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iss ue
judy w ick s
Philadelphia’s founding mother of Sustainability story by alex mulcahy
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10 Farm to Office Take your veggies to work 12 Down and Dirty with Philadelphia forager David Siller 14 CommunityArt goes to market with The Edible Garden 16 Plain Sights What’s behind the face of City Hall’s iconic clock? 17 Green Living Liquid soap recipe lets you be Earth-friendly without dumping the pump
judy w ick s Good Morning, Beautiful Businesswoman by alex mulcahy page
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22 The Whole Food Strawberries are the taste of spring
38 Urban Naturalist Something Wild: Hope Springs Ephemeral 40 Events Architectural walking tours, Farmers Market openings, a soupçon of soup, and lots of gardening 46 Dispatch Sustainable economies sustain communities
hidden city festival 2013 — 24-page special insert inside! cov e r a n d co n t e n ts p h otos by g e n e s m i r n ov
publisher
Alex Mulcahy 215.625.9850 ext. 102 alex@gridphilly.com editor-in-chief
Jon McGoran jon@gridphilly.com art director
Jamie Leary jamie@gridphilly.com designer
Danni Sinisi danni@gridphilly.com distribution
Jesse Kerns 215.625.9850 ext. 100 jesse@gridphilly.com community engagement
Leader of the Pack
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t’s hard for me to believe, but this is Grid’s 50th issue. It still feels very new to me, like we’re still figuring out exactly what belongs in the magazine and how best to present it. Part of the challenge of Grid, and what makes it different from other magazines I’ve worked on, is that we have a very specific goal: to inspire you to make your (and our) community a better place. So we highlight people who inspire us, and organizations and businesses that, through creativity and innovation, solve problems. We want you to know about them, to join them, to support them. Or better yet, we want these examples to give you courage to follow your own passion and start something new. In my pre-Grid days, I would take friends to the White Dog, and sometimes even go by myself, just to feel the magic of the place. I’d pick up a copy of Tales from the White Dog Café, the company’s newsletter, and read about how Judy had divested herself from the stock market and instead invested locally in The Reinvestment Fund, to get from her money what she called “a living return.” I’d go to the Black Cat, the adjoining gift shop, and pick up books like The Small-Mart Revolution and Going Local by Michael Shuman, and learn about the importance of local economies. And sometimes I’d buy local soap there, too. As central as food was to the White Dog, it was only a piece of the puzzle. Social justice, education and fostering community were just as important, and attention was paid to details like
Morgan Berman morgan@gridphilly.com
The inspiring work of Judy Wicks
energy usage and waste disposal. Sustainability, before it became a buzz word, informed every decision that was made. The White Dog was a place that proved that, yes, you could have a successful business that reflected your values. In this month’s issue, you can see hints of Judy’s influence in Sonja Claxton’s story, which I love for more reasons than that it proves how effective advertising in Grid can be. Sonja was intent on making her corporate workplace more sustainable, and now she has a job with the Common Market, coordinating fresh food deliveries to offices. Now her ambitions are to make everybody’s corporate workplace more sustainable. That she could take that zeal to the Common Market, a local food distribution company that built on the success of Fair Food, is also a tribute to Wicks’ legacy. So thank you, Judy, for showing what’s possible. And thank you, readers and advertisers of Grid, for our first 50 issues. Oh, and thanks to Sarah Adams, who transcribed the long and rambling conversation I had with Judy and the interview with PGW’s Elliott Gold. I’d like to publicly acknowledge her awesomeness.
writers
Bernard Brown Grace Dickinson Jamie Gauthier Marisa McClellan Juliane Mesaric Molly O’Neill Brian Rademaekers Leah R. Troiano April White intern
Sarah Adams volunteers
Whitney DiTaranto Corey Jameson Andrew Schlesinger Keysha Taylor Meredith Thomas Rick Way Jessica Zuzack photographers
Jen Britton Sang Cun Emily Wren Gene Smirnov illustrators
Stephen Haigh Melissa McFeeters ad sales
Jesse Kerns 215.625.9850 ext. 100 jesse@gridphilly.com published by
alex j. mulcahy, Publisher alex@gridphilly.com
Red Flag Media 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19107 215.625.9850 g r i d p h i l ly . c o m
p h oto by g e n e s m i r n ov
5-STEP ANIMAL WELFARE RATING your way of knowing how our meat animals were raised
Visit our stores in the greater Philadelphia metro area today!
community
Art Goes to Market The Edible Garden combines food, art and sustainability Local artist Meei-Ling Ng is no stranger to farmers markets, both as a participating farmer and as a frequent customer. But for the first time, on June 15 at the Headhouse Square Craft & Fine Arts Fair, her artful interpretation of the farmers market will be part of the market itself. “The Edible Garden” is a series of acrylic
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paintings of vegetable and fruit cross sections on recycled concrete. A sampling of the work is pictured above as part of an installation at the Elkins Estate garden in Elkin’s Park, where it was displayed next to the vegetable beds. “The whole idea is to set up an installation like a farmer vendor display, with my new works on baskets, boxes, etc., looking like a real farmer vendor selling vegetables,” Ng explains. “Customers can pick and buy what they like, and they can put them in their outdoor garden or display indoors. I also see this idea as an opportunity for an interactive installation work with visitors in a farmers market environment.” Environmental issues are a recurring theme in Ng’s work. “I am an artist, an organic farmer and a nature lover, and I care about these factors and how it is all
connected to sustainability,” she explains. “My main goal is to use my art installations as a tool to learn about preserving nature, sustainable living and organic urban farming. To draw people’s attention and look closely at these issues. These are the factors that inspire and motivate me to continue creating art. I want to create art to get the sustainability message out.” This will be the 45th year for Headhouse Square Craft & Fine Arts Fair, held by the Creative Collective at the Historic Headhouse Square at 2nd & Pine St., in Society Hill, Philadelphia. The show will take place under shelter of the Headhouse Shambles pavilion, rain or shine. The exhibit will be one day only, Sat., June 15 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. It is free and open to the public. For more on Ng’s work, visit meeiling.com . —Jon McGoran
P hoto by SA NG CUN
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community
Plain Sights
Broad and market
Clock Work Since midnight on December 31, 1898, Philadelphia City Hall has known the time. That is when its four 26-foot diameter clocks began service, powered by compressed air. In 1947, this system was replaced by four synchronous electronic motors, a contraption that continues to power the clocks today. Housed in relatively small boxes, the motors move the clocks’ hands — the 11-foot minute hand and the nine-foot hour hand — via a long metal rod. In this photo, the rod is camouflaged amongst the perma-scaffolding inside City Hall’s tower, but if you look closely, you can see it running up the center. Right at 6 o’clock. For more on this story, visit Hidden City Daily, hiddencityphila.org.
In partnership with Hidden City, Plain Sights highlights historic buildings with compelling stories hiding in our midst.
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photo by BRADLEY MAULE
Green living
SEPTA
MAKES
Soap’s On
FRUITFUL
Cleaning up doesn’t have to be a dirty business by leah r. troiano
W
hen I think of washing my hands as a kid, the memory of a slippery, unattractive bar dripping onto the bathroom sink comes to mind. It’s not surprising that my family now uses liquid soap for hand-washing. Pump containers are more user-friendly for little hands, and I like that they limit the mess factor. Plus, truth be told, I’m a sucker for a great-smelling soap in a pretty container. But there are downsides to pump soap. Constantly tossing out plastic soap containers is definitely not Earth-friendly, and soap scents are often made with harsh chemicals. In an effort to limit waste and the use of such
chemicals, I decided to make my own liquid hand soap, and reuse the containers I saved from prior use. The following soap recipe uses traditional cooking methods. It might feel more like making soup than soap, but if cleanliness is next to godliness, you’ll think making your own soap is heavenly! leah r. troiano, a certified cancer support educator, works with people who have cancer or would like to prevent cancer. Videos on how to make the products featured in this column can be found at cancerhealthandwellness.com . Contact Leah at Leah@CancerHealthandWellness.com .
HOW TO
make YOUR OWN HAND SOAP 11 cups water
1 bar Castile soap
1 Tbsp glycerin
→→ Grate soap bar into small shreds. Bring four cups of water to a boil and add grated soap. Slowly stir until fully melted. Remove from heat and add the glycerin and remaining water. Once the liquid is cooled, add the essential oils. Let sit overnight.
10 drops essential oil
CONNECTIONS Farm-to-SEPTA
Support our local farmers at one of the many farmers markets near SEPTA stations. You’ll find fresh local produce, meats, and dairy on SEPTA’s special Farmers Market Map at www.septa.org/maps
Recycled soap pump containers
→→ The solution will thicken. Using a blender or a hand-held mixer, whip the mixture to produce a smooth consistency. If it’s too thick, add more water. If too thin, add more glycerin, 2 teaspoons at a time. Pour into recycled pump bottles.
* For foaming soap pumps, add 1/4 cup of the soap solution to the bottle and fill with water. Shake to mix.
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Agriculture
Farm to Office Workplace CSA makes fresh and local easy
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by julianne mesaric
f you’re sitting at a desk, you most likely have a Post-it note slapped somewhere near your computer, maybe reminding you to pay your electric bill, attend that 11:30 meeting or pick up something for dinner. Last summer, over 650 employees from 18 corporations, nonprofits and public agencies in Greater Philadelphia changed their Post-its to something like: “Farm share delivery in the office today: blackberries, grape tomatoes, peaches and mint!�
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As members of the Delaware Valley Farm Share program, these employees enjoyed fresh fruits, vegetables and eggs from local sustainably-minded farms delivered directly to their office twice a week from May to November. This summer, the DVFS is inviting more businesses to take advantage of this great program, alongside current member organizations like the City of Philadelphia, the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University and Independence Blue Cross. A partnership between Common Market, which is a distributor of regional farm foods to large private and public institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region, and Farm to City, which connects regional farmers with consumer groups, the DVFS program was developed with two prominent social models in mind: community supported agriculture (CSA) and corporate social responsibility. The former helps companies achieve the latter by facilitating health and wellness among employees, strengthening links in their community and safeguarding the environment. The CSA model sprouted in the U.S. in the 1980s amid concerns about food safety, diminishing availability of local food and the migration of farmers to cities as small farms became less viable. CSAs help provide financial security to small farmers. In a traditional CSA, individuals pay an upfront sum, usually several hundred dollars, for a weekly or bi-weekly
share of farm produce to be picked up at a designated location. The CSA model helps alleviate the pressures of upfront costs faced by farmers at the beginning of the growing season, while increasing consumer access to farm direct produce. But it is not without drawbacks for some. Many people are unfamiliar with CSAs, or unsure of how to connect with one, according to Sonja Claxton, Organizational Wellness Manager for DVFS, and former site coordinator for a company that participated in the program (see sidebar). Additionally, many people find it difficult to pay upfront for a farm share. Another common obstacle is long commutes, which can mean missing the pickup times set by CSA distribution locations. “Before working for Common Market, I was commuting an hour each way between West Philadelphia and Wayne,” says Claxton. “Many days I got home at 7 p.m., so even if I could have afforded to buy into a CSA, I would have been too late to pick it up. Many people I talk with have this issue.” With these challenges in mind, Common Market and Farm to City designed a logical framework for DVFS. This modified CSA model makes it convenient for working professionals to buy into a farm share. The program offers members payment plans and payroll deductions (about $27 each delivery week, with an option to add on a dairy share for $11). Deliveries are made directly to the offices of participating organizations, in the city or the suburbs. Delivery days evoke a community feeling not unlike that at a humming farmers market on the weekend. As an added bonus, by involving multiple farmers, DVFS minimizes some of the uncertainty of supply that can come with depending on a single farm, as many CSAs do. And while the actual farmers aren’t present, their involvement is reflected through relevant recipes and write-ups that are distributed with each share (along with a copy of Grid). In order to join the DVFS, employers within the city must have at least 20 employee participants; 40 if the office is outside of Philadelphia. Each office appoints an employee as a site coordinator, Common Market’s point person for the company. Site coordinators get free shares for the season, and there is no cost to employers to join the program. “This model killed so many birds with one stone,” says Claxton. “What’s awesome about DVFS is that it is employee-driven; it’s a grassroots employee wellness program. Human resources loves it.” The program is a natural fit for organizations that exercise corporate social responsibility because it is in line with the values of a clean environment, engaged consumers, healthy employees and viable communities. Economists
Dream Job
off weeks, I arranged for health and sustainability Sonja Claxton has always speakers to come speak known what she’s passionate with our group.” about, and now, as the OrgaClaxton had organically nizational Wellness Manager become a workplace wellsonja claxton for Common Market, she has ness and sustainability Organizational Wellness the title to prove it. advocate for her company Manager, Common Market Earlier this year, Claxton and, in January, decided to was working at a health reofficially brand herself as search company in Wayne. She liked her job, but such. Seeing a need for sustainability experts felt disconnected from her roots in social and like herself within socially responsible businessenvironmental sustainability. es, Claxton placed an advertisement in the 2013 While studying international business and Sustainable Business Network Directory (distribeconomics at Temple University’s Fox School uted with Grid Magazine), seeking a corporate of Business and Management, she founded the social responsibility position. student organization Students for Responsible Common Market got to her first. Business, which later became Net Impact. She “We had thought of Sonja for the role of also pushed to make a business ethics class Organizational Wellness Manager long before standardized business school curriculum. the ad,” says Tatiana Garcia-Granados, Founder Now, Claxton “wanted to bring my network and Executive Director of Common Market. “She into my job.” is so dynamic and passionate. Our program was Mirroring her work at Temple, Claxton and a new, but she understood the value of it. More coworker co-founded a sustainability awareness than that, she understood how to customize it group in the office, where they helped colfor the corporate setting. Everyone who talks to leagues recognize the negative effects of waste- her wants to participate.” ful workplace activities and the benefit of using Claxton is also an Advisory Committee Memresources wisely. ber for Get Healthy Philadelphia, an initiative of “I didn’t feel I was a valuable asset to my the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Public company until I started to use my knowledge of Health. Having grown up in the city, Claxton the sustainability and health and wellness world understands the disconnect for city dwellers to to show leaders that sustainability practices are their food. “It’s real and I experienced it,” she more effective than they think,” she says. says. “For me to provide my five-year-old daughClaxton’s office sustainability leadership ter with fresh food is an amazing feat.” (which was not a part of her regular job duties, This summer, Claxton will not only keep her but something she did simply because she was daughter eating well, but ensure that 35 site passionate about the issues), expanded when coordinators have all the tools that they need to she discovered DVFS in 2011. She knew the promake DVFS a success. gram had to be a part of her office health and Though Claxton’s work will affect close wellness program, and she volunteered to be the to a thousand Philadelphia professionals, site coordinator. “But I didn’t stop with organizshe shows that, really, sustainability can start ing the farm share deliveries,” says Claxton. “On with just one.
