grid magazine april 2012 [#037]
DESCRIPTION
Toward a Sustainable PhiladelphiaTRANSCRIPT
S u S ta i n a b l e P h i l a d e l P h i a
m ay 2 0 1 2 / i ss u e 3 7 g r i d P h i l ly.co m
Take your backyard garden To The nexT level wiTh
ChiCkens & Bees
GrowinG roots
gardening wiTh kids
seas ons in the sun
boosTing food producTion wiTh high Tunnels
toppinG it off
Making spring salads even TasTier
t a k e o n e !
WINE • JAZZ • FORENSICS • BASEBALL • VACCINES • ART • CHOCOLATE
COMEDY • HISTORY • ROBOTICS • FASHION • TECHNOLOGY • AGRICULTURE
FILM • GENETICS • ARCHEOLOGY • NEUROSCIENCE • GASTRONOMY!
Experience over 50 immersive events at local bars, restaurants, museums and theaters. Right here at home.
APRIL 20 – 29, 2012
Visit www.philasciencefestival.org for tickets and information.
EXPLORING ALL THE THINGS WEand pretty much everything else in the universe...
Created by Philadelphia’s science, cultural and educational institutions and organized by The Franklin Institute.
Presenting Sponsor:
WINE • JAZZ • FORENSICS • BASEBALL • VACCINES • ART • CHOCOLATE
COMEDY • HISTORY • ROBOTICS • FASHION • TECHNOLOGY • AGRICULTURE
FILM • GENETICS • ARCHEOLOGY • NEUROSCIENCE • GASTRONOMY!
Experience over 50 immersive events at local bars, restaurants, museums and theaters. Right here at home.
APRIL 20 – 29, 2012
Visit www.philasciencefestival.org for tickets and information.
EXPLORING ALL THE THINGS WEand pretty much everything else in the universe...
Created by Philadelphia’s science, cultural and educational institutions and organized by The Franklin Institute.
Presenting Sponsor:
April 19Trinity Memorial Church
22nd and Spruce Sts.
HOSTED BY
Alex MulcahyGrid Publisher
Nic EspositoUrban Farmer and Novelist
MUSICAL GUEST
Hezekiah Jones
DRINKS PROVIDED BY CO-SPONSORED BYSUSTAINABLE
19103
NEW TIME!
Agricultural entrepreneur educator for Penn State Extension Philadelphia
Jerome Shabazzwill discuss the High Tunnels Alliance, a new urban agriculture project.
FROM THIS MONTH’S ISSUE
DOORS OPEN AT
7:00 p.m.SHOW STARTS
AT 8:00 P.M.
T H E C I T Y O F P H I L A D E L P H I A
MAYOR’S OFFICE OFSUSTAINABILITY
YOU’VE READ THE MAGAZINE, NOW SEE THE SHOW!
Owner of Milk & Honey Market
Annie Baum-Stein will talk about backyard (and rooftop) beekeeping in Philadelphia.
TICKETS
$5.00Order online at gridphilly.com
Don’t throw it all away!The average person throws away 1600 pounds of garbage each year. The average Bennett Compost customer throws away less than half that (and gets fi nished compost for their garden each spring!) Our weekly pick-up of food scraps and other compostable material helps you reduce your impact. Simply place our bucket outside your home or apartment, and we’ll take care of the rest.
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Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!Don’t throw it all away!$15 / month!
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Business owners: call 215.520.2406 for a
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Our curriculum nurtures your child’s body,
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gridphilly.may 2012 / issue 37
10 environment Natural Voice: Q&A with author, environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams | Moving Mountains: Local activists take action against PNC
12 green living Craft Works: A look inside local creative hub Heirloom Home & Studio
14 media Reviews of Straphanger, Wine to Water and Fool Me Twice
16 design Garden Chic: Shift_Design brings a fresh face to the garden | Recycling Challenge: Mirrors
18 Food Celebrate spring with the arrival of salad greens | In a Pickle: A modern practice of age-old fermentation | Cheese of the Month: Kidchego | On Tap: Gang Aft Agley | The Feed: Delaware Valley Farm Share, CreekSide Co-op and Grateful Acres Farm
36 urban naturalist Spring Peepers: Nature’s smallest creatures announce spring in a big way
38 Shoots & ladders In the Underground: Root vegetables make ideal crops for gardening with kids
39 guest column Deregulation Time: The energy caps are off, so why haven’t prices changed much?
42 events Gardening workshops, farm market openings, Earth Day celebrations and many more local events welcome the spring season!
46 dispatch A backyard beekeeper recounts the road to her first honey harvest
cov e r i l lusT raT i o n by M e l i ssa M c f e eT e rs
the Birds and the Bees
Grid’s guide to bringing chickens and bees to your backyard
ph
oTo
by
eM
ily
wr
en
tunnel Vision Simple technology brings Philly farmers a longer season and new network of peers
page
28
page
24
It’s your future.
Department of Community and Regional PlanningSchool of Environmental Designwww.temple.edu/ambler/crp 267-468-8300
Make the future happen with a BS or MS in Community and Regional Planning or certificates in Environmental Sustainability, Sustainable Community Planning, or Transportation Planning.
Classes offered at Ambler, Main, Center City and Harrisburg campuses.
Ambler
one day i’ll have chickens. I find them incredibly endearing, and they make me laugh every time I see them – especially when they run. Right now, however, I live in a condo, and I don’t think even my best arguments would persuade my neighbors to share our small courtyard with some feathered friends.
I might try bees one day, too. I was stung when I was very small – I tried to pet a bee, despite my sister warning me it was a bad idea – which probably caused me to be disproportionately afraid of them. I overcame that fear in my late teens after realizing that flailing around when a bee was nearby didn’t exactly impress the ladies. Just a few months ago, I donned a protective suit and watched up close as a friend cared for his honey-makers. It was easy to see the appeal and to feel the thrill of interacting with the bees so directly.
If you’ve been daydreaming about chickens and bees, I hope you find our guide helpful in your quest to become a backyard farmer. It’s by no means comprehensive, but the basics are ex-plained and it includes valuable local resources to help you get started.
While your motivation for raising chickens or bees may be the eggs, the honey or the sheer joy of the practice, it’s an important step to com-munity self-reliance. Caring for bees and chick-ens also helps in understanding the challenges of food production, which seem distant when eggs come in a carton and vegetables arrive fro-zen in a box.
Recently, at the Home Grown Institute’s Spring Conference, I was talking to Andy An-drews, farm director at Pennypack Farm, who mentioned some unexpected difficulties he was encountering. He told me pests that typically die in the winter from cold weather exposure were being spotted months before they’re usually seen. Why? This year, we didn’t have the three or four consecutive nights of temperatures in the teens to kill them. Now he has to be even more vigilant, and ready to improvise in response to more threats.
A week later, I was talking to Josh Smith of Frecon Farm, who was hoping the cold front that moved in wasn’t going to wipe out the blossoms
on his fruit trees, which had appeared much earlier than usual. The frost did do some dam-age, but much to his relief – and the relief of the many people who enjoy their delicious wines and ciders – only modest damage occurred.
Farming has never been easy, always a storm or pest away from a wipeout, but as our climate changes and the weather behaves erratically, farmers are experiencing even greater chal-lenges.
Which is why the proliferation of high tunnels, the simple, inexpensive structures that extend the growing season, couldn’t come at a better time. Everyone involved talks about the potential for high tunnels to increase the volume of local, urban food production. As the weather grows more unpredictable, using our land efficiently is going to become more and more important.
alex j. mulcahy, [email protected]
The art and science of making food
publisherAlex Mulcahy
215.625.9850 ext. 102 [email protected]
managing editorLiz Pacheco
art directorJamie Leary
designerMelissa McFeeters
distributionClaire Connelly
215.625.9850 ext. 100 [email protected]
copy editorAndrew Bonazelli
production artistLucas Hardison
writersShaun Brady
Bernard Brown Tenaya Darlington
Dana Henry Alaina Mabaso
Marisa McClellan Katherine Silkaitis
Missy Steinberg Char Vandermeer
Tanya Veitch Samantha Wittchen
photographersEmily Wren Albert Yee
illustratorsStephen Haigh
Melissa McFeeters
internsJesse Kerns
Kimberly Richards Marisa Steinberg
ad salesAlicia McClung
215.625.9850 ext. 114 [email protected]
bookkeeperAlicia McClung
published byRed Flag Media
1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107
215.625.9850
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S I G N U P A T : G R E E N S G R O W . O R G / C S A
PICKUPS IN KENSINGTON • WEST PHILLY • CAMDEN
“The food variety is more inclusive than other
CSA’s that contain mostly vegetables. The regular
addition of fruit, cheese, and protein is great!”
“Love the variety— honey, beer, breads
are great fun!”
BECOME A MEMBER IN 2012!
Fresh Local Produce • No Synthetic Chemicals“We Grow What We Sell”
Order online each week and receive your custom packed box at one of 20 locations around the Philadelphia area. A wide selection of fresh, sustainably grown produce from our family farm to your table, June through November.
To learn more and register for our CSA, visitwww.redearthfarm.org
Red Earth Farm • 1025 Red Dale Road • Orwigsburg, PAQuestions? email [email protected]
CSA Shares Available!
native plant nursery
1214 n. middletown road, glen mills, pa www.redbudnativeplantnursery.com
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environment
Mountaintop removal isn’t happening in Phila-delphia, but the controversial mining practice is a major local issue. Philadelphia’s Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) has launched a campaign against PNC Bank for their financing of com-panies that use mountaintop removal mining practices. This February, EQAT introduced a “Green Your Money” initiative to encourage Philadelphians to pull their accounts from PNC.
During the 90-day-or-so campaign, eight EQAT members will also be making a 16-day, 300-mile walk from Philadelphia to PNC’s national head-quarters in Pittsburgh. They hope the walk will build statewide commitment for “Green Your Money” and put pressure on PNC to change their practices. To join the walk (which starts April 30) or to learn more about EQAT’s work, visit eqat.wordpress.com. —Liz Pacheco
moving mountains
Activists take aim at PNC Bank
terms of Monkey Wrenching. This is a beautiful tradition I’m proud to be part of, a great tradition of writers using their pens as weapons.
Grid: Your Mormon background figures prominently in your work. How is it important to you?TTW: I’m probably more representative than I care to admit… I am no longer a practicing Mor-mon, but it is part of my background and culture. Commitment to community as writer and activ-ist is front and center to Mormon culture. My love of family, love of history and love of land—[these are] part of Mormon culture.
Grid: What does it mean to be an environmentalist?TTW: Let’s put it this way: to be informed, in-
volved and engaged in social change. However we choose to define that in the local social issues that our lives depend upon. It’s about being alert, awake and alive.
