philadelphia’s kitchen scraps

19 Shop Local Philly foodies work their 9-to-5, and still find time to craft great artisanal food

26 Opinion The Kenney administration needs to make it a priority to protect community gardens

28 The Big Picture Modern slavery is inextricably linked with environmental destruction. Abolitionist Kevin Bales believes we can stop both

Throughout the city, we’re finding plots and making plans to grow our own food—for our own kitchens, to feed others and to create community

Jeaninne Kayembe stands in front of a mural at Life Do Grow

“As urban creators, we want spaces that we can create that are devoted to access to resources, food being the main one. That’s how we’re going to be a better Philadelphia.” — Jeaninne Kayembe, co-executive director at Philadelphia Urban Creators

SPECIA L SECT I ON

43 Homegrown and Handmade

Three Philadelphia artists reflect on how they’ve come to love their craft

Homestead Acts

Events

Beekeeping isn’t as hard as you think. Learn the basics and decide if a hive is right for you

What to see and where to go

56 Market Watch Asparagus is April’s rising star at the farmstand

COVER PH OTO BY NEA L SA NTOS ; A BOV E PH OTO BY JA R E D G RU E N WAL D

64 Dispatch A farmer grows alongside the plants—and the people—who have bloomed on her farm

Spring Fairs and Festivals Celebrate our city’s food, music, art and more

EDITOR’S NOTES

HEATHER SHAYNE BLAKESLEE

AWAKENING Spring gives us hope. Let’s share it with those who have none

ut in the woods of Fairmount Park and across the eastern woodlands, spring ephemerals, those short-lived native flowers—twinleaf and columbine, bloodroot and trout lily—have been blooming. They come up on their own to announce the coming of spring to the few souls who might seek them out, and then go dormant when the heat of summer comes calling. They flower whether we see them or not, and disappear just as quickly. In the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, plants native to its ecosystems are also growing. Amid the lush backdrop of protected lands that are crucial to the health of the entire globe, in sight of butterflies the size of dinner plates, a very different kind of temporary organism is popping up and then disappearing: illegal timber operations. In Congo, and in Ghana, the unlicensed and in many cases heavily armed operators stay longer as they tear up and poison the ground, in part because the mines that give us gold and diamonds—even metals for our cellphones—take longer to root and to bear fruit. In Bangladesh, it is the wildcat shrimp farms, and in India, the granite quarries. All of these industries are destroying the ecosystems in which they operate, but that, unfortunately, is not the most disheartening fact about their existence. In many of these places, the workers responsible—for clearcutting the forest and mining the gold and gutting the fish—are not working by choice. They are slaves. By some estimates, 32 million people worldwide are in bondage, and many of them are children who have not known, and will never know, any other life. In his book “Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide and the Secret to Saving the World” abolitionist Kevin Bales makes the argument that slave-driven industries

are the third largest source of CO2 emissions on the planet. He also makes the leap that environmentalists would redouble their efforts if only they knew that by putting more pressure on illegal mining and deforestation, they may not only save the planet, but eradicate the scourge of slavery. It’s a big leap, and it’s a heavy lift that may yet take generations. But Bales, who in his 20 years of anti-slavery work has seen the absolute worst that human beings can do to each other, remains hopeful. He believes that more and more of us are realizing that the way we treat the planet is directly related to how we treat each other, and that there is a growing movement to do better on both accounts. His optimism is mirrored in a quote by the memoirist and poet Mary Karr, who in recounting her troubled Texas childhood comes to the conclusion that, “The world breeds monsters, but kindness grows just as wild.” Kindness does grow wild, but we can also cultivate empathy and a willingness to act. You can make a difference by making conscientious decisions about what you buy and putting pressure on the companies you patronize. And your philanthropy, no matter your means, makes a difference. This spring, as you lightheartedly watch the redbuds starting to wash the woods in a light pink haze, or smile at the daffodils punching through a small patch of untended dirt, enjoy the hope that you feel. Then resolve to share it with others.

heather shayne blakeslee Managing Editor

heather@gridphilly.com

editor-in-chief Alex Mulcahy managing editor Heather Shayne Blakeslee heather@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 107 designer Kathleen White kathleen@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 112 copy editors Walter Foley Aaron Jollay writers Marilyn Anthony Matt Bevilacqua Amy Laura Cahn Peggy Paul Casella Laura Everard Anna Herman Alex Jones Emily Kovach Charis Lindrooth Jerry Silberman Alex Vuocolo illustrators

Wyatt Glennon Anne Lambelet Mike L. Perry James Olstein photgraphers Chloe Berk Addison Geary Jillian Guyette Jared Gruenwald Margo Reed Neal Santos

___________ Sales & Marketing Manager Claire Margheim claire@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 103 ad sales Wesley Kays-Henry wesley@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 100 distribution Megan Matuzak megan@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 106 published by Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 G R I D P H I L LY . C O M

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PROGRAMS FOR STUDENTS IN GRADES 1-12

TO-DO LIST 1. explore

reprogram your thermostat

3. clean out the gutters

There are beautiful spring ephemerals like rue anemone, bloodroot and twinleaf to be found, so get yourself a guidebook and take the family for a wildflower walk.

You might not need your heating system at all anymore, but at the very least make the switch to lower programmed temperatures as the weather warms.

One of the best ways to ensure that water isn’t going to wreak havoc in your house is to make sure everything can drain as designed; make sure storm drains are functioning, too.

fairmount park

Mulch isn’t just wood chips, and it’s not just for making the garden look neat and tidy. Mulch is any kind of organic ground cover, such as compost or shredded leaves, that will help keep weeds away, retain moisture and provide nutrients to keep the soil rich and productive. Don’t forget to add some to your potted plants as well. Two inches of high-quality mulch will do.

Now is the time get your boots and shoes scrubbed of corrosive salt and minerals, and to make any basic repairs—such as reheeling— that will keep them going another season. And before you throw your hats, gloves and scarves in the bin until next year, give them a good wash so they’re fresh and clean when the cold sets in again.

add mulch to your beds and pots

repair and clean your winter gear

5. get back into the habit of going to your farmers market

Everyone is itching for spring greens, but the real sight for sore eyes will be your favorite farmer behind the stand.

prune your trees and shrubs Plants that will flower from mid to late summer should get a visit from your pruning shears this time of year. Roses, hydrangeas, butterfly bush, holly firethorn and ornamental grasses are among the plants that benefit from being cut back in the early spring.

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8. install your

spend the summer with

screens

Install your window and door screens and enjoy those first spring days when you can finally throw open the windows and let fresh air float through the house.

check for mosquito breeding grounds Take care of standing water in tree holes, puddles, storm drains, water troughs and birdbaths. A bottlecap is enough for breeding!

10. get rid of old

Two Spaces. One Mission. #BuildBeauty

at the viaduct rail park 10th & Hamilton Streets

goods in the fridge and pantry The green of fresh asparagus and leafy lettuce is about to replace the root vegetables that reigned over the winter. Take a moment to get rid of expired spices and condimentsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like the leftover preserves hiding in the fridge door.

at south street 15th & South Streets

Opens Memorial Day! AP RIL 20 16

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NEWS lion, and the maximum reward has been reduced to $100 million from $200 million.

ACE MENTOR PROGRAM NAMES NNADOZIE IBEH TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS

FRACKING LAWSUIT RULES IN FAMILIES’ FAVOR Cabot Oil & Gas will have to pay more than $4.2 million to two Dimock Township couples after six jurors in federal court deemed that fracking operations contaminated the groundwater of their central Pennsylvania homes. According to an NPR StateImpact report, the company has already acquired more than 130 drilling violations at its Dimock wells. A state investigation, according to The Associated Press, found that Cabot had allowed gas to escape into the region’s groundwater supplies, and at least 18 residential wells were contaminated. Residents had been voicing their concerns since 2008.

CITY RECYCLING DIRECTOR TAKES NEW JOB IN VIRGINIA Phil Bresee left his position as the city’s recycling director March 25 to take a job in the Arlington County, Virginia, Environmental Management Division. In an email to colleagues, Bresee said he welcomes the change with “both excitement and some sadness,” after serving

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Philadelphia for nearly four years. In a statement, the city of Philadelphia thanked Bresee “for his dedicated service in making Philadelphia a leader in environmental sustainability. Under Phil’s leadership, Philadelphia recycling rates remained at the top of most cities in the country. Phil was an innovative thinker, and he was well versed with the recycling markets and economy around the world.” They plan a targeted recruitment search to fill the position.

DEADLINE APPROACHES FOR TIGER FUNDING APPLICATION The deadline to apply for Transportation Investment Granting Economic Recovery (TIGER) funding is April 29 at 8 p.m. The Department of Transportation will award $500 million total to projects across the U.S. to improve safety and service in transportation. Philadelphia has benefitted from TIGER grants in the past few years, receiving money for critical improvements to SEPTA’s West Trenton Regional Rail Line, as well as bridge repairs near Grays Ferry. The minimum award has been reduced to $5 million from last year’s $10 mil-

The Eastern Pennsylvania chapter of the national ACE Mentor Program has named Nnadozie Ibeh to its board of directors. Since 2006, Ibeh has been a mentor at the nonprofit, which encourages high school students to consider careers in design and construction through mentoring, scholarships and grants. “Ibeh brings an institutional perspective to his role as an ACE mentor,” said ACE Eastern Pennsylvania Affiliate Director Tiffany Millner in a press release. “That combined with his decade of mentorship experience will serve the board well.” Ibeh holds a master’s degree in construction management from Drexel University. He is a LEED accredited professional and is a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects.

HOUSE UNANIMOUSLY PASSES HERITAGE AREAS BILL The Pennsylvania House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill in February that formally establishes a Heritage Area program to identify, protect, enhance and promote the historic, recreational, natural, cultural and scenic resources of the state. In Pennsylvania, there are 12 designated Heritage Areas—defined as geographic regions or corridors that span two or more counties and contain historic, recreational, natural and scenic resources. The bill, HB1605, is awaiting passage in the state Senate. According to one study, in 2014, tourists spent an estimated 7.5 million days and nights in Pennsylvania’s Heritage Areas, where they purchased $2 billion worth of goods and services. This spending supported 25,708 jobs and generated $798 million in labor income.

EAT CAFÉ POISED TO OPEN IN SPRING WITH SLIDING-SCALE MENU A pay-what-you-can café in West Philly is hoping to change the way the city talks about food insecurity. Short for “Everyone At the Table,” EAT Café on Lancaster Avenue will serve a rapidly rotating menu of three-course meals using fresh, healthful ingredients, and anyone can partake. Drexel University’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities and Vetri Community Partnership are bringing the concept to fruition, and educational events and activities are slotted to focus on culinary arts and workforce readiness training.

FUTURE OF LA FINQUITA IN LEGAL LIMBO Members of a longstanding South Kensington community-based organization filed litigation in order to establish its ownership and gain permanent control of La Finquita, the urban farm they have cultivated since 1988. Philadelphia Catholic Worker filed the suit in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, after gardeners discovered in January that an unknown party placed a lock on the entrance to the fence surrounding the garden, which is located at the corner of North Lawrence and Master streets in Kensington. Records show the land was last owned by Pyramid Tire & Rubber Co., which has been inactive as a corporation since 1956. “When we first started the garden, our goal was to have a positive impact on the neighborhood and deal with the unsightly, trash-strewn, abandoned lot. Those are still our goals today,” said Beth Centz of the Philadelphia Catholic Worker in a press release. “More than two decades of residents contributed their sweat equity to care for this space; it is time for the Catholic Worker to formally establish our legal ownership.” Under Pennsylvania state law, an entity can claim adverse possession of a property if they can demonstrate unbroken possession for more than 21 years.

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the RIGH T QUE STION

VICTORY OR DEFEAT? Urban gardens have many benefits. But many still run at an energy deficit by jerry silberman

uestion: How much can I grow in my garden? The Right Question: Do urban gardens have a place in a sustainable food production system? Food provides both all the materials we need to build our bodies and all the energy to run it. Any animal (or society) that uses more energy on a daily basis than it consumes in food soon starves to death. Access to fossil fuel energy has allowed human society to produce food at a huge energy deficit. This fossil fuel subsidy has also allowed a growing percentage of our burgeoning population to have nothing to do with growing food: Within the last few years, for the first time in history, the majority of people live in cities. In past generations, urban and suburban backyard gardens were much more common than they are now. Even with the return in popularity of community gardens, and the appearance of a few urban farms, Philadelphia grew more of what it ate in home gardens in the ’50s, and in every decade before that, than it does now.

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During World War II, having a “victory garden” was a patriotic duty, and up to 40 percent of our vegetables were homegrown. Community and home gardening were boosted by the influx of AfricanAmericans from the South in the early ’50s, and declined as that generation passed. Home gardens had begun to decline before the war under the pressure of the growing food industry. The beginning of refrigerated transport of vegetables helped discourage gardening. Through the middle of the 20th century, often the only way to get those really fresh tasty vegetables— even in season—was to grow them yourself. Today, some of Philadelphia’s Asian and other immigrant communities are among the most energetic gardeners, because some of the vegetables central to their food culture aren’t easily available in our grocergy stores. In many community gardens, the benefit of activating the community, the safety benefits from reclaiming vacant lots and the contribution to food security is probably greater than the net energy gain from local garden plots: That’s a murkier picture.

Vegetables grown in pots, with highly amended soils, watered from a tap, started from the seeds of plants grown hundreds of miles away and shipped in glossy paper envelopes most likely use far more energy than they will provide the eater. That’s especially true if they are low energy density foods such as lettuce, greens, herbs, peppers, etc. If your garden is in actual soil, and your soil is being regenerated by organic, on-site practices, and you are growing fruit and nut trees, or higher energy but less glamorous veggies such as potatoes, beans or beets, you might actually be getting a net energy surplus, especially if you are saving your seed. Some vegetables will never produce an energy surplus—but they are worth it because they provide important vitamins and minerals. They can be grown without an energy surplus when we understand them as part of a complete system of food production that operates with a net surplus of energy for us and for our land. The foods that we depend on for the bulk of our calories and nutrients are meat and

IL LUSTRATIO N BY JAM ES OLSTEI N

grains, including nongrass seeds like buckwheat, nuts and legumes. With the exception perhaps of a backyard chicken—or a yard-filling fruit or nut tree—these don’t do well on a backyard garden scale. But the most important role for a backyard garden may not be what it produces for you, but what it teaches you about food production. What can you learn from the work that it takes to maintain your garden and the reliability of production? From the life of the soil in which your plants grow and changes in that soil as the years pass? What do you observe about the ecology of weeds and small animals, or even the people in your neighborhood? Even the most casual gardener cannot help but to learn lessons about water, temperature and changing seasons, as well as see on a micro level what large-scale food producers know: There is a trade-off to growing specialized plants that produce more but are more vulnerable to environmental challenges, and pesticides are an easy out (like using that can of bug spray to try to save one head of cabbage from the caterpillars). One of the biggest lessons most urban gardeners will learn is that they still need the supermarket, and gardening can teach us respect for the farmer, who needs to reliably feed not only her own family, but the rest of us. It’s an ever greater feat if she is committed to doing so sustainably—that is, without the external inputs of huge fossil fuel subsidies in mechanized agriculture, fertilizer and long distance transportation. How far and how fast our fossil-fuel-subsidized food supply will drop—and with it, global population—is anyone’s guess. What’s not a guess is that re-creating sustainable food production systems will be a steep learning curve for populations that have been away from the land for generations. Present urban gardens may or may not be part of the solution. Out of neccessity, our food systems will transition toward sustainable systems. The role of our gardens will increase, but their role will always be complementary to the role of farms that are—hopefully—within visiting distance of our own urban plots.