predict that the most successful businesses will be those who embrace these social responsibilities. Today, health and wellness programs for employees are a big part of many corporate social responsibility plans. “Companies are placing more emphasis on health and wellness due to the growth in health care spending and as a way to contain medical costs,” says Josephine Hayes, Senior Human Resources Business Partner and Wellness Coordinator for Philadelphia Gas Works, and a DVFS member. “In fact, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [PPACA] includes wellness incentives for companies.”
Shire Pharmaceuticals in Wayne, PA has over 70 employees participating in DVFS, and reimburses those employees up to $350 of the cost of participation under the company’s Healthy Lifestyle employee benefit. Beyond the buzzwords, health and wellness programs have been proven effective at lowering employer health care costs while increasing productivity, morale and loyalty. All of this makes supporting DVFS a smart move for employers. To join Delaware Valley Farm Share, contact info@dvfarmshare.org or 215-275-3435 x10. For more information, visit dvfarmshare.org . J UN E 20 13
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Agriculture
The Lost Art of Found Food
If you know what you’re looking for, delicacies abound on the ground story by april white • photos by emily wren
D
avid siller’s talent for hunting out nettles, pawpaws, quince and dozens of other delicious, edible plants that grow wild in the region have made him a favorite of chefs at restaurants like Russet, Kennett, Pumpkin and Will. Will chef Christopher Kearse was Siller’s first customer when he was cooking at Pumpkin. “I showed up with ramps and nettles and told him about the other stuff I had,” recalls Siller. “He said ‘Bring it on.’”
What does it take to be a forager?
I have a truck, boxes and bags, a shovel or two, a scale and a knowledge of plants and locations. I’ll go about 100 miles in all directions. I have my eyes open all the time. Sometimes I’m just going for a hike and poof! There’s maitake mushrooms. It’s like finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. So, anyone can do this?
How did you get your start as a forager?
What is the attraction of foraged ingredients?
I’ve been foraging professionally and selling to restaurants for four or five years. Before that, I was foraging for myself. I was the kid who would eat berries from the schoolyard. After college, I started learning more about plants. I’m a conscious harvester, which means listening to the environment and caring about the sustainability of the plants.
They taste awesome and they’re unique. It’s not just fiddleheads and ramps. The wild food world is so broad. I get excited about the uncommon things, like Cornelian cherries. I try to encourage chefs to get creative with uncommon ingredients.
I’ve seen people of all ages get into it. It’s good to have a teacher before you start. It’s definitely not a good idea to just go out and pick random leaves and start eating them. david siller is a professional forager from the Delaware Valley. If it’s edible and marketable, he knows where it grows. Visit him at yosoybean.com .
DAVID SILLER Forager
not asparagus: these plants might look like asparagus, but are actually Japanese knotweed.
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Happening now: The greens season in the Delaware Valley is drawing to a close, but Siller is busy harvesting wild June berries, mulberries and cherry plums. After that he’ll be chasing down Cornelian cherries, lambs quarter, paw paws and chanterelle mushrooms.
Fiddle heAd ferns are among the forager’s early spring favorites.
Siller walks across a green meadow pilled with wild ramps.
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Energy
PGW has millions of dollars available to help pay for moneysaving and energysaving weatherproofing measures like this blown-in insulation
Get It While It’s Hot PGW has millions to help thousands save hundreds
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by brian rademaeker
t might come as a surprise, but the folks at Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) don’t like it any more than you do when you get a whopper of a gas bill. Skeptical? Check out the raft of rebates and incentives PGW is offering to help cut back on wasteful (read: expensive) natural gas use, an especially pricey problem in old Philly houses with clunky, inefficient gas boilers and furnaces. “It’s about helping customers become more efficient,” says Elliott Gold, manager of PGW’s Energy Efficiency Programs. “We want to help our customers afford their bill. We’d rather they pay 100 percent of a smaller bill than zero percent of a larger bill.” Since 2011, PGW has invested $18 million in making Philly homes more efficient for residents who pay for natural gas at market rates, a process that has not only saved homeowners money, but also cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. When you include what’s been invested in low-income homes, where customers 20
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pay for gas at subsidized rates, the number is even higher. The funds come from a $60 million grant from the Public Utility Commission, which regulates companies like PGW. While the fund could dry up in 2015, PGW still has about $12 million to invest in market-rate customers’ homes and industrial and commercial buildings, and they’re trying to connect with consumers to prove the program is a worthwhile investment. As part of PGW’s EnergySense program, the efficiency initiatives, which include rebates for things like low-energy gas boilers and pro-
grammable thermostats, are funded through August 31, 2015. PGW will give homeowners as much as $2,000 towards a boiler with a 94 percent efficiency rating and $500 for natural gas furnaces with a 94 percent efficiency rating. Gold says customers can save on average $350 per year with the new boiler across a 15- to 20year lifespan. Even bigger rebates are in store for residential customers under a new efficiency program being launched this summer. And while most people won’t be fretting during the warmer months over heating bills to come, Gold insists that anyone looking to upgrade their air conditioning or HVAC system this summer should jump in for the full package and invest in programs offered by PGW while they’re getting the work done. Despite the incentives and clear savings, Gold says it has been difficult to convince homeowners to spend big bucks on better, more efficient equipment and home improvements.
“You can’t just run down to the corner store to buy this equipment,” says Gold. “We are trying to compel customers to purchase equipment that is more expensive.” PGW is looking at customers who already have to invest in a new HVAC system, but aren’t comfortable with buying a pricier, more efficient model that will be cheaper in the long run. The PGW incentives are designed to give those customers the money and extra push they need to make that investment. But Gold wants homeowners and commercial property owners to think big and do all the work they can to cut back on wasteful gas use. “Where you really see deep savings is through the comprehensive programs,” he says. Through PGW’s Comprehensive Residential Retrofit Incentives program, customers can identify cost-effective measures through an energy audit, and then implement a range of fixes like air-sealing, attic and wall insulation, and highefficiency windows that will make the efficient heating equipment even more effective. Beyond retrofitting, Gold says builders of new commercial, industrial or multi-family buildings can get grants for as much as $60,000 to use the most efficient materials and equipment. The further
“…We are reducing emissions, and that is the same thing as taking cars off the road. People don’t have to choose between the environment and economics. It’s this combination idea where you can have your cake and eat it too.” —Elliott gold, Manager, Energy Efficiency Programs they go beyond the efficiency standards set by building codes, the more they can get from the program. In kitchens, restaurants are encouraged to save resources with stoves that use less gas. “If they are looking at doing a project, now is the time to do it,” says Gold. “There’s a range of programs for a range of customers.” The improvements, “make sense both environmentally and economically,” Gold argues. “We are reducing emissions, and that is the same thing as taking cars off the road. People don’t have to choose between the environment and economics. It’s this combination idea where you can have your cake and eat it too.”
PGW Pays You Money to Save You Money Residential customers Equipment rebates: up to $2,000 Construction grants: up to $2,750 Building grants for existing property upgrades coming this Summer 2013
Commercial customers Equipment rebates: up to $8,400 Construction grants: up to $60,000 Building grants for existing property upgrades up to $75,000
For more information on programs and incentives from PGW, visit pgwenergysense.com J UN E 20 13
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food
The Whole Food
Strawberries Jammed with flavor and nutrition story and photos by
grace dickinson
I
f there’s any public place where it’s acNutrition 101 Strawberries are jamceptable to openly act like a kid again, it’s out packed with vitamins, fiber in a strawberry field. Forget any worries of a and other healthy perks. red-stained face, mud on your knees, or washing A one-cup serving has just or paying for your fruit — just let the moment under 80 calories, as well melt around you as you relish the sweetness of a as almost 150 percent of your daily recommended fresh-picked strawberry. All thoughts flee as the value of vitamin C natural sugar hits your lips in one of the tastiest and an array of other moments of life. antioxidants. Strawberries Anyone who’s experienced a strawberry are the only fruit with straight from the vine knows that a supermarseeds on the outside, which is where much of ket strawberry should be known by an entirely their five grams of fiber per different name. The flavors are that dissimilar. serving is held. Even a locally purchased strawberry from a farmer’s market won’t stand up to one from the What to look for field. When you hand-select every strawberry Choose plump, firm berries that are deep red from top from the vine, you get the sweetest carton you’ll to tip. Don’t discriminate likely ever take home. Plus, when you do the by size. When ripe, the picking yourself, you get to eat a few along the smaller ones are often the way. Again, don’t worry. This month’s featured most flavorful. Note that farmer, Norm Schultz, says it actually puts a once picked, strawberries will not continue to ripen. smile on his face to see kids go home with a red face. And for the record, it’s fine by Schultz if adults eat a few, too — it’s a natural part of the picking process. If you can’t get past an unwashed berry, or simply want a supply right outside your back door, consider growing your own. Spend an evening taking berries straight from your strawberry patch to a bowl of vanilla ice cream, and it’s unlikely you’ll ever let them leave your garden. grace dickinson is a food blogger, photo enthusiast and recipe creator. These passions are brought together on FoodFitnessFreshAir.com , where she chronicles her experiments in the kitchen. 22
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for The gardener
“A lot of the varieties you yield at home don’t get as big, but they have so much more flavor,” says gardener Bill Schick, who grows strawberries at a community garden in Mt. Airy and at Chester County Food Bank, where he is Agriculture Program Director. “The really big ones in the store are hollow with generally no flavor, and are mostly grown for appearance, size and shipping, much like tomatoes.” When the commute is just from the garden to the kitchen, durability is less of a factor, opening the door to much tastier varieties of strawberries. Strawberries are perennials that produce for a handful of years. There are three main types: June-bearing, everbearing and dayneutral. The most common category, June-bearing, produce heavily for two to three weeks each spring. Everbearing plants produce two to three batches in late spring/early summer, and again in the fall. Day-neutral produce from spring to fall, except for when temperatures exceed 90˚F. There are advantages to each type, but if space is limited, Schick recommends day-neutral. “You generally won’t get enough to make a pie,” says Schick, “but you’ll get them all throughout the summer.”
from The Farm
If you are more interested in pickyour-own than grow-your-own, Linvilla Orchards in Media has 250 rows of strawberries, each 500 feet long, spread across eight acres. The farm is trying a new variety called Seascape, a day-neutral with a picking season that extends all summer. “We’ll plant them in April and start picking in June or July that same year,” says Linvilla farmer Schultz. Most other varieties of strawberries require a year of growth time before harvesting can begin. “You plant them, and within three weeks, the flowers will start to grow out. You pick all the flowers that first year and all the energy
from the kitchen of chef ortega
goes back into the plant.” For the Seascapes, Schultz will pick the flowers off two to three times within the season, harvesting at several specific times throughout the spring and summer. According to Schultz, the biggest challenge of growing strawberries is spring frosts. “In one night, you could lose the whole crop,” he says. When frost is expected, the Linvilla farmers stay up all night and when the thermometer hits 32°F, they start adding water to the field. “The production of ice produces heat,” he explains, and underneath the ice, it stays at 33°F or above. This year, Schultz hopes to reduce his water usage by using a different method on half his acreage: low metal hoops with a covering three to four inches above the plants. “As long as that tarp doesn’t touch the flowers, the flowers won’t freeze,” he says. Schultz is unsure of how cold it can get before this method becomes ineffective, but he suggests it could be a useful technique for home-growers, too. Growing strawberries is hard work, but Schultz says the biggest reward is the reaction from customers seeing directly where their food comes from. And when he takes his daughters out to pick on summer nights, it’s a sweet, annual experience he wouldn’t trade for anything.
