Grid Magazine June 2010

Sustainable Philadelphia

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The Fair Food Philadelphia

2010 LOCAL FOOD GUIDE

june 2010 / issue 15 gridphilly.com

Worlds Apart

Michael Dolich brings back the neighborhood bakery

Sour Patch Pickles at Supper, and at home

Scavenger Hunt A foraging adventure in Lancaster County

Also

Cool roofs, Growing Power’s Will Allen, one spectacular high wheel bicycle and Madame Fromage’s ode to cheese

ImprovIng commutes and communItIes A SEPTA bus removes up to 39 cars from the road.

Our railcars, up to 120. That adds up to a better commute, better environment, and a better Philadelphia region.

Conveniently located near the Glenside train station, Primex offers over 250 organic and eco-friendly gardening products. You can pick up compost bins and rain barrels, check out the on-site demonstration garden, recycle your pots and flats or take advantage of free soil pH testing. Our knowledgeable staff is always ready to answer your questions or help you out with anything you need!

Independent, family-owned and operated since 1943

Primex Garden Center 435 West Glenside Avenue • Glenside, PA 19038 215-887-7500 • www.primexgardencenter.com

Home Made

publisher

Alex Mulcahy 215.625.9850 ext. 102 alex@gridphilly.com distribution

Alex passed his Publisher’s Notes duties along to me this month because I am, simply put, obsessed with food. I’ve been looking forward to this issue for months.

Claire Connelly 215.625.9850 ext. 100 claire@gridphilly.com

L

ast June, I moved back to Philadelphia—my hometown—after a few years in the wilderness (read: Nashville, TN).

My first weekend in town, I walked to the Fitler Square farmers’ market and amassed an impressive haul—arugula, fresh sweet peas, strawberries, pea shoots. I came home and made a salad, tossing everything together in a plastic mixing bowl with a quickly whipped up lemon-Dijon vinaigrette. I sat down on the couch, bowl nestled in my lap, and ate. Right then, I knew I had made the right decision coming back here.

Because Philly is awesome. For a food-and-beer obsessive like me, this is the Promised Land—a place where you can eat and drink incredibly well, in laid back environs, without breaking the bank. For devotees of exciting, unpretentious food—that you can bike to!—our underrated city can’t be beat.

And, due to the close proximity of some of the country’s best farmland, you can form relationships with—or at least allegiances to—specific growers and producers. It’s a rare day when my fridge doesn’t hold Country Time Farm bacon, Meadow Run eggs and unhomogenized whole milk from Lancaster County’s Natural By Nature Co-op. (My younger brother still finds it creepy that I have to shake the glass jar before pouring).

Then there are the restaurants—even at humble neighborhood bars, you’ll find chefs building beautiful burgers using local grass-fed beef or topping seasonal salads with pungent Pennsylvania cheese. And, all around town, specific farms are earning menu shout-outs. Restaurants wouldn’t be doing that if the information didn’t matter to people here.

And the beer. Oh the beer! The growth of Philly’s food scene can not be divorced from our love of local suds. Go into any place worth its salt and you’re guaranteed at least a couple selections from Philly favorites. (Believe it or not, this is not the case everywhere in America, where you’re often left deciding between Stella Artois and Sam Adams—or maybe a Sierra Nevada if you’re lucky.) Even our baseball stadium carries beers from Sly Fox, Yards, Flying Fish, PBC and other local standouts.

After a year back, there are still moments when I am overcome by the simple pleasures of being here. Sitting at the bar, drinking a Weyerbacher Double Simcoe IPA at The Sidecar, glancing up to see the Phils in the midst of yet another improbable comeback. Biking home from the Headhouse Square Farmers’ Market, green garlic tops bulging out of my messenger bag, carefully avoiding the plethora of potholes in the Spruce Street bike lane. Sitting in Rittenhouse Square with a sandwich and an iced tea, watching this remarkable city unfold in front of me. Like I said, awesome.

c o ver ph o t o by jo n p ushni k

managing editor

Lee Stabert lee@gridphilly.com art director

Jamie Leary jamie@gridphilly.com As you may have noticed, this issue of Grid is a bit heftier than usual—which is only appropriate, since it’s stuffed with great food. Inside, you’ll find Fair Food’s Local Food Guide 2010, a compilation of listings and information on CSAs, farmers’ markets, restaurants, breweries, specialty producers and more.

We are incredibly excited about this partnership. Fair Food are not only our neighbors (Grid’s offices are less than a block from the Farmstand at Reading Terminal), but a kindred organization, dedicated to fostering a more local, sustainable and delicious food system for our region.

As for Grid itself, the theme of this year’s Food Issue is “The Return of the Artisan.” You’ll learn about Michael Dolich’s efforts at Four Worlds Bakery, read about Mitch Prensky’s peculiar pickles at Supper and see pictures of goats (in conjunction with a story about the rise of local, artisanal goat cheese producers). Lastly, Marisa McClellan offers a few tips on becoming your own artisan and debunks myths about the perils of home-canning. There are also recipes, a wonderful essay by Tenaya Darlington (a.k.a. Madame Fromage), and an account of my adventure foraging for mushrooms in the woods with Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op’s irrepressible Casey Spacht.

If you’re hungry by the time you reach the last page, we’ve done our job.

copy editors

Andrew Bonazelli Patty Moran production artist

Lucas Hardison web production

Scott Orwig customer service

Mark Evans mark@gridphilly.com 215.625.9850 ext. 105 intern

Ariela Rose Cassie Cummins writers

Cassie Cummins Tenaya Darlington Julie Lorch Marisa McClellan Ariela Rose Lee Stabert Char Vandermeer Samantha Wittchen photographers

Lucas Hardison Jon Pushnik Jason Varney illustrators

Jim Tierney published by

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

Lee Stabert Managing Editor lee@gridphilly.com

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Collaborative Effort

News

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F o o d and m o r e

Infill Philadelphia Receives Community Action Grant from the ULI

I

nfill Philadelphia has more than one reason to celebrate. The five-year urban revitalization initiative will complete phase three of the program this fall, and they’ve also been awarded a $25,000 grant from the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Community Action Grants program.

Grant recipients are judged on ULI’s three core values: sustainability, infrastructure and workforce/ affordable housing. Conceived by the Community Design Collaborative, Infill has excelled in all three areas, bringing attention to the city’s countless vacant and neglected spaces.