I think we’re in an incredibly exciting time right now of tremendous engagement. It’s a tremen-dous time in public lands movement in terms of the fracking issues […] in issues like the XL pipe-line… Go down to West Virginia to see activists engaged around mountaintop movement. [This] is what it means to be citizens in the USA, citizens taking these matters into their own hands.
u p co m i n g e v e n t
After her mother’s ovarian cancer di-agnosis, environmentalist and author Terry Tempest Williams wondered if
her family’s high incidence of cancer was related to nuclear testing that occurred not far from her childhood home in Utah. The resulting book, a memoir that also explores natural history, is her best-known: Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. Since then, Williams has been recognized for her work promoting wilderness preservation and women’s health issues. She will be speaking at the Free Library of Philadelphia on May 17 in support of her new book When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice.
Grid: What can we find in birds?Terry Tempest Williams: First of all, they’re always around us. Whenever we hear bird song, it re-minds us that we do not live on this planet alone. I like to think of them as mediators between earth and sky. And it’s a joy; I have my field guide with me constantly… They animate the landscape.
Grid: What is the power of writers in social and environmental struggles?TTW: Even if in the U.S. they expect writers to keep to their poetry, look at Hemingway, his dis-patches from the Spanish Civil War, Faulkner’s activities in the Civil Rights struggle, Rachel Carson’s work with Silent Spring… Ed Abbey in
natural Voice Celebrated environmentalist and author Terry Tempest Williams to visit Philadelphia by bernard brown
MAY 17, 7:30 P.M.
Terry Tempest WilliamsFree library of philadelphia (1901 Vine St.)
For more information, visit freelibrary.org
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 1 1
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G e t t i n g t o w o r k c a n b e a l o t l e s s t a x i n g .
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Chestnut Hill Home and Garden Festival Presents
A Green Branch of the Festival Featuring over 20 Green Vendors, Local CSA’s,
Entertainment, Demonstrations and much more...
SUNDAY, MAY 6, 11AM-5PMRain Date: May 20
FOR MORE FESTIVAL DETAILS AND UPDATES
VISIT WWW.CHESTNUTHILLPA.COM AND
WWW.GREENINCHESTNUTHILL.BLOGSPOT.COM
262. S. 16th St Philadelphia PA 19102Call 215.545.3344 to RSVP
Celebrate Mothers & Daughters!
THURSDAY, MAY 3rd, 5:00-7:00pm
join us to
learn about Maya Abdominal Therapy
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VEGGIE STARTS • ANNUALS • PERRENIALS • SEEDS • SOIL • MULCH • GRASSES • SHRUBS • TREES • TOOLS
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OVER 3,000 VARIETIES OF PLANTS IN STOCK
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Green livinG
craft worksA creative hotbed of handmade goods in Glenside by liz pacheco
When Gregg Moore, an art and design professor at Arcadia University, decided to go on
sabbatical, he started looking for a space to make and display his work before it reached galleries. The result is Heirloom Home & Studio in Glenside, Pa.
Gregg and his wife Jackie, who refinishes furniture, knew the store would also meet another need: connecting local artisans with the public. Heirloom opened in August 2011, and in addition to Gregg’s “Garden to Tableware” ceramics collection and Jackie’s furniture, also features locally-made home furnishings, vintage items, paper goods and heirloom seeds. The store regularly hosts gatherings highlighting local craftspeople, as well as workshops in partnership with HOOT, a Philadelphia literary magazine that publishes stories and poems on postcards.
Gregg and Jackie also have plans to do more, like adding a community garden of raised beds in front of the shop. “We grow a lot of our food, as much as we can, and know a lot of artists and creative people,” says Gregg. “So, we wanted to try and create a shop that was everything handmade with an effort at being sustainable at some level.”
Heirloom Home & Studio 2227 Mt. Carmel Ave., Glenside, Pa. heirloomhomean
dstudio.com
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1 The lemon bowl was introduced in January as part of Gregg Moore’s “Garden to Tableware” collection, which features hand-drawn sketches of produce.
2 Gregg works on a berry basket, which has become the store’s signature piece.
3 The baskets are ideal for sharing fruit and have quickly become popular with customers.
4 In addition to the ceramics and Jackie’s refurbished furniture, the store also hosts local favorites, like John and Kira’s chocolates.
5 Handmade paper ornaments by local designer Liddy Russo.
6 Gregg and Jackie see the store both as a way to feature area artists and share their passion for sustainable living.
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Fool Me TwiceFighting the Assault on Science in America
by Shawn lawrence otto (rodale, 380 pp., $24.99, october 2011)
In Fool Me Twice, Shawn Lawrence Otto nar-rates the evolution of science in America. His story begins with the beliefs of the founding Puritans and leads all the way to the climate-change and evolution deniers who influence policy today. Otto explains how the government, our politics and the media have prevented the public from understanding the science critical to solving our greatest challenges. The book is both heart-wrenching and empowering because the nation’s future depends on science—its ob-servation, facts, innovation and creativity—and not the rhetoric with which it’s now so closely associated. —KS
media book reviews
StraphangerSaving Our Cities and Ourselves From the Automobileby Taras grescoe (Times, 336 pp., $25, April 2012)
across the globe, car-centric urban planning has wreaked havoc on many a city. In Straphanger, Taras Grescoe explores this problem by traveling on public transportation in cities like Tokyo, Copen-hagen, Los Angeles and even Philadelphia. He interviews people
involved in the movement to create affordable, sustainable urban trans-portation. Part urban history and part travel narrative, Grescoe shows
how transit defines cities—from the endless highways of Phoenix, the city with no downtown, to the rapid transit of Bogota, Columbia, which has expressway lanes and large, clean bus stops.
His chapters on Moscow’s lav-ish subway stations, replete with chandeliers and marble columns, and New York’s ghost subway lines are inspiring, but the chapters on Copenhagen and Los Angeles are most memorable. Grescoe portrays Copenhagen as heaven on Earth. There the city planner is worried about bicycle rush hours, and bike lanes are plowed before car lanes. In
contrast, Los Angeles is a public transit nightmare as the overpopulated city is clogged with cars. But Grescoe doesn’t give up hope, as he cites that even this city is starting to make some major investments in their public transit infrastructure. —Katherine Silkaitis
Wine to WaterA Bartender’s Quest to Bring Clean Water to the World
by doc hendley (Avery, 288 pp., $26, January 2012)
In 2004, Doc Hendley was a bartender and a bit of a partier in Raleigh, N.C. But an encounter with a family friend whose husband worked for an international aid
organization set his life on a different course. Using his experience in the bartending industry, Hendley launched a series of wine tasting events to fund clean water projects. However, instead of donating the funds, Hendley traveled to Africa and witnessed the water crisis firsthand.
In his memoir Wine to Water, Hendley re-counts the sequence of events that led to the development of his passion for international water safety, and his harrowing and confusing experience in Darfur, Sudan. While issues of water quality are addressed, the book is more focused on Hendley’s personal transformation from renegade biker to a globe-travelling non-profit director. —KS
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West Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Grocery StoreNow open to the public at 4824 Baltimore Avenue
MARIPOSA FOOD CO-OP
Check out our expanded produce, meat, dairy, packaged grocery, bulk, and body care selections, as well as the organic and sustainable items you know and love!
There are many benefits to being a member of Mariposa Food Co-op. For more information, stop by our store, visit us on the web at mariposa.coop or call 215-729-2121.
Open seven days a week. 4824 Baltimore Avenue
Serving Philadelphia and its Environment
Roof Decks • Kitchens Bathrooms • Basements
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Build your private paradise. Without leaving a footprint.
at 12th & Filbert garage with $10 purchase and validation from any merchant. Limit 2 hours.Park for $4
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— rhonda buell schier, collingswood, nj market shopper since 1993
ARTIST STUDIOS
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Garden chicRain barrels that capture water—and the imagination by shaun brady
Mario Gentile describes his basic philosophy as a question: “How can the everyday homeowner buy
local and afford something that looks really well-designed made out of relatively expensive materials?” His answer: Shift_Design.
Gentile started Shift_Design in 2010, after being laid off from his architecture job. With support from a Temple University business plan competition and GoodCompany Ventures, a nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs launch businesses, Gentile put his idea into action.
The company designs and manufactures sustainable home and garden exterior prod-ucts that won’t break the average consumer’s bank. Their wares include living walls, plant-ers, solar shades and a combination fire pit/ice chest. Although more of a budgetary stretch, a 58-gallon rain tank offers a clean-lined stain-less steel alternative to replace what Gentile refers to as the “ugly, hideous” standard blue barrel model. The young company has already caught the eye of clients like Urban Outfitters, which commissioned a green roof, living wall and stormwater planters for their corporate headquarters, and the Philadelphia Water Department, which has contracted them to design downspout planters.
All products are created in-house by Gen-tile and his three-person crew. Everything is manufactured locally from recycled mate-rial, and is 100 percent recyclable following a long lifespan. Pieces are designed using the “IKEA model” for flat pack shipping, and ease of construction and installation. This spring, Gentile is introducing new colors and finishes as “more playful” alternatives, and has plans to develop products that utilize interactive technologies.
Shift_Design products can be found at City Planter (814 N. 4th St., cityplanter.com), Horne (211 South St., shophorne.com), Millesime (1001 N. 2nd St., millesime.us), Plants Etc. (2313 Fairmount Ave.) and Greenable (2200 Walnut St., greenable.net).
desiGn
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fact Glass used in mirrors contains additives that
make them unsuitable to throw in the blue bin.
problemUnlike glass used for food and beverage containers, which must comply with food safety
regulations, glass used for items like drinking glasses, windshields, light bulbs and mirrors utilize additives like plastic, lead or other metals to add strength and reflective properties. As a result, these additives render the glass impos-sible to recycle without the use of special equip-ment. Unfortunately, this means these items can’t be processed at a regular municipal recy-cling facility. And although mirrors are inert in a landfill, it’s still not a great idea to send them there when they could have a second life in someone else’s home, or as a beautiful mosaic.
solutionIf your mirror is in fine con-dition, donate it to a charity or reuse organization. Good
options include the Salvation Army, Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore (2930 Jas-per St., 215.739.9300, habitatphiladelphia.org/
habitat-philadelphia-restore) or The Resource Exchange (2829 Cedar St., 267.997.0060, there-
sourceexchange.org). If you have an antique mir-ror, it might be worth something, so consider contacting one of our city’s consignment shops or antique dealers.
