In last month’s issue, I wrote about how Philly could start a City-run composting drop-off program. Unfortunately, the City might not have the staffing to mount such an effort. Forty years ago, when the City was launching its recycling program, it had 23 employees in its recycling office. Today, the Department of Sanitation has two.
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As a kid, Wyatt Piazza connected with the natural world by helping his dad out in the family vegetable garden. He holds dear the memories of foraging with him in the woods of Vermont during summer vacations. In his work as a chef today, Piazza creates vegetable-forward recipes for Kiddo, the restaurant he and his
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Growing up in Philadelphia, Marcus Greene Sr. says his family struggled to buy groceries. Even with food stamps and other government assistance, it still wasn’t enough. “I specifically remember as a youth, standing in line on Lehigh Avenue, waiting with the rest of the community to get our food donations,” says Greene, now vice convener
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At Manayunk’s Crust Vegan Bakery this past May, PB&J scone season was giving way to jasmine peach scone season. Midseason, the dough invariably left over when a batch of scones is rolled and cut is incorporated into the next batch. “But at the end of the season, there’s no next batch,” Crust owner Meagan Benz
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Grid has been writing about food since our beginning. It’s not just because we enjoy eating and thinking about what we’ll eat next, though we do. It’s because it matters. It takes a lot of resources to produce the food we eat. More than half the land area of the United States is devoted to
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When the U.S. Department of Agriculture released an updated map of hardiness zones last November, gardeners and farmers in the Philadelphia region — and across much of the United States — found affirmation of the warmer weather they’ve been experiencing since the map’s last refresh in 2012. In just over 10 years, nearly half the
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Launched in 2021, Aaji’s is first and foremost, a family affair. Co-founders Rajus and Poorva Korde created the brand based on Rajus’s grandmother’s tomato lonsa recipe — a tomato-based dish that incorporates coastal Indian spices like asafoetida and turmeric. Aaji’s currently offers an original tomato lonsa, as well as garlic, spicy and spicy garlic flavors.
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After three years of planning and several unexpected delays, Weavers Way Co-op celebrated the opening of their new Germantown location with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday. “I’ve been crying for two days, tears of joy,” says Jon Roesser, General Manager of Weavers Way. “It’s amazing the way the community has been so welcoming to us.
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Amani Lee, a senior at The U School, hadn’t given gardening much thought until this year. As part of her school’s horticultural program, she’s now researching crops in Ukraine, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. She is learning what the people in these countries grow and eat, and the stories behind their famous dishes. Under
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Gardening was woven into Victor Young’s life at an early age. His mother and aunt introduced him to the concept of growing your own food as he helped them in their gardens as a kid. The West Philly resident tried to carry these lessons into adulthood — but not without hitting some obstacles. “I was
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