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Jerry Silberman is a cranky environmentalist and union negotiator who likes to ask the right question and is no stranger to compromise.

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MA D E IN PH ILLY

Tim Bennett making compost

GET GROWING Collecting Philadelphia’s food scraps has helped Bennett Compost hit pay dirt by matt bevilacqua

t the corner of Henry and West Hunting Park avenues in North Philadelphia, hidden behind an old warehouse building, sit several steaming piles of household waste. A faint earthy smell hangs in the air, but all the apple cores, coffee grounds and eggshells in sight will soon become some of the best fertilizer that gardeners can get their hands on. “It’s a really fine, nutrient-rich compost,” says Tim Bennett, who founded Bennett Compost in 2009. His company has since become one of the busiest composting services in the city, gathering food waste and fallen leaves from city residents as well as larger clients, such as Philadelphia University. The real magic happens out back, where various mounds of kitchen scraps gradually break down into organic matter. “We take what nature does and re-create the ideal conditions for it,” Bennett says. Initially, the waste is mixed with leaves, placed under a tarp and left to sit for two or three days. Over the next three weeks it

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will move three times, hooking up to different hoses that will supply the oxygen necessary to accelerate microbial activity. Later, the piles will sit in the sun for an additional six weeks as the material continues to break down. Eventually it will all go through a sifter and, finally, be bagged or put into potting. The stuff that doesn’t break down goes back onto the pile. “For a lot of urban residents, they just don’t have the space or the ability to do this at home,” Bennett says. A 2014 poll by the National Waste and Recycling Association found that while 72 percent of respondents didn’t compost, more than two-thirds of the noncomposters said they would try it if the process were easier. While local groups such as the Dirt Factory serve specific neighborhoods and larger companies such as Organic Diversions, deal with restaurants and businesses, Bennett Compost is one of the few composting options available to Philadelphia residents in general. When the compost is ready, customers

can pick it up on-site. South Philly’s Urban Jungle sells bags of it, and you can buy worm castings—that’s an even more effective version of the compost, courtesy of worm poop—at Weavers Way Co-op. Bennett also distributes through Philly Foodworks, a local CSA, and partners with farmers markets during the spring and summer. The SHARE Food Program, a hunger relief nonprofit, started using Bennett’s compost last year. Headquartered at the other end of the sprawling complex where he works, SHARE grows produce that it delivers at highly discounted rates across the city. “We normally grow 10,000 to 15,000 pounds of produce,” says Steveanna Wynn, SHARE’s executive director. “Last year we grew 20,000. It was absolutely beautiful, and it was all because of the compost.” Order compost and potting soil mixes, as well as vermicompost, in various sizes for pickup or delivery online at bennettcompost.com.

P HOTO BY CHRISTO P HE R LEA MA N

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P LOCA L 16

MAGAZ

To Market, To Market by emily kovach

Three food artisans who will make your plate a thing of beauty

Thanks to supportive resources like the Enterprise Center and the Greensgrow Community Kitchen, Philadelphia is a friendly place to start a small food business. While some budding culinary companies immediately go the wholesale or brick-and-mortar routes, many get their start vending at farmers markets. Meet three aspiring food entrepreneurs who’ve used this model to introduce their products to the (local) masses. Brine Street pickles are a tasty pre-game for your dinner party

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PHOTO BY JI LLIA N GUYETTE

It’s a heady time to be a food enthusiast in Philadelphia. Local artisans have been busy canning, bottling, baking, brewing and roasting up a storm. Nearly any edible provision you can imagine is currently being produced, often by hand and in small batches, in our city or nearby. While the satirical television show “Portlandia” may encourage poking fun at all things artisanal, we’ll admit it: We just can’t get enough. Give us craft-made foodstuffs—precious packaging and all—over mass produced goods any day.

SH OP L OCAL

Olga Sorzano with her beloved Baba

FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE Baba’s Brew kombucha uses a grandmother’s recipe, and organic and fair trade ingredients

or a kid growing up in Soviet Russia in the 1980s, treats were nearly impossible to come by. “We didn’t have soda or desserts,” says Olga Sorzano, owner of Baba’s Brew. “But my great-grandmother brewed kombucha and always had it in the house. This was really fun for me—a sweet fizzy drink!” Sorzano harbors vivid memories of her Baba, now the namesake of her company, using her special tasting spoon to test her brew and murmuring, “Two more days, Olga, two more days.” Kombucha is a carbonated tea beverage, fermented with a pancake-shaped SCOBY (symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast), and has been regarded in some cultures as a health tonic for thousands of years. It is relatively easy to make at home, and after moving to the United States from Southern Siberia in 2000, Sorzano began brewing on and off as a hobby. She brewed more con-

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sistently starting in 2008 while pregnant with her first child—the kombucha helped alleviate her nausea. “I’m also a huge wine drinker, so I was looking for something to drink that was nonalcoholic,” she says. Though educated as a veterinarian, she worked as a private chef and would brew kombucha for her clients. In 2014, Sorzano and her husband went to a fermentation festival in Santa Barbara, California, and were blown away by the many kombucha companies in attendance. When they came back, they decided to go all in on their own enterprise. They started Baba’s Brew in February of 2015, and launched that spring at the Phoenixville Farmers’ Market. At first, they sold 16 ounce bottles, but in response to their customers’ interest in sustainability, began kegging and selling 64 and 32 ounce glass growler fills. “By the end of the season, we were selling nine or

10 kegs per day,” Sorzano says. Baba’s Brew is headquartered in West Chester, working out of the Artisan Exchange incubator kitchen. They supply to 40 wholesale accounts, including to Di Bruno Bros. and Crime & Punishment Brewing Co. in Philadelphia. Their small team produces 190 gallons of kombucha per week and they hope to more than double that by the end of 2016. Their effervescent brews come in year-round flavors like chamomile honey and hibiscus as well seasonal specials like watermelon mint, and are made with organic, fair trade and local-when-possible ingredients. Her family has a kegerator of kombucha at home, and goes through a keg each week. “The neighborhood kids come and help themselves— all the neighbors enjoy it,” she says. “Nothing is more exciting than the labor of your passion being accepted and being loved.”

FIND A FARMERS MARKET NEAR YOU Philadelphia is home to more than 80 seasonal farmers markets in nearly every pocket of the city. On spring days, these sites become the nexus of public life where communities mix and mingle while supporting local agriculture. People are free to congregate, wander through with dogs and strollers in tow, chat it up with vendors, or simply shop and be on their way. Food trucks are a newer addition to the scene, providing yet another way to sample the bounty of local food and encouraging impromptu picnics. The websites for Farm to City and the Food Trust are two of the best sources to find a market near you.

Spruce Hill Blackberry Lavender Jam

LADY AND MR. MARMALADE Fifth of a Farm Creations busts a jam

very two or three weeks, Jennifer and Steve Horton play hooky from their 9-to-5 jobs in marketing and economic development, respectively, and spend the whole day transforming local produce and sugar into hundreds of jars of jam and preserves in the Greensgrow Community Kitchen. The couple, who have co-run Fifth of a Farm Creations since 2011, met in college in Indiana, fell in love, and moved to Philadelphia together when Steve got a job at a settlement house in Kensington. Jennifer finished her degree at Temple University, the pair moved to Germantown and settled into their professional lives. In 2010, Jennifer’s job became tenuous and she and Steve began to evaluate the prospect of starting their own business. Both were avid gardeners who loved to cook, and both came from families who practiced canning and preserving, so a food-related company made the most sense. Also, at that time, Steve was employed by the Enterprise Center, which was opening their shared kitchen space. “He worked with a lot of the food entrepreneurs, and that created the impetus for us to say, ‘If this person can do it, we can do it,’” Jennifer says. Like many small food businesses, they started by testing their jams and marmalades on their friends. Then, they began vending at farmers markets around the city. Their products are named after Philadelphia neighborhoods, like Point Breeze Tomato Jam and Spruce Hill Blackberry Lavender Jam, which charmed local shoppers. Three years ago, they scored a major wholesale client, MOM’s Organic Market in Bryn Mawr, and are now also carried by Baker Street Bread Co. in Chestnut Hill, and Milk & Honey Market and Picnic in University City. “Every year we’ve been growing incrementally, but we’re still not at the level where we can have this as our full-time jobs,” Jennifer says. “That is our goal.”

P HOTO BY M A RGO R EED

HEADHOUSE FARMERS MARKET CELEBRATES 10 SEASONS! Headhouse Square Farmers Market, the city’s largest, is commemorating its 10th season this year. This Sunday market located on Second and Pine streets will reopen for the season May 1, boasting more than 40 vendors selling heirloom produce, meat, flowers, breads, cheeses, ice cream and even wine. To mark a decade in the game, the Food Trust has a number of special events planned, such as a food-focused book fair June 19. Local food authors like Marisa McClellan (“Food In Jars,” “Preserving by the Pint”) and Tara Desmond (“Almost Meatless”) will be at the market meeting, greeting, and selling and signing books. Keep an eye on the Food Trust’s website for details on other celebratory happenings.

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SH OP L OCAL

Brine Street pickles, the perfect accent for bloody marys

SPEARS OVER CHIPS The Brine Street Picklery gang brings the zing

ig decisions are part of launching any company. When Brine Street Picklery was forming, its five co-founders had a particularly pressing dilemma on hand: spear or chip? “It’s the age-old pickle question,” founder PJ Hopkins laughs. “I was outvoted for spears four to one.” The seeds for Brine Street were first 22

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planted in 2011 when Hopkins and his girlfriend (now business partner) Valentina Nourse were enjoying bloody marys while in New Orleans for Jazz Fest. Hopkins tried the pickled dilly bean garnishing his drink and loved its zippy crunch. Back in Philly, he started making his own “zing beans,” and shared them with friends who encouraged him to start a pickle com-

pany. Though he works in the insurance industry, Hopkins had some culinary experience—he briefly cooked at an Iron Hill Brewery—and has always loved food. A beer-fueled brainstorming session with a friend yielded the clever name Brine Street Picklery (Hopkins lives on Pine Street), and soon after, a few friends with helpful skill sets offered to come aboard to help launch and run the business. Brine Street’s five co-founders are Hopkins, Nourse, Bill Donahue, Kristen McManus and Eli Sachs; each have other jobs and work on Brine Street on the side. They formally began in May 2015 at events like the Franklin Flea and Night Market, and at the farmers markets at Pretzel Park in Manayunk, the Common Ground Marketplace on North Broad Street, and in Clark Park. “I come from a sales background, and I think with a food product there’s no way to sell it unless people can see it and eat it,” Hopkins says. Brine Street also began wholesaling to like-minded accounts like Talula’s Daily and the butcher shop at Kensington Quarters. The response from both shoppers and the surrounding food community was heartening, and to Hopkins, a bit surprising. “We’d ask for help, not only from friends but also other food businesses, and people were just super friendly and willing to help. Coming from the corporate world where I work, it was initially alarming,” he says. “But then I noticed that people genuinely cared.” Brine Street offers a limited selection of core product offerings: Straight Up Spears, Dem Spicy Spears, Hoagie relish and the original Zing Beans. They also release seasonal specials, like Moroccan Spiced Carrots, and source locally when possible, through Fair Food and Common Market for produce and The Head Nut for spices. The Greensgrow Community Kitchen acts as their production facility, though the team has plans to scale up, which may include moving to a larger dedicated space. Hopkins is more passionate about pickles than ever, and he urges people not to throw the brine away just because the pickles are gone. “You can use it to marinate chicken breasts before throwing them on the grill,” he says. “It also makes a great pickleback shot.” P HOTO BY J IL L IAN GUYETTE

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EDITOR IAL

BETTING THE FARM A hot development market has meant land grabs in some Philadelphia neighborhoods. It’s time to double down on protecting community gardens by amy laura cahn

hiladelphia needs to act quickly if it does not want to lose its community gardens. We can’t do it without leadership from the Kenney administration. On March 20, a Philadelphia Inquirer headline read “Growing Pains for Gardeners: South Kensington plots may be lost amid growth, but the farmers are fighting back.” It tells the story of what has come to be called La Finquita or “the little farm,” established in 1988 by the Phila-

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delphia Catholic Worker. Once an abandoned post-industrial dumping site, the garden now supplies the Catholic Worker and Drueding Center soup kitchens, a weekly farmstand and many neighbors. But after 28 years as a neighborhood mainstay, development—amid a rapidly changing neighborhood—threatens this precious space. Last spring, the Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) displaced the North Philly Peace Park, which provided fresh

produce to neighboring seniors. The Peace Park is still searching for a new home, as PHA begins to remake the neighborhood. This story keeps repeating itself throughout the city, particularly in increasingly hot real estate markets. Last fall, National Geographic profiled the wildly productive Growing Home Gardens, which serves South Philadelphia’s Bhutanese and Burmese refugee community. Within weeks of the story, it was uncertain whether some of those parcels were to go up for sheriff’s sale. West Philadelphia’s Farm 51 recently eluded sheriff’s sale, but its future is uncertain. As it is for Cohocksink Community Garden. University City Garden. Saint Bernard Community Garden. Sloan Street Community Garden. Mill Creek Farm. The list goes on. Some of these spaces have already been lost or relocated. Of those that remain, not one is secure. The same goes for hundreds of gardens across the city. Even after more than 30 years of vibrant activity, many gardens have never had the option to secure stable land tenure. Philadelphia has lacked the city policy, commitment and leadership to provide assurance, site control and long-term preservation, and instead deemed gardening and farming “interim uses” for parcels awaiting more profitable uses. Philadelphians talk about our “40,000 vacant lots,” spaces that manifested from decades of neighborhood disinvestment and abandonment. But we don’t talk enough about the decades of neighbors, particularly in communities of color and immigrant communities, who made certain that many spaces never became vacant. And we definitely don’t talk enough about how to honor and preserve the work of neighbors who continue to step up, transforming abandoned properties into community assets. As development picks up in Philadelphia and land becomes more valuable, we need to ensure that the communities that have been investing in themselves don’t lose out. And as we move forward with policies that shape changing neighborhoods, this city needs to ensure that more would-be community land stewards have a clear path to obtain—and preserve—land. When it is fully up and running, the IL LUSTRATIO N BY W YATT GLENNON

Philadelphia Land Bank will be the tool this city needs to facilitate garden preservation; it will streamline and make transparent how we access publicly owned and privately owned tax delinquent land, including garden parcels. Its strategic plan states â&#x20AC;&#x153;[i]f properties are already in use as an active and maintained community garden, this use will be protected.â&#x20AC;? This could signal a paradigm shift from urban agriculture as interim use to recognizing it as a use that has been critical to the fabric of our neighborhoods for more than a generation. But the Land Bank is simply a tool. What matters is how we use it. And that will be guided by priorities set by our new mayor. Under the Nutter administration, the Greenworks plan declared preservation of green space and increased access to healthy food key sustainability goals. The Philadelphia Water Department embarked on innovative green stormwater infrastructure projects with gardeners as a critical partner. The Office of Sustainability began exploring the need to mitigate impacts of a warming climate. Gardens, farms and open spaces have been recognized as contributing to these goals, but have never been made a priority. The Kenney administration has affirmed a commitment to improving our neighborhoods, including parks and recreation centers. But we still do not know how community-managed gardens, farms and open spaces will fare. In a decision between a decades-old garden or a new development, we do not know what will win out. If these decisions are made on a caseby-case basis, gardens will get picked off one by one. We need the Kenney administration to direct all relevant agencies to work together on a coordinated approach to aggressively protect the investments that communities have already made. And we need this city to retire the notion altogether that gardens are simply interim use. Generations of Philadelphia gardeners have proven otherwise. Amy Laura Cahn is a staff attorney with the Public Interest Law Center where she directs the Garden Justice Legal Initiative and works to preserve gardens, including La Finquita and Farm 51.