St raw be rry an d Wi ne Co mp ote wi th Ho ne y Le mo n Gr ee k Yo gu rt
(Serves 2)
com pot e ¼ cup red wine (Merlot) ½ cup black currants or blackberries ½ vanilla bean, split ½ tsp fresh lemon juice 3 Tbsp raw brown sugar ½ cinnamon stick yog urt 1 cup Greek yogurt 1 Tbsp honey ½ lemon, zested
For the compote: Place cinnamo n stick and vanilla bean in sauce pot and lightly brown over medium heat, stirring continuously. Add red wine, curr ants, sugar and lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Cook until wine is reduced by half. Remove vanilla bean and cinnamo n stick. Pour liquid over strawberries and stir to incorporate. Allow to cool in refri gerator and serve over Honey Lemon Gree k Yogurt. For the yogurt: Combine all ingr edients and then divide into two servings . Top with strawberry and wine compote.
for The kitchen
Pastries and desserts receive a well-deserved emphasis at Lacroix, at the Rittenhouse Hotel on Rittenhouse Square. Each spring, Executive Pastry Chef Fred Ortega gives strawberries their own special emphasis on the dessert menu. “They’re appealing, a very likable berry to everyone across the board,” says Ortega, who’s been with Lacroix for 10 years. “You’re going to make a lot of people happy if you have them on the menu.” When in season, Lacroix will often feature some form of strawberries on the menu for both lunch and dinner. Ortega prefers local berries to California ones, because though they are smaller, they have a higher sugar content and more intense flavor. The inspiration for the recipe to the right came after a series of wine tastings at the fine-dining restaurant. Ortega explains that it’s common, particularly in Europe, to combine and macerate strawberries with wine or vinegar (wine that’s been turned to acid). “The sugar content of a strawberry brings a certain sweetness, and the wine is a different sweetness, so to combine them is very flavorful,” he says. Though Ortega suggests yogurt below, he has served variations of the recipe with everything from chocolate to various types of cake. He also proposes adding fruit to increase the texture or to serve the compote over a crumble. Expect spice and herb-infused strawberry creations, like a basil-mint or coriander combination on the dessert menu this spring, as well as strawberry juice and basil shooters. Lacroix, 210 W Rittenhouse Square lacroixrestaurant.com
for The pantry
Local strawberries are the most glorious manifestations of spring produce. Ruby red and so, so sweet, they lend themselves to many preparations. While they have a naturally brief shelf life, you can extend them for a day or so by keeping them unwashed, laying them in a single layer on a plate and refrigerating. If your berries are wilting, wash and chop them, and combine them with a few tablespoons of sugar. The sugar will act as a preservative and extend their quality. Once your berries are sugared, you can freeze them, cook them into jam, or simply stir them into plain yogurt. — Marisa McClellan Learn more about food preservation at McClellan’s blog foodinjars.com
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festival may 23 — june 30
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Explore‌ remarkable sites
10
2013
artist projects
tickets and info at festival.hiddencityphila.org
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Welcome
to the Hidden City Philadelphia 2013 Festival.
9 sites > 10 art projects > 6 weeks to see the city anew
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
Philadelphia really is different than other American cities. Someone once said we’re like Boston mixed with Detroit, a comparison that nails the combination of history and decay that makes this such a fascinating place. There’s a reason the Hidden City Festival happened here and not some tidy city like Portland or Minneapolis, and it’s because we have an outsized share of buildings that make you wonder, what the heck is inside? Over the past two years we’ve scoured the city, neighborhood by neighborhood, to find the most unusual sites with the most interesting histories. Some are magnificent buildings that are
Left to right: Bryan Clark, Salem ColloJulin, Jordan Klein, John Vidumsky, Nathaniel Popkin, Lee Tusman, Peter Woodall, June Freifelder, Bradley Maule, Michael Bixler, Thaddeus Squire
vacant and deteriorating; others are private, belonging to one of the picturesque institutions that seem to survive in Philadelphia long after becoming extinct elsewhere. Now it’s time to unlock the doors. Join us and explore a storefront synagogue in South Philadelphia, a theater concealed within an ornate apartment block in Powelton and a massive dye works in Frankford.
lead charitable support provided by
4
There are nine remarkable sites in all, spread out across the city. It’s worth the trip just to see them, but the place and its history are only part of the equation. Each site has been transformed by an ambitious contemporary artist project, a work created specifically for that space. These projects are all participatory to varying degrees, engaging the visitor and creating a shared experience, rather than being meant for the eye alone. Your presence is what brings these projects to life. Take part in a Utopian experiment in civic democracy. Become a member of an imagined secret “Society of Pythagoras.” Join a knitting operation to fashion a new façade for a 100-year-old storefront synagogue. These are the kind of experiences that await you, not to mention the extensive lineup of talks, tours, movies, concerts and workshops we have on tap. The Hidden City Festival is also, we hope, a way to change the way people think about the city. Bringing inert spaces temporarily to life through the imagination of artists is a form of brainstorming about what these places could be, an open-ended process that stirs the pot rather than providing the exact recipe. And it works (sometimes). After the first Hidden City Festival in 2009, a vacant part of Shiloh Baptist Church became practice space for local dance companies, the Drop Forge building at Disston Saw Works found a tenant, and the third floor of Founder’s Hall at Girard College became a site for performances. We wanted this year’s festival to create even more stakeholders for these sites, so we developed a new crowdsourcing website with web design firm I-Site and funded by a grant from the Barra Foundation. The site allows us to recruit volunteers, raise funds, and source materials for each project. The campaigns are not only about generating these resources, but also bringing together a group of people we hope will stay involved with the sites after the festival is over. Follow artists and projects, connect with other festival-goers, and join the conversation at festival. hiddencityphila.org.
—The Hidden City Team
the CeNter for Art iN Wood
«
JohN GrASS Wood turNiNG ComPANy
Cherry St
N 3rd St
N BreAd St
Cherry St
Mark Sfirri & robert g. dodge, Secretaire
John Grass & The Center The Quarry STreeT ConneCTion: where old wood meeTS new
John grass wood turning co., Bundle of Balusters
elfreth’S Alley
N 2Nd St
«
QuArry St
141 N. 3rd Street PhilAdelPhiA, PA 19106 215.923.8000
John grass artifacts exhibited down the alley at the center
ArCh St f r e e a d m i s s i o n — d o n at i o n s a p p r e c i at e d
centerforartinwood.org
Building Excellence with Master Craftsman for 132 Years Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters of Philadelphia & Vicinity EDWARD CORYELL Executive Secretary Treasurer Business Manager
NOEL ORR President
events
festival may 23 — june 30
2013
visitor info Opening Hours: Thursday-Sunday | 12-7p.m
Festival Site Passes (Thursdays are Free) One-day Pass: Weekend Plus Pass: All-Festival Pass:
$20 $40 (Fri-Sun) $70
Festival passes include access to all nine sites during opening hours, and also a variety of events. These events are free, however they do require a reservation, as space is limited. After Hours Special Events carry an additional charge, and are marked with a (listing to the right).
TO PURCHASE & RESERVE festival.hiddencityphila.org/visit Or call the box office at 267 428 0575
MEMBER PASSES f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
Become a member and receive 25% off! One-day Pass: $15 Weekend Plus Pass: $30 All Festival Pass: $50 hiddencityphila.org/membership
FESTIVAL KICKOFF BLOCK PARTY Saturday, May 25 | 7-11 PM Goldtex Building, 12th & Wood St. Admission: $15 + pay-as-you-go food trucks and beer. Volunteer for the Hidden City Festival! festival.hiddencityphila.org/volunteers Visitors need to be comfortable walking up stairs and across uneven ground to visit some Festival locations. Where needed, there will be staff on site to assist the people with disabilities.Visitors with respiratory conditions should be aware that some sites are dusty. Contact our box office with any questions: 267 428 0575.
recurring events every day!
Knit Lab @ Shivtei Yeshmuron
Starting Thursday, May 23, 1-6PM (repeating daily) project: ADMK Knit Lab | event type: Workshop
every friday & saturday every saturday
Docent Tour @ John Grass Wood Turning
Starting Friday, May 24, 2, 2:30, 3, 3:30PM (repeating every Friday & Saturday) | project: Wood Shop | event type: Tour
City Hall Meeting on an Independent Germantown @ Germantown Town Hall
Starting Saturday, May 25, 3-5PM (repeating every Saturday) project: Germantown City Hall | event type: Talk
every saturday
Water Futures: Meet the Bibotorium @ Kelly Natatorium
four sundays
Open House: The Ruins of High Battery @ Ft. Mifflin
Starting Saturday, May 25, 3PM (repeating every Saturday) project: Bibotorium | event type: Tour
Starting Sunday, May 26, 2-4PM (repeating four Sundays) project: The Ruins At High Battery | event type: Tour
may one-time events may
23 Open House: Dufala Brothers @ Globe Dye Works
Thursday, May 23, 1-4PM | project: Oil & Water | event type: Tour
may
23 Induction Ceremony to the secret order
of the Knights of Pythagoras @ Hawthorne Hall
Thursday, May 23, 12-7PM | project: Secret of Pythagoras | event type: Reception
may
24 Shivtei Festival Opening Party @ Shivtei Yeshuron Friday, May 24, 4-6PM | event type: Reception
may
25 Hidden City Opening Party @ Goldtex Building Saturday, May 25 | event type: Reception
may
26 Sunday Morning Speaker Series: “Oral History Project:
Shivtei Yeshuron in 1960s and 1970s” @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Sunday, May 26, 10AM-12PM | event type: Coffee, Bagels, and Speaker
may
26 “We The Weeds” Wild Plant Trek and Botanical Cordial @ Ft. Mifflin Sunday, May 26, 2-3:30PM | project: Ruins At High Battery | event type: Tour
may
30 Open House: Dufala Brothers @ Globe Dye Works
Sunday, May 30, 1-4PM | project: Oil & Water | event type: Tour
may
30 Edward G. Pettit: The Poe Wars @ Athenaeum
Thursday, May 30, 5:30-7PM | project: Through The Pale Door | event type: Talk
may
31 A/V Archaeology: Heritage Electronics @ Historical Society of Frankford Friday, May 31, 7PM | project: A/V Archaeology | event type: Concert
6
june one-time events june
1
june
2
Open House: Data Garden @ Historical Society of Frankford
Saturday, June 1, 1-4PM | project: A/V Archaeology | event type: Tour
Sunday Morning Speaker Series: ”Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Jews in America” @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Sunday, June 2, 10AM-12PM | event type: coffee, bagels, and speaker
june
3
june
6
Radical Jewish Music: A Concert Series — Abraxas @ Shivtei Yeshuron Monday, June 3, 7PM | project: Radical Jewish Music | event type: concert
Watch ‘The Fight” (1965-1978)
Hilary Iris Lowe: Poe’s Rose Covered Cottage and Philadelphia’s Haunted Palaces @ Athenaeum
Thursday, June 6, 5:30-7PM | project: Through The Pale Door | event type: Talk
june
8
june
9
Hidden City Bike Ride @ Ft. Mifflin
Saturday, June 8, 11AM-1PM | project: Ruins At High Battery | event type: Bike Ride
Sunday Morning Speaker Series: “Radical Jewish Philadelphia” @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Sunday, June 9, 10AM-12PM | event type: Coffee, Bagels, and Speaker
june
12 Radical Jewish Music: A Concert Series — Volac @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Wednesday, June 12, 7PM | project: Radical Jewish Music | event type: Concert
june
13 Open House: Ruth Scott Blackson @ Athenaeum
Thursday, June 13, 5:30-7PM | project: Through The Pale Door | event type: Tour
june
14 A/V Archaeology: Digital Archives @ Historical Society of Frankford Friday, June 14, 7PM | project: A/V Archaeology | event type: Concert
june
16 Sunday Morning Speaker Series: Clarion, Utah and
the jewish back-to-the-land movement @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Sunday, June 16, 10AM-12PM
| event type: Coffee, Bagels, and Speaker
june
16 “We The Weeds” Wild Plant Trek and Botanical Cordial @ Ft. Mifflin
Sunday, June 16, 2-3:30PM | project: The Ruins At High Battery | event type: Tour
june
20 Punk Jews @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Thursday, June 20, 7PM | event type: Documentary
june
23 Sunday Morning Speaker Series:
”My First Kafka and Favorite Books” @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Sunday, June 23, 10AM-12PM
| event type: Coffee, Bagels, and Speaker
june
23 Independent Germantown
flagmaking workshop @ Germantown Town Hall
Sunday, June 23, 12-7PM | project: Germantown City Hall | event type: Workshop
june
27 A Sweater for Shivtei Yeshuron @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Thursday, June 27, 7-9PM | project: ADMK Knit Lab | event type: Reception
june
30 Sunday Morning Speaker Series:
“The SPHAs and Jewish Basketball” @ Shivtei Yeshuron
Sunday, June 30, 10AM-12PM | event type: Coffee, Bagels, and Speaker
June 20, 2013 7:30 p.m.