Since 2007, the initiative has used design to inspire ideas for revitalizing older neighborhoods. The Pilot Program created innovative prototypes for affordable housing in low-income neighborhoods.

Phase 1 offered solutions for revitalizing commercial corridors, and Phase 2 worked to improve food access in underserved areas, in partnership with the Reinvestment Fund and the Food Trust. The in-progress third phase is focused on the reuse of industrial sites, once proud symbols of Philadelphia’s status as “Workshop of the World.” The grant money will be used to spread the ideas of industrial site reuse and assist the initiative as it looks ahead to future opportunities.

“We are delighted to receive the support and recognition of the Urban Land Institute because it shines a light on Philadelphia and the role innovative design can play in preparing opportunities for new investment and economic development in cities,” says Beth Miller, Executive Director of the Community Design Collaborative.

Upcoming: The CDC will reveal the results of their Infill Philadelphia: Industrial Sites Design Challenge on May 27 at the Center for Architecture (1218 Arch St.) The program—scheduled to run 4 6:30 p.m.—will feature commentary by a diverse panel of experts.

For more information, visit infillphiladelphia.org —Ariela Rose

Lots of Food

A CSA sprouts in West Philadelphia

T

by cassie cummins

here is an abundance of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs across Pennsylvania, but the latest West Philadelphia CSA is significantly different. ¶ The urban farm CSA being launched at 53rd and Wyalusing Streets is headed by Urban Tree Connection, a nonprofit dedicated to assisting low-income communities in the revitalization of their neighborhoods through community-based urban greening. This process involves transforming vacant lots—often plagued by drug trade and other illegal activities—into vital green spaces.

Since the organization’s establishment as a nonprofit 13 years ago, Urban Tree Connection has focused on youth education programs in West Philly’s Haddington neighborhood. Most of their gardens are used as demonstration sites or work spaces for youth and children’s gardening clubs. But with this new CSA experiment, Urban Tree Connection is hoping to create a self-sustaining, neighborhood institution. Local families will work the land and gain access to fresh, healthy food.

Urban Tree Connection is still in the process of structuring the farm’s share-system and explor-

ing ways to make the cost of a share affordable for low-income residents. Founder and Executive Director of Urban Tree Connection Skip Wiener says that they are hoping to use donations to subsidize the cost of shares.

After a decade of growing gardens in the Haddington community, the relationship between the community and Urban Tree Connection is very special. “We’ve grown up with these kids,” says Wiener. “They’re a part of our lives.”

For information, visit urbantreeconnection.org.

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/ local business

Black Gold

A local company helps Philly businesses jump on the composting bandwagon by lee stabert

T

here is one word showing up left and right on the lips of top urban sustainability and food access experts: compost. To hear them speak of it, the stuff is magic—now it’s just a matter of getting the rest of society on board. Philly Compost, a year-old company based in Northwest Philadelphia, is doing their part to bring the city’s businesses into the fold.

Philly Compost was founded by Lee Meinicke and Meenal Raval. A longtime recycling advocate, Raval had been a backyard composter for years, while Meinicke was getting her MBA in sustainable business. “I started talking to people about what sorts of recycling, reuse, manufacturing-type businesses were missing from the landscape,” she says. “Composting came up several times. This is not anything I ever really set out to do, but I’ve become incredibly passionate about it.”

In Philadelphia, businesses don’t qualify for city waste disposal services. For restaurants and institutions, a large portion of their output is foodstuffs. “If we take their food waste, it can save them a little bit of money,” explains Meinicke. “If we take the wet stuff out of their garbage stream, their weight goes down, and they can have their waste service pick up less frequently, because it’s not as stinky or heavy.”

Meinicke met Michael Bryan-Brown, owner of

quick hits

Weaver’s Way

will open their third location in Chestnut Hill this month. Housed in the former Caruso’s Market (8418 Germantown Avenue), the new space will offer an expanded shopping experience, with 6,700 square feet of retail and off-street parking.

Weaver’s Way has transformed the building into a model of green design: solar panels have been installed, systems are in place to control stormwater runoff and all building materials were sourced from within 500 miles of the site. For information, visit weaversway.coop.

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Green Mountain Technologies, when she was in graduate school. Philly Composting eventually purchased Green Mountain’s Earth Tub, a fullyenclosed 4-foot tall, 7.5-foot wide composting vessel featuring power mixing and aeration. Meinicke became so enamored with this hyper-efficient composting tool that she became the company’s regional sales rep. Bryan-Brown recently came east on a business trip, and was thrilled with Philly Composting’s operation. “He was so excited,” recalls Meinicke. “He said, ‘This is really the kind of application that many of us dreamed of—it’s local, small-scale composting.’”

When Philly Compost launched, they were based out of a facility in Germantown, but quickly found that the high rent wasn’t feasible for a business with such slim profit margins.

They went looking for a partner, and are now in the process of moving their operations to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education.

(During the transition, they’ve been hauling their materials to composter extraordinaire Ned Foley at Two Particular Acres.) Not only does the Schuylkill Center have tremendous volunteer resources, it’s also home to Urban Girls Farm, creating a closed-resource-loop bonanza.

Philly Compost are doing all they can to foster the composting movement, even if it does nothing for their bottom line. On their website, they’ve compiled a Google Map showing private and public composting sites. They encourage residents to open their backyards—and their compost piles—to neighbors. They have also approached the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society about offering “Master Composter” classes.

This all goes to show that this is more than a business to Raval and Meinicke. In addition to improving Philadelphia’s soil, they think composting can have a broader influence. “Composting as locally as possible has a tremendous impact on climate change,” explains Meinicke. “If you throw your food waste in the garbage, it goes to a landfill where it breaks down, generating methane—a greenhouse gas. You also have a huge trucking impact, hauling stuff to a landfill that’s 30, 40, 50 miles away from where you cut up your celery.

So, when you combine those two things together, this really has a huge impact.” ■

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For information, visit phillycompost.com.

And keep an eye out for “We Compost With Philly Compost” stickers at local businesses.