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the BIG PICTUR E

HELL ON EARTH Our generation could stop the horror of slavery—if environmental advocates will help interview by heather shayne blakeslee

n “Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide and the Secret to Saving the World” abolitionist Kevin Bales uncovers the fact that, absent the rule of law, the environment is devastated and slavery flourishes. Many slaves are tricked into thinking they are getting an honest job; others are born into their cruel fate. How many people are in bondage across the world? KB: Around the world, about 36 million people in slavery is a fairly conservative estimate—that’s based on our Global Slavery Index. I think the key thing to know about it is that in terms of the proportion of the population, we are actually at a moment in human history where there are fewer slaves per capita than ever before. If slavery were a country, it would have the third largest CO2 emissions on the planet, behind China and the U.S. KB: Indeed, but it’s even more surprising when you realize that a country of 36 million people with a GDP equivalent to, say, a country like Angola—a very small country with a very small economy—is the third largest [in CO2 emissions]. Americans, until now, have been the world’s leader in terms of CO2 per capita. China puts out more CO2 than America, but in terms of the amount per person in their populations, the Americans are way ahead of everybody else on the planet—until we discovered it turns out slaves are way ahead of Americans. That’s partially because of the industries in which they are involved. In the South Asian “brick belt,” you estimate there’s about 750,000 slaves there who are making billions of bricks in hyper-polluting kilns, using old tires and motor oil as fuel. KB: In fact, you could do the same job probably cheaper by bringing in some basic machines, but the people who run slave-based

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brick kilns are not interested in a little bit of capital investment, even if it would make them more profits in the future, because they already have slave-based businesses—and no one is giving them a hard time about it. The key thing for the CO2 is about the deforestation, and that’s where the big, big component of the CO2 that’s coming from slave labor is coming from. The mangrove forest in Bangladesh and the Amazon rainforest in Brazil are particularly important to the planet’s ecosystem. Both are being destroyed by slave labor.

KB: This is in Ghana… firstly you’re ripping the earth apart to get at sandy gravel that might have gold flecks in it... 10 to 20 feet deep of whatever happens to be growing there—if it’s a protected forest, that’s all gone. Mercury has been used for a lot of human history as a way of getting gold out of other minerals... It poisons the nervous system… cannot be removed from environments except through incredibly intense processes. … It doesn’t just kill people and pollute them, but all along the chain of insect life, mammal life, fish—everything. You put

“Worry about your consumption, but if you really want to have an impact, help people get other people out of slavery. ... We could actually be the generation that brings this to an end.” KB: In places like Bangladesh—it seems to be half or more is being done with slave labor. ... Virtually every place I [write about in the book], the forests have been set aside by law and international treaty and [as] UNESCO World Heritage Sites. They’re supposed to be our absolutely guarded and protected forests, and that’s in some ways one of the most horrific parts of this, is that slave-using criminals are penetrating into these specially protected, pristine forests where the CO2 damage is enormous—but also the species loss, and the precious and rare habitat loss is occurring. What’s the quick rundown of the labor and energy required—the human toll, the environmental costs—of producing just a few ounces of gold?

together human beings into that situation, where they’re being brutalized and treated as slaves, and then poison them. There’s yet another impact, which is silicosis. A lot of gold is found in silicon-based minerals, like quartzite, and if you work with that by hand… once it’s in your lungs there’s just nothing you can do about it. You’re a goner. One of the book’s many heartbreaking stories is about a Ghanaian slave who works in the gold mines, Ibrahim. He tells his story at great risk to him—and probably to you. He asks for a copy of the book. “I want to show it to others,” he says, “to show them I am not completely useless. I want to show them that something good has come out of my life.” Has he been able to get a copy?

THIS EXCE RPTE D IN TE RV IE W HAS B E E N E D ITE D FO R C LA RI TY

KB: I don’t know, because we can’t find him. I’ve got people looking for him, but they haven’t found him yet... so far, no sign. So I’m worried he’s gone. Women and girls in particular in these slave camps are subject to repeated sexual assault. There’s an entire specialty hospital you talk about dedicated to trying to repair their bodies from the inhuman damage. KB: One of the things that I think is too little understood is the unique nature of the enslavement of women… In places like America, people tend to think there’s something called “sex trafficking” and there’s something called “labor trafficking.” … The truth is that throughout all of history, and certainly today, any woman in slavery… is going to be sexually assaulted—is going to be raped… Whether they’re working in a mine or on a farm or in a restaurant, or obviously in a brothel. … And that’s a powerful point, because it actually tells us something about how the slavery of women is in some way more complete—that is, the complete control over a person is what makes slavery, but because women are controlled on their interiors as well as their exteriors—it’s more complete. In Congo, in the ongoing civil war, there was a lot of reporting of rape as a weapon of war... millions of women, out of a population of about six million. … Almost a third of the men had also been raped. All slave bodies are cheap commodities to their owners that in turn are giving us consumer goods like shrimp, steel, beef, cellphones, granite countertops, sugar, diamonds, gold jewelry—all while destroying the environment. Not a single one of them is a necessity. KB: None of them are specifically a necessity. … You could shut [these operations] down tomorrow, and none of us would necessarily have to go without shrimp. We just wouldn’t have it very often and it would be a little more expensive. But the other things, in most of the other areas, the impact would seem negligible or slight, it wouldn’t be huge increases [in price]. And for most things that slave workers do as well, particularly in agriculture, you could disappear [slave labor] without bumping any prices even a penny. ILLUSTRAT IO N BY M IK E L . PE R RY

These mines and shrimp farms and charcoal pits are literally hell on earth, but they’re also surrounded by what might look like paradise. Is it possible to protect it and to get it back? KB: Yes. And I appreciate that there’s a lot of things that have to be changed to make that possible, and I also know that there’s that chance that we may run out of time, so maybe that’s the boundary of my optimism… I do sometimes sit down and draw my projections and say if the population does go over 10 billion and this economic situation goes that direction and the energy goes that direction, this whole slavery lark just may become trivial to people—because it will all be about survival. What can people do to further the cause of abolition? KB: There are organizations out there... that are very active in getting people out of slavery. ... The cost is actually really low

because most of [the slaves] are in very inexpensive parts of the world. ... Some of the people I talk about in the book who are these amazing heroes—liberators—the Harriet Tubman or Frederick Douglass of the day, they’re getting along on $200 a month and putting their lives on the line to get people out of slavery. Worry about your consumption, but if you really want to have an impact, help people get other people out of slavery. ... It’s not an insurmountable problem… I wouldn’t let this be one of those things that makes a person feel helpless, because the more you dig into this, the more you realize we could actually be the generation that brings this to an end. We could make a mark on human history beyond any other generation. Kevin Bales co-founded Free the Slaves and is author of “Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide and the Secret to Saving the World.”

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the urban kitchen

GARDEN Tucked away in community gardens, hidden on fire escapes and in plain sight on stoops, the food we grow is a portrait of our vibrant, resilient city

b y A le x Jo ne s

A workday at Life Do Grow in North Philadelphia

he term “kitchen garden” conjures an image you might see in a history textbook: A woman, probably of Western European descent, harvests something delicious and at the peak of ripeness from a large, bountiful patch of cultivated land mere yards from what is almost certainly a large and well-appointed kitchen. ¶ Julia Child or Martha Stewart might pop into a kitchen garden, basket on her arm, to grab a few juicy tomatoes or snip some lettuce leaves and herbs to throw into a delightfully simple salad. It’s a seemingly effortless—and aspirational—image. ¶ It’s also not an image most of us can relate to: While some lucky Philadelphians have the space to grow a portion of what they eat on their own property, most don’t have a square inch of ground to call our own. Instead, we grow herbs in window boxes, peppers in pots set out on stoops, leafy greens on fire escapes and get our hands dirty pulling weeds in community gardens, sometimes more than one. Rather than emerging from the garden in full makeup and soft focus, we’re usually covered in soil, sweat and bugs, cursing the squirrels who got to our Brandywine tomatoes before we did or stopping by on the commute home from work to see that the harlequin beetles have turned the collard leaves into Swiss cheese. We’re often just turning the hose on for a few minutes, pulling the biggest weeds and quickly harvesting the ripest produce before shuffling off to the next obligation. That hot, messy, bug-filled (and belly-filling) world has a lot more in common with historical kitchen gardens than you might realize. Kitchen gardens—any plot or place to grow food for domestic use—were always the gardens of the people. They stand in contrast to the manicured formal gardens on estates that were originally more of a display of social status than anything else. In the second half of the 20th century in America, that drive to display morphed into the middle class centering their leisure time gardening activities around lawn care

P HOTO BY NEA L SA NTOS

and ornamental gardening. “Historically, gardens were a thing of the rich and wealthy—the nobility,” says Tom Reber, horticulturist at Southwest Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden. “Except the kitchen garden, [which] was the one garden space that is really pervasive throughout history.” While space dedicated to turf— lawn, that is—was the high mark of status, kitchen gardens were essential to survival. Though John Bartram was called the “greatest natural botanist in the world” by Carl Linnaeus, a contemporary credited with founding modern taxonomy, Bartram was a farmer by trade, and much of what we know today as Bartram’s Garden, the oldest existing botanical garden in the country, was pasture where livestock grazed. When Bartram settled here in the early 18th century, a huge swath of gently sloped, south-facing land between the Bartram house and the river served as the kitchen garden. There, crops to feed the Bartram family— and hired farm laborers—were grown and harvested, then prepared or preserved for

the winter in the nearby kitchen. “You can truly understand a culture through what the common people were growing, cooking and eating as a matter of basic survival,” says Reber. Examining the kitchen garden “gives you a really good snapshot [of] what the culture was, the food that people were eating.” It’s a point that’s immediately illustrated if you walk a few hundred yards west of John Bartram’s historic kitchen. On a former Parks and Recreation baseball diamond lies the Community Farm and Green Resource Center, a project of the University of Pennsylvania’s Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative and the Netter Center for Community Partnerships that’s made possible by a collaboration among University of Pennsylvania, Bartram’s Garden, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, Fairmount Park and the city of Philadelphia. It’s been in place since 2012. The site produces around 12,000 pounds of food each year, and farmers Ty Holmberg and Chris Bolden-Newsome strive to address the community’s needs through the lens of food. “With our neighbors and high school farm interns in Southwest [Philadelphia], we work at the crucial intersections of race, class and economic power to [lift] up community experience and agency in the local food system,” Bolden-Newsome writes in an email. “We do work in majority African-American communities, and so we emphasize and engage aspects of African-American diaspora culture pertinent to our work.” In the garden, crops such as okra, sorghum, collard greens, sesame, bottle gourd (or calabash) and peanuts provide a point of engagement that can open up conversations around culture, geography, history and nutrition. Community activists, immigrants, entrepreneurs and individual Philadelphians are growing their own food all over the city. No matter the reason—food security, business, leisure or as a tool for systemic change— we’re engaging in an activity that’s been key to human survival for much of the globe for the past 10,000 years.

A PR I L 2016

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Valerie, a young volunteer at the Community Farm and Green Research Center

“The community is completely transforming itself... which happens when things are done in the grassroots way.” — Kirtrina Baxter, community organizer, Public Interest Law Center

The dream of a Germantown kitchen garden turns into a business Amanda Staples, owner and co-founder of Germantown Kitchen Garden, started out with a desire to combine aspects of city and country life: She wanted to grow her own food, but she wanted to do it in the high-density environment of the city. To prepare, she and her former partner interned at a farm in Lancaster County to learn the trade. In 2008, they heard that a half-acre vacant lot in Germantown was for sale and took the plunge. They set about clearing years’ worth of overgrowth, hauling out rubble, and bringing in literal tons of compost to rehab the site. “We both 32

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really like[d] the idea of calling it a kitchen garden, because it has a pretty unique [structure],” Staples says: The property is surrounded on three sides by a 12-foot-high wall. “It’s sort of reminiscent of these old European home gardens,” she says, “and [embodies] the idea of growing a bunch of different things in one space and having flowers and herbs and vegetables that we use every day.” While Germantown Kitchen Garden began as a small CSA for Staples and her friends, she eventually transitioned to a farmstand model and now supports herself through the business. Through a combination of customer feedback and getting to know her space over the years—learning

that what grows well in one spot might not do well in another—Staples fine tunes her offerings every season. “The things I'm most excited about are fresh greens,” says Staples—like arugula, mixed greens, head lettuce, kale and collards—which are harvested the day before or the morning of her farmstand. “I see people notice that difference [in freshness] immediately.” This season, Staples is working to incorporate more flowers into her growing space, both to enhance the look of the garden and to cut and sell to her neighbors. “[I’m growing] cafe au lait dahlias, which are all the rage right now, [plus] three different varieties of cosmos,” says Staples, who is also growing ornamental grasses and a host of beautiful flowers—digitalis, baptisia, echinacea—where trash and rubble used to reign. In Philadelphia, the city currently owns many vacant lots like the one Staples purchased from a private owner. With the Philly Land Bank open for business in late 2015, city officials hope to streamline the process through which private citizens and developers find, research and purchase just under 9,000 vacant lots for purposes like building housing, opening new businesses, gardens and other projects to address community needs.