If your mirror is broken, Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens (1020 South St., 215.733.0390) will be happy to take the pieces off your hands for in-corporation into mosaics. Smaller pieces can be dropped off at the main office. For larger pieces, they ask that you drop them off around the back of the building on Kater Street. Hours vary sea-sonally, so call or visit their website (phillymagic-
gardens.org) to find out when they’re open.
by samantha wittchen
Mirrors
food
Greek yogurt Dressing with herbs
1 cup Greek yogurt cup buttermilk
1 tbsp red wine vinegar1 garlic clove, crushed
cup chopped fresh chives cup chopped fresh dill
1 tsp sea salt tsp freshly ground black pepper tsp onion powder
� In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, buttermilk and red wine vinegar until smooth. Add garlic, chives, dill, salt, pepper and onion powder. Stir to combine. Taste and adjust salt and pepper amounts, if necessary. salad Days
Shower your greens with these delicious toppings by marisa mcclellan
Once the growing season in the Philadelphia area kicks in, we get six to eight good weeks before the weather is too hot for delicate lettuces. While they do return in the
fall once the heat lessens, I take that initial and finite season as a challenge to eat as many local green salads as I can.
maple- Glazed pecans
2 cups pecans cup real maple syrup tsp flaky sea salt
� Place a large skillet over medium heat. Add pecans and dry toast until fragrant, shak-ing pan frequently to prevent burning.
� Add maple syrup to pan and stir rapidly as the syrup bubbles. When syrup is reduced, scrape nuts onto a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle with salt.
� Let nuts cool completely, and then store in an airtight container.
I eat salads for breakfast with a sliced hard boiled egg and a bit of toast. At lunchtime, I heap whatever leftovers I can find on my dish of arugula, spinach and butter lettuce. And for dinner, I set up a mini salad bar on the kitchen counter so my husband and I can each build the salad we crave.
In addition to chopped vegetables, grated cheese, grilled chicken and dried fruit, I like to prepare a couple of top-
pings to make our salads special. Savory granola adds crunch and flavor to your salad (it also goes quite well on smooth soups). Homemade dressings like roasted tomato vinaigrette or Greek yogurt dress-ing with herbs are a nice step up from the bottled stuff. And for a hit of sweet and salty, a few of these maple-glazed pecans are just the thing (they’re also delightful on a cheese plate).
Enjoy your salad days!
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roasted tomato Vinaigrette
roASTed TomAToeS
1 pint grape tomatoes3 large cloves of garlic3 sprigs fresh thyme2 tbsp olive oil1 tsp sea salt
�� Preheat oven to 350° F. �� Wash tomatoes and spread on a small,
rimmed cookie sheet. Scatter unpeeled garlic cloves and thyme sprigs around to-matoes. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. �� Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until toma-
toes are tender and shriveled. �� Remove from oven and let cool.
vinAigreTTe
cup red wine vinegar cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
�� When tomatoes are cool, combine them in a blender pitcher with red wine vinegar. With the blender on low, stream olive oil into dressing until fully emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste.
savory Granola
3 cups rolled oats1 cup pepitas
cup sunflower seeds cup sesame seeds cup grated gruyere
1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary1 tsp sea salt
tsp ground black pepper1 egg white
cup olive oil1 tsp sriracha sauce
�� Preheat oven to 350° F. �� Combine oats, pepitas, sunflower seeds,
sesame seeds, cheese, rosemary, sea salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss to combine. �� In a smaller bowl, whisk the egg white,
olive oil and Sriracha until thick and frothy. �� Pour the egg white mixture over the oats
and seeds. Stir until well mixed. �� Spread granola mix on a rimmed cookie
sheet and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring several times during baking. Granola is done when fragrant and golden brown. �� Let the granola cool fully, and then
store in airtight container. Well-sealed, the granola will keep 10 to 14 days at room tem-perature. For longer storage, put in a zip-top bag and keep in the freezer.
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on theRailroad.
Now One SEPTAStation is Among theNation’s Greenest.
SEPTA rebuilt its Fox-Chase Station to be eco-friendly by
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2 0 g r i d p h i l ly.co m m ay 2 0 12
Raw food fermentation, the art of process-ing using microorganisms, preserves fresh vegetables, dairy, and dried meats by enabling healthful bacterial strands and yeasts to break down food in the absence of oxygen. This pro-cess alters flavor and texture while increasing the available nutrient content. The aging process can take weeks – in some cases months – giving craft foods like cheeses, beer and chocolate distinct and subtle flavors.
Forrest ferments vegetables the traditional Pennsylvania Dutch way, with 52 original stoneware crocks, each hold-ing up to 65 pounds of vegeta-bles. The farm workers pack the produce weekly with sea salt and water, sourcing certi-fied organic vegetables by the truckload from small organic farms, mostly within the im-mediate region. In addition to kraut, Wills Valley makes salty, sour, and slightly sweet pickled beets, kimchee and ginger carrots.
Forrest, a former police-man, quit the force in 2000 at the age of 30 to start his first farm in Salem, N.J. He bought Wills Val-ley from Tim Bock, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer and retired engineer, whom he had met at a farmers mar-ket. Bock, who began work at the farm by making sauerkraut from a family recipe, was ready to retire.
Acquiring an old-fashioned fermentation practice proved to
In a PickleFormer policeman embraces the art of fermentation by dana henry
be a solid business move, but also spoke to Forrest on a gut level. The traditional fer-menting method is, in all likelihood, older than fire and is practiced by most native cul-tures. In recent years, fermentation has been
popularized by food activ-ists, including Sally Fallon (Nourishing Traditions) and Sandor Katz (Wild Fermen-tation and The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved).
Forrest, an avid follower of Fallon and professional acquaintance of Katz, be-lieves in traditional methods of processing foods, which do not include preserva-tives, stabilizers or refrig-eration. When he brought the Wills Valley product to the Kutztown market, he found older patrons were nostalgic, recalling kraut-making as their first job. With current culture put-ting more focus on avoiding frozen and commercially-processed foods of the post-World War II era, Forrest sees his products playing an important role in both
our culinary history and future.
Look for Wills Valley products at area farmers markets and health food stores, specifically the Swarthmore Co-op, the Fair Food Farmstand and Farm to City’s Winter Harvest buying club. Products can also be purchased online at willsvalley.com.
Tom forrest, owner of Wills Valley & Forrest Acre Farm in Lancaster, maintains that sauerkraut, done right, doesn’t need re-frigeration or a warehouse. “There’s not a whole lot of equipment
that we use,” he explains of Wills Valley, his minimalist organic vegetable fermentation production. “We’re taking [the product] right out of the crock, putting it in a jar and putting a lid on it.”
food
We’re taking [the product]
right out of the crock, putting it in a jar and putting a lid
on it. —tom forrest, owner
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Bicentennial Town Square SeriesUrban Heat Islands: Is Philly the New Tropics? Tuesday, April 17, 2012 | 6:00 p.m. reception; 6:30 p.m. programFree for Members | General Public $5
Join us as the Academy’s Center for Environmental Policy kicks off its yearlong bicentennial sustainability series with a discussion of urban heat islands and their role in global climate warming. After the presentation, a panel that includes representatives from the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability will examine heat mitigation strategies in Philadelphia.
Visit ansp.org/environmental for more information and to register.
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this month’s featured beer celebrates Scottish poet Robert Burns, owing its name to his famous line: “the best-laid plans o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley.” But don’t worry, lads, noth-ing went awry with this bottle.
Brewed in Pottstown, 40 miles up the Schuylkill northwest of Philly, this wee heavy
ale falls pretty far to the malty end of the spectrum and fea-tures a mild roasty flavor with maybe some cherry notes. It’s a well-behaved bottle-condi-tioned beer, thin head and not excessively carbonated. All kilt and no claymore. Bless me bagpipes, it’s a good yin. —Lucas Hardison
More at slyfoxbeer.com
Break out some Kid Rock; there’s Kidchego in the house. Amos Miller, an Amish cheese-maker from Lancaster County, may be the only person in the country who is making Spanish-style Manchego from raw goat’s milk. Miller, who runs Misty Creek Goat Dairy, is known for his goat’s milk ricotta salata, a snow-white cheese he calls Misty Lovely. It’s bright and zesty, perfect for spring greens and summer tomatoes. But Kidchego is one for the cheese board. It stands up to cured meats, muscles in around almonds and does wicked gyrations with rosemary bread.
Spanish Manchego is typically made from sheep’s milk, which creates a lusciously fatty wheel often served on tapas plates alongside cured ham and quince paste. Kidchego is surprisingly rich tasting, given that goats don’t produce fatty milk. The paste is bone-colored and dense, and the rind is marked with faint reed-like impressions from the baskets used in shaping this cheese—a nod toward tradition.
As you prepare for summer festivals, patio-en-tertaining and picnics on the banks of the Delaware, consider packing a wedge of Kidchego. This sturdy
cheese travels well. Pair it with a wheat beer or saison to play off the woodsy, herbaceous notes, or pick a light white or rosé. —Tenaya Darlington, madamefromage.blogspot.com
Kidchego is available at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market, and is distributed through Farm Fromage (farmfromage.com). Misty Creek Goat Dairy, 43 West Eby Rd., Leola, Pa., 717.656.1345
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Having a hard time getting to a farmers market? Bring local produce into the workplace with an office farm share program. The Delaware Valley Farm Share is offering 12-week shares with an optional add-on dairy.
To learn more, e-mail Kristin mul-venna, [email protected].
Four years and more than 1,300 household members later, the Elkins Park neighborhood has finally broken ground on their CreekSide Co-op. Construction is slated to take six months, so look for this community spot to be open in the fall.
Follow their progress at creek-side.coop. 7909 High School Rd., Elkins Park creekside.coop
Philly restaurant C19 (formerly Cichetteria 19) is extending their farm-to-table commitment be-yond prepared meals. Their Grate-ful Acres Farm in Orwigsburg, Pa., which supplies produce for the restaurant, will be supporting a 22-week Community Supported Agriculture program, with options for full and partial shares.
Learn more at c19philly.com.
the feed
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 2 3
701 S 4th St, Philadelphia, PA 19147Phone: (215) 238-1888
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 5 pm - 2 amSunday Brunch 11 am - 5 pm
Closed Monday
Guest Tasting Dinners Every Third Wednesday of the Month
southwarkrestaurant .com
Morel Hunt fundraiser for MS — April 28 + we are vending at PhillyFarmFest.org
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THU 10-7 | Fri 10-6 | SaT 10-6 | SUn 10-6 | Mon 10-6
24 g r i d p h i l ly.co m m ay 2 0 12
A network of farmers is using a new tool to extend the
growing season by liz pacheco
tunnelvision
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 2 5
Thanks to Penn State Extension, high tunnels have made serious inroads at Philadelphia urban farms. What began as a project by a Penn State horticulture professor has blossomed into a new farming community. The High Tunnel Alliance is a group of 10 Philadelphia organizations with food-growing agen-das – community groups like Weavers Way Co-op, public and private schools, recreation centers and even food banks. Through the alliance, these organiza-tions have received funding and train-ing to install and operate the tunnels. Just as importantly, the organizations have found a community and support group for the technology, something that’s never existed for urban farmers before in Philadelphia.