Beer Week

—it’s the most magical time of the year, or at least the tipsiest. June 4-13, Philadelphia will once again celebrate its ascension as a beer drinker’s nirvana with 10 days of, well, beer. Our region is home to over 30 breweries and brewpubs, and an even larger number of top-shelf bars, serving local suds with pride. Everyone will be getting into the act; visit phillybeerweek.org for a full listing of events. The festivities kick off with Opening Tap 2010 at the Independence Visitor Center. Witness the arrival of the mythical “Hammer of Glory,” and the tapping of the first keg.

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/ bike culture

N

ice ride!” shouts a dude on a bike. “Awesome!” yells another.

In 2010, a high wheel bicycle is a strange sight in Center City. But in 1886, the year that Curtis Anthony’s prized Victor was built, the high wheel represented state-ofthe-art bicycle engineering. Many collectors would scoff at riding this valuable antique, just as they would be shocked to know that Anthony actually wears his 1975 Harrogate racing cap instead of, say, keeping it in a glass case. But Anthony believes in riding the bike.

Anthony opened Via Bicycles 29 years ago with a $5,000 loan from his mother, backed by an antique bed for collateral. “I was a bike nut,” admits Anthony. “I thought I knew something about bikes. But as soon as I started the shop, I realized how little I knew.”

Our ride begins at the shop on 9th Street (near South), and cuts a winding route along the Schuylkill River. It’s a breezy Sunday morning. We talk about plans for our summer gardens, and Anthony recounts adorable tales of Curtie, his four-and-a-half year old son: On the way back from John’s Water Ice one night, Curtie rode on Anthony’s shoulders, dripping all over his head.

“I said, ‘Curtie, let’s sit down on a step and enjoy this together,’” recalls Anthony. “So, we’re on the step, and, you know when you put a nut and a bolt together and there’s that round thing with a hole in it?”

“A washer,” I offer.

“Yes. So, he picks one up and goes, ‘Daddy, look—a dryer!’”

I’m smiling as we come up to a short, steep downhill.

The high wheel is fixed-gear, and has no breaks. Before I can even imagine how this will work, Anthony whips his right leg around the back of the bicycle, puts his foot on top of the tiny rear wheel and slows the Victor with the rubber sole of his Vans. It is truly a site to behold.

The high wheel continues to forge an effortless path through the crowd. “As soon as I got on it, it was like,

with

Via Bicycles’

curtis anthony by julie lorch

Julie Lorch pedals along with notable members of Philly’s bicycle community on a route of their choice. They ride, they chat, she reports back. the route 13

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Fairmount Park

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11th St

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611

Erie Ave

Diamon d St

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Via Bicycles

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Lehigh Ave

Av e Ri dg e

St Spring Ga rden

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9th St

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e Av

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‘That’s beautiful,’” says Anthony of his Victor. “Like when you kiss somebody or give them a hug, and you know it’s awesome—it was like that.” He pauses. “It was an immediate connection.”

At this point, it seems relevant to mention that Curtis Anthony sports one hell of a handlebar mustache. He asks me to compare the curvature of his ’stache with the handlebars of his high wheel. They’re a perfect match.

We cross Falls Bridge and pick up West River Drive, which is closed to traffic today. Almost every cyclist we pass either knows Anthony, has bought a bike from him or stops to ogle the high wheel.

We bump into Joel Flood, another familiar face, near the Strawberry Mansion Bridge. Flood runs bikeville.com, Via’s blog, and accompanies Anthony to flea markets, swaps and sales to buy vintage inventory for Via. Like Anthony, he’s riding a bicycle that could be sitting in a museum: a 1961 Schwinn Paramount Tourist. “I love my bikes,” says Flood. “I feel it’s perfectly acceptable to ride these awesome bikes around the city. They were intended to be used, not coveted.”

As we ride along, Flood and Anthony point out bikes they’ve sold to customers over the years. It feels like they must be at least partly responsible for the high concentration of beautiful old bicycles in Philadelphia. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the van full,” says Anthony of the scene after the swaps. “We bring back huge loads at least a half-dozen times a year. We usually have 50 to 60 bikes—one time we had 71.” He pauses, thinking about the beloved van. “That almost killed Morrison.”

Flood rides ahead to Rittenhouse to count dogs in the park while we stop to sit in the grass by the river.

An 1872 wrench falls out of Anthony’s pocket. “That’s a real wrench from the day of this bike,” he says. We talk about his first shop on Bainbridge, increased business from SEPTA strikes, solid rubber tires and single speeds.

“With gas prices being so high a few years ago—plus parking being such a nuisance—people were finding out how easy it is to get around on bicycle,” he says. He also has a suggestion for making bicycling more comfortable in the city: “Surfacing the bike lanes would be a good thing.”

“Riding bikes just makes people happy,” he adds. “It makes them laugh.”

And, like a vintage gentleman, Anthony drops me at my front door on his way back to the shop. ■

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Via Bicycles, a neighborhood bike shop with a vintage bent, is located at 606 S. 9th St. Visit bikeville.com.

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/ profile

You talk about compost on a large scale, but what would you tell an urban apartment dweller? What can they do?

You can actually compost anaerobically [without air] in a simple five gallon bucket. All you need is some carbon—newspaper, magazines—to mix in with your food waste. If you’re single, it would probably take a month or more—unless you were a ferocious eater [Allen laughs]—to fill up that bucket. The best food waste is 20 percent solid, so it’s gonna shrink. The carbon absorbs all the moisture and it starts to break down in the bucket. Say over winter, you collect three buckets, you’ll have quite a lot of stuff. Then you can either take it somewhere or combine it with neighbors and set up a little program. If you have enough friends and everyone donates, it’s amazing how much you can collect just by setting up a little compost co-op with friends. When the springtime comes, find a little spot in someone’s backyard. Your compost will already be well on its way. In two months you can start growing.

King of Compost

Urban farmer and MacArthur Grant recipient Will Allen on the importance of greens, worms and more by lee stabert

E

verything about Will Allen is big. The pro basketball player turned urban agriculture iconoclast has hands like baseball mitts, and arms like tree trunks. His normal uniform—jeans, baseball hat, hooded sweatshirt with the sleeves removed—only serves to emphasize the power of his gentle, hulking presence. ¶ In 1993, after leaving a job in the corporate world, Allen purchased the scant two acres in northwest Milwaukee that would become Growing Power, his urban farm. He immediately started growing, inviting people from the neighborhood to get involved and share in the bounty.