Fort Mifflin & Mud Island f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
A restored former Revolutionary War fort on the Delaware River bordered by the ruins of a 1870s cannon emplacement. Fort Mifflin and Hog Island Roads neighborhood
Eastwick how to get there
Car (no public transit service available)
Site History
Artist Project
Fort Mifflin was built starting in 1771 on what was then Mud Island, a sword-shaped sliver of marshy ground in the Delaware River. Revolutionary forces completed the fort only to see it bombarded and captured by the British in 1777. The Americans later recaptured, rebuilt and renamed it after Pennsylvania’s first governor, Thomas Mifflin. The fort was later used as a prison during the Civil War. In the 1870s, a gun emplacement known as the “High Battery” was built outside the fort’s walls on the southern section of the island. The military decommissioned Fort Mifflin in 1962, and the Interior Department designated it a National Historic Landmark in 1970. Today, Mud Island is an island only in name, and is flanked by the Philadelphia Airport, storage tanks and an active military base.
Artists Ben Neiditz and Zach Webber will create Ruins at High Battery, a series of improvised structures from salvaged materials on a wooded shore of the Delaware River, bordering the thick stone walls of Fort Mifflin. These adhoc structures will invoke both a forgotten past and a post-apocalyptic future, and echo the shack settlements that dotted South Philadelphia’s marshlands prior to the 20th century. The structures will be made with scavenged material from the past 250 years, unsettling the distinction between architecture and ruin, artifact and garbage. Some structures will appear to extend the ruins of the High Battery cannon emplacement built in the 1870s, while others will blend in with the dense vegetation. The project calls attention to the presence of nature, even in an industrial landscape, and the history of informal settlement in the area, which has often been overlooked because it left behind so few physical traces.
8 photos by pete r wooda ll
NEW EW DESIGN ESIGN PRESERVATION RESERVATION
JOHN OHN MILNER ILNER ARCHITECTS RCHITECTS, INC INC. www.johnmilnerarchitects.com www.johnmilnerarchitects.com
RESTORATION ESTORATION RENOVATION ENOVATION
Mural Arts, through the Restored Spaces Initiative, is developing a model of practice using Philadelphia public schools, rec centers, and commercial corridors as permeable campuses on which to convene cross-community gatherings to integrate public art with sustainable revitalization strategies. The projects provide a platform for community action through art and planning in shaping the urban landscape.
WORKSHOPS WITH STACY LEVY In partnership with the Philadelphia Water Department, we present community workshops to design and install temporary art in Queen Village. The art will focus on the use of rainwater to bring awareness to storm water management in the neighborhood. Design Workshop Saturday, May 18 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Shot Tower Recreation Center 131 Carpenter Street, 19147
Community Art Making Day Saturday, June 1 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Site TBD EventBrite: http://ph.ly/sqAdJ
SHISSLER & BIG GREEN BLOCK PROJECT Celebrate the opening of Shissler Greenway Spray Park, by renowned artist Beverly Fisher, whose work has expanded the breadth and depth of Restored Spaces. Thursday, May 23 11 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Shissler Recreation Center 1800 Blair Street (directly following Tot Graduation) FOR MORE INFORMATION: Restored Spaces Originator & Project Manager, Shari Hersh 267-972-3944 | shari.hersh@muralarts.org
SPONSORS: The City of Philadelphia Water Department, The City of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department, PTS Foundation
Dear Hidden city, You
celebrate the power of place. (lucky me!) I celebrate the power of you.
P.S. Find more neighborhood treasures here:
ATKIN OLSHIN SCHADE ARCHITECTS Architecture • Preservation • Adaptive Reuse • Planning 125 South Ninth Street, Suite 900 Philadelphia, PA 19107 Tel: (215) 925-7812 aosarchitects.com blog.aosarchitects.com
See our restoration work at the Commandant’s House at Fort Mifflin while at the Hidden City Festival 2013!
Hawthorne Hall Hidden within an ornate apartment block, this dilapidated theater once hosted shows, dances, and boxing matches, and served as headquarters for various fraternal organizations. 3849 Lancaster Ave. neighborhood
Powelton Village
#10 Trolley; 40th St. stop on MarketFrankford Line
Artist Project
The corner of Lancaster Avenue and Hamilton Street holds a secret. Concealed in an ornate block of apartments is a dilapidated theater once used for performances, meetings, church services—even boxing matches. Built in 1895 on the site of a lumber yard, the three-story building is a variation on the late Queen Anne-style, with rusticated keystones, press brick arches and terracotta sculptures. In 1914, the Knights of Pythias Union Lodge No. 14 made the hall its headquarters. The hall later hosted the Irish National Foresters, as well as several churches. Hawthorne Hall was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 1984. Several parts of the building are vacant, including the hall itself. West Philadelphia-based People’s Emergency Center Community Development Corporation purchased the property recently and hopes to restore the space.
Artist collective Rabid Hands invites visitors to join the Society of Pythagoras. Collective members Andrew Schrock, Ben Wolf, Serra Victoria Bothwell Fels and Vanessa Cronan will explore the tangled history of the social halls that once made the site their home, drawing from secret spiritual and fraternal customs. The Society will be headquartered in the ruins of an old theater that will be transformed to create a full sensory experience, including interactive sound objects, light baths and ritualistic performance. After passing through the initiation office and swearing an oath of secrecy, visitors will ascend the stairs and undergo various ordeals to rise through the levels of the society.
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
how to get there
Site History
neighborhood highlights A Part of Me » 3834 Lancaster Ave., apartofme.net, 215-662-0707 // Treasure trove of vintage and consignment clothing. Green Line Cafe » 3649 Lancaster Ave., greenlinecafe. com, 215-382-2143 // Fair Trade coffee, sandwiches and a patio.
International Foods & Spices » 4203 Walnut St., 215-222-4480 // Ask for the samosas behind the counter. Dwight’s Southern Bar-B-Que » 4345 Lancaster Ave., 215-879-2497 // Even Southerners like it.
11 interior & Ep h em era p h otos by j os e p h e . b . Ell i ott / ext e r i or photo by pete r wo o dall
Globe Dye Works A sprawling, multi-building complex that was a family-operated yarn-dyeing plant until 2005. Today, Globe Dye Works is a community of artists, artisans and fabricators. 4500 Worth St. neighborhood
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
Frankford how to get there
#56 Bus to Torresdale Avenue & Kinsey Street; #25, J Buses to Orthodox & Worth Streets; MarketFrankford Line to Church Street
Site History
Artist Project
Founded in 1865, and operated by the same family until closing in 2005, the multi-building Globe Dye Works dyed, bleached and wove cotton yarns for local knitting mills. Globe was typical of the highly specialized, mid-sized, family-owned companies that made Philadelphia’s textile industry the nation’s largest by 1900. The adjacent Little Tacony Creek supplied the factory with water used in the dyeing and bleaching process, but was also used as dumping site for waste, frequently turning the creek different colors. After the factory closed, partners Charlie Abdo, Pete Kelly, and Matt and Ian Pappajohn bought the complex and are converting its 17 buildings into spaces for craft manufacturing, art production and exhibition.
Philadelphia artists (and brothers) Billy and Steven Dufala’s Oil & Water will “dehab” the architecture and machinery of Globe Dye Works’ boiler room by creating a “defunct infrastructure” that blurs the line between historical and contemporary technological function and outdated industrial detritus. The title “Oil & Water” is a metaphor for the immiscible (unable to be mixed together to form a homogenous solution) nature of any contemporary technology to seamlessly blend with future technological needs. Using faux ductwork and other industrial components, the artists will extend the existing infrastructure that once powered the dye plant, leading visitors into the dark corners of this industrial relic.
neighborhood highlights Leandro’s Pizza » 4501 Frankford Ave., 215-5331935 // Frankford’s best pie. Grey Lodge Pub » 6235 Frankford Ave., greylodge. com, 215-856-3591 // Beer mecca, fantastic fries.
Gilbert’s Upholstery » 4529 Frankford Ave., gilbertsupholstery.com, 215-744-5385 // Family-owned antique shop and upholsterer. Shoecoholic (former Circle Theater) » 4656 Frankford Ave. // Look up and check out the façade!
12 photos by jose ph e . b. Elli ott
Historical Society of Frankford Site History
St. Mark’s Church Frankford » 4442 Frankford Ave., stmarksfrankford.org, 215-535-0635 // Ironwork by Samuel Yellin, stained glass by Nicola D’Ascenzo.
Headquartered in a 20th-century Georgian Revival building, the Historical Society of Frankford boasts a collection of rare documents and a basement-level museum full of curiosities.
Artist Project Avant-garde record label Data Garden will create AV Archaeology, a wired sound installation combining contemporary and outdated audio technologies that allow the public to “play” and mix the sound of the historic museum and its artifacts. The group will build primitive electronic music players that place superannuated equipment such as 1970s-era cassette tape machines into wooden boxes similar to the archival storage boxes used by early-20th century museums. Data Garden’s artists, will broadcast compositions made from sounds sampled from inside the building—including rattles, Victrolas and fire department horns, as well as inspired by the collections in the Society’s basement museum. Data Garden will also present a concert of experimental, contemporary electro-acoustic music featuring renowned DJ and Producer King Britt, violist Gretchen Lohse, theremin player Laura Baird and Dino Lionetti on 8-bit sound technology.
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
Established in 1905, the Historical Society of Frankford gives visitors a peek into life in Northeast Philadelphia. The Society hosts monthly programming in its classic meeting hall, and has a basement-level museum (rarely opened to the public) filled with curiosities, including military uniforms, weapons, musical instruments, fire equipment, Native American artifacts, tools, toys, and even art made with human hair. The Society also houses a significant collection of research materials that run the gamut from the 1687 deed to the area signed by William Penn to 1920s game-day programs of the Frankford Yellowjackets football team, along with rare maps, newspapers, books, journals, business records and personal papers of local individuals.
1507 Orthodox St. neighborhood
Frankford how to get there
#75, 89, J Buses to Orthodox & Penn Streets; #3, 5 Buses to Orthodox Street & Frankford Avenue; Market-Frankford Line to Margaret & Orthodox
13 photos by p et er wo o da ll
c Animation & Visual Effects c Architecture c Arts Administration c Dance c Design & Merchandising c Interactive Digital Media c Entertainment & Arts Management c Fashion Design c Film & Video c Game Art & Production c Graphic Design c Interior Design c Interior Architecture & Design c Museum Leadership c Music Industry c Photography c Product Design c Screenwriting & Playwriting c TV Production & Media Management
www.drexel.edu/westphal
Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel A former storefront converted into a place of worship, the “Little Shul” was established by the Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel congregation to accommodate the growing Jewish population in the early 1900s; still active today. 2015 S. 4th St. neighborhood
South Philadelphia how to get there
Artist Projects
Beginning in 1882, a wave of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe arrived in South Philadelphia. By the turn of the century they had expanded from the original Jewish quarter near South Street, establishing more than 100 synagogues east of Broad Street. Among them were the members of Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel, who in 1909 converted a storefront at Fourth and McKean Streets into a place of worship. Since then, as the Jewish population grew, shrank dramatically, and began to grow again, the synagogue persisted. The interior has remained almost unchanged, a reminder of turn of the century immigrant life. A small group continues to hold regular services at the synagogue — fondly nicknamed the “Little Shul” — and hopes to recruit new members and make necessary repairs in the coming years.
Textile designer Andrew Dahlgren (working as ADMK — Andrew Dahlgren Machine Knitting) will ask festivalgoers to help him create an enormous knitted “sweater” that will cover the facade of the 100-year-old storefront synagogue. Many early Jewish immigrants in Shivtei Yeshuron-Ezras Israel’s South Philadelphia neighborhood worked in small sweatshops located in the upper floors of row houses or sewed piecework in their own apartments. ADMK Knit Lab will create a contemporary textile operation that recalls this historic use, while allowing visitors to try their hand at operating the knitting machinery.
neighborhood highlights
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
#57 Bus to Mayomensing Avenue & McKean Street; #79 Bus to Snyder Avenue & 4th Street
Site History
In the final months of 2004, composer-performer John Zorn wrote over 300 new compositions for his popular Masada project, resulting in Masada Book Two-The Book of Angels. In celebration of Zorn’s 60th birthday, Ars Nova Workshop presents The Book of Angels Minifestival, featuring the group Abraxas and solo cellist Erik Friedlander.
Grindcore House » 1515 S. 4th St., grindcorehouse.com, 215-839-3333 // Friendly vegan coffeehouse.
Mummers Museum » 1100 S. 2nd St., mummersmuseum.com, 215-336-3050 // Get up close to the spectacular costumes.
Khmer Kitchen »1700 S. 6th St., 215-755-2222 // Fantastic Cambodian soups.
Oregon Diner » 302 W. Oregon Ave., oregondinerphilly. com, 215-462-5566 // Where they still call you “hon.”
15 photos by j os ep h e. b . Elli ott
Germantown Town Hall Although never a true town hall for Germantown, the now-vacant building once housed a number of City departments.
