Leaders of the Pack: Kids and parents flock to Pennypack Farm

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

More
5 mins read

Farming It Out: Bartram’s Garden restores tradition with a new farm and community center

Two years ago during a staff retreat, Tyler Holmberg and his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnership started brainstorming about transforming the southern portion of Bartram’s Garden into an operational farm. Since then, their vision has become a reality; last month, ground was officially broken for the Bartram’s Farm and

More
1 min read

Save Wyck’s Chicks, join the Rock-Moving Party!

Image via (earth & fork) Wyck Historic House and Garden has some chicks that need your help. Wyck’s hens have endured all the crazy Philly weather, but they’ve done it in the lowest, shadiest, wettest, muddiest part of Wyck’s property, where their run is located. Wyck wants to improve their quality of life to keep

More
1 min read

Fair Farm: Rally for farmers’ rights TODAY in Philly

photo by foodandwaterwatch.orgStand up for farmers’ rights today in Philadelphia! Join Food and Water Watch, and other fair food organizations like Slow Food Philly, Farm To City, and Fresh Buy Local, to fight for Fair Farm Rules to be implemented in Pennsylvania. The Fair Farm Rules of 2008 (or the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards

More
1 min read

Farmer’s Delight: Nic Esposito, co-founder of Philly Rooted and developer of the Walnut Hill Community Farm, explains how the Collaborative helped make his farm a masterpiece

In my experience creating urban farms, the conflict I have most often faced is between the desire for high-end craftsmanship and the need to just get the project going. I’ll be the first to admit that the community organizer in me usually errs on the side of the latter. But with the Walnut Hill Community

More
1 min read

Put It In Your Pocket: How the garden at Southwest Philly’s Mitten cooperative house became the neighborhood-magnet Pocket Farm

"Kids will knock on our door and ask for collards for their grandmum,” says Emily Wren, one of six members of Mitten, a cooperative house of twentysomething coeds that runs an urban farming venture in Southwest Philadelphia known as Pocket Farm. What began three years ago as a household garden to grow food for Mitten

More
2 mins read

Race to the Harvest

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

More
1 min read