From rurAl clAssroom to city FArms
Dr. William “Bill” Lamont, a horti-culture professor at Penn State Uni-versity, has been experimenting with high tunnels since 1998. He picked up the idea from a retired colleague at the University of New Hampshire. If the technology worked in New England, thought Lamont, then why not in the Mid-Atlantic?
Lamont applied for several Pennsyl-vania Department of Agriculture grants to build high tunnels at State College. “But I always felt that there were so many opportunities in the urban envi-ronments,” he says.
The first tunnel went up a few years ago at the Saul High School for Agriculture in Roxborough. But the re-sults were mixed. “My short read of the situation is that it wasn’t really maintained well and it kind of became marginalized,” explains John Byrnes, director at Penn State Extension in Philadelphia, the educational outreach branch that connects communities with the University’s resources and expertise.
Traditionally, the University’s extension services have
focused on rural areas and large-scale agricultural opera-tions. So when the tunnel went up at Saul High School, the extension service was still trying to figure out how best to support the city’s growing urban farming movement. As Byrnes and his colleagues began building relationships with area farmers, Lamont expressed interest in expanding his high tunnels project. Soon, Byrnes was playing matchmak-er, connecting Lamont with interested Philadelphia farms.
Lamont’s second Philadelphia tunnel went up at Mort
“If you’re trying to grow as many vegetables as possible in a small space, a high tunnel can increase your yield by up to a third.” —bill shick
p h otos by e m i ly w r e n
entering the high tunnel at Mort Brooks Memorial Farm in Mount Airy is a little like stepping into a time machine. In early March, there are dense rows of rainbow chard and aru-gula, and a few beds have green stems poking through the soil. Farm manager Rick Rigutto reaches down and pulls out some chard, munching on a pink-hued stalk as he walks through the tunnel. While it’s been unseasonably warm, these greens shouldn’t be ready for eating for weeks. ¶ Most farms shut down by December, but Mort Brooks keeps on growing – and not in greenhouses. Instead they use sturdy, metal pipe frames covered in plastic sheeting known as high tunnels. The structure’s concept is based on greenhouse principles, but this is sim-pler – no electric, gas or water lines required. Sunlight streams through the plastic, warming the soil and providing an ideal winter oasis for hardy greens, which are planted directly in the ground. During warmer months, the sides are rolled up and the doors opened, creating a climate more suited to cut flowers and tomatoes. The tunnels are essentially season extenders, ensuring farmers and their crops year-round support and protection.
Brooks just a couple of years ago. The farm, part of Awbury Arboretum and run by Weavers Way, was the first member in what has become the Penn State Extension High Tunnel Alliance. Since then, nine other members have been added, including Saul High School, whose tunnel was revived after collaborating with the Weavers Way Community Program Henry Got Crops!
simple technology, more Food
High tunnels are built to control variables. The plastic sheeting allows the sides to be easily rolled or unrolled for ventilation. Without rain exposure, water can be completely managed, typically with drip irrigation. And plant varieties can be selected for the specific tunnel conditions; crops like peppers, hardy greens and tomatoes have been successful.
“[The tunnel] basically allows us to grow crops late into the year and keep crops harvestable all winter,” explains Rigutto, “and obviously, allows us to get an early start on the season.”
Another benefit of the tunnels is their size. Most alli-ance members are working with limited space. “If you’re trying to grow as many vegetables as possible in a small space, a high tunnel can increase your yield by up to a third,” explains Bill Shick, farm manager at Nice Roots Farm, part of the SHARE food program and an alliance
member. SHARE, which operates from an 180,000-square-foot warehouse in North Phila-delphia, collects and grows food which is distrib-uted to approximately 500 local food cupboards and soup kitchens, as well as sold through their discount grocery package program. They also sell to the general community.
“I have local tomatoes and peppers about a month earlier than the other growers because of the high tunnel,” says Shick. “So, if you’re one of the only people at market with a vegetable, you can get more money for it.” But being a nonprofit, the money isn’t as important, he insists. “We’d rather this produce be accessible to people.…We’re just trying to get more volume of food.”
And volume has definitely increased. With two tunnels and a farm, SHARE harvested 6,500 pounds of produce last year. More than half, about 3,500 pounds, was from the tunnels. Sweet peppers and tomatoes did especially well in 2011, says Shick, who has also found success with greens like spinach, lettuce, kale, collards
and Swiss chard.
leArning From Fellow FArmers
Through the alliance, members receive important support and training, as well as the opportunity to communicate with local farmers doing the same work. “By having a group of [farmers who have] tunnels coordinating with one another, you’re able to create a rubric of performance and problems and issues,” explains Jerome Shabazz, the ag-riculture entrepreneur educator for Penn State Extension in Philadelphia and one of the original alliance developers. “[It’s] a network that will allow you to have a greater suc-cess of crop production.”
“We share information on pest problems we are seeing,” says Shick. “Some may see them a week or two before they become problems in others and it is good to have a heads up.” Shick also mentions sharing planting schedules, con-struction techniques for building tunnels, and even early seedlings he grows for alliance members who would have trouble finding them at garden supply centers so early in the season.
“If everyone is keeping track of what they’re doing and how they’re doing it,” says Rigutto, “you have nine other minds…contributing to a knowledge pool you can pull from and learn different techniques.”
At the Teens 4 Good farm on Eighth and Poplar Streets, growing produce relies on a surprising technology: a stationary bike. The bike-powered watering system is a recent addition to the urban youth farm, which previ-ously used a nearby fire hydrant for irrigation.
The new watering system uses a 500-gallon tank
that collects runoff from the farm’s high tunnel and distributes it through two valves: one for drip irrigation and another for a hose. The hose is powered by a sta-tionary bike that must be pedaled at a minimum of five miles per hour.
The idea was pitched last May by Tommy McCann, a landscape architecture masters student at Penn State, after helping the extension program install the Teens 4 Good high tunnel. “I thought, ‘There must be some way to attach gutters to [the high tunnel] and collect the water and use it for something,’” he says.
McCann presented the problem to Timothy Simpson, an engineering professor and director of the Penn State Learning Factory, which provides hands-on learning to engineering students. Simpson pitched the challenge as
an initiative for the Learning Factory and in September, six undergraduate engineering students chose it for their semester-long project.
The students worked in collaboration with the teen-age farmers and developed a system that addresses both the irrigation dilemma and the need to reduce stormwater overflows – a problem that plagues Phila-delphia’s overburdened sewer system. Plus, the water-ing system has become a great education tool.
“They’ll be the first ones to show you how the bike works,” says Jamie McKnight, director at Teens 4 Good. “It’s totally an educational piece right now for our youth.” If the system proves efficient, McKnight hopes to install pumps in other Teens 4 Good farms through-out the city. —Missy Steinberg
Water Whirled local teens ride stationary bike to power irrigation
Rick Rigutto and Nina Berryman, farm managers at Mort Brooks and Saul High School respectively, enjoy a break outside the high tunnel at Rigutto’s farm.
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 27
extending the seAson And the community
While maximizing production is an important part of Lamont’s research, he sees high tunnels as serving criti-cal community and education purposes as well. At Mort Brooks, the tunnel has become part of the curriculum, teaching kids the difference between high tunnels and greenhouses. At Saul, the high school students run a Community Supported Agriculture program, while some produce goes directly to their cafeteria; the tunnels have allowed them to work an extended season and increase yields. And at SHARE, the steady stream of volunteers isn’t interrupted by the weather – there’s always work to do in the tunnels.
Most of the alliance mem-bers are large organizations, but Penn State Extension has heard from smaller entities as well. A waiting list has formed and there are plans to expand the alliance with additional funding.
“This is the kind of thing that I can’t wait to put in front of my dean because, basically, extension in Pennsylvania is still pretty rural, big agricul-ture mindset,” says Byrnes. “And we’re just constantly on a mission to make sure that the fine work that’s going on down here with the Bill Shicks and everybody else is getting the resources and at-tention they deserve.”
“[The tunnel] basically allows us to grow crops late into the year and keep crops harvestable all winter, and obviously, allows us to get an early start on the season.”
—rick rigutto
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You’ve mastered tomatoes and beets, but are you
ready to take your garden to the next level? Chickens
and bees can enhance your harvest and bring you joy
that a plant can’t. Here’s how to get started.
guide by alaina mabaso • illustrations by melissa mcfeeters
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 29
Be honest: it’s springtime, and you’ve been checking out some cute chicks. Sure, you’ve been a dutiful gar-
dener, faithfully tending your fruits and vegetables, but now you’re wondering: Is there something more? You
have an itch, and you need a chicken to scratch it.
Do your legal homework
Local laws can vary significantly for each township, so be sure to check the regulations in your area. Some may allow chickens, but limit the number. Others may forbid selling eggs. Coops or structures may re-quire a special zoning permit. And roosters are usually banned for their natural noisemaking.
In Philadelphia, current zoning law doesn’t directly address keep-ing chickens. However, Chapter 10 of the zoning code defines chickens as livestock, which are outlawed in city limits. (So keeping chickens in Philadelphia is almost always il-legal.) A few ex-ceptions: prop-erties of three acres or more, or educational, zoo or veterinary fa-cilities.
Talk with your neighbors
This is a crucial first step in ensur-ing that entering your new life as a chicken keeper is as smooth as possible. How will neighbors re-spond to the altered look of your property? How will they react if a chicken escapes into their yard? And roosters aren’t the only ones to raise a racket.
“There’s nothing subtle about chickens,” warns Lisa Stockebrand, a Melrose Park chicken owner. “When they lay an egg, you’ll know all about it.” Will your neighbors mind the noise?
Think about free range
In a large enough yard, chickens can range free, eating grass, clover and insects to supplement bagged feed. Such active, omnivorous chickens produce the highest-quality eggs. But the benefits of free ranging should be weighed against risks to your chickens’ safety and a constant need to clean non-grassy areas. Like all birds, chickens can’t control their bowels. “It’s fair to say,” reports a North Wales chicken owner, “that chickens are either get-ting ready to defecate, defecating, or have just defecated.”