5928-5930 Germantown Ave. neighborhood
Germantown how to get there
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
#23, 65 Buses to Germantown Avenue & Haines Street; J, H, XH Buses to Greene & Rittenhouse Streets; Chestnut Hill East and Chestnut Hill West Regional Rail Lines
Site History
Artist Project
Today’s Town Hall is actually the second one built on the Germantown lot. The first Town Hall, popularly called “Old Town Hall,” was designed by architect Napolean LeBrun and built in 1854, just as Germantown was being consolidated with Philadelphia. The building was used as a police station, Civil War hospital and venue for traveling shows and political meetings. In 1920, it was declared structurally unsound and demolished. The second Town Hall was designed by John Penn Brock Sinkler and modeled on the neoclassical Merchant’s Exchange building in Old City. Sinkler’s design included a magnificent rotunda that included places for the bell and clock from the old building, and for two tablets memorializing the 123 men from Germantown who died in World War I. The City used the new Town Hall for the Health and Survey offices, but only a few remained after functions were centralized in the 1980s. The building has been vacant since 1998, when the City Community Services office closed. It is currently for sale.
Oakland-based artist Jacob Wick will turn the vacant Germantown Town Hall into the Germantown City Hall — a functioning government center for an imagined “Free Germantown,” a Utopian experiment in civic democracy and participatory art. The multi-purpose public space will offer a performance and meeting area, a reading room with a lending library, and an office/ copy center. All Germantown residents will have free access to City Hall. Wick’s Information Department, in partnership with a Germantown-based The Think Tank that has yet to be named, will also set up residencies in the Town Hall. The Think Tank will open an Office of Support Structures, to focus on current and potential resources and support systems in Germantown, and host Sunday afternoon workshops. The Information Department will manage the copy center and hold open meetings on the possibility and implication of Germantown seceding from Philadelphia.
neighborhood highlights
Wyck Historic House and Farm » 6026 Germantown Ave., wyck.org, 215-848-1690 // Beautiful gardens, some of the world’s rarest roses.
Geechee Girl Rice Café » 6825 Germantown Ave, geecheegirlricecafe.com, 215-843-8113 // Try the pulled pork.
Johnson House Historic Site » 6306 Germantown Ave., johnsonhouse.org, 215-438-1768 // A key station on the Underground Railroad.
Earth Bread + Brewery » 7136 Germantown Ave., earthbreadbrewery.com, 215-242-6666 // Superb hand-crafted beer, homemade flatbreads.
16 photos by pete r wooda ll
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The Athenaeum of Philadelphia Unassuming from the outside, the Athenaeum is an historic lending library and literary association that boasts an internationally significant collection of rare books and architecture and interior design documents. Site History In the 19th century, citizens in several American cities created lending libraries and literary associations called Athenaeums, named for Athena, the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. Philadelphia’s Athenaeum was established in 1814, although the current clubhouse and library didn’t open on Washington Square until more than 30 years later. The building — now a National Historic Landmark — is widely hailed as the seminal American structure in the Italianate Revival style. Severely plain on the exterior and deceptive in scale, the Athenaeum has richly embellished reading rooms with 24-foot ceilings and leaded, glassfronted bookcases, as well as a charming chess room on the second floor. Persisting as a member-driven literary association and library (one of the remaining few), the Athenaeum also holds an internationally significant collection of architecture and interior design documents
Artist Project
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
Edgar Allan Poe wrote the vast majority of his oeuvre while living in Philadelphia, much of it at his home on Seventh and Spring Garden Streets. Literary historians have long sought to understand the influence of the house and the city on Poe. Artist Ruth Scott Blackson will take on this task, inspired by two discoveries at the Athenaeum: Poe’s signature in the sign-in log from 1838 and a book in the collection that analyzes the paint color of Poe’s home yet lacks illustrations. Scott Blackson’s project Through the Pale Door will create a complimentary artist book composed solely of images that will be hand printed at Philadelphia’s Second State Press. In addition, Scott Blackson will curate a selection of books from the Athenaeum’s collec216 S. 6th St. tion that explore Poe’s life neighborhood and times. neighborhood highlights Washington Square West Locks Gallery » 600 Washington Square South, Khyber Pass Pub » 56 S. 2nd St., khyberpasspub.com, locksgallery.com, 215-629-1000 // New York City215-238-5888 // Two words: gumbo and barbeque. how to get there quality contemporary art. #9, 21, 42 Buses to Philadelphia History Museum » 15 S. 7th St., Walnut & 5th Streets; M. Finkel & Daughter » 936 Pine St., samplings.com, philadelphiahistory.org, 215-685-4830 // Philadelphia’s #12, 47 Buses to 215-627-7797 // Early Americana, fantastic selection of stories in a recently renovated space. Washington Square & samplers and needlework. Locust Street; MarketIshkabibbles » 337 South St., philacheesesteak.com, 215Frankford Line to 5th 923-4337 // Cheesesteaks better than Jim’s. Fries, too. Street
19 externa l p h oto by p et er wo o da ll / i nte r n a l p h oto by j os e ph e . b. Ell iott
John Grass
Wood Turning Company A wood turning workshop opened in 1863 by Bavarian immigrant John Grass that closed in 2003, it has remained largely unchanged for a century. 146 N. 2nd St. neighborhood
Old City how to get there
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
#5, 17, 33, 48 Buses to Market & 2nd Streets; Market-Frankford Line to 2nd Street
Site History
Artist Project
When Bavarian immigrant John Grass opened his wood turning workshop in 1863, Old City had already been a center for light manufacturing for more than a century. Grass’s workshop specialized in tool handles, many of which were purchased by the Stortz Tool Co. located nearby on 2nd & Vine (and still in business!). Grass’s sonin-law Louis Bower and John Stortz took over John Grass in 1911 and moved to the present location — a former oyster house and tavern, liquor store, and rubber goods factory. The office and main workshop were located on the first floor. The workshop continued on the second floor where some equipment dates to as early as 1870. The business closed in 2003, but the workshop has remained intact and essentially unchanged for a century.
Visit Wood Shop and watch a pop-up mobile lathe in action operated by expert wood turners from the nearby Center for Art in Wood. In addition, artisan Joe McTeague will create a custom viewing area for festival-goers to peek into John Grass using balusters and other surplus material found inside the shop. McTeague is part of the local “Maker community,” a movement of artists, builders and DIY tinkerers who have helped to spur renewed interest in Philadelphia’s industrial heritage.
neighborhood highlights Old City Coffee » 221 Church St., oldcitycoffee. com, 215- 629-9292 // Around since 1984 and still one of the best.
Arch Street Meeting House » 320 Arch St., archstreetfriends.org, 215-627-2631 // The Society of Friends in all its beautiful simplicity.
Art in the Age » 116 N. 3rd St., artintheage.com, 215-922-2600 // Exquisitely crafted everyday objects.
Center for Art in Wood » 141 N. 3rd St, centerforartinwood.org, 215-923-8000 // Discover the beauty of wood at this captivating museum
Race Street Café » 208 Race St., racestreetcafe.net, 215-627-6181 // Awesome tap list, tasty sandwiches.
20 photos by jose ph e . b. Elli ott
See the city in a whole new light!
Architectural Walking Tours PreservationAlliance.com/walkingtours
volunteer for the hidden city festival!
f e s t i val . h i dde n c i t y p h i la. o r g/ vol u n t eers
Kelly Natatorium
at the Fairmount Water Works Today, all of the Fairmount Water Works – America’s first municipal water system – has been restored except for an area that once held an aquarium and swimming pool. 640 Waterworks Dr. neighborhood
Fairmount how to get there
f e s t i va l . h i d d e n c i t y p h i l a . o r g
#32 Bus to Pennsylvania Avenue & 25th Street; #38 Bus to Art Museum Drive & Back Entrance 2; #43 Bus to Spring Garden Street & Art Museum
Site History
Artist Project
The City of Philadelphia built the Fairmount Water Works, America’s first municipal water system, in response to the catastrophic yellow fever epidemic of 1793, hoping that fresh water would prevent disease. The Water Works was completed in 1815, but didn’t become America’s second most popular tourist attraction for another 25 years, when the operation finally became profitable. Unfortunately, rising pollution levels eventually forced the Water Works to close in 1909. The building became an aquarium (the fourth largest in the world). In 1961 a section of the aquarium was converted into the Kelly Natatorium, a swimming pool funded in part by Philadelphia’s illustrious Kelly family. The City closed the pool after Hurricane Agnes flooded it in 1972, and the facility remained vacant along with the rest of the Water Works for more than a decade. Following a lengthy restoration that began in the 1990s, an education center and a fine dining restaurant opened, however the pool area remains closed.
From its earliest days, the Fairmount Water Works combined functional engineering with social, recreational and educational activities. Visitors came to observe the pump house wheel, stroll the gardens, and beginning in 1835, enjoy refreshments in the Engine House, which had been remodeled into a saloon. Bibotorium, created by artist collective Camp Little Hope, tests an unrealized 1920’s proposal to convert part of the Water Works into an educational saloon. The proposal envisioned a space where the public could enjoy beverages brewed by water filtering boats in pools of water from different endangered sources around the world. As drinks were served, the water level in the pools would drop and prices would increase accordingly, modelling the social and economic impact of human effects on the water supply. Members of the collective will build a different waterfiltering boat in each of the three pools, and serve tea brewed from three water sources. Visitors are invited to explore the future of Philadelphia’s water together in the pop-up cafe.
neighborhood highlights Cosmic Cafe » 1 Boathouse Row, cosmicfoods.com, 215-978-0900 // Riverfront cafe using locally made and grown products.
Eastern State Penitentiary » 2027 Fairmount Ave., easternstate.org, 215-236-3300 // Radical then, still awe-inspiring now.
The Barnes Foundation » 2025 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., barnesfoundation.org, 215-278-7000 // The new building is stunning (and the collection, too).
London Grill » 2301 Fairmount Ave., londongrill.com, 215-978-4545 // Classic corner tap room. Get the burger.
22 photo by pete r wooda ll
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judy w ick s
a d i V a L cal o L on livin’
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From the White Dog CafĂŠ to a global network of sustainable-minded businesses, Judy Wicks has written the book on sustainability and local economies story by alex mulcahy
S
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portrait by gene smirnov
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a r aucous sta nding ovat ion as she takes the stage at gr eet s judy w ick s the Academy of Natural
Sciences to read from her memoir, Good Morning, Beautiful Business. Her closest friends sit in the first three rows, unaware that they are about to be drafted into service. But after delighting the audience with excerpts from the memoir that took her over a decade to finish, Wicks makes a request. ¶ “I’d like to end tonight’s program with a song,” she announces. “So, would everybody in the first few rows join me on stage to sing ‘Let There Be Peace on Earth?’” A few moments later, the unlikely chorus sways on stage, accompanied by the Swing Set, a jazz duo that Wicks had hired to entertain patrons at LaTerrasse decades ago. Once a ringleader, always a ringleader. Just shy of her 66th birthday, and three years after her retirement began, Wicks’ memoir is well timed. Her place in Philadelphia’s sustainability movement is secure, and her list of accomplishments is extensive: the founder of White Dog Café, Fair Food and the Sustainable Business Network — all institutions in Philadelphia — and on the national stage, the Business Alliance for a Local Living Economy (BALLE). She has enjoyed success as a restaurateur, a food and small business activist and an organizer, but her idols are the great humanitarians Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Of course, differences do exist between Wicks and her heroes. This is a woman whose annual Fourth of July celebration involved dressing as a pregnant colonial woman with a sign taped to her back that said “George Washington slept here.” Somehow Wicks managed to combine peace, business, activism and sustainability into a big party. “To me, it was natural. It wasn’t a strategy where I said, ‘Well, I have to be fun now,’” she says. “It was just a part of who I am, ever since I was a kid... I was always thinking of things that were fun, that would draw people in, and I started to understand how to use that, how to gather people through fun at a young age.” “Collective joy,” a term coined by Barbara Ehrenreich, is a major theme in Wicks’ work, and one that’s welcome in the often serious peace and sustainability movements. As we assess the impact and legacy of Wicks, it’s easy for Philadelphians to take for
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granted what she created, and to underestimate the obstacles she overcame, both personal and societal, to become Philadelphia’s of Sustainability. Even as well-known as she is here, and as highly as she is respected, the question remains: Is it possible Wicks’ work is still underappreciated?
The Building Blocks wicks was born
in Ingomar, Pa., a small town in Western Pennsylvania that sounds as idyllic as any Norman Rockwell painting. Everyone in the town knew each other, and all of the stores and businesses were owned by Ingomar residents. This informed her adult vision of a self-reliant community of small scale businesses. Born in 1947, the first of three children, Wicks recalls herself as a tomboy who loved playing baseball and building elaborate forts that impressed and confounded her parents. She theorizes that her position as the first born in the family helped her cause, as her father gave her the attention usually reserved for a son. Gender roles in Ingomar at that time were very clearly defined, but her mother gave her a glimpse of what was possible. “The guys went to work, and the women were all housewives,” says Wicks. “But because my mother was a Girl Scout leader, she also led the day camp. My mom was the leader and when we put the flag up, she would be the person welcoming and leading a song and all that. I would see her organize chores for peo-
ple, making lists, making sure everybody did their part. So it was like watching her run a business in a sense. She was my role model.” That she had a strong mother is not surprising, but to learn that Wicks suffered from a great fear of public speaking is. “My father had a lot of emotional problems.
