Compostable materials constitute approximately 23 percent of Philadelphia's waste composition. In the absence of a citywide food waste recycling program, all food waste is sent to the landfill. RecycleNOW Philadelphia says this is a missed opportunity because composting would help the city fulfill RecycleNOW’s zero waste vision and it could spur local, sustainable development. It’s a
MoreAn aerial view of the Rodale Institute in Kutztown, Pa. | Image via growingagreenerworld.com | Story by Liz Pacheco
Josh Brown, a 28-year-old Marine, recently found himself unemployed—a situation that’s all-too-common for America’s veterans. Before being laid off from his job as an equipment delivery driver, Brown had thought about
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Story by Liz Pacheco IT'S 1 P.M. ON A FRIDAY at W. L. Sayre High School in West Philadelphia. Elizabeth Curry’s science classes have finished for the day, but some students remain in her classroom talking about their new aquaponics systems. ¶ “I thought the class was gonna stink. I
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story by Liz Pacheco | photos by Neal Santos
Chef Jose Garces is in his outdoor kitchen making salmorejo—a cold Spanish soup similar to gazpacho. He adds bright yellow tomatoes to the food processor along with garlic, vinegar and baguette pieces. “A few years ago,” he says, “I would’ve made this with tomatoes from
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On Oct. 18 at 6 p.m., the Academy of Natural Sciences will host the panel: Is Sustainable Agriculture Bad for the Planet?Does buying local food make a difference or just make you smug? Is organic overkill? Could factory farms be better for the planet than happy hogs, cows and chickens? On October 18 at 6
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Story and Photos by Char Vandermeer
Summer’s tapped. It’s over. Done. With any luck, crisp, cool autumn nights are working wonders on the radishes, kale, Swiss chard and brassicas that have taken over your garden. (If you haven’t planted your greens and radishes yet, put this magazine down and run to the
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story by Char VandermeerNow that cooler nights and shorter days have taken over, it’s time to bust out the greens and radishes again.
And they’re easy—really! I know gardeners always say growing vegetables is “easy,” but often they’re stretching the truth, and sometimes they’re flat-out lying. Not so with loose-leaf lettuce, Swiss chard and kale. So
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story by Liz PachecoThirty-seven floors above Philadelphia, Zone 7 founder Mikey Azzara is talking local food. He’s at R2L restaurant in Liberty Towers, overseeing the delivery of potatoes, greens and herbs to Chef Daniel Stern. Azzara and Stern spend a few minutes chatting, mostly about the difficulty Stern once had in sourcing locally. Some farms
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story by Lauren MandelRooftops are becoming prime locations for Philadelphians to fulfill their tomato-growing obsessions. While prominent rooftop gardens in Center City and Manayunk are already raising crops in containers and buckets, the local organization Philadelphia Rooftop Farm (PRooF) is trying another very promising approach.
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story by Dana Henry | photo by Albert Yee
Laurie Jenkins, owner of Shady Apple Goats Farms, dreams of having many goats and growing her own hay for rotational grazing. While her backyard dairy farm, nestled behind a busy suburban street in Flourtown, may not offer the expansive landscape Jenkins
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