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
Morestory 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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"Food is a great way to bring people together,” says Jennifer Brodsky, Greener Partners’ chief operating officer. At Longview Agricultural Center, a 90-acre certified organic farm in Collegeville and hub for Greener Partners, food is at the heart of their mission.
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Can farming serve as therapy for those afflicted with cognitive disabilities? The answer’s not as far out there as you might think. In fact, it’s just an hour from the bustling streets of Philadelphia on the serene farmland of Chester County’s Camphill Village Kimberton Hills. The planned community is home to over 100 individuals, 40
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The farming collaboration between Marathon Grill and Emerald Street Urban Farm’s Patrick Dunn [Dec. 2010 Grid, Agriculture p.18] has come to fruition in Brewerytown. In March, Marathon Farm hosted five workdays that attracted more than 60 volunteers, who transformed a vacant lot into a promising agricultural haven. On March 21, Mayor Michael Nutter himself hosted
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Tucked between routes 1 and 13, Morrisville’s 25-acre Snipes Farm & Education Center is rich in history. The land has been in the Snipes family since 1848, when it got its horticultural start as a nursery; trees grown here were uprooted and taken by horse-drawn cart to Chestnut Hill, the Main Line and Fairmount Park.
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The Polselli lot at 53rd and Wyalusing in the Haddington section of West Philadelphia was a dangerous eyesore. Equipment from the owner’s contracting business, stripped cars and barrels of gasoline sat nestled in the overgrown weeds.
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Marilyn Anthony, Southeast Regional Director for the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), describes the agricultural organization’s new land sharing program “Farming Futures” as “a blend of eBay and eHarmony.”
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For 20 years, Urban Tree Connection has been on a crusade to provide low-income Philadelphians with access to affordable and nutritious food. In early October, the organization received $10,000 in grant money from the Lincoln Financial Foundation to support their Growing Healthy Initiative. Since 2006, the program has worked to repurpose the city’s many vacant
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