Resilience through gardening for longtime residents and newly arrived immigrants Growing your own food can be more than a delicious end in itself. It can be a form of leisure and relaxation. It can be a learning tool or an act of economic necessity. It can be a way to understand a specific place—by its climate, its soils, its weather. It can be a way to connect with relatives, or family, history, nature or a larger community. At 11th and Dakota streets in North Philadelphia, Philadelphia Urban Creators (PUC) have worked with their neighbors to establish Life Do Grow urban farm and community garden. These spaces serve as the nexus for the organization’s work to uplift and strengthen this community through activities that range from restorative justice programs to pop-up art exhibitions—and it began with food access, the meaning of the kitchen garden distilled down to its most basic definition. P HOTO BY G RACE JEMI SON

“The food for us is [a] staple [activity], [community members] Miss Pat and Miss but it’s just the nucleus [of] a way, way, Cleo, the things that they needed were colway, way larger movement,” says Jeaninne lards, broccoli, spinach, sweet potatoes— Kayembe, co-executive director at PUC. very staple African-American or Span“And food access—the more people have ish-influenced cuisine type foods.” access to resources, the more they can do. Now, the Urban Creators supply free That’s our theory of change. As urban creafresh produce from the urban farm to tors, we want spaces that we can create that community members and sell surplus to are devoted to access to resources, food berestaurants to sustain their programming. ing the main one. That’s how we’re going to Last fall, their community reached an imbe a better Philadelphia.” portant milestone: The families growing Since 2010, the group has worked with in the PUC community garden were able this community on the edge of the evto supply their Thanksgiving dinners with er-encroaching Temple University camhomegrown food—everything but the turpus. Kayembe remembers an early trip she and other organizers took to New Orleans to work on an urban farm, an experience that shaped the direction of PUC. “This urban farm was in the Lower Ninth Ward right near where the levee broke,” she says. “There’s no grocery store within miles, [it’s] a food desert thing. And when we saw that, the young people that we were with [were] like, whoa, the Lower Ninth Ward really looks like North Philly.” The idea for their project developed into food access work, and it came into focus when they secured the 11th and Dakota space, which was across the street from one of the last high-rise housing projects in the city. They began with cookJeaninne Kayembe and Alex Epstein, ing classes, teaching kids and co-executive directors parents how to cook healthier at LIfe Do Grow versions of their favorite foods. Once they had vegetables to harvest from the farm across the street, the key and cranberries. produce became a part of their curriculum. “The community is completely transAnd when organizers learned that some forming itself around this garden, which community members had been growing happens when things are done in the food to prepare and sell to their neighbors, grassroots way, with community in mind, they wanted to support that activity—so the and not just someone coming in and doUrban Creators helped them build the coming something without any community munity garden, which five families now buy-in,” says Kirtrina Baxter, communimaintain with the organization’s support. ty organizer for The Public Interest Law “When we first started, we had different Center’s Garden Justice Legal Initiative and [people] with different knowledge of growLife Do Grow’s farm manager for the 2016 ing things, so not everyone really knew season. “They take the time, Jeaninne and cultural relevancy to the food,” explains Alex [Epstein, co-executive director], to reKayembe. “So of course we had rhubarb ally build relationships with people in the and purple carrots and stuff that we think community. Neighbors know who they are, is cool and love as millennials. But as far as they support them.” P HOTO BY JA R ED GRU ENWA LD

Food gardening might not be for everybody, but it is for anybody. When people ask the Urban Creators what it cost to start their farm and garden, “We tell them zero dollars,” Kayembe says, “because that’s how we started ours—with zero dollars.” The staff spent their first five years of operation paying themselves in produce. “That’s really our message—not [that] you just grow a garden or food for free, you can create whatever space you need to grow [with] whatever resources,” says Kayembe. On the other side of the city in South Philadelphia, the Nationalities Services Center’s (NSC) Growing Home Garden at 8th and Emily streets serves as a space for food access work of a different type: providing 106 resettled Bhutanese and Burmese refugee families with individual garden plots, as well as technical support throughout the growing season. A larger space at 25th and Dickinson streets will debut this year: the Growing Together Garden, two and a half acres that will serve Congolese, Burmese and Bhutanese families as well as Point Breeze residents and feature NSC’s first weekly farmstand, where Philadelphians can purchase unique items grown in the garden. NSC’s gardening programs grew out of a desire by resettled refugees for familiar and culturally appropriate ingredients, with some families traveling long distances by public transportation to stores in New Jersey that stocked the items they sought. “The obstacles [overcome by refugee families] and the great extent they went to get things that they wanted to just be able to, in their own homes, cook food that tastes familiar and maintain cultural traditions were just huge,” says Juliane Ramic, senior director of Refugee and Community Integration. The Growing Home and Growing Together gardens address this issue by providing access to growing space and other gardener support, but the benefits to refugee communities go beyond the produce that gardeners bring home to their kitchens. A PR I L 2016

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All hands on deck for the spring season at Life Do Grow

I spoke with Dropada, who came to Philadelphia in 2010 via a Nepalese refugee camp with her husband and son; she began gardening at Growing Home in 2013. She describes using oxen to grow wheat and rice for export in her native Bhutan; here, she and her fellow gardeners from Bhutan grow hard-to-find varieties of eggplant, basil, Bangkok hot peppers, Thai chilies, and greens like Florida broadleaf mustard (also known as Indian mustard), basil and roselle, a member of the Hibiscus family. When the gardeners can’t source seeds locally, NSC will hunt down the varieties they seek. “Ever since [joining] the garden, I’ve met with new friends, and the garden can help everything about that,” Dropada says through an interpreter. “It’s better together.” One challenge for garden organizers is proving to these gardeners that their favorite crops can be grown in a small space—something NSC is hoping to do with cassava, a staple crop for the city’s Congolese population, this year. While a change in climate and space limitations take some adjustment, the gardeners bring their own expertise and traditions, such as seed sav34

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ing, to the garden. “We grow our own, and we deposit the seed in our own home,” says Dropada. “We keep and dry and we keep in our own house, and next year [we can plant]. Seed saving is a lot of work.” Food plays a key role in refugee resettlement from the moment families arrive in Philadelphia, says Ramic. “We take them to their new home, which has been furnished with community contributions, but we always have a hot, culturally appropriate meal [ready for them],” she says. “We know that when you have traveled so far and you are giving up everything that is familiar—a community where your language is spoken, where your culture is so different, where your religion is so different, that the one thing that unites and makes you feel you can make it is food.”

A health crisis sparks a kitchen garden, and two new businesses One of the most important aspects of the kitchen garden is—variations in climate aside—the potential it gives a gardener to decide what to grow and eat. A garden-

er might seek to stock her kitchen with her own culture’s traditional foods, or favorite foods, or expensive foods that are cost prohibitive to buy. She might seek to grow something she’s never tasted before, or something that will benefit her health. There’s nothing like armfuls of ultra-fresh kale or lettuce to spur a gardener to up her veggie intake. For Sloane Six, the entrepreneur behind the Mainland Inn and Quarry Hill Farm in Harleysville, Pennsylvania, a breast cancer diagnosis eight years ago led to examining her diet, and she challenged her family to grow their own food using organic practices. Her personal revelation about food and lifestyle turned into two businesses that operate in a closed loop—another expansion of the principle of kitchen gardening to commercial scale. She’d already bought several acres of farmland to keep it out of development in an area where townhomes were springing up like mushrooms, and sustainably raised and humanely treated animals were especially hard for her to source. Six’s quest for healthy food in her own kitchen morphed into a 110-acre livestock

P HOTO BY JARE D G RU ENWA LD

operation with 7 acres devoted to vegetable production, and an additional 60 acres in hay production to feed the farm’s ruminant population in winter. “I couldn’t find people that were pasturing pigs and chickens and sheep and giving them the kind of care that I wanted to see them get, so now I’m a full-fledged farmer,” says Six. You could say “locally sourced fine dining” about dozens of restaurants in the city and its environs, but Chef Max Hosey and his team at the Mainland Inn have the privilege of executing a farm-to-table menu at the end of a very short supply chain: In season, the bulk of their produce and meats are raised about 2 miles away at Quarry Hill Farm. Others, like salad greens and herbs, are grown in raised beds near the restaurant’s patio or under grow lights in the 18th-century building’s basement. What the inn can’t source from Quarry Hill, it purchases from organic farms in the area and from sustainable sources for nonlocal items such as citrus and seafood. Even the drinks menu is bolstered by what’s in season or what’s been preserved: In summer, ground cherries and averna combine for one of Six’s personal favorite cocktails, and winter crops like beets and carrots are juiced as basis for refreshing winter cocktails. A corner of that basement indoor farm is dedicated to cultivating botanicals like valerian and quinine to be used one day in collaboration with a winery to create a house-made vermouth. “It’s everything you’d think it would be,” says Chef Hosey of the relationship between his kitchen and Quarry Hill. “[I’m] a kid in a candy store, basically. Especially once summer comes around, once things start to grow—it’s amazing.” The highways bordering the pastures surrounding the Mainland Inn would look out of place to John Bartram, but he’d instantly recognize what guests will see as they approach the inn for a locally grown feast this summer: sheep and lambs grazing the grassy slopes in accordance with their nature. Separated by 30 miles and a little less than 300 years, Bartram would have raised his crops and animals with this same philosophy. No matter the time, or the neighborhood. It’s the same for every cook growing ingredients outside the door, around the block or just down the road—pure joy when the harvest is ready for the kitchen.

tips to

GROW BETTER than ever this year Horticulturist Lynn Ellen Wolf has been helping Philadelphians make the most of their gardens at the Greensgrow Farms nursery since 2008. Here are her tips on making the most of the season.

•• Start with a vision. “Before you come [to the nursery], take some time to look through stacks of books [or online],” she says “Don’t even read anything, just look at all the pictures and try and figure out what you really want.” She recommends the Free Library’s troves of books on plants and gardening. •• Plants are for animals and insects, too. Gardens can be plagued by pests, but don’t forget about the good guys. “I tend to encourage people to grow things with tiny flowers like dill and fennel, because those tiny, tiny flowers attract a lot of beneficial insects, including green lacewings,” which in their larval state eat a variety of pest insects, says Wolf. Borage, an herb with edible blue flowers, attracts pollinators and adds a refreshing cucumber flavor when its leaves are muddled in drinks. •• Shady space? Plant accordingly. Most fruiting plants need eight hours a day or more of full sun, so if your space is shady, stick with herbs and leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, kale, collards or tatsoi. Hardy perennial herbs like rosemary and thyme also work well, and even basil can thrive in shade. “You can do any kind of mint,” says Wolf, but plant it in a container unless you want it to take over your space. Try apple or chocolate mint or its citrusy cousin, lemon balm. •• Stick to a schedule. Weeding and watering will make or break your garden. Wolf says even five or 10 minutes a day will help. Get a buddy or co-gardener to keep things watered (and harvest what’s ready so it doesn’t go to waste) if you’ll be busy or away. •• Get the right tools. Wolf’s new favorite tool, the Japanese grass sickle, is a great multitasker. “You can use it to [weed], to do light pruning, [and] I've used it to saw off a tiny branch here and there because it's serrated enough that you can use it like a little saw,” she says. It can also remove the roots of stubborn weed trees.

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community

GARDENING wisdom Gardeners from around Philadelphia offer seeds of advice

Collecte d b y t h e N e i g h b o rh o o d Gar d e n s Tru s t ( N G T)

the community needs to be tended, too “True to its name, a ‘community garden’ is both a community and a garden. As new gardeners join the group, many are new to gardening as well. I can’t think of a better way to learn to grow vegetables than [to be] surrounded by fellow gardeners that know the land around you and can offer advice and wisdom to bring a successful harvest. I sometimes find new gardeners unsure when to harvest their crops. Harvesting ripe produce is important to avoid spoilage and tempting neighborhood squirrels and possums with a free meal! Feel free to offer a helping hand to a new gardener and remind them to harvest on time.” — Bob Jobin, Bouvier Community Garden

it takes time and patience “When we finally got a chance to have a garden plot, we were so excited! We’d waited over 10 years to officially get a chance to be part of a special part of our neighborhood. Although we had our own garden plot—it didn’t make us instant gardeners. Our plants struggled to thrive and looked scrawny compared to our neighbors’ plots. Weeds took over our tiny spot of soil and choked out any hope that we would have a hearty harvest. Luckily for us, those in charge of the garden gave us pointers and tips, so, within a season, we were harvesting enough produce to keep the fridge stocked. By the next season we were even handing out produce to those neighbors.” — Tina Fuoco and Chad Carnahan, Bel Arbor Community Garden

learn from one another “The African women in the plot next to mine grew and harvested great quantities of greens that I didn’t recognize. One season I tried planting sweet potatoes, and they produced leaves that looked remarkably similar. I asked my neighbors, and was told yes, they grew sweet potatoes for the greens. The potatoes they could buy for practically nothing in any store, but the greens that they valued so highly were pricey and hard to come by. Needless to say, I went straight to my plot, picked some sweet potato leaves and added them to my next dish of mixed vegetables. They made great greens. Now every time I see those distinctive leaves hanging out of ornamental planters, I smile as I think of all the food value there—and am thankful to my African community garden neighbors for widening my horizons.” — Pamela Haines, Warrington Community Garden

there’s no such thing as oversharing ““One of the joys of gardening is sharing the bounty… One summer I grew some interesting subtropical tubers; I was very proud of them—they were beautiful, unusual and so prolific. In the fall I was harvesting them, and I gladly offered some to another gardener whom I’ll call Ms. G., as she graciously accepted one. The next day I ran into another gardener friend, whom I felt quite sure would be happy to try such an oddity, but upon offering, she said, “Oh, no thanks, Ms. G. gave me one yesterday! Time passes, and norms change. I miss the old timers, but the essentials of community gardening—the alliances, the irritations, the good friends—remain, and, of course, the bounty!” — Karen Lefkovitz, Warrington Community Garden

label what you plant! “I thought I had planted lettuce in one spot in my plot. Come spring, when the leaves first appeared, I tore off a few to taste. It was the most disgusting lettuce I had ever tasted. A few days later, beautiful poppies emerged.” — Alice Austin, Bel Arbor Community Garden

last words “Make sure your volunteers don’t plant ghost peppers in the children’s garden.” — Nic Esposito, Emerald Street Urban Farm

NGT is Philadelphia’s land trust for the preservation of community gardens and shared open spaces. NGT has protected 35 community-managed growing spaces across the city, and is an affiliate of Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. A PR I L 2016

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the p e r f e c t

PERENNIAL pot

Choose from these three low maintenance perennial container ideas that will work in very different urban environments—each is designed to create a fantastic arrangement that will wow year-round. When you’re choosing your own plants for a perennial planter, look for those with similar requirements for sun exposure, watering and soil type.

b y L a ur a Ev e r a r d

hot, sunny and dry

sun/part-sun

These pots require almost nothing but sunlight. Infrequent watering and a little fertilizer is all they need.