Thanks to creative use of space, innovative sustainable farming practices, and Allen’s zealous commitment to compost, the farm has become stunningly productive—a paragon of high-yield urban agriculture and community activism.

In 2008, Allen was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.

In April, appearing as keynote speaker for the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Compost Matters Conference, Allen decided to dress it up—a hoodie with the sleeves intact. Grid grabbed a few minutes with him after his talk, wrangling him into a quiet corner of the auditorium. Fortunately, he came willingly. Dude is huge.

You’re very into growing greens.

Lots of greens.

We grow 159 different varieties of vegetables, a little bit of everything. But in the winter time, 10

g r i d p h i l ly. c o m

because of the heat factor and the light factor, greens are the easiest to grow. But as we add more renewable energy to our system—and are able to use more artificial light—we’re gonna get into warm weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. There’s big opportunity there.

Not everybody wants to eat seasonally. You know it’s hard to convince people to rely on potatoes, carrots and root crops. We’ve kind of spoiled ourselves. People don’t can anymore. People want fresh stuff, so it’s important for us to grow a broad spectrum of crops year round.

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A lot of people would worry about the smell.

You just need a bucket with an O-ring gasket.

They’re easy—not like the old days. You can go buy one at any paint store, or somewhere like Loews. They keep the smells inside. Absolutely no smells! Unless you leave drippings hanging down in the bucket or something. [Allen laughs] You can decorate them, get a white one and paint it or put little decals on it.

The press has obviously been a really powerful tool for your message; I first read about you in a New York Times Magazine feature. I think there’s a big shift in public perception going on—from “sustainability” being sort of a hippy-dippy yuppie thing to being a broader movement. As a person of color, running a really diverse organization, you’re harder to pigeonhole.

Even though I don’t talk about it a lot, I think that has been one of the big changes. Because I am a person of color, I think it has probably made a lot of people more comfortable talking about these issues. When I first started doing this, I’d go to meetings and I’d be the only person of color for many, many years and that’s changing now. We need to dismantle a lot of the racism around the food system, in terms of redlining in communities, with grocery stores not wanting to go in and funders denying funding.

Most of the people in organizations that are doing [urban agricultural] work are doing it in peopleof-color neighborhoods. We need to do things in a very multicultural way. We can’t just do it by slamming people into the ground, we need to do it, you know, the way we’re doing it—through action, through projects, and bringing everybody to the table and discussing the problem up front, not trying to slide it under the table and pretend it doesn’t exist.

I think being a person of color in a forgotten urban area has also brought you a lot of attention. I mean, it’s a great story: You’re in Milwaukee!

Milwaukee, I think, is now the urban ag[riculture] capitol of the world, or close. The largest urban ag small farm conference ever held will be in Milwaukee this September.

We don’t go out there and tell people, “Here we are as an organization! We’re going to come into your community and change the world.” We get invited into communities.

We don’t ever go out there and solicit work.

We built this center in Milwaukee that people came to see, then they went around the country and told other people. So, if you come and you like what you see there, then go out and tell ten of your friends, that’s how you build a revolution.

If there’s one policy change that a local government can make, what would it be?

There’s several. They need to change policies on composting, on beekeeping, and allow citizens up to four chickens in their backyard— not roosters, but layers. Beekeeping is something that is very wonderful to do. And every city government needs at least one person that works with community gardens and community farms—a liaison between politicos and the people that are doing the work.

In Milwaukee, I can almost do anything. The government may not have money to give you, but they won’t stand in your way when you have a good idea. They look at Growing Power as an asset to the city. We’ve brought in millions of dollars to the city of Milwaukee and they know that.

We can create thousands of jobs with this new kind of farming, with urban agriculture. Just think of all the categories of jobs: you’ve got installers, carpenters, plumbers, truck drivers, accountants, electricians, aquaculturists, planners, architects. In a rural area, you don’t need these jobs. Industrial agriculture gets rid of jobs; the machines do everything.

This is hand work, it’s communal work, which is important and fun for all of us, all the generations, from little kids to school-age kids to teenagers to college kids. Everybody is involved. Now politicos are involved, corporate companies send their associates to volunteer and corporate companies have foundations to supply some of the money. We also need reporters and publicity people, because one of things that we haven’t been able to do is be proactive and get the word out. All of these wonderful projects are hidden away.

We need the public. ■

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For more on Will Allen and Growing Power, visit growingpower.org. And for information on PHS’s programs, visit pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org

by char vandermeer

Be the Bee

A guide to helping cucumbers and melons get their groove on

I

f summer were a taste, it would surely be cucumber—or maybe muskmelon. They’re both little bursts of sunshine on the vine. While your planting space may be limited to a few pots or a tiny patch in a community garden, that doesn’t mean your taste buds should go unfulfilled. Philly may prove to be a tough habitat for these fussy vines, but that just means they’ll require some extra attention.

May and June’s warmer days and nights provide the perfect conditions for growing cucurbits, a family of plants that includes cucumbers and melons. Grab a five-gallon bucket, drill a few holes in the bottom and dump in some nice, fluffy soil that’s rich in organic matter—add some compost to the soil if you can. Shove a trellis into the container for the emerging vines to climb, drop in a couple of seeds (your goal is one, maybe two, plants per bucket) and you’re off to a good start.

Sometimes, Mother Nature needs some help. Unlike tomatoes and beans, which are

self-pollinators, cucurbits rely exclusively on bees to ensure a healthy harvest. While it’s a good idea to plant a few bright flowers among your vegetables to attract bees, you may still need to do the deed yourself.

Insufficient pollination leads to a vastly reduced crop and misshapen fruits. If the bees aren’t buzzing, hand pollination is an easy and satisfying solution to the problem. First you’ll need to identify the male and female flowers.

Fortunately, female cucumbers are easily recognized by the miniature cucumber swelling behind the flower; male flowers grow directly from the vine and will outnumber your female blooms substantially.

Typically, male flowIT’s a Girl! ers appear first. Don’t Female worry—just be patient cucumbers are and eventually your easy to identify— note the miniature vine will be brimming cucumber with both. swelling behind Once you’ve found the flower your lucky ladies, grab a small paintbrush and gently gather pollen from the anthers of the male flowers by dabbing or twirling the brush inside the bloom. The tip of the brush should have visible yellow pollen on it—I find black brushes show the pollen best.