Consider the time and cost
Feeding chickens can be expen-sive, especially if you opt for or-ganic feed, and building a chicken coop can be costly and time con-suming. Veteran keepers suggest it’s easier and more cost-effective to order a custom coop or build from a kit. These can cost up-wards of $200.
The good news: A well-built coop will last. And chickens don’t require too much care – budget about 10 minutes a day for gathering eggs, refreshing straw, and cleaning out the coop.
Starting from Scratch
Zoningmatters.org For information on
current zoning law in Philadelphia.
The Small-Scale Poultry Flock
by Harvey Ussery (Chelsea Green, 416 pp.,
$39.95, Oct. 2011)
are you ready for chickenS?
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mypetchicken.comFor ordering chicks and coops, and tips
on raising chickens.
chickenowners.comA hub for local chicken-
keeping community Chicken Owners Outside (and in)
Philadelphia (COOP)
ou are not alone. Philadelphia has a growing number of backyard chicken keepers, a community
both welcoming and inspiring. Whether you’re start-ing with chicks or adopting fully grown hens, you’ll find plenty of help from your new chicken-keeping friends. To get you started, Grid has put together this guide, which we hope will be an egg-cellent resource.
y
3 0 g r i d p h i l ly.co m m ay 2 0 12
Ensure easy access to water outdoors for filling the chickens’ dish and necessary cleaning.
Don’t be tempted to repurpose an existing shed or structure. Veteran keepers suggest it’s easier and more cost-effective to order a custom coop or build from a kit.
Keep the coop sealed to prevent
drafts, but not so tight that
moisture can’t escape, leaving the chickens to
get damp overnight.
Build a perch at least an inch and a
half across. This will allow the chickens’
chest feathers to comfortably cover
their toes.
Add a secure closure to keep out predators at night.
Jersey GiantA large, good-natured chick-en and a productive egg layer.
rhode island redA once popular bird making a comeback. Productive egg layers and hardy in the cold.
chooSe your Breed
OrpingtonA hardy, docile layer who can withstand chilly tem-peratures.
ameraucanasA somewhat rare bird avail-able only through a breeder. Lays eggs in shades of blue.
plymouth rockA friendly bird popular on small farms. Good for free ranging and cold winters.
dutch bantamA hardy, practical chicken. Make good egg layers and mothers.
Chickens breeds come in different color variet-ies , some more rare than others . The chicken breed will determine egg color as well . And keep in mind, chickens can range widely in s ize. The larger the chicken, the more feed required.
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 3 1
Chickens are powerful,
inveterate scratchers, and
no lawn or garden lasts long
under their feet. If you have
room and can rotate your
chickens’ daytime space,
grass damaged by chickens
grows back quickly, thanks
to the natural fertilizer of
their droppings. Even bet-
ter, after you clean the coop,
the droppings are perfect
for the compost pile – a plus
for any serious gardener.
Provide an area with trees
or bushes – especially if your
chickens roam freely – to provide
protection from weather and deter
avian predators.
Build a sturdy fence to provide protection from common predators, like large birds of prey, foxes, weasels, rats, raccoons and even coyotes.The fence should extend at least six to 12 inches underground, to deter digging predators.
creature comfortS
Show some Love Handle your chicks often as they grow and they will become accustomed to your touch. Also, if you make a certain call or noise at each feeding, over time your chickens will be conditioned to run towards you when they hear it – a handy way to get them into the coop when needed.
Party Animal Chickens need company. Some keepers swear chickens speak their own language of clucks and chirps. Each flock forms a unique social hierarchy, so watch out for bullies and separate harassed birds if necessary.
chickenS in the garden
hen raising chickens, be patient. Veteran keepers counsel to not give
up hope if your chickens take some time to begin laying. “Relax. You are not run-ning an egg factory,” advises Chuck Amos, Chicken Owners Outside Phila-delphia (COOP) member. Chick-ens will lay eggs with or without a rooster, although laying varies sea-sonally according to daylight, and naturally slows during the short-er winter days. During the peak of the summer, a healthy chicken, depend-ing on the breed, can lay up to six eggs per week. Keepers who want to boost winter egg production can simulate the laying season by adding lights to the inside of the henhouse. And don’t be alarmed if the nest you built is ignored; chickens will often scorn individual
nests to lay their eggs in one area. While chickens will lay eggs for two to
three years, some can live up to seven. Hens aren’t suitable for eating, as far as meat is concerned, but they can be rendered into
broth — an option some chicken owners might not feel comfortable with. “It costs a lot to keep the hens and feed them when they become pets and not laying hens,” explains Laurie Jenkins, Flourtown resident and founder of COOP. “We all struggle with what to do – it’s the reality of owning chickens.”
make way for eggS
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3 2 g r i d p h i l ly.co m m ay 2 0 12
Do your legal homework
Since 1921, Pennsylvania law has regulated beekeeping in an effort to prevent outbreaks of contagious hive diseases. Current bee law re-quires all state beekeepers to reg-ister their hives with the Pennsyl-vania Department of Agriculture and to submit to hive inspections. Under the law, any “modern” hive is permissible as long as each frame or bar of the hive is removable for a full inspection for possible disease (non-compliant hives can be de-stroyed without compensation to the owner). Registration is $10 for two years and covers all hives on the property.
Check your local town-ship policies as well (Phil-adelphia doesn’t have spe-cific rules). Some may have additional registration requirements, laws that ban beehives or require a minimum distance from the beehive to public walk-ways or property lines.
Talk with your neighbors
“One of the biggest challenges to beekeeping in urban and suburban areas is that misconceptions about honey bees abound,” says Leo Don-ovall, chief apiary inspector for the state’s Department of Agriculture. Talk with your neighbors about what they can expect from hav-ing a backyard beehive next door. For help on how to start this con-versation, check in with your local beekeeping clubs. Many will have resources about how to reach out appropriately to community and local authorities.
Educate yourself
Honey bees are commonly affect-ed by many internal and external parasites, viruses and illnesses. Educate yourself on signs and symptoms, and commit to regular inspections of your hives and any necessary treatments.
Besides illness, bees are also prone to swarming, which hap-pens when bees attempt to leave their hive for a new home or one colony splits in two. Learn the com-mon signs of of swarming and find the professional beekeepers in your area able to catch swarms.
consider the time and cost
Are you ready for the expense of beekeeping? If you choose to buy all the trappings, beekeeping can become a costly endeavor. A basic two-level Langstroth hive can cost $270, and a Top-Bar hive upwards of $120. And that doesn’t even in-clude the starter bee package (see page 34).
While you probably won’t spend a lot of time putting your hive to-gether, be prepared for some hard work later. A full Langstroth hive can get heavy, so some serious phys-ical labor is required.
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Bee confidentThe allure of sweet honey to call your own is
strong. But is the r isk of something sweet worth a few stings? Bee not afraid.
L ike chicken keeping, beekeeping can be a challenging backyard undertaking. There’s the hive, the bees, the smoke, the bee suit, the threat of being stung. But relax...beekeep-ing is fun, and the reward is unmatched. And, as with chicken keeping, the community of
beekeepers has grown tremendously in Philadelphia. There are classes, clubs, lectures and work-shops to help you get started. For now, spend some time with this guide and check out the life of the backyard beekeeper. While bees may not be as cute as chickens, we bet you’ll enjoy caring for them just as much.
are you ready for BeeS?
For local beekeeping events, advice on ordering bees and professional contacts to help remove swarms:
The Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild phillybeekeepers.org
Montgomery County Beekeeping Association montcobee1.farming.officelive.com
Apis melliferaThere are four different honey bee
breeds; however, most beekeepers in the U.S. primarily use the European
(Apis mellifera) honey bee.
Pennsylvania State Beekeepers
Associationpastatebeekeepers.orgFor more information
on hive registration and regulations
Natural Beekeeping Organic Approaches
to Modern Apicultureby Ross Conrad (Chelsea Green,
240 pp., $35, June 2007)
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Popular among first-time beekeepers, Top-Bar hives are part of a growing trend to return to a more natural style of beekeeping in which the bees are not obliged to draw out their comb on a vertical structure. These hives are especially suited to beekeepers who like to harvest wax as well as honey – they do not allow for honey to be harvested separately from the comb, as with the Langstroth hive.
PRO Some proponents of natural beekeeping argue the Top-Bar method is a healthier lifestyle for the bees, allowing instinctual building tenden-cies. The Langstroth hive is primarily designed for ease of human inspection and harvest.
PRO Top-Bar hives are relatively easy to build, inexpensive and require no heavy lifting on the part of the beekeeper.
CON Unlike in the Langstroth, the comb in the Top-Bar hive is not structurally supported. There is a greater risk of wax breakage, especially during hot-weather inspections.
1 Top-Bar hives have a trapezoidal shape and stand about 12 inches high. The hives’ sides can vary in length although they are always at a 120-degree angle to the bottom of the hive..
2 Wooden bars lie across the top of the hive. They have no frame for the bees to build on; instead, a small ridge runs along the bottom of each bar, which can be dipped in melted beeswax. This encourages the bees to begin building their comb to hang from the top-bars in a natural three-dimensional shape.
3 A secure weatherproof roof covers the hive.
The boxy Langstroth is the most commonly used hive in the U.S. and Europe. They can be pur-chased pre-built, or constructed from kits. Hives should be placed in a mostly sunny area, facing southeast. Don’t paint them too dark, which can overheat the bees. If necessary, the hives can be moved to more sheltered locations in winter.
1 The size of the hive can be increased by placing additional boxes on top of the bottom board. Each box usually hosts between eight and 10 vertically-installed removable frames.
2 The bottom box is the deepest and hosts the hive’s queen and “brood”, or developing eggs and larvae.
3 Shallower upper boxes primarily hold honey, the bees’ food store.
4 Each frame carries a sheet of plastic or beeswax as a foundation for the bees’ honeycomb. The cells, depending on the location within the hive, are filled with baby bees, nectar or honey.
5 A weatherproof roof covers the hive.
the father of modern BeekeepingPhiladelphia-born teacher and clergyman Lorenzo Langstroth (1810-1895) patented the world’s first beehive with removable frames in 1852, revolutionizing the honey-collection process. His design ensured that bees wouldn’t use propolis (a resin-like mixture made by bees) or wax to bond the hive together. Langstroth’s book The Hive and the Honeybee, introduced beekeeping methods still practiced today.
LangStroth hiveS top-Bar hiveS
anatomy of a hive There are two hives commonly used in the beekeeping world: the Langstroth hive and the Top-Bar hive. Both can be great options for backyard beekeeping.
BeeS in the garden
the hive may be in your garden, but bees will fly within a three-mile radius in search of food. Chemical-free gardens are best for bees, which is one reason organic gardening is so important.