Some late-fall pruning is required. Water these plants about once or twice a week. Fertilize a few times each season.

•• 1x Stonecrop (Sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’) – a succulent that blooms with large pink flower clusters in the fall. Cut it back once it declines in the winter.

•• 1x Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys verticillata) – A statement pine tree with unusual needle clusters that will last as a centerpiece for years.

•• 1x Angelina Sedum (Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’) – a chartreuse succulent that is a great cascading plant. It adds fine, evergreen texture to planters year-round.

•• 2x Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica ‘Firepower’) – A dwarf evergreen shrub that has green foliage with pinkish new growth until the fall when it blazes into glory with vibrant red leaves.

•• 1x Dragon’s Blood Stonecrop (Sedum spurium ‘Schorbuser Blut’) – A spiller that has beautiful green and burgundy leaves. The newer leaves are evergreen and turn a deep red before overwintering. This plant will add color and depth. •• 2x Variegated Yucca (Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’) – A show stopping evergreen that sports vibrant green and yellow spikes. •• 2x Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa) – People are always surprised when they find out that this plant is actually found in the wild around this region. Its random, spreading growth yields paddle-shaped evergreen stems. Watch out for the spines! If it flowers, you may be lucky enough to get some tasty fruit, which are high in vitamin C!

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•• 1x Bugleweed (Ajuga reptans ‘Chocolate Chip’) – An evergreen groundcover that has leaves ranging from bronze to green. Its purple flowers are a nice bonus in mid to late spring. •• 2x Mexican Feather Grass (Nassella tenuissima ‘Pony Tails’) – A flowing grass that is often treated as an annual, but can be perennial if the winter is mild. The blades are green but turn mostly brown as the year progresses. They should be cut back in the winter. •• 2x Gaura (Gaura lindheimeri ‘Whirling Butterflies’) – This plant has incredible white and light pink flowers from May through October. The flower stalks should be cut back in the late fall.

how to

MAINTAIN your pot

Plan ahead, know what your plants need and augment your perennials with your favorite annual plants to get beautiful results for years to come •• From a visual perspective, choosing plants for a planter is all about texture, color and varying heights. Flowers are frequently in the spotlight due to their instant impact, but often only make an appearance for one season. Many flowering perennials require diligent deadheading throughout their season to perform to their true potential, so if you require a low maintenance garden, flowers may not be the way to go. Also, if your planter is in the shade, many plants won’t even bloom, so foliage is often the wiser choice. •• Regardless of location, all planters should have holes in the bottom and soil that offers proper drainage or else your plants will rot.

shade/part-shade Water about once a week, but make sure the pot does not dry out! Fertilize a fewtimes each season. •• 1x Bugbane (Actaea matsumurae ‘White Pearl’) – Dark green, serrated foliage with long white blooms on tall stalks in the late summer/early fall. Cut back in the winter. •• 1x Coral Bells (Heuchera americana ‘Green Spice’) – This perennial comes in almost any color! The evergreen leaves are the most prized part of the plant, although flower stalks appear in the late spring. Prune out any dead leaves in the early spring. •• 1x Creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’) – A dainty chartreuse trailer that can be trimmed into any shape. Cut back in winter. •• 1x Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum var pictum) – A fern with unusual purple stalks with silvery fronds that turn green as they mature. Prune out any dead fronds when needed. •• 1x Toad Lily (Tricyrtis hirta) – A nondescript filler that yields gorgeous purple, spotted flowers in the late summer and fall. Prune back in the winter.

•• Add seasonal annuals or cuttings to fill in any bare spots in the late fall through the very early spring. •• Always water thoroughly, regardless of the arrangement, but control the frequency. Most plants do not need much water to survive, and watering too frequently will kill them! •• Adding compost and fertilizers that are appropriate for the plants is also suggested for a long lasting, happy arrangement. •• Adding a layer of mulch can help with water retention, and can provide some frost protection. •• Always research perennials before you purchase them. They may look cute and little now, but some may grow a lot in size, and their form can change drastically. Although pruning can control some plants, it is best to select a plant based on its final form so it can flourish unhindered. •• Experiment! There are no rules when it comes to gardening. Most planters offer a horizontal plane, but sometimes a vertical planting approach might be more appropriate to optimize available space and light.

Laura Everard is a horticulturalist with Graceful Gardens. Find out about their edible and ornamental gardens at gracefulgardens.net. A PR I L 2016

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WEEK WE EEK

May 7 - May 14, 2016 Clean, Green & Celebrate Philly ParkS 8 days of service projects, fun events, educational programs, family activities, tours + more!

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safe to

GROW? A novel use of federal money could aid urban gardeners in Philadelphia

b y A l ex V u o c olo

ennifer Morales knew that the soil beneath her community garden at A and Indiana streets in North Philadelphia might be contaminated. But without the resources or know-how to test the soil herself, there was no way to be sure. “There used to be a factory there,” she says. “I didn’t know if it was OK to do any gardening because the soil had never been tested.” Since she started the garden three years ago, Morales says, none of the seeds planted in the ground have sprouted. She now relies on raised beds, which use imported soil, to keep the garden going. But Morales may soon find out exactly what is going on beneath the grass. Her garden is among the first candidates for a program that could fund soil testing to as many as 20 sites around the city.

The program is funded by a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency designed to prepare formerly industrial land for redevelopment. Industrial properties along the banks of the Schuylkill River, for example, have received soil testing through the grant. But Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, the Philadelphia Water Department, the Office of Sustainability and the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority applied for the grant specifically with urban agriculture in mind—a novel use for the decade-old program. The grant is not the only way urban farmers can test their soil. Penn State Extension, a program of the college’s agriculture department, already offers soil testing and analysis for a nominal fee to landowners and farmers in the region. But the grant reflects an increased effort by city government

to support a practice that many Philadelphians now consider an essential service. The $200,000 Brownfields Assessment Grant will go toward two phases of testing. Elisa Ruse-Esposito, who is overseeing the program at Parks and Recreation, says the goal is to test a mix of existing farms and vacant lots that could be used for urban agriculture in the future. The first phase entails researching a selected property’s history. A private firm, selected through a bidding process, digs through real estate records and historical maps to determine past uses of the property and how they might have impacted the soil. “The hope is that these reports will say, ‘Hey, you’re good,’” says Nicole Hostettler, city planner for the Philadelphia Water Department, which plans to integrate a stormwater management plan into each of the sites. But if the research sends up red flags, such as a prior industrial use at the property, the second phase takes a deeper look. The assessor takes samples of the soil and tests them for concentrations of heavy metals or other chemicals that could affect agriculture. Parks and Recreation plans to then use the findings to offer a series of recommendations to farmers on how to grow food safely on their sites. This doesn’t necessarily mean remediation, which, Hostettler says, is expensive and would likely require additional grant funding. Most of the time, Ruse-Esposito says, the recommendations will be practical fixes. It may be necessary, for example, to avoid a certain part of the property or use extra mulch to serve as a buffer. If contamination is widespread, the farm may have to avoid growing in the ground altogether and use raised beds. Building vertical gardens is a popular approach in other cities, such as Detroit and New York City, but it’s no silver bullet. “That is a best practice, but there are many best practices,” Ruse-Esposito says. “The main hindrance to only growing in raised beds is that it can be very costly.” The grant, Ruse-Esposito adds, will help to better understand the full array of options available to local farmers so they find fixes based on their particular needs and resources. “The city is ... bolstering its support for [urban agriculture] in many ways, one of which is this Brownfields grant,” she says. A PR I L 2016

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C R A F T P R O F I L E S / S P R I N G FA I R S / P H I L A D E L P H I A Belle Island Hearth Broom

Sisters Beth Johnston (L) and Joy Howard (R), the creative minds behind Sistercraft

EVERYDAY BEAUTY Two sisters find a way to weave love into their brooms and blankets by marilyn anthony

isters Joy Johnston Howard and Beth Johnston launched Sistercraft in 2015 to bring “beauty and love into other people’s lives.” Their handmade brooms, blankets, quilts and afghans are symbols of a clean, warm home, but the pair also see their work as a way to push back against the cold and dark of the larger world.

The company motto says it all: “To craft—to seek authenticity, to step into a life that aligns with our values, to reach for a life that brings beauty to others—is to rebel against a culture that treats women as objects, that says workers are valueless, and that taints the good with the color of exploitation.” Joy, 36, moved to West Philadelphia 10 years ago to teach American literature and history. Beth, 34, has a BFA in graphic industrial design and a day job as a designer. Before joining Joy last year, she had been studying traditional skills like basket weaving, blacksmithing and driving an oxen team, things she laughingly describes as being “super useful for life in the city.”

When Beth tried broom dashing two years ago, it was like finding a previously undiscovered part of herself. “Broom making is the craft that we’ve chosen—the other crafts chose us because of our family,” she says. Beth the “broom dasher” combines broomcorn, wood and leather into various brooms and potscrubbers that are Sistercraft’s most popular items. No two are exactly alike. Beth feels the brooms speak to their customers, much as the wands in Harry Potter chose their young wizards. The sisters also handcraft blankets, quilts and afghans using a stitch their grandmother taught them. These items offer fresh examples of what Beth calls

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the “women-centric concept of what love can do.” The sisters recall the poignant beauty of their grandmother’s funeral, when family members filled the sanctuary with her quilts commemorating decades of life events. Mia Barrett, whose company Cicada Leather produces broom straps for Sistercraft, feels “so much of craft started with necessity. … Brooms are things you use in your daily life, and Sistercraft infuses them with their personalities and their energy… I think that’s really beautiful.”

AP RIL 20 16

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Artist Stefani Threet at work in her West Philly studio

UNBREAKABLE Adversity has only hardened the resolve of ceramics artist Stefani Threet by marilyn anthony

ife-threatening health issues. Gun violence. Racism. All of them could have molded ceramic artist Stefani Threet into a very different person. But at every turn of fate’s wheel, she countered her challenges: with strong ties to family, friends and other potters, her love of nature and with her talent and positive energy—the last of which comes beaming through in what her mother Jacqui Simmons calls her daughter’s “Cherry Kool-Aid smile.”

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Over the last three decades, Threet has managed to grow from a sickly kid interested in art into an established artist. During the recent Picasso exhibit at the Barnes Foundation, her mastery of sgraffito, a freehand method of carving fine lines into clay, was on display in her distinctive platters, mugs and bowls in the museum gift shop. While she says that “silence and nothingness” inspire her organic patterns of swirling concentric circles, she often listens to world music while working, and also has what she calls her “Beyoncé and Bruno Mars days” to keep her energy up. She spends at least 40 hours weekly in the West Philadelphia Cedar Works studio space she shares with 11 other potters. Happily listening to music while she works has come after a series of hardships that would have broken many people. “My story,” says Threet, “is about overcoming adversity. I’m 36 now, and I’m where I thought I’d be in my 20s. It’s been a long journey getting here.” Challenges came early. The youngest of three siblings, Threet was ill so often that Simmons recalls “living” at Children’s Hospital. In 1988, at 8 years old, Threet and her family were devastated when they lost her 15-year-old brother to gun violence. There were positives: An early private school education exposed Threet to arts and culture. But when her parents separated, she had to transfer to public school in West Philadelphia, and there she stood out as “the kid who spoke too proper and was interested in weird things,” says Threet. Her mother tirelessly sought out enrichment programs to provide more than the neighborhood streets offered, waiting hours in pouring rain to enroll her daughter in the Fleisher Art Memorial programs and spending Saturdays trekking across town on SEPTA for the free art classes. When Threet was 15, her essay for the Academy of Natural Sciences Women in Natural Sciences program won her a life-changing trip to Belize. Threet describes crawling into holes in the ground that opened up into caverns with “humongous pots stuck into the wall.” These an-

C R A F T P R O F I L E S / S P R I N G FA I R S / P H I L A D E L P H I A

Threet's mugs seemlessly mix function and beauty

cient Mayan pots left a lasting impression. Threet, the first person in her family to attend college, chose to study ceramics at Alfred University. She’s also lived in Mexico—where, she says, after much black and white ceramics work, “my world became colorful.” She’s also spent time in Seattle and at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Tennessee, where she encountered influential potters Sana Musasama, Margaret Bohls and Philadelphia potters Sandi Pierantozzi and Neil Patterson. As Threet recalls, Pierantozzi and Patterson saw the need for more African-American artists teaching at the college level and encouraged Threet to return to Alfred. She did, but soon chafed at Alfred’s lack of diversity, receiving her degree but deciding against an academic career. She returned to Philadelphia, in order to care for her parents, who were now located on two different coasts. Her father passed away, and a new round of setbacks hit. Threet recalls 2014 as a “rock-bottom

year.” That June, she had major surgery. In August she was laid off from her job as a Mural Arts teaching artist working with marginalized youth. In October, a cab struck her, leaving Threet barely able to walk. Months of intense physical therapy, shiatsu massage and support from her mother and boyfriend restored her health. Threet decided this was her moment to pursue pottery full-time. Despite her many challenges, Threet identifies one in particular that held her back. “I always felt that the only thing standing between me and doing [pottery] full-time was finances,” she says. A loan from a friend enabled her to apply to higher caliber craft shows, and in 2015 she threw herself into a grueling April-to-December production schedule, selling pots at over 40 shows across the mid-Atlantic region. This broad exposure brought the lack of diversity in the craft world into focus again for Threet. “I’m very much aware that in the craft

market circuit I am one of a few—if not the only—person of color. For some reason I have been able to break some of those racial barriers... My mom fought very hard for racial equality, and she’s taught me a lot. For my own progression, I’ve sort of silenced that voice...if I listened to it a little bit too loud then I wouldn’t be able to do the things that I am doing.” Her mother is still her biggest champion, but her perseverance, talent and willingness to give back have earned her widespread respect. Multimedia artist and mentor Leroy Johnson, 78, who remembers being “the lone black ranger” in the arts and crafts scene, calls her “a role model for young craftspeople.” Hope Heffner, a former student of Threet’s, agrees with Johnson. “[Stefani] loves her craft, not to further her own agenda, but to help the community,” she says. “She wants to help other people to connect and find art as a way to enhance life.”