Then, carefully dab the collected pollen onto the pistils inside the female flower. After the female bloom has been successfully fertilized, the flower will fall off and the fruit will mature.

Like most vegetables, cucumbers and melons need a full six to eight hours of sun each day.

They’re thirsty buggers, too, so make sure you keep the soil good and moist. ■

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/ energy

Cooler Heads For energy savings, cool roofs are a no-brainer by samantha wittchen

T

he roof is no longer on fire. First there was the Mayor’s “Coolest Block” Contest, offering Philadelphians the chance to win an energy-saving cool roof and other energy efficiency upgrades from the city for every house on their block. Then there was City Council’s Earth Day passage of Councilman Jim Kenney’s legislation requiring reflective (cool) roofs on all new commercial and residential low-slope roofs.

So, why the sudden love for cool roofs? It’s simple economics: The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Heat Island Group estimates that Philadelphians could save a collective $3 million by converting to cool roofs. According to the Department of Energy, this could save the average homeowner up to 20 percent on cooling costs. And, with electricity rates set to increase by as much as 30 percent in January 2011 (due to the expiration of PECO rate caps), this is the ideal time to switch to a cool roof.

Need more motivation? Cool roofs also make a row home much more comfortable—traditional black asphalt roofs can reach temperatures as high as 190 degrees in Philadelphia, and that heat radiates throughout the structure. A typical cool roof is 50 to 80 degrees cooler than its asphalt counterpart.

What is a cool roof?

A cool roof has high solar reflectance—according to the Department of Energy, this is “the most important characteristic… in terms of yielding the 12

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highest energy savings during warmer months.”

For the typical Philadelphia homeowner with a low-slope roof, thermoplastic polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and EPDM (a synthetic rubber) single-ply membranes are most appropriate.

They have reflectivities in the range of 70 percent, as compared with a traditional black roof, which has a reflectivity of 5 percent. Emissivity—or the ability of a material to release absorbed heat—is the second most important value. Most cool roofs also have high emissivity.

How much does a cool roof cost?

A cool roof’s installation costs are on par with that of a traditional asphalt roof. If it’s time to replace your roof, going with a cool roof is a no-brainer.

Even if it isn’t time, a cool roof might still be a good investment, considering the average 20 percent energy savings on cooling costs. To more precisely estimate the savings for your specific home, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory offer two handy

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online calculators (roofcalc.com and ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/facts/CoolCalcEnergy.htm).

When considering the overall cost of a new cool roof, you should also consider that the lifespan of a cool roof is about 10 years longer than that of a traditional asphalt roof.

Cool roofs are made of highly flexible elastomeric materials—they can easily undergo major shifts in surface temperature. With traditional roofs, the expansion and contraction causes a more rapid deterioration.

One last thing to consider about the cost of your cool roof project is the recent announcement that the city of Philadelphia was selected to receive $25 million from the Department of Energy’s Retrofit Ramp-Up Initiative. Plans are already in motion to use some of that money to provide energy efficiency retrofit loans, which might help you defray some of the upfront costs of a cool roof.

If you choose to make the switch, make sure your roofer is familiar with cool roofing materials. If the roofer tells you it’s significantly more expensive to install a cool roof, be suspicious. The Energy Coordinating Agency (ecasavesenergy.org) provides cool roof services, and the Postgreen team (see May 2010’s cover story) used Topline Construction, based out of Conshohocken, on their recent Skinny Project.

Cool Roof vs. Green Roof If you’re not satisfied with the energy-saving benefits of a cool roof, a green roof might be for you. While both cool and green roofs lower surface and air temperatures, extend your roof’s life and lower summertime energy demand, green roofs provide additional benefits, such as reducing stormwater runoff and absorbing pollutants and carbon dioxide.

Before you go green, though, you need to make sure your roof joists can support the added weight of a green roof. You’ll need a structural engineer or architect to help you make that judgment. In addition to the expense of hiring that expert, you should also be aware that green roof installation costs range from $10 to $25 per square foot—significantly more than a membrane roof.

But, as with a cool roof, there could be energy efficiency grants or loans available to help you finance the project. Roofscapes, Inc. (roofmeadow. com) is a Philadelphia-based company that can help you get started.

Regardless of which option you choose, one thing is for certain: In Philadelphia, cool—in one form or another—is the new black. ■

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Samantha Wittchen is a managing partner at iSpring, a sustainability consulting firm based out of Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley.

Philadelphia University

by Samantha Wittchen

RECIPIENT OF THE USGBC AWARD 2009 MASTER OF SCIENCE IN

Pots, Pans and Pyrex

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN A COLLABORATIVE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY LEARNING EXPERIENCE

“The principle of sustainability is reshaping the way we think

The Issue: Recycling your kitchen detritus

about the world, encouraging us to improve the way

The Challenge: Those cheap Walmart pots and pans you bought just out of college are reaching the end of their usefulness, but there’s a good chance they’re made out of aluminum or stainless steel, which are both recyclable. You can’t put them in the blue bin at the curb, but, according to the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, recycling aluminum instead of mining virgin ore for new products results in up to a 95 percent reduction in energy use. Matters get complicated if those pans happen to be coated with a non-stick coating—non-stick recycling is almost nonexistent. And, when it comes to broken Pyrex bakeware, no one will take it. The melting temperature is higher than regular glass, which makes it impossible to incorporate into commercial glass recycling operations.

The Solution: If you’re upgrading to higher-end cookware and your pots and pans are still functional, consider donating them to an organization that needs them, or take them to Goodwill, the Salvation Army or Second Mile (214 S. 45th St., 215662-1663).

If your cookware is no longer functional, S.D. Richman Sons, located in Port

Richmond (2435 Wheatsheaf Ln., 215535-5100), will accept uncoated pans (no non-stick) for recycling. As mentioned in March 2010’s “Recycling Challenge,” they allow passenger vehicles into the facility, so they’re a good choice for residents.

Unfortunately, if your pans are non-stick, your two options are repurposing them or sending them to a landfill, unless you’re planning on purchasing new Calphalon Unison cookware (see “The Eco-Aware Consumer” below).