Clockwise from left: Judy at the White Dog, 1998; Judy inside the Free People’s Store; Judy, age nine; celebrating Independence Day; exterior of the Free People’s Store
Although he was a successful — to a certain point — lawyer, [and] he was a general council for the redevelopment authority in Pittsburgh, he didn’t want to sit at the table and talk to the family. He didn’t want to have to play the role of father at the dinner table. He wanted to watch TV while we ate. And this was a huge disap-
pointment for my mom, that my father insisted that we sit and eat our dinner in the TV room and eat off our trays while watching TV because he didn’t want us to be talking. I realized later, like when I went around to other kids’ houses, that they all sat at the table and had a discussion, that I missed out on that part of my
development, learning to hear your own voice, how to interject your voice, the whole flow of conversation. I was scared stiff, when I went to school, to raise my hand. I was terrified of my own voice. So, that was why, more than other people, I had such a fear of public speaking. It took a lot to overcome that.”
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Into Business in 1969,
Wicks married her high school sweetheart, who, like her, was opposed to the war in Vietnam. To keep her husband from being drafted, they joined the service organization VISTA and were assigned to a remote village in Alaska, where there was electricity just one hour a day. Her husband, Dick Hayne, would experience an evolution just as profound as Wicks’, though in a decidedly different direction. Together they moved to Philadelphia and founded the Free People’s Store — a lifestyle store of vintage clothing, rock and roll albums and counterculture books — that provided a blueprint for a billion-dollar business: Urban Outfitters. But at the time, Wicks thought of business as something distasteful. “I would say, ‘It’s not really a business! It’s nonprofit!’ I didn’t want to be associated with the profit motive.” Though many of her ideas were critical to the success of the Free People’s Store, she felt marginalized within the business, and eventually in the marriage, which she left. It’s easy to be overly simplistic in comparing Wicks and Hayne, but it’s difficult to resist. Hayne pursued large-scale business as usual, and the paradigm of endless growth. Wicks pursued business on a small scale, where growth was measured with multiple bottom lines. But first she had to become an accidental restaurateur.
Birth of a Restaurateur it was a fender-bender
on the day she left her husband and her business — a very funny story you’ll have to read in the book — that led Wicks to take a job as a waitress at LaTerrasse, a French restaurant on Sansom Street in West Philadelphia. She thrived as a waitress, and before long, to her surprise, was offered the job as general manager. Her view of business began to evolve, and she began to see the exchange of money not as something crass, but something that was essentially about relationships.
mich a el h. shum a n
m a r k a nd judy dor nst r eich
“Judy is a remarkable person with both a serious commitment to social justice and building a local economic community, mixed with a wonderful love of life, good humor and whimsy. For us organic farmers, our personal relationship and friendship with her, her belief in and support of what we are doing, has made all the difference.” During the decade of Wicks’ stewardship, LaTerrasse grew in annual sales from $200,000 to $2,000,000, fueled by her knack for throwing great parties — such as the New Year’s Day pajama party, which she brought with her to the White Dog — and her keen business sense. She continually analyzed the business and conceived of new ways to bring in revenue. At the same time, West Philadelphia was being transformed by the University of Pennsylvania’s redevelopment. Beautiful buildings were being demolished to make way for chain restaurants. Wicks became actively involved in a “save the block campaign” for the 3400 blocks of Walnut and Sansom, where LaTerrasse was located — so committed, in fact, that she once laid down in front of a bulldozer being used to
cofounder BALLE and author
“Judy was the main driver for bringing the local food revolution to Philadelphia. She led the city in mobilizing support for local farmers, farmers markets, humane meat raisers, local breweries, local food processors, food entrepreneurship in the inner city, local purchasing campaigns and local investment. And by introducing others — eaters, politicians, chefs, investors — to these ideas through the White Dog, she was able to show that these innovations were easy, sensible, and fun.” 30
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Branch Creek Farm
Judy and Alice Waters
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damage buildings before a restraining order could be issued. “Tiananmen Square it was not,” she says modestly, but it was undeniably a brave impulse. Though not all of the targeted area was spared, the Sansom Street block was, and part of the settlement allowed members of the neighborhood group to purchase houses, which Wicks did. Throughout the decade Wicks spent at La Terrasse, she had believed that she was gaining equity in the business she had been so instrumental in building. The owner didn’t share that view, and when he planned to expand, he shut her out. “I was totally devastated,” Wicks recalls. “I was crying hysterically. We had talked to a lawyer together to plan our partnership, so he told the lawyer that he owed me stock, so we had started the plan. I was going to call that same lawyer who witnessed this, and planned to sue for my shares. But when I called the lawyer, I just couldn’t speak. It had never happened
Traveling to a White Dog international sister restaurant in Vietnam are (l to r) Andy Thornal, Kevin von Klause & Judy Wicks.
to me before. I realized it was so against my nature to fight with him after we had gone through this long struggle for over 10 years, saving the business and the block. And if I had won, what would I have gotten? I would get a partner who didn’t really want me there.”
In an attempt to stir up business in the morning — the only time LaTerrasse wasn’t busy — Wicks had opened a muffin and coffee shop in the front room of her home, a few doors down from La Terrasse. As a consolation prize, she was given the muffin shop. It was a modest beginning, but it would eventually evolve into a 200-seat restaurant, and an epicenter for the local food movement.
A Dog Has Its Day anyone who takes pleasure
gl enn br endl e
Green Meadow Farm
“Judy believed that if you put better food on the plates, people appreciate it. I saw that happen right before my eyes. Then a new generation of chefs came along, and more restaurants started buying. But in the early days, everywhere I went, I had to show people fresh food was better... Like the West Coast’s Alice Waters, Judy was really a pioneer, although she’s also been much more politically active than Waters, which is good. Nationally, she’s made a name for herself, too. When I’m traveling and mention to someone in the food business that Judy’s one of the people that I would sell to, they’ll say, ‘Oh, you know Judy Wicks!’ She’s definitely made an impact on a national scale.” 32
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in the story of a small company bootstrapping its way to success will enjoy Good Morning, Beautiful Business. Wicks didn’t begin with a fullyformed plan; as the business grew, rooms of her home were overtaken one at a time by the business. Living room chairs were dragged into the restaurant and magically became homey places for customer seating. Wicks found that she’d had enough of the intricacies and richness of French cuisine, and longed for something more like the simple, homegrown food she had eaten as a child in Ingomar. Nationally, there was an awakening to the importance of fresh, local food led by Alice Waters, and closer to home, chef Aliza Green at the Philadelphia restaurant Apropos was a leader in the farm to table movement. Green had been developing an approach to food that focused on fresh, locally sourced ingredients. She brought that approach to the White Dog Café when Wicks recruited her in 1984, and she was a key figure in establishing the identity of the White Dog as an early farmto-table restaurant and an East Coast counterpart to California’s Chez Panisse. “It was really Aliza’s concept for the food,” says Wicks. “I knew I wanted local food for the restaurant before I met Aliza, but I hadn’t found the style of cooking that I wanted. I was looking at all these cookbooks from different
Standing in front of The White Dog Café are (l to r) Wendy Born Smith, James Barrett, Judy Wicks and Kevin von Klause
Klause, Barrett and Smith Born also coown Old City’s FARMiCiA restaurant, which emphasizes local, seasonal ingredients. Smith Born credits Wicks for teaching her that “to succeed in small business you have to first believe that you can do it, you have to work with a few like-minded people and you have to be willing to take, and live with, enormous risks.” She says that, although there are many more people supporting and contributing to the local food system than there were 20 years ago, “the challenges are the same: supporting farmers, preserving farmland, as a vendor being able to source and purchase fresh food locally and finally, having a public that is enthusiastic about consuming the bounty!” The list of White Dog alumni-turned-chefJudy Wicks and The White Dog Café spawned a generation that owners goes on, including Bistro 7’s Michael continues to grow local food systems in Philadelphia and beyond O’Halloran, Dan Grimes of Chloe and AnneMarie Lasher at Picnic. John Doyle supports urban and local farming with the unique, seasonal flavors of John & During its 26-year reign, the White Dog Café and its satellite organizaKira’s Chocolate. And the front-of-house and administrative types are tions incubated a host of talented young chefs, leaders and entreprejust as active; former SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky neurs. Today, their work continues to build upon Judy Wicks’ legacy in now runs the Fellowship and Alumni programs at BALLE. She first met the realm of local, sustainable enterprise. Wicks at a White Dog Table Talk, and found that they “both wanted to Award-winning chef Aliza Green, first to helm the White Dog kitchen after its major renovation in 1986, pioneered the restaurant’s local food create a local community of businesses.” “As a BALLE Fellow,” she says, “I’ve really benefited from being part of program. Although Green now focuses primarily on writing cookbooks, a peer community of other leaders to grapple with similar issues in their she also serves as Director of Culinary Development for Erdenheim’s Heathland Hospitality Group, sourcing local ingredients and developing own communities. And my fellowship cohort raised $2 million in new funding as fellows, so it had a real tangible impact on my own life, as recipes for such venues as the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton well as SBN as an organization.” School of Business. And then there’s Ann Karlen, Founding Director of Fair Food. “My job Kevin von Klause, James Barrett and Wendy Smith Born all bonded really began with sort of pounding the pavement for chefs,” she says, during their time in the White Dog circle. Then-sous-chef von Klause brought Barrett in to audition with Green for the position of pastry chef. “and that’s not really fun for anyone. Over the years, everybody’s connected the dots and understood that it’s about the whole food system, Smith Born started in 1983 as a research/writing assistant for Wicks’ and we as an organization have worked to address that, still focused on project The Philadelphia Resource Guide, then settled in as White Dog Manager. In 1993, Barrett and Smith Born left to co-found Metropolitan the wholesale marketplace.” Fair Food is now planning to work with more conventional markets, Bakery. says Karlen, including a USDA-partnered study measuring local products Metropolitan’s 19th Street shop was the first business to provide a coming through the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market. Fair Food pickup location for Community Supported Agriculture programs Winter Harvest and Farm to City. Barrett and Smith Born also helped create the is also considering reaching out to cities like Baltimore to share the soluFree Library’s H.O.M.E. Page Café, which is staffed by formerly homeless tions Philadelphia has found. Judy Wicks’ mission, after all, isn’t just about local food — it’s about building a global web of self-reliant, susteens and adults. Today, Metropolitan Bakery has outlets in Reading tainable economies, one business at a time. —Molly O’Neill Terminal Market, University City and Chestnut Hill. This past February, Barrett and Smith Born opened Metropolitan Bakery’s first sit-down café, next door to the a l iz a gr een chef, cookbook author 19th Street location. Barrett says that in the early White Dog days, “local food was not easy to attain, expensive and in short supply.” However, he says, “when Kevin Klause took over as executive chef, he forged relationships with the farmers and worked to make it cost-effective.” Smith Born, having grown up in New York City, was inspired by the revelation that metropolitan areas could receive fresh, local, organic products.
White Dog Alumni
“Judy’s legacy has been in bringing local, farm-raised food to a larger cohort of restaurants and caterers, expanding exponentially the web of connections between chefs and farmers that I started developing in the early ‘80s and brought to the White Dog as chef.” june 2013
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Judy wicks is a rockn chick She sticks by you thru thin and thick She gives it her all While having a ball An that’s what good ol Wicksy’s made of ben cohen
regions of the country — Tex-Mex, Louisiana and Amish — trying to figure out what we wanted to be. But then I had dinner at Apropos, where she was the chef, and the food blew me away. She really made us a success. I’d also like to give credit to Kevin [von Klause], her sous-chef, who came with her from Apropos. Kevin was [at the White Dog] for 17 years, and really put in the time.” With the right menu in place, Wicks became a champion for, and a friend to, the local farmers. A decade later, after reading harrowing accounts of how pigs were treated on industrial farms, she extended that same friendship to livestock. She immediately pulled all items from her menu that contained any pig products, and she tasked von Klause, now her chef with finding a source for ethically raised meat. At the White Dog, Wicks continued to ask perhaps the most important question in sustainability, and she asked it about everything: Where did this come from? So, it was not only the food that was carefully vetted before it reached a White Dog diner; Wicks also installed a solar hot water heater and a composting system. The White Dog was also the first business in Pennsylvania to purchase renewable energy. Integrating these systems and ideas into a working business like the White Dog showed what was possible, and proved that a valuesbased company could be successful. “The thing that helped me, really, was being a businessperson,” says Wicks. “That was what made my voice effective, because I could make ends meet and I knew how to run a company and I had credibility. You couldn’t be too leftist if you were a business owner.”
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BuildingCommunity wicks’ life and business
seemed to revolve around a series of realizations and epiphanies. And in the wake of the epiphanies, she was filled with an evangelical need
dr. bil l el k ins
Ben & Jerry’s
to share what she’d learned. One way for her to do so was through the Table Talks program at the White Dog, where she hosted discussions about important issues with local and national thinkers. Speakers included such notables as Amy Goodman, Michael Pollan, Jim Hightower and Ben Cohen, of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream. Wicks’ definition of community didn’t stop at the edge of her own neighborhood. With groups of White Dog customers, she traveled to Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua and the former Soviet Union, forging relationships with what she called “sister” restaurants in those countries. “I remember I was really trying to figure
Buck Run Cattle Co.
“She was the best customer and advisor we ever had because she cared about the farmers getting a fair price. She would also take the whole animal instead of just parts, which was great... She was and is a leader and groundbreaker. She had a lot of influence, and the chefs she had at the White Dog went on to do great things.”