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C R A F T P R O F I L E S / S P R I N G FA I R S / P H I L A D E L P H I A

Artist Paul Carpenter and his screen printed delights

MIXING IT UP

Paul Carpenter’s art reflects Philadelphia's street style and its greener quarters by marilyn anthony

ast Mount Airy visual artist Paul Carpenter’s art teacher once described him as a weird mashup of an artist and a jock. Carpenter’s most popular T-shirt design, a Phanatic-inspired figure elaborately decorated with a richly imagined Philadelphia landscape, surely proves his point. Carpenter, 30, grew up in Springfield Township relishing many aspects of Philadelphia: pro sports teams, Wissahickon trails, the urban mix of architecture and open spaces. Chris Houston, Carpenter’s high school art teacher and mentor, appreciates the way Carpenter’s illustrations on screened tees tell a story infused with characteristic humor and energy. His cartoonish imagery “brings you close in to look at the details,” says fellow artist Adam Lovitz, and his “skateboardish cool” makes Carpenter and his work very approachable. Fresh out of the University of Delaware visual communications department, Carpenter landed a job in a beachfront skate

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shop. He taught himself screen printing, eventually purchasing the store’s printer. Carpenter moved it to Philadelphia where he continued to work for shore clients but began developing Philly-centric designs for apparel, prints, notecards and pint glasses. He wanted to look beyond Ben Franklin, cheesesteaks or soft pretzels to find fresh images depicting richer aspects of his beloved city. “Technically exquisite” is how Barbara Adams, Fresh Artists founder, describes Carpenter’s designs. His illustrations of sports themes and streetscapes are rendered, as Carpenter says “with flair and care.” He began selling his work at street

fairs and craft shows, careful to offer a variety of price points so everyone can afford to purchase something. He now sells at 30 street fairs annually, enjoying the opportunity to interact with customers. Quoting another of his teachers, Carpenter sums up the life he has crafted for himself, “If you’re not having fun when you’re doing art, then you’re doing it wrong.”

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L I S T I N G S / S P R I N G FA I R S A N D F E ST I VA L S Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival Main Street will be closed off all day April 10 to accommodate the spring edition of Manayunk’s biannual fiesta. Dozens of food trucks will offer gourmet food, along with live music on Green Lane, Cotton Street and Shurs Lane. The Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival kicks off the neighborhood’s Restaurant Week, which runs through April 22. manayunk.com WHEN: April 10, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Main Street, downtown Manayunk

Philly Farm and Food Fest Farmers, artisans and regional experts share their knowledge through a variety of classes and hands-on workshops centered around food and agriculture at the fifth installment of this festival. Brains, bellies and shopping bags will be filled all day. phillyfarmfest.org WHEN: April 10, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. WHERE: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th and Arch streets COST: General admission $20; group general admission $18; free for children under 12

Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia “Visit Japan without leaving Philly,” beckons the Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, inviting everyone to a weeklong exploration of the country’s music, art, food and culture. Activities include a sushi contest, a harajuku fashion show, anime cosplay, dancing, and arts and crafts. subarucherryblossom.org WHEN: April 11 through 17 WHERE: Various locations. The main celebration is at the Horticulture Center in Fairmount Park on April 17 COST: Adults $10; free for children

Philadelphia Antiques and Art Show Founded in 1962, this show includes a diverse range of period furniture, nautical and Native American art, books, prints, jewelry and more from 58 exhibitors. Special events, included with admission, include lectures about lifestyle, curation and crime within the art world. philadelphiaantiquesandartshow.com WHEN: April 15 through 17 WHERE: Navy Yard, South Broad Street and Intrepid Avenue COST: General admission $20; seniors $18

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International Spring Festival

Portside Community Arts Festival

Enrich your understanding and appreciation of different cultures and nations through entertainment on five stages, a health fair, lectures, a planetarium, exhibits, scavenger hunt and crafts for the kids. A full schedule of performances and workshops can be viewed online.

Previously called the Lehigh Avenue Arts Festival, this annual fundraising event features artisan vendors, live music, food trucks and a moon bounce for the kids. Register for Philly’s first ever inflatable sculpture contest at phillypuff.org—winners will be announced at the festival.

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WHEN: April 16, 11 a.m. WHERE: North Penn High School, 1340 Valley Forge Road, Lansdale, Pa.

WHEN: April 23 and 24, noon to 5 p.m. WHERE: Penn Treaty Park, 1341 North Delaware Ave.

Philadelphia Science Festival Choose from over 90 events during this nine-day, communitywide celebration of science. Attend lectures, debates, handson activities, special exhibitions and a variety of other informal educational experiences designed for Philadelphians of all ages. philasciencefestival.org WHEN: April 22 through 30 WHERE: Various locations

Chinese Lantern Festival Celebrate Franklin Square’s 10th birthday with huge illuminated displays, lighting up the park for artisans from China and Philly, along with nightly entertainment. historicphiladelphia.org WHEN: April 22 through June 12, 6 to 10 p.m. nightly; 6 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday WHERE: Franklin Square COST: TBD

Namas Day Yoga Festival A “welcome meditation” opens this daylong series of classes, which include chakra workshops, spirituality talks and physical yoga practices. Classes are arranged by skill level and can be viewed online. namasdayphilly.com WHEN: April 23, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: WHYY Studios, 150 N. Sixth St.

Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts Street Fair This daylong party closes out the popular annual performance series curated by the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Carnival games, music, pop-up parks and top-notch vendors will take over nine blocks of Center City. pifa.org WHEN: April 23, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: Broad Street near the Kimmel Center

Flavors of the Avenue A big-top tent will house more than two dozen award-winning restaurants serving fine food, wine and craft beer. Outside, live music and a craft show will be open to the public. visiteastpassyunk.com WHEN: April 24, noon to 4 p.m. WHERE: East Passyunk Avenue COST: Street festival is free; general admission for the food tent is $50

Philadelphia Black Pride This four-day festival created by and for black LGBTQ communities and allies is an opportunity to celebrate, network and bring awareness to numerous social and political causes. Discussions and events are listed online. phillyblackpride.org WHEN: April 28 through May 1 WHERE: Various locations

Philly Tech Week Kickoff Festival Celebrate technology and innovation at the App Arcade and Maker Corner (details online). Philly’s coolest inventors, programmers and designers will have plenty of gadgets to show off. 2016.phillytechweek.com WHEN: April 29, 5 to 10 p.m. WHERE: Dilworth Park

Go West! Craft Fest Go West! is a unique opportunity to see the distinct artistic visions of our city’s many crafters, all gathered into one beautiful hodgepodge. Check out the festival website for a colorful gallery of last year’s fun. gowestcraftfest.blogspot.com WHEN: April 30, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. WHERE: 4th Street and Woodland Avenue

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L I S T I N G S / S P R I N G FA I R S A N D F E ST I VA L S Center City Jazz Festival

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Enjoy America’s original art form while hopping around great Center City restaurants.

WHEN: May 14, 1 to 5 p.m. WHERE: St. Dominic’s Church, 8504 Frankford Ave. COST: Beer festival tickets $35

WHEN: June 2 through 4 WHERE: Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St. COST: Three performances and lunch for $25

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Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival

WHEN: April 30, 1 to 7 p.m. WHERE: Fergie’s Pub, Franky Bradley’s, U-Bahn, Milkboy, Time COST: $20

Tens of thousands of people will get a chance to experience fashion, food and family activities near the heart of the city, as Rittenhouse’s favorite eateries move their businesses outdoors to mingle among the crowds and share their fare.

Strawberry Festival at Linvilla Orchards

WHEN: May 21 WHERE: Walnut Street, between Broad and 19th streets

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South Street Spring Festival Live music, art, food and family friendly activities will ensure South street is flooded with people May 7, which coincides with Free Comic Book Day at Atomic City Comics, as well as the Maifest Street Festival at Brauhaus Schmitz. southstreet.com WHEN: May 7, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. WHERE: South Street, from Front Street to 8th Street

Art Star Craft Bazaar This retail art and craft show won Best in Philly awards from Philadelphia Magazine twice, and attracts thousands of visitors annually. Expect to find homemade pottery, jewelry, clothing and original artwork. artstarcraftbazaar.com WHEN: May 7 and 8, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: Columbus Boulevard, between Walnut Street and Chestnut Street

Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Craft Fair More than 100 independent makers from the U.S. and Canada will display their fine handmade furniture, pottery, jewelry, clothing and other everyday functional items. pacrafts.org WHEN: May 13 through 15, 11 a.m. WHERE: Rittenhouse Square

Country Fair Day W.B. Saul High School’s annual celebration features a perennial flower sale, craft fair, silent auction, hayrides, face painting and lots of kid-friendly activities. saulcountryfairday.weebly.com WHEN: May 14, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. WHERE: W.B. Saul High School, 7100 Henry Ave. COST: $25 online; $45 at the door

St. Dominic’s Arts & Craft Fair and Craft Beer Festival Food trucks and art vendors will be lined up outside St. Dominic’s. An indoor craft beer festival will raise money for restora-

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Bucks County Yoga Festival Enjoy food, lectures, and yoga and health workshops taught by local instructors. The festival closes with music and socializing. buckscountyyogafest.com WHEN: May 21 WHERE: Grange Fairgrounds, 576 Penns Park Road, Newtown, Pa. COST: $59 to $75

9th Street Italian Market Festival Along with the usual food vendors serving up neighborhood favorites, highlights at this year’s 9th Street festival include live entertainment, beer and wine gardens, a halfball tournament and a procession of the saints. italianmarketfestival.com WHEN: May 21 through 22, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. WHERE: South 9th Street Italian Market

Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby & Arts Festival More than 200 local arts and food vendors will take to the cobblestone street of Trenton Avenue to help raise funds for neighborhood projects and revitalization. Don't miss the Kinetic Sculpture Derby! trentonaveartsfest.org WHEN: May 21, noon WHERE: Trenton Avenue, from Norris to Dauphin streets

Philadelphia International Children’s Festival The festival returns with more music, comedy, storytelling and circus acts, along with African and African-American folklore told by Charlotte Blake Alston, a one-man performance of “The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly” and more.

Pick your own fresh, juicy strawberries to take home, and an expert will be on-hand to answer questions about preserving and preparing homemade jams. WHEN: June 4, 8 a.m. WHERE: Linvilla Orchards Entertainment Garden, 137 W. Knowlton Rd., Media, Pa.

Fairmount Avenue Arts Crawl More than 40 indoor and outdoor exhibits showcase media of all forms alongside street performances, craft-making activities and children’s games. fairmountaveartscrawl.com WHEN: June 4, noon to 4 p.m. WHERE: Art Museum area

Appel Farm Music & Wine Festival The nonprofit arts programs centered around this farm have assembled a day full of live music, a crafts fair, and art and activities for all ages. Overnight stay is available at the farm’s modern housing facilities. appelfarm.org WHEN: June 4, noon WHERE: Appel Farm, 457 Shirley Road, Elmer, N.J.

Beardfest This three three-day festival in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens strives to offer festival goers an appreciation of nature alongside home-grown music and sustainability workshops. beardfest.net WHEN: June 16 to 18 WHERE: Paradise Lake Campground, 2021 Skip Morgan Dr, Hammonton, N.J COST: $55 to $75

Philly Pride Parade and Festival This year's theme is “Are you connected?” phillygaypride.org WHEN: June 12; parade starts at 11:30 a.m. and arrives at festival location around 1 p.m. WHERE: Gayborhood to Penn's Landing COST: Festival admission $15

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HOME ST E A D ACT S

HIVE MIND Keeping bees, or providing them with native plantings in your garden, is a good turn for them—and for us by anna herman

ost humans are cheered by spring flowers. For all the pollinating insects, these blooms are a lifeline after the nectar- and pollen-free winter cold. Honeybees and many native bees keep the foods we love—fruits, veggies, nuts, milk and even ice cream—flowing to our tables through their pollination services. Butterflies and native bees are also harbingers of the health of our local ecosystems. And then there is the honey! Bees thrive in a city full of flowering trees, backyard gardens and pocket parks. Even if you’re not ready for your own hive, urban gardeners have an important role to play. You can provide food and shelter in the form of native plantings in yards, vacant lots and parks to help butterflies and bees multiply and thrive. Penn State Extension (for which I work) has a useful online guide to help your efforts to both learn what plants to add to your community and what garden practices help pollinators flourish. Certify your garden as a “Pollinator Habitat” this spring. As a beekeeper, you can help create a healthy habitat for 30,000 to 80,000 honey bees per hive, and studies have shown that urban bees often have a more varied diet— and fare as well or better—than their suburban or rural counterparts. Taking care of a couple of backyard hives shifts how one views the world. Beekeepers see dandelions as food for their bees, not as weeds. Beekeepers see pesticides on the shelf of every hardware and big-box store and mourn the death of these crucial partners. Beekeepers see the barely discernible blooms on the maple trees in March and know honey is on its way in June. The care and keeping of bees requires knowledge and hands-on practice. Honeybees have a fascinating cooperative social structure with tens of thousands of female workers building perfect hexagonal wax chambers to house their young and store their food. Foraging bees return to the dark hive box and share information to guide their sisters to nectar sources up to 54

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two miles away by waggle and circle dancing. And the episodic off-site mating rituals are something of a marvel. Considering keeping bees this spring? Join a beekeeping class to weigh the many options and determine what equipment and style of beekeeping you might pursue. You can order bees by the 3-pound box or starter (nucleus) hive. Pick them up at several local spots later this spring, or have them delivered in a screened box. Philadelphia today boasts hundreds of backyard and rooftop hives, and the city has a long tradition of innovation and support of beekeepers. Early beekeepers would have to destroy much of the colony to harvest honey. But in 1852, Lorenzo Langstroth, a Philadelphia native, patented what has become the standard beehive. The stacked boxes of the Langstroth hive are the image that likely comes to mind when you think “beehive.” This hive allowed the bees to build honeycomb into frames, which can be easily moved, but that prevented bees from attaching honeycombs where they would connect adjacent frames or connect frames to the box. The movable frames allow the beekeeper to observe and manage their bees in ways that had been impossible. Modern beekeepers choose among variations on the Langstroth hive, Warre hives and various sorts of “top bar” hives. Each has advocates who enumerate the pros and cons of honeybee health and utility for the beekeeper. The Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild is a great resource of volunteer beekeepers who share knowledge and information in monthly meetings and offer classes, in-person and online resources, group equipment orders and hands-on meetup opportunities. Whether you set up two hives on your patio, plant more flowers, or purchase local honey, you can—and should—take on a role in protecting pollinators. Sweet.

A beekeeper tends a backyard hive

the

Beekeeping glossary G LOSSARY EXCE RPTE D F RO M THE P RACTICAL B E E KE E P E R' S W E BS ITE (B US HFARM S .CO M /B E ES ) W ITH E D ITS F RO M M ICHAE L B US H

Anna Herman is a garden educator who raises chicken, ducks, bees, fruits and veggies in her Mount Airy backyard. P HOTO BY AD D ISON GEA RY

HOM E STEAD ACT S

APIARY = A bee yard

less commonly, a laying worker.

APIARIST = A beekeeper

FRAME = A rectangular structure of wood designed to hold honeycomb.