As for broken Pyrex, you’re out of luck until Corning initiates a take-back program, so try to find an artist who’s willing to use it for a project.

The Eco-Aware Consumer: If you’re in the market to upgrade your cookware, you might consider Calphalon Unison, which comes with a box and prepaid shipping labels for old cookware, regardless of whether or not it’s non-stick. The Calphalon ReNew program recycles the cookware— approximately 35 percent of new cookware is recycled aluminum. If you want to kick your recycled content up a notch, look for Starfrit cookware, which is made with 99 percent recycled aluminum. ■

we design, build and live in the 21st century”

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/ foraging

left A morel appears on the forest floor above Blood root, a medicinal plant

Found Food: Spring

I

had never realized the dearth of earth tones in my wardrobe.

Casey Spacht, director of Lancaster Farm Fresh Co-op and my guide for a day of foraging in Lancaster County, closed his last logistical planning email thusly: “p.s. wear camo......just playing... but would be good. greens, browns.”

Eventually, I find a ratty old pair of paint-spattered hunter green sweatpants and pair them with an army green “Know Your Farmer” Tshirt. Needless to say, I’m looking pretty good.

I meet Spacht at Susquehanna State Park.

He explains that our main target on this sunny April day is morels, the elusive and delicious wild mushrooms that send an army of amateur naturalists into the woods each spring.

Spacht, on the other hand, is the real deal. A self-trained forager armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of regional plants, a passion for imparting knowledge and a healthy dose of patience for newbies, he has agreed to show me the wild bounty of each season, starting with spring.

Spacht grew up in Lancaster. His family was didn’t have a lot of money, and ate their fair share of processed junk. “We would eat at fast food restaurants all the time,” says Spacht. “Then I would come out into the woods and find amazing raspberries and blackberries, make different teas and eat dandelions. I loved it.” I can relate to that childlike feeling of escape—after all, I’m out of the office on a school day, trekking through the woods in search of treasures unknown.

Looking for morels is tough, but if you know where to look, you’ve got an advantage. We leave the path in search of some favored fungal haunts—tulip poplars and dead-and-dying elms and ash trees. I can tell Spacht is worried that we won’t find anything; even experts strike out. Last 14

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year, he took a group of restaurant chefs from New York City (LFFC customers) out looking for morels. “We were out for five hours,” he says with a resigned chuckle. “We found one.”

As we begin our search, Spacht points out a plethora of other edible things. He cuts a nest of wild garlic bulbs from the ground and stuffs them in his bag. He encourages me to smell the delicate plum-colored flowers that will, in the distant autumnal future, spawn pawpaws. He hands me garlic mustard to taste, and waxes poetic about the elusive fruit of the May apple: “Everything on the plant is poisonous now,” he explains. “The fruit has to get really ripe and turn bright yellow. It tastes like passion fruit.

But it’s really rare—I’ve only ever had, like, six.

They’re low to the ground, and the possums and raccoons get them.”

Then it happens. Spacht stops. “I see one. Do you see it?” And I do. Nestled in the leaves is an oblong protrusion, light brown and sporting that familiar honeycomb texture. He crouches down and explains that this is when the hardcore looking begins.

Where there is one, there are usually more— all connected to the same root-like structure beneath the forest floor. The mushroom is only the fruit of the fungal equivalent to an underground tree.

Then there’s another. And another. Discerning the mushrooms in the cacophony of textures

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takes an adjustment of the eye. You can look at one spot a second, third, fourth time, and, on the fifth pass—like a miracle—there it is. Obvious.

Blatant.

We visit a few more of Casey’s favorite spots; how he remembers them in the anonymous woods, I’ll never know.

Every once in a while, he will pick something, offering me a taste or a look: blood root shocks with its deep orange color, the tubers of the cutleaf toothwort plant have a slight horseradish bite, and wood sorrel’s heartshaped leaves explode on by lee stabert my tongue with an unexpected lemony jolt.

Mushroom hunters are infamously secretive about their most fruitful spots—hence the camo—and will often go to extremes to get that big score. Extreme, you say?

“There was a place recently that I went to,” begins Spacht. “They were doing some work, and they had it fenced off. I had to scale down a cliff and climb the fence. It was pretty crazy. I did it at night, with a headlamp.”

That might sound a bit Mission: Impossible, but I’m finding my first foraging trip very Zen—lots of staring, and crouching, and listening to the birds. We see turtles, snakes, frogs, and even a skink. (That’s a lizard, not your college roommate.)

And then there are those magical moments when the morels materialize: the heart jumps, the mouth curls into a smile. The intensity of seek and discovery is intoxicating. I try to explain to Spacht how it makes me feel, but he already knows. “To spot something like that, there’s something about it,” he says. “It almost looks alien. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I still feel the same way.” ■

Casey Spacht leads us into the wild in search of morels

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This is the first in a series of seasonal columns on local foraging. Spacht writes about his foraging efforts at lancasterfarmacy.blogspot.com.

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17

w

hen things come back, they’re rarely the same (see: former nerds at high school reunions, animals buried in Pet Cemetery).

As people reconnect with food traditions, it’s inevitable that our modern sensibilities—and technologies—will inform the process. ¶ Philadelphia’s slow-local-sustainable food movement has spawned a new generation of local food artisans. They’re deeply committed to recalling the simple pleasures of the past, while finding more efficient and sustainable ways to operate. ¶ In this year’s Food Issue, you’ll read about Four Worlds Bakery’s new high tech oven—a marvel of insulation and engineering used to bake beautiful fresh loaves of old-world style bread.

You’ll learn about the advantage vacuum sealing gives Supper’s Mitch Prensky, a man with a passion for exotic, unexpected pickles. You’ll hear about the return of the regional artisan goat cheese producer—and the creative places they’re taking chevre.

And, lastly, you’ll get some tips on becoming an artisan yourself through the lost art of jarring and canning.