Look Alive!
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5/1/2013 4:38:16 PM
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this out: ‘How can I make sense of a restaurant getting involved with foreign policy?’” Wicks recalls. “Because to me, coming out of the 60s with the Vietnam War experience, I felt that our foreign policy was my greatest interest and my greatest concern. I think Nicaragua could have become another Vietnam if it weren’t for the large number of Americans that went there... So, I’m thinking, ‘How can I be effective?’ And that’s when I thought — well, there’s such a thing as sister cities; why can’t we have sister restaurants? So, that’s how I connected it. Because I needed to use my own vehicle that made sense for the restaurant.” Wicks also forged connections with restaurants closer to home — even competitors. She describes a turning point in her understanding of her role as a business owner and community member: “I started Fair Food to share my proprietary information [about sourcing ethically raised meat] with my competitors, because I realized that there was no such thing as one sustainable business. We had to work collaboratively to build a sustainable system.” Within months of founding Fair Food, Wicks also started the Sustainable Business Network (SBN). Her goal was to encourage local businesses to buy from each other, making
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Philadelphia a more diverse — and therefore more resilient — marketplace. Simultaneously, she started the parent to SBN, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), which would become, and continues to be, a national force.
All You Need is Love “i know she’s a
Philadelphia institution,” says climate activist and environmentalist Bill McKibben, “but she’s a huge deal on the national scene as well: Her work with BALLE to help build out the network of local businesses across the country has been spectacularly successful... The best proof is that there are now Judy Wicks-type people in an awful lot of towns!” McKibben isn’t alone in recognizing the impact of BALLE, which is now the fastest growing network of socially responsible businesses in North America, representing 30,000 entrepreneurs and 80 networks like SBN. “And none of it of it would have been possible without Judy’s early vision
and pioneering leadership,” says former SBN Executive Director Leanne Krueger-Braneky, who recently became Director of Fellowship and Alumni at BALLE. But when Wicks reflects upon the meaning of her work, she looks beyond the organizations she’s founded and returns to the philosophy of what motivated her: the need to change our destructive economy and to value relationships over money. “Most of my business decisions that were important to me were made from the heart. Signing up for 100 percent renewable electricity. I didn’t do it because it was the right thing to do; I did that because I love nature. I love the world, I love life. And I want to do what I can to protect it. All of my decisions really came from a place of love. And that’s the only way we’re going to get out of the mess we’re in.” Good Morning, Beautiful Business: The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local-Economy Pioneer is available now from Chelsea Green Publishing.
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urban naturalist
by bernard brown • photos by jen britton
Something Wild Forest restoration brings back native wildflowers
P
ink buds like miniature tulips reached for the sky from the gap in each bloodroot’s single leaf. This was the first time in my life that I’d noticed them. I spend a lot of time in the woods, at least for an urbanite, but apparently they’ve been the wrong woods. ¶ On this spring morning, photographer Jen Britton and I were tagging along with Joanne Donohue, Manager of Land Restoration for the Schuylkill Environmental Education Center, on a wildflower (“spring ephemeral,” if you want to sound like a botanist) tour. Spring is the season for woodland wildflowers. Not much light reaches the forest floor once the canopy leafs out, so native understory plants are forced to sprout and flower before the spring sun fades to summer shadow. Elsewhere in Philadelphia, forest floors are green carpets with cute little yellow flowers: all the invasive Eurasian species lesser celandine. It looks lush, but it’s a boring wasteland compared to the variety of native wildflowers that bloom each spring in intact or restored woodlands. Donohue continuously pointed out plants, invisible at first, but obvious everywhere once she had shown me the first one. The blue cohash [figure 1] with its leaves held in like little purple hands. Then the twin leafs, the dicentra, the toothwort, spring beauties [figure 2], Jacob’s ladders, the bank of blue bells, the trout lilies’ mottled leaves poking through the leaf litter along the stream; and of course, the bloodroots [figure 3] holding their own little stretch of ravine. Typical of land in the Delaware Valley, most of the Schuylkill Center’s grounds was farmed for centuries. Native woodland plants that evolved on old forest floors lost out to exotic invaders better adapted to disturbed soil. This is why we found woodland phlox, trillium [figure 4], blue bells, and bloodroots on the steep sides of ravines, where it never made any sense to farm. It took a lot more effort to bring back the flowers in Penn’s Native Acres, a restored forest tract at the Center. Staff and volunteers have been fighting history by planting natives and removing exotics, but they have also been battling a diabolical duo of seemingly innocuous villains. Exotic night crawlers (our forests have no native earthworms) chow through leaf litter and tear up the dense networks of fungi that knit together healthy forest soil. More obvious and controllable are the deer. 38
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Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4
Actually, it’s a
win,win,win. may
Restoration Workday
Help the Schuylkill Center’s land restoration department remove invasive plants from our forest, fix deer fences, maintain the trails, and more. Wear long pants and sturdy boots; bring a water bottle, (refills and snacks are provided). In case of inclement weather please check our website for cancellation notice. ★
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→→Sat., May 18, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m., free, for adults
may 31
Lower utility bills. More comfortable home. Greener planet.
A Home Energy Assessment can show you how to use up to 40% less energy. Save money, be more comfortable.
v o lvu netnete r e
Beyond the Surface: Environmental Art in Action
Join the Schuylkill Center for a daylong conference of ideas and innovative thinking, investigating relationships between art and nature. Funded in part by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage and The National Endowment of the Arts. For more information visit
ENERGYWORKSNOW.COM ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENTS
215-609-1052
schuylkillcenter.org/art →→ Fri., May 31, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., free
Not long ago, at 10 times the ideal population density they were stripping everything they could eat, which was mostly the native species, leaving the exotic plants they couldn’t stomach to thrive. The Center has since reduced the herd to a manageable size, and erected a tall fence to protect Penn’s Native Acres. The results are shockingly obvious once you exit the fence and find yourself looking at chesthigh banks of multiflora rose, a vile invader with savage thorns. Even worse is the tangled jungle around the ruins above the Springhouse Pond: invasive vines like wisteria and mile-a-minute scaling other invasives like trees of heaven. This kind of mess is sadly typical throughout our region, but if you have a chance this spring, I urge you to step inside the fence at Penn’s Native Acres and take a look at what the woods can be. bernard brown is an amateur field herper, bureaucrat and founder of the PB&J Campaign (pbjcampaign.org ), a movementt focused on the benefits of eating lower on the food chain. J un e 20 13
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may
Second Annual Bird Fest
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University celebrates birds with its second annual Bird Fest. The festival includes live bird flight shows, family-friendly activities, and more.
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→→ Sat., May 11, 9:30–10:30 a.m. Free with regular
admission. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. Visit ansp.org for more information.
may 11
Rain Barrels and You: Save Money, Protect Streams
Learn how to install and maintain a rain barrel. Help prevent stream erosion and water pollution while lowering your water bills and supporting your garden. Purchase a rain barrel for only $15 when you attend two workshops. →→ Sat., May 11, 10–11:30 a.m. at the Frame House,
7900 High School Rd., Elkins Park. For more information, visit highschoolpark.org
may
Love Your Park Spring Edition
Come join us for a clean-up at Tacony Creek Park’s new gateways. We’re working hard to establish access to the new TCP Trail. Supplies and snacks provided.
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→→ Sat., May 11, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., the Intersection at
Whitaker Ave & Loudon St . Contact Alix Howard, alix@ttfwatershed.org or call 215.844.8100 for more information.
Preservation Alliance Walking Tours
→→ May 25, Sat. 10 a.m. Victorian Philadelphia
West of Broad Meet at steps of the Bellevue, 200 S. Broad St.
The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s award-winning Architectural →→ May 25, Sat. 2 p.m. City Hall to City Hall Meet at NE corner of 5th & Chestnut Sts. Walking Tours are back, rain or shine from May through October (see partial schedule, below). Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for →→ May 26, Sun. 2 p.m. Gilded Age Philadelphia students with ID, free for children 10 and Meet at steps of the Bellevue, 200 S. Broad St. under accompanied by an adult. The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia →→ May 29, Wed. 6 p.m. Post Industrial City: actively promotes the appreciation, protecCallowhill St. From Broad to the tion, and revitalization of the Philadelphia Delaware River region’s historic buildings, communities, Meet in front of former Inquirer Bldg., and landscapes. For more information, visit 400 N. Broad St. preservationalliance.com
→→ June 1, Sat. 10 a.m. Art Deco
may
Energy Efficiency Workshop
Featuring a panel including residents and EnergyWorks experts, this eyeopening workshop shows homeowners how to take advantage of rebates, low-interest financing and tax credits to make energy-efficient upgrades.
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→→ Mon., May 13, 7–8:30 p.m., Freedom Hall of the
Upper Merion Township Building, 175 W. Valley Forge Rd., King of Prussia. Hosted by Upper Merion EAC. All events are posted at umtownship.org
may
Gardening with Nature
→→ May 11, Sat. 2 p.m. Rittenhouse Square East
Meet at pool, center of Rittenhouse Square →→ May 12, Sun. 2 p.m. Society Hill
Sacred Sites Meet at gate of St. Peter’s Church, 3rd & Pine Sts.
→→ June 1, Sat. 2 p.m. Littlest Streets
East of Broad Meet at center of Kahn Park, 11th & Pine Sts. →→ June 2, Sun. 2 p.m. Society Hill Stroll
→→ May 15, Wed. 6 p.m. Fishtown
Meet at William Penn statue, Penn Treaty Park, N. Delaware & E. Columbia Aves. →→ May 18, Sat. 10 a.m. Around
Washington Square Meet at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Washington Square
This program will highlight the fabulous garden, Twin Maples. The program shows the landscape in all seasons and describes the process of planting sustainable wildflower meadows that become more beautiful each year.
→→ May 18, Sat. 2 p.m. Spring Garden
→→ Tue., May 14, 6–7 p.m. at PHS headquarters (100 N.
→→ May 22, Wed. 6 p.m. Media
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Meet at Liberty Place entrance, 17th & Chestnut Sts.
Meet in front of Jack’s Firehouse, 2130 Fairmount Ave.
Meet at NE corner, 2nd & Spruce Sts. →→ June 5, Wed. 6 p.m. Bankers’ Heaven:
Architecture and Finance in Philadelphia Meet at east entrance to Bourse Building, 111 S. 4th St. →→ June 8, Sat. 10 a.m. Ben Franklin’s
Philadelphia Meet at entrance to Franklin Court, 316 Market St. →→ June 8, Sat. 2 p.m. Bella Vista
→→ May 19, Sun. 2 p.m. Society Hill Stroll
Meet SE corner of 10th & South Sts.
Meet at NE corner, 2nd & Spruce Sts. →→ June 9, Sun. 2 p.m. Old City
20th St., Philadelphia)
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Meet in front of Delaware County Court House, Front St. & Courthouse Square
Meet at the benches, N. 2nd St. at Elfreth’s Alley
may
GMO Free PA Monthly Meet-Up
Come find out about GMOs and how seriously they impact human health and our environment. We will also continue to strategize for 2013 and discuss ways to raise GMO awareness.
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→→ Tue., May 14, 7–8:30 p.m., No charge, Ludington
Library, 5 S. Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 More info at: www.facebook.com/GMOFreePA or RightToKnowPA@gmail.com .
may
Tree Planting Training Session
PHS Tree Tenders training provides tree-planting knowledge and handson lessons. Training sessions also include tree biology, identification and working within your community.
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→→ Wed., May 15, 5:45–8:45 p.m., Fee for training is $25, PHS, 100 N. 20th St. Visit pennhort.net/ treetenders to register. For more information
about the Plant One Million campaign go to plantonemillion.org . Repeats Wed., May 22.
may
GMO Free NJ Meeting
may
Civic Horticulture Conference
Second annual Green Fest follow-up meeting will explore genetically engineered substances in our food supply, shopping strategies and actions you can take today.
The Civic Horticulture conference will examine Philadelphia’s use of horticulture and what that portends for the future of this city and other cities through multiple lenses.
→→ Thu., May 16, 7–8 p.m. Free and open to the public
→→ Fri., May 17, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Conference fees vary,
— bring a friend. Collingswood Library, 771 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, NJ. Visit gmofreenj.com for more information.
from $75-$135, 150 South Independence Mall West, Public Ledger Building, Ste. 1123. For more information and to register, visit tclf.org
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may 16
Future Weather Film Screening and Climate Change Lecture at Bryn Mawr Film Institute
Bryn Mawr Film Institute is screening the locally produced drama Future Weather, with a 15-20 minute lecture by Dr. Raluca Ellis, the Franklin Institute’s chief Environmental Scientist, who will be discussing atmospheric climate change. →→ Thu., May 16, 7–9:30 p.m., 824 W. Lancaster
Avenue, Bryn Mawr. For more information on the screening, visit brynmawrfilm.org .
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may 18
Master Gardeners of Camden County Plant Clinic
Plant Clinic held on the third Saturday of the month from May to September. Residents are invited to stop by with garden questions, sick plants, bug-eaten leaves and flowers, insects and conversation. →→ Sat., May 18, 9 a.m.–12 p.m., free, Camden County
Environmental Center, 1301 Park Blvd, Cherry Hill, NJ. For more information, visit camdencounty. com/parks/going-green or email us njgarden@ camdencounty.com .