APICULTURE = The science and art of raising honeybees. BEESWAX = A substance secreted in thin scales by special glands on the underside of beesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; abdomens used after mastication and mixed with the secretions of the salivary glands for constructing honeycomb. COLONY = The aggregate of worker bees, drones, queen and developing brood living together as a family unit in a hive or other dwelling. COMB HONEY = Honey left in the soft white wax comb that is used for consumption. DRONE = The male honeybee that comes from an unfertilized egg, laid by a queen or,

HIVE = A home for a colony of bees. HONEY = A sweet viscous liquid produced by bees from the nectar of flowers, composed largely of a mixture of dextrose and levulose dissolved in about 17 percent water; contains small amounts of sucrose, mineral matter, vitamins, proteins and enzymes. POLLEN = The dust-like male reproductive cells (gametophytes) of flowers, formed in the anthers, and important as a protein source for bees; pollen is essential for bees to rear brood. PROPOLIS = Plant resins collected, mixed with enzymes from bee saliva and used to fill in small spaces inside the hive and to coat

and sterilize everything in the hive. It has antimicrobial properties. QUEEN = A fully developed female bee responsible for all the egg laying of a colony. RAW HONEY = Honey that has not been finely filtered or heated. SWARM = A large or dense group of bees led by an old queen bee that leave a hive to start a new colony. Swarms are generally calm and unthreatening as they have no home to defend. TOP-BAR HIVE = A hive with only top bars and no frames that allows for movable comb without as much carpentry or expense. WORKER BEES = Infertile female bees whose reproductive organs are only partially developed. They are responsible for carrying out all the routine of the colony.

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MAR KET WATCH

STALKING THE SPRING A green harbinger of warmer times shines in a simple salad by peggy paul casella

pring hasn’t really sprung until you’ve snatched up your first bunch of asparagus from the local farmers market. It livens up any dish with its grassy, floral flavor, and the prep work—bending each spear until it snaps toward the bottom end—was one of my first kitchen tasks as a child. As an added bonus, asparagus also happens to contain a wide variety of nutrients, including vitamins C, A, E and K, folate, magnesium, iron and fiber. Choose firm spears with compact tips. Asparagus plants take two to three years to become productive and can live for up to 10 years, producing thicker stalks as they age. Larger, older asparagus are just as delicious as the spindly young ’uns, but they may have tough outer skins, which should be peeled away before using. Asparagus will keep for three to four days in the refrigerator, stored in a plastic bag or standing upright in an inch of water. USES: Serve raw (shaved or finely chopped) on salads, pizzas and tacos. Steam, roast, broil, grill or pan-fry. Toss chopped spears into stir-fries, or blanch them and add to omelets, frittatas, stratas, tarts, pasta dishes, grain salads and casseroles. Pickle them. Cook and purée them in springtime soups.

Raw Asparagus Salad with Parsley and Pistachios Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients yy 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

yy 1 pound asparagus, tough stems

yy 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground

trimmed and discarded

black pepper

yy 2 cups flat-leaf parsley leaves

yy 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon

yy 2/3 cup shelled unsalted

juice (from 1 lemon)

roasted pistachios

yy 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

yy Shaved Parmesan cheese

Directions 1.

In a small bowl, combine the salt, black pepper and lemon juice. Whisk until the salt is dissolved, then keep whisking while you add the oil to the bowl in a slow stream. Set aside.

Lay the asparagus spears flat on a cutting board and slice them very thinly on a diagonal (a few stalks at a time) to create thin, oblong slices. Transfer the asparagus slices to a large salad bowl, add the parsley and pistachios, and pour the lemon vinaigrette over top. Toss well, divide the salad among plates and garnish with shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Peggy Paul Casella is a cookbook editor, writer, urban vegetable gardener, produce peddler and author of the blog Thursday Night Pizza. 56

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EVENT S

4/2/2016

SPRING FESTIVALS 2016 SEE COMPLETE LISTINGS ON PAGES 48 THROUGH 50. APRIL 10

Manayunk StrEAT Food Festival Philly Farm and Food Fest APRIL 11–17

Subaru Cherry Blossom Festival of Greater Philadelphia APRIL 15–17

Philadelphia Antiques and Art Show APRIL 16

International Spring Festival APRIL 22–30

Philadelphia Science Festival APRIL 22–JUNE 12

Chinese Lantern Festival APRIL 23

Namas Day Yoga Festival Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts Street Fair APRIL 23–24

Portside Community Arts Festival APRIL 24

Flavors of the Avenue APRIL 28–MAY 1

Philadelphia Black Pride APRIL 29

Philly Tech Week Kickoff Festival APRIL 30

Go West! Craft Fest Center City Jazz Festival MAY 6

Spruce Street Harbor Park Opening MAY 7

South Street Spring Festival Art Star Craft Bazaar MAY 13–15

Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen Craft Fair MAY 14

Country Fair Day St. Dominic's Arts & Craft Fair MAY 21

Rittenhouse Row Spring Festival Bucks County Yoga Festival Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby & Arts Festival MAY 21 AND 22

9th Street Italian Market Festival

Blueberry Symposium Discover the natural history of the culture and the modern blueberry industry. Hear from local historians and agricultural experts in the Barrel Factory, enjoy a free lunch and stroll through the historic village museums and the General Store.

Backyard Chickens Chickens enrich the soil, eat insects and pests in the garden, and produce food for their keepers. Learn everything from daily needs and year-round care to space and cost considerations when starting your own home flock. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 1 to 4 p.m. COST: $45 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

whitesbog.org WHEN: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST: $30 to $40 WHERE: Whitesbog Village, 120 W. Whites Bogs Rd., Browns Mills, N.J.

4/5/2016

Fort Washington State Park Volunteer Day

Steps Toward a No-Carbon House

Fort Washington State Park is seeking volunteers to help with mulching around recently planted trees, trash cleanup, raking leaves and other springtime projects. Please bring a pair of garden or work gloves. Coordinators will supply the tools and trash bags. Meet in the Militia Hill area of the park, at parking lot No. 5, near the observation deck. dcnr.state.pa.us WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: 451 Militia Hill Rd., Fort Washington, Pa.

Spring Woodland Arrangement Learn how to make naturalistic centerpieces for your home using branches, flowers and other botanical elements from the garden. Discover creative ways to arrange the materials as they grow in their natural environment. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: $55 (Materials included) WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Vegetable Garden Planning Find out how to best use the space in your backyard or community plot for a healthy and productive vegetable garden. Hear about succession planting, companion planting and crop rotation practices. greensgrow.org WHEN: Noon to 2 p.m. COST: $15 WHERE: Greensgrow Farms, 2501 E. Cumberland St.

Native Seed Bombs and Paper Attendees will make seed bombs and paper embedded with the seeds of native plants like coneflowers, blazing star and bluestem. This craft project is designed to beautify the landscape while providing nectar for pollinators and host plants for caterpillars. Ages 6 and up. Registration required. phila.gov

Learn how to make your home or business energy efficient, sign up for renewable electricity through PECO and learn steps to install solar on rooftops. Judy Wicks will share her own story of moving her home toward no-carbon, along with a panel of experts: Micah Gold-Markel, founder of Solar States; Glenn Smith, executive director of the Energy Co-op; and Mitchell Swann, board member of the Philadelphia Energy Authority. Beer and snacks will be served. RSVP requested. sbnphiladelphia.org WHEN: 5:30 to 8 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Trinity Memorial Church, 22nd and Spruce streets

4/6/2016 Global Water Alliance Annual Conference The Global Water Alliance is a network of interested organizations and individuals committed to supporting U.N. goals for water/sanitation throughout the world. The conference will connect people interested in issues of water and sanitation through discussion of existing projects, innovations and best practices. globalwateralliance.net WHEN: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. COST: Students $10; professionals $50 WHERE: Fox School of Business, 1801 Liacouras Walk

Native Plants of Spring Learn to identify 60 beautiful and ecologically functional spring flowering native trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials. Through lectures and outdoor labs, examine the identifying characteristics of each plant, its preferred site conditions and its environmental value. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. COST: $180 for a six-session course WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

WHEN: 1 to 3 p.m. COST: $5 WHERE: Wissahickon Environmental Center, 300 W. Northwestern Ave.

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EVENT S Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia's Volunteer Night

observe this unique Roxborough natural phenomenon. schuylkillcenter.org

This low-key evening involves the classic nonprofit volunteer game: envelope stuffing. These sessions are a good chance to learn what the Bicycle Coalition is about, meet staff and other engaged volunteers, and talk bicycling. RSVP requested.

WHEN: 7 to 8 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd.

tfaforms.com/388585 WHEN: 6 to 7 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: 1500 Walnut St.

4/7/2016 Drawing Flowers: Quick and Simple! Develop basic drawing skills through observing and sketching a variety of leaves, blooms and flowering branches from the garden. Explore line, shape and form, and learn from instructor demonstrations. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. COST: $190 for a five-session course WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

The Biology of Bedtime Sleep—it’s something we do (or try to do) every night. Scientists, however, aren’t clear on the biology behind the compulsion to sleep. Join University of Pennsylvania neuroscience professor Amita Sehgal for a look into the molecular basis of sleep and circadian rhythm. wagnerfreeinstitute.org WHEN: 6 to 7:30 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 W. Montgomery Ave.

Understand how plants grow and develop; how water and nutrients are utilized and distributed; and how leaves, flowers, stems and roots function. Discover intriguing relationships between plants and pollinators, how seeds and fruits form, and why plants grow toward the sun. Develop skills to identify plants and learn the reasons for using scientific names. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: $125 for a four-session course WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Toad Nights See toads up close, hear their trills, learn about toad natural history and look for their eggs in ponds. There will be a hike, rain or shine, so please bring a raincoat along to

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Come clean the bike lane shoulders of the Grays Ferry Bridge. The Streets Department of Philadelphia will provide volunteers with gloves, rakes, brooms, shovels and trash bags. Traffic cones will be set up to ensure safety. philadelphiastreets.com WHEN: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Southeast end of the Grays Ferry Bridge

Second Saturday Sketch On the second Saturday of each month, learn a different sketching technique. Materials are provided, but attendees can bring their own if they like (sketch pads and drawing or charcoal pencils only, please). This drop-in program is primarily aimed at an adult audience. philamuseum.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: Free with admission WHERE: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.

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WHEN: 1 to 3 p.m. COST: $15 WHERE: Wissahickon Environmental Center, 300 W. Northwestern Ave.

4/10/2016 Family Tours: The Art of Nature Young visitors and their families are invited to participate in creative play and conversation as an introduction to art. This event occurs every Sunday in April, with the exception of April 3. philamuseum.org WHEN: 11 a.m. to noon COST: Free with admission WHERE: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.

Harrowgate Yard Tree Giveaway Philadelphians can get up to two free trees to plant in their yard this spring. Registration is recommended, but walk-ins will be accepted at the end of the event. treephilly.org WHEN: Noon to 2 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Aramingo TD Bank store, 2267 E. Butler St.

South Philly Yard Tree Giveaway Philadelphians can get up to two free trees to plant in their yard this spring. Registration is recommended, but walk-ins will be accepted at the end of the event. treephilly.org

Newton Creek Cleanup

Botany for Gardeners

Assemble a birdhouse for bluebirds, chickadees and house wrens. Birdhouse kits will be available to assemble with provided tools and hardware. Registration required by April 7. phila.gov

Grays Ferry Bridge Cleanup

WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: Free WHERE: South Broad TD Bank store, 2201 S. Broad St.

4/8/2016

4/9/2016

Bird Box Building Workshop

Volunteer to remove debris that can harm waterways, and install bollards to prevent future dumping. Grabbers, bags and gloves will be provided. Please dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes. tcsahub.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Cushing Road at Republic Road, Camden, N.J.

Food as Medicine Join Jen Capozzi, owner of Barlume Apothecary, for a cooking workshop exploring the lost wisdom of how seasonal foods and native herbs can be integrated together to promote healing and wellness. greensgrow.org WHEN: Noon to 2 p.m. COST: $35 WHERE: Greensgrow Community Kitchen at St. Michael's Lutheran Church, 2139 E. Cumberland St.

4/12/2016 Everything but Daylilies Learn about plant choices for four-season gardening to enhance a daylily garden, including sun perennials, shade perennials, vines, flowering shrubs, container plants and bulbs. The speaker, Beth Creveling, has over 2,200 daylilies in her garden. hssj.org WHEN: 7 to 9 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Carmen Tilelli Hall, 820 Mercer St., Cherry Hill, N.J.

Sustainability Film Series: ‘Cowspiracy’ “Cowspiracy” is a shocking, yet humorous investigation of the impact of factory farming and why environmental organizations don’t talk about it. Panel discussion follows. Swing by the theater ahead of time to visit the Sustainability Expo. amblertheater.org/ pennypack WHEN: 7:30 to 9 p.m. COST: $10 WHERE: Ambler Theater, 108 E. Butler Avenue, Ambler, Pa.

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EVENT S

4/13/2016

4/15/2016

Nature’s Hidden Surprises: Adopta-Tree Scavenger Hunt

Fitness Walks

Join environmental educator Judith Gratz for a morning nature walk and scavenger hunt. Explore the park for surprises, do some planting for the birds, butterflies and bees, and choose a tree to “adopt” and watch during the year. ttfwatershed.org WHEN: 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. COST: Free WHERE: Tacony Creek Park, I Street and Ramona Avenue Gateway

Beneficial Insects for your Garden Presented by Rutgers Master Gardeners of Camden County. Learn what the difference is between the good and bad bugs in your garden. Bernadette Eichinger, master gardener, class of 2007, will be the speaker. Registration is suggested. camden.njaes.rutgers.edu/garden WHEN: 6:30 to 8 p.m. COST: $10 WHERE: Camden County Parks Environmental Center, 1301 Park Blvd., Cherry Hill, N.J.

Women Bike PHL Coffee Club Each Wednesday, Women Bike PHL meets at a different coffee shop in Philadelphia for an informal gathering to share tips, rant, support, celebrate and caffeinate together. connectthecircuit.org WHEN: 8 to 9 a.m. COST: Free WHERE: Capital One 360 Café, 1636 Walnut St.

Enjoy the natural beauty of Mt. Cuba Center’s gardens, forests and meadows this spring. Get to know our native flora and fauna. Engage with the center’s staff and explore the extensive walking trails. Dress for the weather, bring a water bottle and be prepared for hilly terrain. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. COST: $30 for a six-session course WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Get Lucid! Activist Dance Party for W/N W/N Workers Co-op This fundraiser dance party is celebrating Philly’s newest Co-op, W/N W/N Coffee Bar. Ruba Club will be packed with a range of interactive art exhibitions and multimedia arts and some of the best DJs in Philly. facebook.com/getlucidexclamation

4/16/2016 Run for Clean Air The Run for Clean Air is one of the region’s longest-running charity races. Participants can register for a 10K run, 5K run, 3K walk or kids’ fun run. All proceeds go to Clean Air Council. runforcleanair.com

Adventures in Moss Gardening

Spring Planting: Do It Right!

Learn how moss softens the hard edges of a garden and provides a natural seedbed for other native plants. Identify 15 different species and learn to successfully grow these miniature marvels. A demonstration on transplanting moss and maintaining Mt. Cuba Center’s moss garden will round out the class. mtcubacenter.org

Spring is the ideal time of year to plant many trees, shrubs and perennials. Learn how to do it right using the most up-to-date horticultural techniques, including digging the planting hole, preparing the rootball, watering, mulching and post-planting care.