Do you have a high fence or hedge? Placing a hive next to these can naturally encourage bees to take a regular flight-path above human height, minimizing problematic run-ins.
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if you BuiLd it, wiLL they come?
While birdhouses attract birds, a beehive will likely not attract a colony of bees. A bee “package” can be purchased from reputable beekeepers online and will include two to three pounds of living bees and a mated queen. The best time to order bees is January for an April delivery. Many bee experts also urge new keepers to start with two hives, in case one hive expe-riences setbacks. Aside from the additional cost, there is little extra effort in beginning two hives.
Colony Collapse Disorder
While losing bees from winter weather is usual, over the past few years beekeepers have experienced a new magnitude of hive loss. The culprit? Colony Collapse Disorder. Scientists are still determining the disorder’s specific cause; climate
change, habitat destruction, pes-ticides and disease have all been suggested. Sam Comfort, founder of the New York-based Anarchy Apiaries and a speaker at Febru-ary’s annual Philadelphia Bee-keepers Guild Symposium, goes as far as to give the disorder another name: “It’s more like People Col-lapse Disorder,” he says. Comfort sees the disorder as rooted in a dysfunctional agricultural system where genetically modified crops and use of agricultural chemicals and pesticides, as well as indus-trially-kept honeybees’ unnatural cycle of year-round work, mean bees are more susceptible than ever before to existing parasites and viruses. In the meantime, colony loss is threatening serious damage to our food supply and our ecosystem as bees hold a crucial role in pollination.
country BeeS and city BeeSTraditionally a rural image, the beehive has made inroads into urban and suburban envi-ronments where bees are leading surprisingly healthy lives. Rural bees are increasingly lim-ited to food from massive monocultures treated with pesticides and herbicides. City bees enjoy a vibrant small-scale polyculture, featuring a variety of plants, flowers and trees. Found in
parks, street plantings, lawns and gardens, this vegetation is typically not treated with herbicides or pesticides, keeping chemicals out of the hive. And while space on the ground may be at a pre-mium, city rooftops are proving an ideal place for hives. Milk & Honey Market in West Phila-delphia and Weavers Way Co-op in Chestnut Hill host hives on their roofs for Urban Apiaries, a
Philadelphia-based honey business. Founded in 2009, Urban Apiaries has 32 apiaries throughout the city, many on rooftops. At-home beekeepers are getting in on the action too, finding roofs a great place to host their small-scale hives.
For more information on Urban Apiaries, visit urbanapiaries.com
a taSte of honey
Have patience.New hives commonly take two years to produce enough excess honey for beekeepers to harvest.
Time your harvest.The more pollen in springtime, the earlier the bees get to work and the more honey available for harvest.
Harvesting honey in late sum-mer, when fewer blooms mean the bees will rely more on their honey stores for food, could potentially endanger the hive’s health. Think about how your harvesting will affect the bees’ food supply. During cold Penn-sylvania winters, bees may need to be fed with sugar water or even better, purchased pollen.
Taste the difference.Honey can have an extraordinary range of flavors thanks to the flora local to where it’s produced. Phil-adelphia-based Urban Apiaries has made an asset of this vari-ety, labeling their honey with the different zip codes of their hives throughout the city.
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by bernard brownurban naturalist
A Frog in Your EArsO ne early sign that spring has ar-
rived is the sound of Spring Peepers. To call these frogs “peepers” is a bit of
an understatement. They have loud, projecting calls. When you finally track down one of the little guys (easiest with a friend to triangulate on the sound), it’s a surprise to find a frog no bigger than your thumbnail, beige with a darker X on its back. Get a hundred together and you can’t hear anything else.
For me, this is one of the defining joys of spring. I’ll be out in a marsh at night, and I’ll wade into the middle. The peepers will shut up for a moment, frightened by the Godzilla in their midst. Then one courageous frog calls, a challenge a few more can’t resist, and soon I’m enveloped in an overwhelming chorus of “peep” as complete aurally as the night is visually.
Of course, the frogs do not intend to serenade me; the singers are males calling for love and de-fending their turf. They might be tiny, but they’re tough. Along with the peeps, you can make out little trills, the sound male peepers make in di-rect response to another male getting too close.
Here in Philadelphia, peepers sing down at the Heinz National Wildlife Refuge near the airport, and at just about any other rural water in the area where they can find shallows with weeds or grass to hide in. They are so common now that it’s hard to imagine spring without them. Unfortunately, once-common frogs and toads are disappearing all over the world, most famously due to a species of infectious fun-gus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd).
Could this happen to the peepers? Tim Maret, a herpetologist in the Shippensburg University Biology Department, has found that four species of chorus frogs, close peeper relatives, have been mysteriously declining throughout Pennsylva-nia for the past 50 years. The cause doesn’t seem to be pesticides. It might be Bd, but no one knows for sure. The sustained peeper population only deepens the mystery, says Maret, as one would expect something that hurts chorus frogs to also hurt their peeper cous-ins. Other Pennsylvania frogs are also in inexpli-cable decline: cricket frogs, northern leopard frogs and spadefoot toads. “Turning the unknowns to knowns is re-
ally hard,” says Maret. The difficulty in studying this problem is exacerbated by the lack of fund-ing available to fuel the work.
For me, this is both a call to action and a re-minder to get out and appreciate even the com-mon creatures while they’re still common. Frogs and toads will be singing their little hearts out into June, so now’s the time to start enjoying them. Check out the North American Amphib-ian Monitoring Project (NAAMP) website (pwrc.
usgs.gov/naamp) to listen to the calls before you
head out into the field. The NAAMP uses volun-teers to monitor frog populations. You can help build the database that helps researchers know how well (or poorly) populations are doing.
bernard brown is an amateur field herper, bureaucrat and director of the PB&J Campaign (pbjcampaign.org), a movement focused on the ben-efits of eating lower on the food chain. Read about his forays into the natural world at phillyherping.
blogspot.com.
average size (to scale)
1.25
inch
es
p h oto by n i c k k i r i a z i s
Big sounds from small frogs fill the spring air
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shoots ladders by char vandermeer
Lest you get the wrong impression of my time in the garden, let me assure you there’s a pattern here: Root vegetables are fun! And containers more or less eliminate weeding altogether. While potatoes are awesome, March is the best time to plant them in Philly, so let’s focus on a few other high-reward crops.
Radishes are pretty much perfect for kids. The seeds are just big enough for little fingers to grasp, and within a month those same fingers will be yanking up a bright red, peppery vegetable that’s perfect for quick pickling and serving alongside some tasty kimchee, which our kid happens to love. Radishes thrive in cooler weather, so aim to plant a couple dozen seeds each week throughout April
and May. But gardeners beware—cabbage loopers (pesky garden-eating worms) love radish greens, so send junior on a hunting trip and offer a shiny penny or a high five for every looper killed. Think of it as a cheap, organic pesticide.
And if you’ve memorized Ruth Krauss and Crockett Jones’ victory garden classic The Carrot Seed, as we have,
carrots are a must. The thrill of pull-ing up a pointy orange vegetable is something no dirt-loving kid can re-sist. Toss in some Parmex or Tonda di Parigi carrot seeds and blow their little minds with a few golf-ball-shaped carrots planted alongside the familiar spears.
Carrots are great way to teach your kid patience and persever-ance. It takes two to three weeks for the seeds to germinate, hence Krauss’s warning: “Everyone kept saying, ‘It won’t come up.’” (Here’s a tip: Soak the seeds overnight to speed germination.) Have your little one thin the young carrot plants, leaving three inches between plants (measuring!), and a mere 60 days or so later, with regular water and weeding check-ins, you’ll have car-rots ready for the picking.
If patience isn’t your virtue, and space is at a premium, you can com-mingle your carrot and radish seeds. Both are planted at a depth of a quar-ter to half an inch. The radishes will keep your mini-me occupied, and will be ready for harvest long before
your carrots. As a bonus, by the time the radishes have been plucked, your wee one won’t have to commit as much carrotcide through thinning.
char vandermeer tends a container garden on her South Philly roof deck; she chronicles the triumphs and travails at plantsondeck.com
in thE undErgroundRoot vegetables, the perfect crops for kids
When I was a little squirt, my folks always made sure I had a patch of garden all to myself. My specialties were radishes and carrots, but I also have happy memo-ries harvesting potatoes with my dad. What fun it was rooting underneath those
big, leafy green plants, looking for hidden treasure—tiny red-skinned new potatoes. Like an Easter egg hunt, but dirtier and less chocolaty. And so much more rewarding than weeding the monster garden my folks planted.
a p r i l 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 3 9
by samantha wittchen
When looking at what happened as rate caps expired in other parts of the state, it seemed log-ical to predict a price jump here in the Philadel-phia area. For example, in 2010, PPL, a major energy company in Pennsylvania, had custom-ers see significant rate increases. But by 2011, the stagnant economy had changed the market. Wholesale electric prices had decreased, and PECO customers were already paying more for their electricity due to higher competitive transition charges (temporary charges to cover costs of previous power gener-ation investments). In late 2010, PECO formally announced that rates would only rise by about five percent. With more modest increases, many resi-dents remained with PECO, citing confusion about options available, fear of being taken advantage of, and lack of time to search for savings.
As of March 2012, the Penn-sylvania Public Utility Com-mission (PUC) reported only 25 percent of residential cus-tomers had switched to a new supplier. For those who did switch, many discovered lower rates. In some cases, customers now pay less for clean, renewable energy than they would have for dirty-sourced energy. But perhaps more important than the savings is how the rate cap expiration has shaped the conversation in the region around energy.
Before deregulation, residents had few op-tions for renewable energy. Now, there are 11 suppliers. These choices have allowed Philadel-phians to talk more specifically about renew-able energy, says Alex Fuller-Young, electricity program manager for the Energy Cooperative, a Philadelphia nonprofit energy cooperative of-fering members Pennsylvania-based renewable energy. Residents can discuss what actually
constitutes renewable energy (i.e. Does coal waste count?) and whether sourcing renewable energy locally versus from somewhere across the country is important. “This is the conversa-tion that the Energy Cooperative wants to start having,” says Fuller-Young, “and it has been en-abled by the rate caps coming off.”
Renewable energy providers and residents who want to purchase renewable energy aren’t the only ones to have benefited. With the City of Philadelphia able to purchase electricity from
suppliers other than PECO, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has targeted Philly to become the largest green power-purchasing city in the country. “Green power purchasing” is the percent-age of total power purchased from renewable sources. Washington, D.C. is currently the top green energy user, al-though our own Borough of Swarthmore ranks third in the percentage used category. Through EPA’s Green Power Community partnership program, local government, businesses and residents col-
lectively buy green power. In order to surpass D.C., Philadelphia needs to get more than 8.5 percent of its power from renewable sources. And thanks to expanded electricity choices, that could happen.