Nature’s Notes
Connie Toll seajourn@hotmail.com (610) 664-5694 june 20 13
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may
Fresh and Local Fair at Weavers Way
Weavers Way Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy stores will feature local vendors and farmers, and plenty of delectable treats.
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→→ Sat., May 18, 11:30 a.m.–4 p.m., 559 Carpenter Lane
(Mt. Airy Location) and 8424 Germantown Ave (Chestnut Hill Location). For more information, visit weaversway.coop
may 18
DIY Vertical Hydro Strawberry Garden Workshop
jun
02 may 19
The Season Kick-Off at Headhouse Farmers’ Market Discover heirloom seeds, taste heirloom samples, and record your food stories and recipes with the Messages in Motion video van. →→ Sun., June 2, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., The Food Trust’s Headhouse Farmers’ Market,
2nd and Lombard Streets
Shtetl Skills by the Jewish Farm School
We’ll show you step-by-step how to build your very own PVC strawberry tower, an innovative way to grow lots of plants in a small space.
Discover the Jewish implications of community land use, social permaculture and how you can help transform the city of Philadelphia into the community of Philadelphia!
→→ Sat., May 18, noon–2 p.m., Cost is $25. Everyone
→→ Sun., May 19, 1–3 p.m., free, 5020 Cedar Ave, Philadelphia, PA. Register at jewishfarmschool. org or call (877) 537-6286. Repeats Sun., June 2.
will get a $10 Greensgrow Gift Card after the workshop. Greensgrow Farm, 2501 E. Cumberland St. Philadelphia. Register at greensgrow.org or email at nursery@greensgrow.org
may 18
Strawberry Mint Jam Workshop with Marisa McClellan
Learn to make Strawberry Mint Jam. Students will go home with small jars of the jam made in class. →→ Sat., May 18, noon–2 p.m., $35, Greensgrow Farm,
2501 E. Cumberland St. Registration required,
may
Living Foods Workshop
may
Wyck House Garden Social
Tour Germantown’s historic Wyck House and rose garden, while enjoying hors d’oeuvres and spritzers from Weavers Way.
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→→ Wed, May 29, 5–8 p.m., $20/person, Wyck House, 6026 Germantown Avenue. Contact outreach@ weaversway.coop for more info. For more information on the Wyck House, visit wyck.org .
may
30
Beyond Green: How can sustainable design transform our lives?
Explore the history, health benefits and cultural associations of fermentation as a method of food preparation with Jared Blumer. Free (gift-based donations welcome) and open to the public.
This Bicentennial Town Square will feature Rob Fleming, LEED AP discussing the need to make transformative, values-based sustainable design decisions in order to create resilient communities for the future.
→→ Wed, May 22, 7–9 p.m., Weavers Way Mt. Airy, 559
→→ Thu, May 30, 5:30–8: 30 p.m., 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. To register, visit ibeyondgreen. eventbrite.com
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Carpenter Ln., Philadelphia. For more information, visit weaversway.coop .
greensgrow.org
may
Sustainability School - Stalking Wild Edibles!
may
Open Hive Day
Forager Dawn Toutkaldjian joins Dickinson College Farm to impart her wisdom and enthusiasm for foraging wild edibles.
Join TLC Apiarist Dan Borkoski for an inside look at the busy buzzy world of honeybees while gaining practical beekeeping knowledge. Protective veils will be available. If you have your own gear, please bring it along!
→→ Sat., May 18, 2–4 p.m., $6 member/$8 non-
→→ Sat., May 25, 9–11 a.m., Free for TLC/CCBA
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member, Dickinson College Farm, 553 Park Dr., Boiling Springs, PA
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members; $5 non-members, New Leaf Eco Center; 776 Rosedale Rd., Kennett Square, PA. Visit tlcforscc.org .
may
30
Everything you wanted to know about GMOs but were afraid to ask!
Ken Roseboro shares his extensive knowledge about genetically engineered foods. Please arrive early to secure your seat. →→ Thu, May 30, 7–8 p.m., Haddon Township Public Library, 15 MacArthur Blvd gmofreenj.com for
more information
photos by r. kennedy for gptmc
Philadelphia Gardens, Inc. GREEN + SUSTAINABLE GARDEN INSTALLATION + DESIGN TONI ANN FLANIGAN PHILADELPHIAGARDENS.COM 215.951.9193
GLASS: SHATTERED
an ecologically-focused intentional community in Chester County, PA
Sankanac CSA w Craft Shop Sweet Water Baking Co.
Camphill Café
featuring organic and local food open Wed. - Sat. 10 am - 2 pm
Hootenanny: July 20
a festival of local music and food
www.camphillkimberton.org
June 5-22nd
Church of the Crucifixion 620 S. 8th Street Philadelphia, PA 19147
$5 off use code: GRID
www.therenegadecompany.org
june 20 13
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08 may
Aliza Green Summer Soup Workshop Aliza Green will be doing a summer soup workshop at the Greensgrow Farm Community Kitchen featuring quick and cooling summer soups with recipes from her newest book, The Soupmaker’s Kitchen. →→ Sat., June 8, noon–2 p.m., Greensgrow Farm, 2501 E. Cumberland St.
Beyond the Surface: Environmental Art in Action Conference
jun
Join landscape architect Anna Wik of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for an introduction into delicious and plentiful edible native plants. After the walk enjoy tea and a snack made from edible natives.
→→ Fri., May 31, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. at the Conference
→→ Sat., June 1, 1–3 p.m., $25/30 member/non-
admission fee $80; member admission $60; Students, artists, educators admission $40, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Road. Visit schuylkillcenter.org , or email us at artprogram@schuylkillcenter.org.
may 31
Opening of Stacy Levy’s “Rain Garden”
Join the SCEE to unveil a new permanent artwork by renowned environmental artist Stacy Levy. The opening coincides with a daylong conference on “The New Environmental Art” at the Center (see above).
Bright Green Buildings Event
Panel discussion on sustainable design, construction, operations and maintenance in the Information Age. Learn about how to use current and future technologies to build a more economic, greener, and more productive buildings.
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Edible Native Plants
Join the Schuylkill Center for a daylong conference of ideas and innovative thinking, investigating relationships between art and nature.
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member, Morris Arboretum, 100 E. Northwestern Ave. For more information and to register, visit morrisarboretum.org
→→ Tue, June 4, 5–8 p.m., Admission: $35 Chapter
Member/Member-Pro; $25 Students (ID Required); $15, Hub at Cira Center 2929 Arch St.
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Heirloom Seed Exchange
Swap seeds and gardening tips with the Philly Seed Exchange at this introduction to seed saving.
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→→ Sat., June 8, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., Mill Creek Farm, 49th
St. & Brown St.
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PASA’s Bike Fresh - Allegheny County
PASA’s Bike Fresh Bike Local-Allegheny County ride offers different route options to make this the perfect ride for any cyclist. →→ Sun., June 2, 7 a.m.–5 p.m., Ice Rink at North Park,
Mill Road Allison Park.
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Opening Event for the 58th Street Greenway
A ribbon-cutting ceremony has been arranged to celebrate the end of construction. The event will feature activities for families and children, refreshments, and an inaugural kid›s ride down the bicycle path.
→→ Fri., May 31, 6–7 p.m., free, Schuylkill Center for
→→ Sat., June 8, 11:30 a.m.–2 p.m., free, Myers
Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd. For more information, visit schuylkillcenter.org
Recreation Center, 5803 Kingsessing Ave.
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Bryn Gweled Homesteads Cooperative Living Since 1940
Inclusive, multi-generational community in wooded lower Bucks County. Homes available. Gardens and livestock possible. Easy commute to Center City. www.bryngweled.org 215-355-8849 — Ask for Gary
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Two Penn Center · Suite 200 · Philadelphia, PA 19102 COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
CONTRACTS · BUSINESS AND CORPORATE LAW
e finest sustainably raised fruits and specialty vegetables available at Headhouse Farmers Market (Sundays 10-2) and at like-minded stores and restaurants throughout the city. FROM OUR FARM TO YOUR HOME 717.677.7186
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Bicycle Repair 609 S. 16th Street (Corner of 16th & Kater) 11:00-7:00 Mon - Thurs 11:00-5:00 Fri & Sat 215.545.1711 june 20 13
gridphilly.com
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Sustainable Economy = Sustainable Community What the sustainable economy movement means to me by jamie gauthier
I
was born in southwest philly and lived there until I was 9. The sights and sounds of that time are vibrant — hopscotch, penny candy, water ice, jump rope. It would never be called a “good” Philly neighborhood, but it’s what comes to mind when I think of a typical one. I remember starkly when things began to change for the worse — the crime, the drugs, the poverty. A standout event was the time a neighbor broke into our house when my mom and I were home alone. We heard the glass shatter and my mom told me to run. I did, as quickly as I could, up the street to my grandmom’s house, the wind roaring in my ears, my heart a drumbeat. We moved soon after — by then, we could afford it, my parents having both recently attained professional degrees. The new neighborhood, Wynnefield, was nicer and safer. Over time, I noticed what happened to those we left behind in the other neighborhood. How poverty kept them from learning, and blocked their access to fresh, healthy food. How it incarcerated them and killed them. How poverty led many to accept that there was not much of a world beyond the confines of their block. That to me is about a lack of equity and it is what attracts me to the Sustainable Business Network (SBN) and the sustainable economy movement. I believe that over time this effort will ensure equity. I love how the sustainable economy movement forces a new way of measuring prosperity, one in which financial success is viewed as a means to an and of supporting a fair and just society, as opposed to an end in and of itself. I love how it promotes fairness for workers, and encourages businesses to facilitate good deeds within their communities. I love how this movement, our movement, promotes more people having an ownership stake in our economy, and how an emphasis on local sourcing ensures that success will be shared with multiple stakeholders. And how it forces entrepreneurs and consumers to acknowledge that resources are not infinite, ensuring that all of us — including generations to come — will enjoy the communities we are building. As SBN’s new executive director, I am looking forward to many things. I’d like to expand SBN’s network by attracting more businesses that span a variety of industries. I’d like to do more direct marketing and education to consumers, in a way that will ensure their patronage of good business. I plan to continue SBN’s role as the voice of small and sustainable business through strong advocacy. And I’d like to provide an increased level of services to our business constituents that will help them to grow — financially, and otherwise.
To bring it all back home, I ask that you indulge me in a fantasy. It is 15 years from now, and we’ve made huge strides in the local sustainable economy movement — our communities are supported by a variety of businesses (owned by a variety of stakeholders) that nourish and provide for the many. I take a walk back onto a little block in Southwest Philly and again the sights and sounds are vibrant — hopscotch, penny candy, water ice, jump rope. People are outside, talking with neighbors, and instead of a feeling of scarcity, there’s one of hope and abundance. Because people know they can get their needs met — they can go to a good quality school, they can get fresh healthy food, they can get a good paying job or open up a business, they can breathe fresh air. And they know that they will be okay; because instead of being victim to our economic system, they are supported by it. They participate in it. They thrive in it. And, that’s a worthy vision, right? jamie gauthier joined SBN in March 2013 as Executive Director. She has a background in business and community development and prior to SBN worked as a Program Officer with Philadelphia Local Initiatives Support Corporation. For more on SBN, visit sbnphiladelphia.org .
Each month, Dispatch features personal reflections on adventures in sustainability. Have a story you’d like to share? E-mail getinvolved@gridphilly.com
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illustration by stephen haigh
CHANGING THE CLIMATE OF EDUCATION The kids of Philadelphia are learning about the benefits of solar power, how about you? Solar States is a solar energy supplier but we support all green energy initiatives. One way we're helping is to partner with Philadelphia area schools to implement rooftop solar energy as well as educate students about the need for and benefits of alternative energy. To get involved or learn how you can go solar, visit solar-states.com or call 1 (888) 895 8756
FIND YOUR POWER SOLAR S T AT E S
P h i l a de l ph i a So l a r School s Ini t iat i ve
Solar States 1400 N. American St. Suite 401 Philadelphia, PA 19122
Create Change.
Saras Windecker
Master of Environmental Studies
Photo credit: Saras Windecker
Pleurocera proxima is a small, freshwater gastropod—snail—whose grazing can have a significant effect on energy flow in small streams. Previously known only in the Southeast, the species has recently been discovered in the Christina Basin watershed in eastern Pennsylvania. Saras Windecker’s MES Capstone Project involved a survey of more than a hundred streams in the watershed to determine the extent of the snail’s distribution and its preferred habitat, a significant first step in determining its effect on the life of waterways in Pennsylvania. Penn’S MaSter of environMental StudieS PrograM combines classroom work with field experience in a broadly based interdisciplinary approach to the study of the environment. As a culminating exercise in the program, students complete an individual project that puts what they’ve learned in the classroom to work in the field. Their choice of final projects often reflects the area of environmental work in which they intend to focus their careers.
Walk-In wednesdays Open information session for all LPS programs EnvironmEntal StudiES featured the SEcond WEdnESday of each month
Be part of tomorrow’s solutions today. @PENN_EES www.facebook.com/UPennEES
www.upenn.edu/mes or search penn mes