As many people discovered during the COVID-19 boom in home baking, if you want a challenge, try baking with a sourdough starter. Iryna Teslia embraced this challenge, and sourdough became the basis for everything she produces in her micro-bakery, The Bread Anatomy — from traditional Ukrainian holiday breads like paska and kolach to all-American chocolate
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Christa barfield of Viva Leaf Tea Company is a business owner who isn’t afraid of honest feedback. “I appreciate criticism,” she says. “It’s what makes you better.” It’s a good thing, too, because at an event at Awbury Arboretum in 2019, beekeeper Jeff Eckel of Instar Apiaries had some to offer. “I was sourcing my
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Spring is here, vaccine appointments are available for all adults, and you’re ready to get back on your bicycle. After all, it was a long winter defined by a right-wing riot at the Capitol, some pleasant snowfall (which we hadn’t seen around here in a while) and slightly uncomfortable outdoor dining in freezing temperatures under
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In my February Grid commentary on the glut of single use takeout food containers during the pandemic, I expressed hope that local innovators and entrepreneurs would develop reusable container systems. I’m excited to report that my hopes have been answered—or at least they were for a moment On March 22, 2021 Philadelphia-area Indian food chain
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In 2018 the Triangle Roasters workshop was minimally furnished. It had a sleek black coffee roaster, two cacao grinders, a couple of tables and a handful of green stools ready to be pulled up for an impromptu coffee cupping. Fast forward to 2021, and the space is almost unrecognizable. On a warm spring day the
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Sometime in the mid-1970s, Amira Abdul-Wakeel baked her first cake in her West Oak Lane childhood home. Her sister and a very close girlfriend all pitched in, and they beamed with pride at their pound cake. Then her mom came home, and exclaimed, “That’s the best corn bread I’ve ever had.” Slighted, but not defeated,
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Anisa George sees a strong connection between theater and forest therapy: they both involve improvisation. “You enter the rehearsal space, invite the ensemble to try different things, to engage with the environment,” George says. George was drawn to the practice because of its focus on the body and the natural world. Her career as an
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Dan Lavin returned from his friend Chuck’s wake feeling troubled. Lavin and his now-deceased husband had met Chuck and his wife in a support group for people with cancer. “Chuck was a really sharp-witted, spitfire kind of guy,” Lavin says. In the throes of his illness, Chuck bought a Corvette with a license plate that
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In 2020 sisters Rhonda Saltzman and Mercedes Brooks turned their lockdown restlessness into a blossoming business with their online store, Second Daughter Baking Co. After years of experience in restaurants, bakeries and the hospitality industry, Culinary Institute of America graduate Saltzman had an excellent résumé. But at the beginning of the pandemic she lost her job
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In March 2020 customer sign-ups at Philly Foodworks grew 50 times in just one week. Last year, overall, customer orders and customer sign-ups tripled when compared to 2019. “People were placing $600 fish orders,” Dylan Baird, Philly Foodworks co-founder and CEO, says. Baird credits some of this growth in his online business, which home delivers
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Matthew Rafferty started off in the restaurant industry as a dishwasher. Now—25 years later—he stands behind the window of his own establishment. It is a Sunday and Algorithm’s cobalt blue food truck is parked on the south side of the 1900 block of Washington Avenue. The truck offers an extensive vegan menu using ingredients sourced
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