story by Liz Pacheco | photos by Emily WrenEntering 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 arugula, and a few beds have green stems poking through the soil.
MoreFarming statistics in the U.S. are grim. Less than two percent of the country actively farms. And the average age of these farmers? 57. For new farmers, the number one barrier to breaking into the business is lack of access to affordable land.
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story by Shaun Brady | photos by Albert YeeRoman Stoltzfoos emerges from the barn where his cows are milked and is faced with dozens of turkeys waddling aimlessly towards his driveway. A gate has been left open, and he calls to his eight-year-old daughter, playing nearby, to help herd the wayward birds back into their
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story by Shaun Brady | photo by Emily WrenOn spring, summer and fall afternoons, Pennypack Farm is the hot spot for local families. Parents gather at the Montgomery County nonprofit to examine the selection of crops laid out farmers market-style in the harvest house. Kids head straight for the U-Pick crops and start on rows
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story by Mary Elizabeth Clark, SSJ | photo by Howard PitkowIn my parent’s house, faith and action went hand in hand. For 15 years, my mother met monthly with an interfaith group to discuss the Middle East. Through that organization, she protested the treatment of Russian Jews by wearing black and demonstrating downtown. My parents,
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story by Bernard Brown photo by Craig StottlemyerAbout a year ago, I was sent a video of a red-tailed hawk plucking a dead pigeon on the roof of a car, right across the street from the Burger King at Eighth and Market. A crowd of cell-phone photographers surrounded the truck until the spooked raptor moved
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FACT
Each year, the average American discards eight batteries, and about 600 million fluorescent light bulbs make their way to landfills.
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Last year, Valley Shepherd Creamery in New Jersey appeared on my radar and quickly became a favorite source for rustic, raw-milk cheese. This Pecorino-style wedge made from the milk of pasture-raised sheep is a good choice for February, when your disposition needs sweetening and your palate craves dense, nutty cheeses. Tuck a wedge of Oldwick
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University of California Press, 128 pp., $21.95 written by Kirstin Dow and Thomas E. Downing reviewed by Katherine SilkaitiThe Atlas of Climate Change is a deftly illustrated and informative reference book about the state of the global climate today.
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Avery, 358 pp., $26 written by Capt. Charles Moore with Cassandra Phillips reviewed by Katherine SilkaitisWhen Capt. Charles Moore set sail from Honolulu in 1997, he and his crew stumbled upon a floating phenomenon. Estimated at two million square miles, the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is home to nearly three million tons of plastic debris.
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