The predicted rate increases were not crip-pling, as some expected they would be, but consumers are now exposed to another danger: price fluctuations and potential rate increases based on the energy market. So while the rates are comparatively low now, there is no guaran-tee they will continue. Luckily, the deregulation has pushed the renewable energy conversation forward, giving customers more (and greener) options than PECO.
Deregulation timeHave energy prices changed since the caps came off last year?
By mid-2010, news of PECO’s energy rate caps expiring had the media filled with doomsday tales of electricity prices rising 20 to 30 percent by the end of the year. And then, a strange thing happened
– or rather, it didn’t happen. As the ball dropped at midnight on January 1, 2011, electricity rates remained stable. In fact, for many customers who took advantage of the opportunity to switch electricity suppliers, their bills dropped. So, what’s the story? Was the fear that deregulation was going to send us to the poorhouse just hype?
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APr11 Earth Friendly Pest Management
Learn to deal with garden pests using Integrated Pest Management – the com-
mon sense approach that uses rhythms of nature and an observant eye.
→ Wed., apr 11, 7-8:30 p.m., $15 non-members/ $10 members, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s mill Rd. To register, call 215.482.7300 x110 or email [email protected]
APr11 The Food Not Eaten
Jonathan Bloom, journalist and author of American Wasteland: How America
Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do About It), will speak about food waste.
→ Wed., apr 11, 6-8 p.m., free, Claudia Cohen Hall, G17 auditorium, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th St. To register, visit library.upenn.edu/exhibits/americanpie.html
APr12 Urbanized
A documentary about the design of cities, specifically the issues and
strategies behind urban design. Screening will be followed by a conversation with the director.
→ Thurs., apr 12, 6-8:15 p.m., free, University of Pennsylvania – School of Design, meyerson Hall, B-1, 210 S. 34th St. For more informa-tion, visit design.upenn.edu/calendar
APr13 Students for Responsible
Business: Better Business Conference
A diverse group of local and national com-panies will showcase initiatives for corpo-rate social responsibility to inspire students to opt for triple bottom line careers.
→ Fri., apr 13, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., free, Fox School of Business, Temple University, 1801 Liacouras Walk. For more information, visit fox.temple.edu/posts/2012/04/better-business-conference-alter-132d-alter-hall-atrium
APr13 Greensgrow 4th Annual
Whole Hog Head-to-Tail FeastEnjoy live rockabilly music, local beers
and wine, and an expansive buffet from local Riverward restaurants and chefs in support of Greensgrow Community Kitchen.
→ Fri., apr 13, 6-9 p.m., $75 general public/ $50 CSa member, Philadelphia Brewing Company, 2439 amber St. For tickets, visit wholehog.eventbrite.com
APr14 Walk+Run Against Hunger
Participate in this 5K race to support more than 100 food pantries, soup
kitchens and hunger-relief agencies in Pennsyl-vania and New Jersey.
→ Sat., apr 14, 7 a.m.-12 p.m. $30 on event day/ $25 until april 12/ free to walk, Philadelphia museum of art, 2600 Ben Franklin Pkwy. To register, visit hungercoalition.org/hungerwalk
APr14 PSU Master Gardeners:
Community Garden Know HowDoris Stahl, a horticultural educator
with Philadelphia Penn State Extension, teaches how to plan and plant your community garden.
→ Sat., apr 14, 9-11 a.m. $10, Fairmount Park Horticultural Center, N. Horticultural and mont-gomery Dr. For more information, visit extension.psu.edu/philadelphia/events/community-garden
APr14 GO WEST! Craft Fest
Fifty of Philly’s finest artists and craft-ers will be displaying their handmade
wares for purchase. The all-day event includes live music and special kids activities.
→ Sat., apr 14, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., free, The Woodlands, 4000 Woodland ave. For more information, visit gowestcraftfest.blogspot.com
APr21 31st Annual 5K Run for Clean Air
and Earth Day Celebration The Clean Air Council’s 5K is a com-
munity effort to decrease air pollution and support programs that reduce waste and en-courage recycling and composting.
→ Sat., apr 21, 9-11 a.m., $20-$120, martin Luther King Dr. next to the art museum. To register, visit 5krunforcleanair.org
APr21 Earth Day Terrarium Workshop
Build your own terrarium and learn to care for these enclosed gardens
that mimic the natural process between plants and the atmosphere. Cost includes terrarium materials.
→ Sat., apr 21, 6:30-8 p.m., $50, City Planter, 814 N. 4th St. To register, call 215.627.6169 or visit City Planter
APr21 Fourth Annual Earth Day
Festival and Flea Market at Clark Park: “Earth Uprising:
Rebirthing the Planet!”Enjoy a farmers market, food trucks, live music, kids activities, flea market and free sustainability workshops at this annual Earth Day festival.
→ Sat., apr 21, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., free, Clark Park, 43rd St. and Chester ave. For more information, call 215.387.0919 or visit uhurufleamarket.blogspot.com
APr21 Collingswood 4th Annual
Green FestivalCheck out booths with eco-friendly
products, local food and information and tips on sustainable living. Bring hard-to-recycle items like sneakers, cell phones and alkaline batteries.
→ Sat., apr 21, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., free, Irvin ave., Collin-gswood, N.J. For more information, visit colling-swood.com/parks/going-green
APr22 Earth Day Celebration
at Bucks County GardensCelebrate Earth Day with local ven-
dors, workshops and kids activities in the oasis of Bucks Country Gardens.
→ Sun., apr 22, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., free, Bucks Country Gardens, 1057 N. Easton Rd., Doylestown. For more information, visit harmonyhillgardens.com/lotus-project.php
EARTH DAy EvENTS
m ay 2 0 12 g r i d p h i l ly.co m 43
APr24 Earth Day Bike Tour
of the Navy yard Celebrate Earth Day with a bike tour
of the cutting edge sustainable building and business practices at work every day in the Navy Yard.
→ Tues., apr 24, 3:30-5:00 p.m. free (bring your own bike and helmet), starts at Crescent Park. For more information and to register, visit gpichub.org/events/2012/earth-day-tour-of-the-navy-yard
APr14 vegetable Gardening 101
Learn how to select a good site, choose the best plant varieties, sow seeds,
maintain plants and cultivate the soil to ensure fresh vegetables throughout the growing season.
→ Sat., apr 14, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., $30 general public/ $25 members, meadowbrook Farm, 1633 Washington Ln., meadowbrook. To register, visit pennhort.com or call 215.988.8872
APr14 Public Art Bike Tours
The Fairmount Park Art Association is introducing their new Public Art Bike
Map with a tour of Fairmount Park sculptures. Part of Site Seeing, a month-long celebration of public art in Philadelphia.
→ Sat., apr 14, 1:30- 4:30 p.m., free, 24th St. and Pennsylvania ave. To register, visit museumwith-outwallsaudio.org
APr14 PEC Silent Auction Soiree
Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s Silent Auction is a chance to mingle
along the Delaware River while bidding on unique environmentally-themed gifts and experiences. Ticket includes complimentary cocktail reception.
→ Sat., apr 14, 5:30-7:30 p.m., $40 general pub-lic/$30 PEC members, Corinthian yacht Club, 300 W. 2nd St., Essington. To register, visit pecpa.org/silentauction2012
APr14 String Gardens
Learn to plant your favorite foliage us-ing strings and moss to create two koke-
dama creations during this hands-on workshop. Enjoy complimentary wine and cheese.
→ Sat., apr 14, 6:30-8 p.m., $40, City Planter, 814 N. 4th St. To register, call 215.627.6169 or visit City Planter
APr17 Urban Sustainability Forum:
Urban Heat Islands: Is Philly the New Tropics?
A discussion on urban heat islands (specifically Philadelphia’s own heat alert warning system) and how they affect densely populated cities. Part of the Academy of Natural Sciences’ Bicen-tennial Town Square Series.
→ Tues., apr 17, 6-8:30 p.m., free for academy mem-bers/$5 for nonmembers academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pky. For tickets, visit ansp.org/visit/events
APr17
oct16 PECO Green Roof Tour
Tour the PECO green roof and learn about green roof
technology and how it can help the environment. Ages 18 and older.
→ Every third Tues., apr-Oct, 5-6 p.m., $10 gen-eral public/$5 members, PECO Building, 2301 market St. To register, visit pennhort.com or call 215.988.8869
APr18 Growing your Landscape:
A Design WorkshopA panel of experienced gardeners, res-
toration experts and designers will present basic design principles and guide you through the first steps of your own garden design.
→ Wed., apr 18, 7-8:30 p.m., $15 non-members/$10 members, The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s mill Rd. To register, call 215-482-7300 x110 or e-mail [email protected]
APr19 Growing a Green Thumb:
vegetable Gardening 101This session will cover planning a garden,
soil preparation, selecting the right varieties, plant-ing, and making the most of your available space.
→ Thurs., apr 19, 6-7:30 p.m., $15, The Salvation army Kroc Center of Philadelphia, 4200 Wissahickon ave. To register, visit pennhort.com or call 215.988.8872
APr19 NextFab 2 Preview Party
Get a sneak preview of the future home of Philadelphia’s premiere facility for
artistic and technological innovation. Event in-cludes demos from the NextFab community, re-freshments, and music and video entertainment.
→ Thurs., apr 19, 6-9 p.m., $25 general public/$15 NextFab member/$150 corporate sponsorship, 2025 Washington ave. For more information and to buy tickets, visit nextfabstudio.com/preview-party
APr19 Global Food Security:
A 21st Century ChallengeDr. Alan M. Kelly, veterinary medicine
professor and dean emeritus at University of Pennsylvania, will speak on agriculture’s chal-lenges to expand production while conserving the environment and controlling disease.
→ Thurs., apr 19, 6:30-8:30 p.m., free, Hill Pavilion Room 130, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary medicine, 380 S. University ave. For more information and to register, visit library.upenn.edu/exhibits/americanpie.html
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APr24 The Future of Food: Sustainable
Agriculture is not optionalDr. John E. Ikerd, agricultural econom-
ics professor emeritus at the University of Mis-souri, will talk about sustainable agriculture and the challenges facing the movement.
→ Tues., apr 24, 6-8 p.m., free, Claudia Cohen Hall, G17 auditorium, University of Pennsylvania, 249 S. 36th St. To register and for more information, visit library.upenn.edu/exhibits/americanpie.html
APr24 Bill McKibben: Building the
Movement to Save the ClimateRenowned author and environmentalist
Bill McKibben will speak and answer questions about his work in the climate change movement.
