Travel anywhere and you’ll find foods that taste of specific places and flavors that connect people to landscapes. New York City, for some, can be encapsulated in a bite of bagel or a sip of cider. For Philadelphia, it’s cherry water ice on the first really hot day in spring, or a smear of golden
Moreillustration by Kirsten HarperI often wonder whether farming is just a game of emotions. The pay is low, the hours are long, the work is physical and the weather pretty much controls the season’s outcome. Throughout the year, I ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” But every year I seem to find a renewed
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Sylvie Hoffman learns valuable lessons about farming in Watermelon Magic. photo by Chase BowmanFrom a slippery seed you can spit to a ripe fruit best carried like a newborn, the growth of a watermelon is nothing short of spectacular. That’s just one reason why Philadelphia-based filmmaker Rich Hoffman chose the epic melon as the focus
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A TreePhilly participant accepts a free yard tree April 6 during the program's West Oak Lane Library Giveaway.Photo by Charles Bouril
Over the past few centuries, Penn’s Woods have taken a beating. What was once vast forest land as far as the eye could see is mostly pavement today. A 2003 study found that
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illustration by Alexander Ciambriello
I have no interest in slaughtering animals. I have borne witness and it’s intense, hot, primal and best left to the people who are skilled at doing it quickly and humanely. But as a meat-eater, I wanted to “get to know” a whole animal in a visceral way, not just frozen packages
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Last spring, Philadelphia Runner Outreach Director Ryan Callahan read a text from his boss, spurring him to turn on the TV. It was April 15, 2013, and he watched in horror as multiple news stations reported on the devastation of the Boston Marathon bombing. Three people lost their lives, and about 264 others were wounded
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It all started after overhearing a conversation in Nepali. The Bhutanese couple behind me on the bus was talking about their first days in America. I had learned bits of the language years ago when I worked on organic farms in Nepal after high school, so I turned around and said, “Namaste.” Almost immediately they
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At the peak of February’s ice storm, 715,000 households in the Philadelphia region were without power. But is being “without power” the same as being powerless? I live in a Montgomery County neighborhood that has managed to escape weather extremes: no tornadoes, hurricanes or drought-induced wild fires. But icy rain and bitter cold overwhelmed us.
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This week, the directors of the Kensington Community Food Co-op announced the future location of its much anticipated store front, located at 2672 Coral Street, at the intersection of Frankford and Lehigh Avenues in East Kensington.
The news caps the end of an exhaustive three-year search that began in 2012 when the KCFC site-search committee
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When pregnant with her daughter Olive in 2009, Lori Thomson quickly became tired of seeing blues for boys and pinks for girls in baby accessories. So she created olive + bo, an Etsy craft store that sells cotton rattle toys, quirky quilts, whimsical mobiles and gifts. “I’ve always sewn my whole life,” Thomson says. The
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