The Challahman Com e th

O

n an unseasonably warm day in April, Four Worlds Bakery’s Michael Dolich is overseeing the installation of a serious oven. Three men (one of them an expert on this expensive and unwieldy piece of equipment) are straining their backs and sweating up a storm, moving a series of heavy racks made up of slender metal tubes into a box-like shape. In the middle of the floor is a massive pile of insulation. The bakery’s new crown jewel is a high-tech piece of machinery—a $30,000 oven that uses hot water to reach temperatures over 400 degrees—but it will be used to craft something simple, artisanal and perfect. Dolich hopes that humble, crusty perfection will be enough to lure people to this modest space on Woodland Avenue—Four Worlds’ first foray into life as a retail bakery. ¶ Dolich did not start out as a baker. For 10 years he worked as a litigator, practicing family law, personal injury law and mediating disputes. Then, eight years ago, he spent a summer at 18

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Michael Dolich sets out to revive the neighborhood bakery by lee stabert

Elat Chayyim, a Jewish retreat center in the Catskills. He was randomly assigned to work in the kitchen, baking fresh bread for 100 people at a time. He enjoyed the work, but as the summer wound down, he began to get a little antsy.

“I quickly learned that if you bake fresh bread, people love it, whether it’s good or bad,” he explains. “I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, but I was making people really happy with it.”

But then Dolich tried something new: a recipe for sourdough bread. He went through the painstaking process of cultivating his own sourdough starter. That dough changed everything. “I was blown away by how fresh sourdough bread tastes,” he says. “I was instantly hooked. When I got back to the city, I couldn’t stop baking. I just baked, baked, baked.”

Suddenly, there was a decision to be made: accept breadmaking as a hobby, or take the leap and learn how to do it professionally. Dolich took a job at Baker Street in Chestnut Hill and worked there for a year. “I was learning a lot,” he says. “I was also reconditioning my body, learning how to work with my body—that was a process. It was painful, being on my feet all day long. It’s hard work.”

After a year spent back in the Catskills, Dolich went to work at Le Bec Fin’s bakery in Wayne, making croissants with a French master. With that new skill under his belt, he finally decided to strike out on his own, baking out of his house in West Philly.

Using the moniker Challahman, Dolich sent out a weekly menu via email. Word spread quickly. Eager diners would order online and pick up fresh bread on his porch every Friday.

Eventually, due to increasing demand, the business expanded to three days a week. In 2008, Four Worlds moved into Kaffa Crossing Café, sharing the space and expanding operations.

With access to a commercial kitchen, Dolich began wholesaling croissants to cafés around the neighborhood.

His croissants have gained a devoted following. “The trick to croissants is getting the right amount of fermentation in there,” explains Dolich. “The dough has to be super fermented in order to hold all that fat, and you want it to be really light and fluffy.” Each delectable crescent goes through a three-day process that involves the addition of old dough and a meticulous technique for sheeting and incorporating the butter.

Fermentation is Dolich’s passion—whether it’s his famous challah or those flaky croissants. “I love the taste of it,” he says. “It’s to the point now where, when I go out to eat, I never get bread.

I can’t eat sandwiches out because to me it just tastes like cardboard. I’m so used to a really deep flavor in my bread. So, I’m milling my own grain and doing the best I can to get the best fermentation of the yeast. With the yeast, I’ve created an ecosystem that I keep alive; it’s great.”

It should come as no surprise that Dolich is obsessive about the ingredients he uses for Four Worlds’ breads. As mentioned, he mills his own grains—commercially ground products just weren’t up to snuff. Four Worlds’ grain mills are about as far from factory mills as they come. “They’re small and they’re slow, which is perfect,” says Dolich.

Back to that oven. If the goal is to make something that tastes like it came out of a wood-fired oven, why not just build one of those? “The problem with a brick oven is it’s so inefficient,” says Dolich. “You’ve got to heat it up—run a fire in there for eight hours; somebody’s got to tend that fire—and you only get maybe 10 or 11 bakes from one fire.” On the other hand, Four Worlds’ new oven is so efficient and well-insulated that it uses less energy to leave it on at night (maintaining the high heat) than to cool it down and reheat in the morning.

Dolich’s passion and thoughtful nature informs everything Four Worlds does. When the new retail location finally opens, it will keep old world-style bakery hours, something that might prove difficult for many modern consumers. “The concept we’re shooting for here—and time will tell if it works or not—is to train people when there’s fresh bread,” reasons Dolich. “That way, we only have to be open three hours in the morning and maybe two or three hours in the evening. So, people come in the morning between six and nine o’clock when there’s croissants, bagels and baguettes, fresh right out of the oven.”

Or they’ll learn to stop in on the way home from

work. “You’d be surprised to hear that when you go to retail bakeries, a lot of the stuff isn’t fresh— it’s baked maybe the evening before or the day before,” he continues. “Hopefully we get a line when we have fresh stuff, and then we sell out and we close. We have to train people and modify the way they buy bread.”

Four Worlds’ staff reflects Dolich’s unorthodox approach. One of his bakers is an artist, the other a writer. “This is art,” he insists. “It’s art you can eat. It’s challenging to hire people because you want artists, but you also need people who are very practical and good with their hands—so I would actually say it’s half-art, half-menial labor. But you know, that physical exertion adds to the art.”

Bread seems like such a simple thing. Maybe that’s why it’s so difficult to get it right—and so transcendent when you do. My personal experience with Four Worlds began with the challah.

Picking up a beautifully braided, whole wheat loaf at the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market, I felt it give beneath my hands in a way that was simultaneously tender and substantial. Made—like all Dolich’s breads—with that fermented sourdough starter, the traditional Sabbath bread had the most tremendous depth of flavor, and a transcendent texture. After pairing it with my meal, I couldn’t resist breaking off a few more pieces, slathering them in local butter and honey. Oh, the magic of flour and water.

“I want people to get fresh, good quality bread,” says Dolich. “I want to bring back the neighborhood bakery. It’s an uphill battle, and the economics are really tough. I mean, best case scenario, if everything goes well, I’m still not going to make much money doing this, but it’s what I love.” ■

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Four Worlds Bakery, 4634 Woodland Avenue, fourworldsbakery.com

june 20 10

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19

Nature Preserve Supper’s Mitch Prensky brings pickling into the modern era by lee stabert

C

arrots with passion fruit, saffron and garlic with cauliflower, barigoule and artichokes, turnips with Herbes de Provence, spicy pickled vegetables for báhn mi, kosher dill pickles, okra with sage, preserved lemons and oranges, mushrooms, apples, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, green beans and okra.

That is just a short list of the things Mitch Prensky is pickling at his restaurant Supper.