Sip plant cocktails with artists, friends and special botanical guests while chatting about the ecological and cultural roles of native and non-native plants. schuylkillcenter.org WHEN: 6 to 8 p.m. COST: $15 for members; $20 for nonmembers WHERE: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd.

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WHEN: Noon to 2 p.m. COST: $35 WHERE: Greensgrow Farms, 2501 E. Cumberland St.

Celebration of Daffodils Sara L. Van Beck, author of “Daffodils in American Gardens, 1733-1940,” tells the fascinating story of the genus Narcissus and its journey to the gardens of historic Philadelphia. The talk will be followed by a Bartram’s Bitters cocktail reception and curator’s tours of the daffodil collection. bartramsgarden.org WHEN: 2 to 5 p.m. COST: $35 to $80 WHERE: Bartram's Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.

4/17/2016

WHEN: 7 to 11 a.m. COST: $10 to $50 WHERE: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2600 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.

Botanical Cocktail Hour

Learn how to use native plants to attract beneficial pollinating insects to your garden. This is a great time of year to get natives established in the ground and in containers. A garden can provide a home and food for pollinators that will increase the productivity of flowers and vegetables. greensgrow.org

WHEN: 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. COST: $12 WHERE: Ruba Club, 416 Green St.

4/14/2016

WHEN: 1 to 3:30 p.m. COST: $38 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Gardening with Native Plants for Urban Pollinators

mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: $30 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Northeast Philly Yard Tree Giveaway Philadelphians can get up to two free trees to plant in their yard this spring. Registration is recommended, but walk-ins will be accepted at the end of the event. treephilly.org WHEN: Noon to 2 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Woodhaven TD Bank store, 3930 Woodhaven Rd., 19154

Home Landscaping Basics: Getting Started Explore ways to create diverse, attractive and functional landscapes using basic principles of naturalistic garden design. Learn how to work with your site to solve problems and maximize its use. Sun, shade and wind patterns, microclimates, existing conditions and other factors will be discussed. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 1 to 3 p.m. COST: $30 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Tacony Yard Tree Giveaway Philadelphians can get up to two free trees to plant in their yard this spring. Registration is recommended, but walk-ins will be accepted at the end of the event. treephilly.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: Free WHERE: Frankford Avenue TD Bank store, 6635 Frankford Ave.

4/21/2016 Top 10 Spring Wildflowers Wildflowers are beautiful, don’t require additional fertilizers or pesticides, and attract wildlife. Learn about 10 spring-flowering plants that will get you thinking about the possibilities. Take one home to start your

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EVENT S own native plant garden. mtcubacenter.org

2nd Annual SRT Spree

WHEN: 10 to 11 a.m. COST: $25 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Schuylkill River Relay

The popular SRT Spree will return for a second year, to announce SRT Ale's return for another summer. This year, the spree will be a weekend-long event featuring a kayak trip on the river, a relay race, trail cleanups, live music and more. slyfoxbeer.com/srt-spree

The Schuylkill River Relay is a 50K race that starts and ends at St. Michael’s Park with live music, food trucks and Sly Fox beer. Runners have the option of racing solo, or in a team of three to six runners.

WHEN: April 22 through 24 COST: Prices vary WHERE: 100 Haws Ave., Norristown, Pa.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST: $99 to $209 WHERE: St. Michael’s Park, Mont Clare, Pa.

4/23/2016

4/24/2016

BirdPhilly at Sedgely Woods

Beekeeping 101 and Hive Tour

Sedgley Woods is a gem of East Fairmount Park, with secluded forest fragments (no road access), thick understory shrubs and an open meadow—a great place to find migratory passerines. birdphilly.org

Learn what it takes to keep a busy, productive hive of bees happy. This class will discuss where to get your bees, how to set up and maintain a hive, and what types of activities are required throughout the year. The class will end with a hive tour.

Film Screening: ‘Catching the Sun’ The new film “Catching the Sun” addresses the prospect of a global solar energy transition that has the potential to positively impact both income inequality and climate change. The film follows several lives, including unemployed workers seeking jobs in the solar industry; Van Jones, a leader in green jobs invited to work at the White House, but forced to resign by the far right; and a Chinese businessman building a solar village in Texas. The film will be followed by a discussion on local energy policies with speakers including Adam Agalloco, energy manager in the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability. Beer and snacks will be served. RSVP requested. sbnphiladelphia.org WHEN: 5:30 to 8 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Trinity Memorial Church, 22nd and Spruce streets

Plant Milk Made Simple Learn how to make your own plant milk using nuts, seeds and grains, then take a jar home to enjoy. GMOFreeNJ.com/events WHEN: 6:30 to 8 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Collingswood Public Library, 771 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, N.J.

4/22/2016 Earth Day: Volunteer with Greensgrow Every year on Earth Day, Greensgrow Farms joins forces with neighborhood organizations and sponsors to raise an army of volunteers to beautify the neighborhood. This year they plan to plant a green gateway at Hackett Elementary School and beautify the street corners in West Philadelphia. Please sign up online. greensgrow.org WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Greensgrow Farms, 2501 E. Cumberland St.

Dancing With the Toads This hike during the full moon coincides with the breeding season of some frogs including American toads. Attendees can listen to the strange and often beautiful songs of these night singing amphibians. There will also be an opportunity to hear woodcocks and owls, and Wissahickon Environmental Center staff will give their bat detector a test run. All ages. Registration required. phila.gov WHEN: 7:30 to 9 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Wissahickon Environmental Center, 300 W. Northwestern Ave.

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WHEN: 7:30 to 10 a.m. COST: Free WHERE: The parking lot for Sedgely Woods on Reservoir Drive in East Fairmount Park, between the Smith Playground and North 33rd Street

Field Trip: Wildflowers of the Susquehanna The diverse, sheltered habitats of the Susquehanna River watershed support a wealth of wildflowers and wildlife in the Piedmont of upper Maryland. Walk along a section of the Susquehanna and Tidewater Canal and learn about the plant ecology of this region, its historic mills and the importance of preserving this landscape. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. COST: $75 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Darby Creek Cleanup This volunteer cleanup will be on the two major creeks and many tributaries that make up the Darby Creek Watershed. Each location is staffed by a captain who will direct activities and reach out to provide more information as the date is closer. dcva.org WHEN: 9 a.m. to noon COST: Free WHERE: Darby Creek, Delaware County, Pa.

Naturepalooza! Family Earth Day Festival Stop by the Schuylkill Center for science activities, crafts, nature walks and live animal shows. There will be a pirate radio station featuring games, prizes and other fun. Grab lunch at a food truck, explore environmental art on the trails and join in a fort-building competition. schuylkillcenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd.

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Annual Wildflower Celebration Enjoy a stunning display of spring wildflowers, live music, gardening demonstrations, family programming and more. A variety of food selections are available for purchase. The first 1,000 families receive a free native plant. Free parking for this event is at the Red Clay Reservation. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Philadelphia Master Gardeners Plant Sale and Garden Day A day of plants, information and demonstrations of gardening excellence. Shop for annuals, perennials, edibles and more. Join in children’s crafts and browse the garden themed “green elephant” table. Take a tour of the demonstration gardens, attend a workshop and bring questions to ask a Penn State Extension master gardener. extension.psu.edu WHEN: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Fairmount Park Horticultural Center, 100 N. Horticultural Drive

Symmetry, Sequence and Starfish: Exploring Math in Nature At this Explorer Sunday program, part of the Philadelphia Science Festival, discover patterns and sequences in specimens, see how complicated math was done before calculators, and learn the mysterious ways that math and nature intersect. wagnerfreeinstitute.org WHEN: Noon to 4 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 W. Montgomery Ave.

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4/28/2016 Terrific Trilliums Explore the world of trilliums through an informative presentation and woodland walk. Learn the trillium’s life cycle and find out how to care for them in your garden. See Mt. Cuba Center’s collection of native species and observe a planting demonstration. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: $30 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Film: Prince Charles’ Organic Garden The South Jersey Organic Gardeners’ Club will show “The Farmer and His Prince,” a film about Prince Charles’ organic garden at their regular meeting. Facebook: South Jersey Organic Gardeners’ Club. WHEN: 7 to 9 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Barrington Senior Center, 109 Shreve Ave., Barrington, N.J.

Native Plant Sale

BirdPhilly at Bartram’s Garden

This plant sale features a selection of more than 150 species of perennial trees, shrubs, vines and wildflowers native to this region. Volunteers and plant experts will be on hand to answer gardening questions.

With river access, fields, woodlands, wetlands and ornamental plantings, Bartram’s Garden has an amazing diversity of bird-attracting habitat. Expect to see late wintering waterfowl with early arriving breeders and migrants such as warblers and orioles.

schuylkillcenter.org WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. COST: Pay as you go WHERE: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd.

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Spring Tune-Up!

Cheese Making Workshop with Valley Milkhouse

Scott Freedman from Mt. Cuba Center will show attendees how to tune up a lawn mower, string trimmer and leaf blower, all while taking care to ensure machine parts are functioning properly and safely. Participants will leave knowing how to troubleshoot equipment and get a head start on any potential problems. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: $30 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Spring Wildflower Walk

4/30/2016 Spring Photography Stroll Enjoy this early morning opportunity to capture the beauty of spring in the gardens of Mt. Cuba Center. Be creative, find inspiration and leave with a better understanding of how to take outstanding shots. mtcubacenter.org WHEN: 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. COST: $25 WHERE: Mt. Cuba Center, 3120 Barley Mill Rd., Hockessin, Del.

Schuylkill Center Executive Director Mike Weilbacher will lead a walk to see forest wildflowers including trillium, bluebells, spring beauty, cohosh and trout lily. He will also share insights about the ecology of these flowers and how to identify them. schuylkillcenter.org WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon COST: $5 WHERE: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd.

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Bartram’s Garden, 5400 Lindbergh Blvd.

Participants will use early spring milk from Berks County to make fresh ricotta with award-winning cheese maker Steph Angstadt. The class will finish with a Q&A and evaluative cheese tasting. greensgrow.org WHEN: Noon to 2 p.m. COST: $35 WHERE: Greensgrow Community Kitchen at St. Michael's Lutheran Church, 2139 E. Cumberland St.

5/11/2016 Nature Preschool Open House Learn more about the Schuylkill Center’s Nature Preschool, a progressive nature-based program for children ages 3 to 5. Visit the classrooms, meet teachers and learn about our curriculum. Children are welcome to come and participate in activities. schuylkillcenter.org WHEN: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. COST: Free WHERE: Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy's Mill Rd.

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D IS PATCH

SOUL FARMING Putting down roots on a patch of land gives others room to grow by Charis Lindrooth

hen Don arrived to work with us at Red Earth Farm, I was skeptical. Now bear in mind, we employ an eclectic mix of people, but Don won the prize for the cleanest-shaved and neatest dressed. His spotless button-up was tucked into crisp khakis. His boots squeaked. His hair was carefully combed, his enthusiastic grin irresistible. Some might say this man was in the thick of a midlife crisis. At 45, he left the food industry to pursue his dream: farming. His only obstacle? He knew nothing about it. Our farm provided the solution to his lack of know-how. One year later, he bought an acreage and launched Dancing Hen Farm. If it weren’t for the same heartwarming grin, you would hardly recognize him—now, he looks like a farmer, because he is one. Todd, another employee, spent his teen years perfecting his skills as a skateboard aficionado. He came to us in his mid-20s and fell in love with farming. He lived with us and worked on our crew for four years. After a summer hiatus in Maine working with a farmer who mentored him on how to farm with horse and plow, Todd returned with beautiful Mary. That summer,

after the echinacea bloomed, Mary gave birth to their son in the summer kitchen. They now manage a CSA using horse and tractor. I cried the day they moved out. I then realized that a deep caring for those who work with us has grown alongside the vegetables. After my husband Michael and I purchased our farm in 2006, our heads bubbled with plans and passionate ideals about connecting people with the land. Community supported agriculture (CSA) was in its early days, and we found our niche by letting our customers order what landed in their weekly boxes. We studied compost, soil chemistry, organic pesticides and pored over glossy pictures of vegetables. We were all about growing produce for enthusiastic vegetable consumers. We didn’t realize at the time that the farm would produce more than vegetables. As our CSA expanded, so did our crew. We now feed nearly 700 families and employ 20 people. Some of them have shared our living space in our 1890s farmhouse. Together, we ate bounteous lunches gathered around rickety tables. Vegetable soups, zucchini lasagna, copious salads, homemade pickles and vats of curried veggies satisfied our

bellies. Cucumber lemonade refreshed us while laughter echoed against the barn. Working outside on pristine days in May can fill one’s soul with hope and joy. The blistering heat and backbreaking demands of July can be brutal. Sweltering bodies find relief in mischief. Those in the lower fields had to be ever-mindful of rotten tomatoes, hurled by impish pickers from above. Cases of liquid were won in habañero eating contests. The annual after-hours pingpong tournament, with a hundred dollar bill taped to the center net, always ended in a ferocious match with Farmer Michael. These antics, combined with shared meals and long days, forged a bond. When we were younger, the bond felt sibling-like. As we mature, it takes on a parental feel. Michael and I have grown as well. We have learned to roll with the weather, anticipate the unexpected, worry less and sleep more. We never could have imagined that beyond feeding our vegetable-crazy customers, our small farm would become a haven for the wanderer, an incubator for future farmers, a place of healing for the part of humanity that spends a season at Red Earth Farm.

Each month, Dispatch features personal reflections on adventures in sustainability. Have a story you’d like to share? Email getinvolved@gridphilly.com

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IL LUSTRATIO N BY AN N E L AMBELET

The jack of all trades One local water expert widened his lens for a clearer future.

Brian Byrnes Master of Environmental Studies ’04, University of Pennsylvania To learn more about Brian’s tips for protecting your local water sources, visit www.upenn.edu/grid

“Water is elemental to our continued existence,” shares Brian Byrnes (Master of Environmental Studies ’04), “It is the most important shared resource that we have and everyone needs and deserves clean water. We also have a shared responsibility to protect it.” As the director (and only full-time employee) of the Chester Ridley Crum Watersheds Association, Brian wears many hats to ensure the health and safety of his community’s streams.

Staff from Penn’s MES

The multi-disciplinary nature of Penn’s Master of Environmental Studies program prepared Brian for the ever-changing current of his field. “How do we apply the science to these sticky real world situations where there are economics, politics and sociology that critically need to be addressed?” he asks, “The variety of coursework and fieldwork I was able to take through the MES program has positioned me well to deal with those kinds of situations.”

program are here to answer your questions face-to-face on the second Wednesday

In its 20th year, the Master of Environmental Studies program offers now, more than ever, opportunities for students to dive into the complex challenges facing our natural world today.

of each month. Walk right in.

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