→ Tues., apr 24, 7:30-9 p.m. free, Lang Performing arts Center Concert Hall, Swarthmore College, 500 College ave., Swarthmore. For more information, visit pendlehill.org
APr20 Window Box Design and Demo
Mary Costello, City Planter owner, will demonstrate how to combine color, tex-
tures, heights and fillers to create container com-binations according to your lighting conditions.
→ Fri., apr 20, 6:30-8 p.m., free, City Planter, 814 N. 4th St. To register, e-mail [email protected] or call 215.627.6169
APr21 Composting & Compost Tea
A workshop on turning everyday household waste into nutrient-rich
compost and “compost tea”, a magical potion that fertilizes and prevents disease.
→ Sat., apr 21, 10 a.m.-12 p.m., $30 general pub-lic/$25 members, meadowbrook Farm, 1633 Washington Ln., meadowbrook. To register, visit pennhort.com or call 215.988.8872
APr21 MOOREcycle
View “upcycled” creations by Moore College of Art & Design students and
make your own crafts at this outdoor event. Part of the school’s new environmental campaign MOOREcycle.
→ Sat., apr 21, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free, moore College of art and Design, 20th St. and The Parkway. For more information, visit moore.edu/moorecycle
APr21 First Pickles Workshop
with Marisa McClellan Philadelphia-based canning teacher,
blogger and cookbook author Marisa McClel-lan will walk through the basics of boiling wa-ter bath canning. Class includes food safety tips, best canning practices and more.
→ Sat., apr 21, 12-2 p.m., $35, Greensgrow Community Kitchen at St. michaels, 2139 East Cumberland St. To register, visit greensgrow.org/events
APr21 Weird Waste Day
Bring your computers, TVs, printers, faxes, cell phones and other electronic
waste to be responsibly reused or dismantled.
→ Sat., apr 21, 1-4 p.m., $5 to $20 suggested dona-tion, Norwood academy, Germantown campus parking lot, 8991 Germantown ave. For more infor-mation, visit greeninchestnuthill.blogspot.com
APr25 Cool-Season Harvesting
and Post-Harvest HandlingOne of six Philadelphia Community
Farming Collaborative On-Farm Field Days designed as an introduction to farming for be-ginners.
→ Wed., apr 25, 6-7 p.m., free, East Park Revitaliza-tion alliance, Natrona St. and West montgomery ave. For more information, call 215.988.8885
APr28 Wyebrook Farm Market
Grand OpeningWyebrook Farm debuts their farm mar-
ket with a grand opening celebration. Tour the grounds, enjoy live music and sample the farm’s hand-butchered, pasture-raised meat.
→ Sat. apr 28, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Wyebrook Farm, 150 Wyebrook Rd., Honey Brook. For more information, visit wyebrookfarm.com
APr29 vertical Gardening
Using PalletsGreensgrow’s farm manager
teaches how to garden in small urban spaces by using a wooden pallet to build your very own green wall.
→ Sun., apr 29, 12-2 p.m., $20, Greensgrow Farms Greenhouse, 2501 E. Cumberland St. To register, visit greensgrow.org
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APr28 Wissahickon Creek Clean
Up and Trash Talkin’ PicnicJoin Friends of the Wissahickon and the
Wissahickon Valley Watershed in their annual creek clean up and Trash Talkin’ picnic.
→ Sat., apr 28, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., meets at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, south of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern avenue. For more information and to register, visit fow.org
APr28 Conserving the City
Symposium: Critical History and Urban Conservation
Join historians, preservationists and urban designers, among others, in an exploration of current thinking and practices of urban con-servation.
→ Sat., apr 28, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. free, University of Pennsylvania – School of Design, meyerson Hall, 210 S. 34th St. To register, visit conservingthecity-eorg.eventbrite.com
APr29 The Food Trust
Pancake BreakfastKick off the farmers market season
with a home-style farm-to-table meal, prepared by chefs Mitch and Jennifer Prensky of Supper restaurant and Global Dish Caterers.
→ Sun., apr 29, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., $25, Headhouse Farm-ers market, 2nd and Lombard Sts. For tickets, visit thefoodtrust.ticketleap.com/pancake-breakfast
APr29 Billy Jonas in Concert
Experience Billy Jonas’ use of found ob-jects (buckets, bottles, key chains and
more) as well as traditional instruments to create percussion-based music for audiences of all ages.
→ Sun., apr 29, 3-4 p.m., $6 before apr 15/ $8 after apr 15, ardsley Community Center, 2828 Spear ave., ardsley. To register, visit briarbush.org
mAy01 United By Blue Cleanup
Enjoy a free cookout at 5 p.m., followed by a few hours of picking up trash along
the Schuylkill. Supplies and snacks provided.
→ Tues., may 1, 5-7 p.m., Bartram’s Garden, 54th St. and Lindbergh Blvd. For more information, visit unitedbyblue.com/upcoming-cleanups
mAy02 A Woolly Herb Garden
Get your hands dirty and learn how to plant and care for your very own wall
garden, perfect for kitchen herbs. Supplies and complimentary wine and cheese provided.
→ Wed., may 2, 6:30-8 p.m., $35, City Planter, 814 N. 4th St. To register, visit cityplanter.com/storefront/events
mAy05 Spring Craft Bazaar at Greensgrow
Enjoy the Greensgrow farmstead while shopping for a Mother’s Day gift from a
talented array of local artists and craft vendors.
→ Sat., may 5, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., free, Greensgrow Farms, 2501 E. Cumberland St. For more information, email [email protected]
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Deep Roots Explore an outdoor art installation by Meei-Ling Ng located on an organic farm of a local permaculturist. Part of the Turtle Artisans Tour in Cheltenham.
→ Sat.-Sun., may 5-6, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., 11 a.m.-5 p.m., free, Elkins Park Front yard Farm, 7607 Spring ave., Elkins Park. For more information, visit meeiling.com
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yellow Springs Farm Spring 2012 Annual Open Farm DayEnjoy a native plants sale with more than 200 species and an artisanal goat cheese tasting at the annual Yellow
Springs Farm open house.
→ Sat.-Sun., may 5-6, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., free, yellow Springs Farm, 1165 yellow Springs Rd., Chester Springs. For more information, visit yellowsprings-farm.com/events-schedule.php
mAy12 Philly Swap 2012
A clothing swap and series of do-it-yourself workshops featuring the tal-
ents of local artists and DIY specialists offering alternatives to consumerism.
→ Sat., may 12, 12-5 p.m., $20 general admission/$10 with clothes/$10 students & seniors, Broad Street ministry, Lower Level, 315 S Broad St. For more information, visit thephillyswap.com
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My first bees arrived from a nice guy named Fred. I found him on Craigslist and after a few informative, pleasant emails, he showed up at my house with a nuc – a small starter hive in-volving three frames of bees with brood (baby bees) and a queen, and two frames of honey and pollen. I was very nervous. Not as much about the bees, but of making a fool of myself in front of Fred. I had never handled bees or even taken a class; all I had was a how-to book and a strong desire to have bees.
Fred spent an hour showing me “the girls” and giving instructions. He was calm, moved slowly, wore only a veil (no gloves) and used no smoke. My bees settled into the new hive, and I attached a feeder full of sugar syrup before say-ing goodbye to Fred.
I watched my new pets as often as I could and kept their feeder full. They seemed to be thriv-ing and even managing common pests, like Gi-ant Hornets and Small Hive Beetles. When fall turned cold, I bundled the hive in foam board and wished them well. I nervously watched from a distance all winter, praying they would pull through. Sometimes I stood with my ear against the hive listening for a reassuring hum.
On the first warm day I opened the hive for
inspection. After months away I was clumsy and not pre-pared for the huge number of bees. I lifted the box from the top without first loosening individual frames, and comb – laden with brood – began to tear and fall off. One well-deserved sting and panic set in as angry guard bees took to the air. I dropped the box and made a dash away from it all. I felt overwhelmed and stupid. What was I thinking?
After recovering from what happened, I real-ized I couldn’t just leave the bees. Once I walked away the bees had calmed down, so I put the hive back together as best as I could. I felt like I must have squashed a hundred bees in my bumbling first attempt to examine them. I was shaking and covered in sweat. Maybe I wasn’t cut out for this hobby.
Over the next few months I cleaned up the hive and made sure not to repeat my mistakes. I tried to move slowly and not squash bees. I used my smoker. I worked on being calm. I got stung three more times. I bought leather gloves and wore thick pants. I started to feel more confident.
In June 2011, we harvested 35 pounds of hon-
ey. It was a delicious, sticky mess and a great day. I turned it into a family affair, dragging everything inside, escorting a few remaining bees back outside, “spinning” the honey from the comb and finally, pouring the sweet amber goodness into sterilized jars. We sold some, used lots and gave away even more to our fam-ily, friends and (very importantly) neighbors.
Since then, another winter has passed. Now it’s March and the bees are flying around, gath-ering pollen and nectar. They seem to be en-joying the unusually mild weather as much as we are and I look forward to sampling honey influenced by these early flowering plants. I’m excited for another season with my bees and while I’m becoming a better beekeeper, I’m sure there will be mistakes – maybe fewer this time around!
tanya veitch, a fulltime urban homesteader and part time RN, is a wife (to a very tolerant husband) and mother of two lovely girls. She and her family live in East Falls.
Love Buzz
Learning by bumbling with bees
by tanya veitch
First, a confession: I am a full-on honey bee nerd. I love my bees and am totally addicted to beekeeping. I’ve been “keeping” bees since July
2010. In that time I’ve lost sleep, been stung (my fault), felt terrified and overwhelmed, and of course, made what feels like a million rookie mistakes. Still, I kept returning to the hive, and eventually I started to get the knack for this crazy hobby.
I L LUST R aT I O N By ST E P H E N H a I G H
4 8 g r i d p h i l ly.co m m ay 2 0 12
What matters most?
Biodiversity Matters.
Give purpose to your passion at Penn.
wednesdaysWalk-In
wednesdaysWalk-In
wednesdaysWalk-In
Environmental Studies featured the
first Wednesday of each month
Students in the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Environmental Studies are passionate about biodiversity and how plants and animals interact
with each other and with the environment. The Environmental Biology concentration—including coursework in
Botany, Wetlands, Freshwater Ecology, and Ecological Design—prepares
our graduates for careers in environmental research, environmental
consulting, or horticulture or wildlife biology. The Environmental Studies Certificate within Penn’s Master
of Liberal Arts program
allows you to combine
environmental studies with
interdisciplinary coursework
from the arts and sciences.
www.sas.upenn.edu/lpsor search penn mes
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