No, he doesn’t have a bunker for all those jars— though they would look awfully pretty, lined up in colorful rows. Instead he takes an assist from vacuum technology, streamlining and even improving, this neglected food tradition.

Improving? Sounds like sacrilege, but the science behind his process has some interesting 20

g r i d p h i l ly. c o m

upsides. First off, there is the time factor. “The vacuum sealing extracts the air out of the mixture,” explains Prensky. “This breaks down the vegetable’s cell walls, forcing them to accept the pickling liquid.” The result: instead of waiting two or three days for something to pickle, he gets the same effect in 40 seconds.

Texture is also a huge upside. To seal jars properly, they have to be submerged in boiling

water. The hot water ends up actually cooking the pickle slightly, so you get a softer pickle.

“We can get the same result and the pickle is crunchier,” says Prensky. “It almost comes across as if it’s raw.” They use the same method with herbs and spinach—adding a little olive oil and vacuuming the greens. The result looks like it’s been blanched—it’s very green—but it’s still technically raw, preserving the vitamins and nutritional value.

Pickling can be a farm-to-table chef’s best friend—it helps mitigate the frustrations of seasonal eating. “You take a vegetable that’s really great and you say, ‘OK, how can I serve this out of season?’” says Prensky. “Like fiddlehead ferns and ramps—we pickle them. Then we can phot os by ja s on va rn ey

People say, “How can you have this out of season?” Well, it’s a pickle—that’s why people did this in the first place.

Before refrigerators, they needed it.

—Mitch Prensky serve them in September or October. People say, ‘How can you have this out of season?’ Well, it’s a pickle—that’s why people did this in the first place. Before refrigerators, they needed it.”

Talking to Prensky, it’s clear that this stuff excites him. “I think my palate is very extreme,” he says. “I like really sweet stuff and I like really sour, bitter things, too. I really love the variety you can have when you’re making a pickle. You can pickle something with passion fruit, and you get something you wouldn’t expect. You can pickle something with curry. It adds another dimension to what we do here, which is handcrafted food. And, not wasting food, which is really important to me. You do a disservice to the people who grow the vegetables when you throw them out.”

As for the source of those vegetables, Supper has come up with a novel solution for this year’s growing season: They have contracted with a local farm to supply them exclusively. In February, Prensky sat down with the family that owns Blue Elephant Farm and their horticulturalist to make

DaisyAd4.875x2.5

a list of the things they’d grow.

(Some of his special requests: romanesco, arugula blossoms and baby corn for pickling.) “It’s really my dream come true—taking ‘farm to table’ to the nth degree,” enthuses Prensky. “We have them on retainer. And we’re also going to take all the extra food, pickle and preserve it, and give it back to the family.”

Prensky has embraced vacuum sealing for Supper’s pickles, but his openness to new technologies has its limits—the technique has to make the food taste better. “I’m not an inventor; I’m a chef,” he emphasizes. “What’s the best method? What’s the shortest distance between two points?

Sometimes it’s vacuum sealing, sometimes it’s just plain old braising—cooking like grandma— sometimes it’s putting something over an open flame. They’re all valid techniques when used

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3:12 PM

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properly. I’m aware of things—I read a lot, and I try to learn and incorporate techniques to see if we can do something better with it. If it doesn’t come out better, I’m not interested.” ■

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Supper, 926 South Street, supperphilly.com

NEW YORK CITY LEBANON

PHILADELPHIA

LANCASTER

Local flours since 1890.

WASHINGTON, DC

Lancaster/Lebanon County, PA

800-624-3279

www.daisyflour.com june 20 10

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Dairy Queens Amazing Acres Dairy produces local, artisanal chevre by tenaya darlington

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ast May, Debbie Mikulak embarked on a lifelong dream—she became an artisanal goat cheese maker. With 19 goats and a little over five acres in Elverson, PA, she and her husband, Fred Bloom, now produce more than a dozen cheeses, including a French-style Banon wrapped in grape leaves and soaked in brandy. ¶ Mikulak, 61, developed an affection for goats back in second grade when she raised them for her 4-H club in North Central New Jersey. Over the years, she has raised goats and sheep. (“We just had them as pets,” she explains.) It wasn’t until 2003, when she and Bloom bought the farm in Elverson, that she took the plunge into cheese-making. They built a milking barn and cheese room from the ground up, and, in 2007, Mikulak completed a certification program at the Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheese (VIAC), a two-week program offered by the University of Vermont. ¶ To be considered “artisanal” in the cheese world requires a commitment to simplicity and purity. According to the American Cheese Society (ACS), artisanal cheese must be produced by hand, in small batches, with as little mechanization as possible. Mikulak makes cheese twice a week in the cheese room 22

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that she built under her ranch house, and each batch begins with a mere 20 to 25 gallons of fresh goat milk.

She extends the care she puts into hand-making her cheese into tending her animals. “We keep our goat babies with their moms,” she explains. “Goats are very intelligent, so we think that bonding is important.” She is also passionate about staying small. “We don’t want to over-pasture our land. Plus, this is a retirement business for us,” she laughs. “We’ve been wanting a goat dairy for 25 years.”

To start, Mikulak made chevre—fresh unaged goat cheese.

“People told me that was the easiest,” she says. She now offers 12 varieties, including a roasted garlic version topped with a clove of her own homegrown goodness. Later, she moved on to bloomy cheeses (featuring with a soft, white rind), such as Sea Smoke, which Mikulak named after the fog in Maine, a place where she has vacationed. It bears resemblance to Humboldt Fog, an award-winning goat cheese from California’s Cypress Grove Dairy, considered by many to be the country’s premier goat cheese producer. “Fewer people make the bloomy rinds or aged goat cheeses,” Mikulak told me one afternoon, taking a break from an affinage (the process of ripening cheeses) conference she was attending. “Or so I’m told. Right now I’m working on a Boucheron, and I’d like to make Camembert.”

Mikulak likes the mild taste of the milk produced by her Nubians; she selected the breed, in part, for this trait. During the summer, they graze on grass, and in winter, Mikulak feeds them hay and grains. Her cheese reflects the quality of her goats’ diet—Amazing Acres chevre is light, grassy and lemony without the pronounced tang that afflicts some goat cheeses.

As for her recipes, Mikulak follows traditional guidelines for each style of cheese, tweaking them along the way. “I love to cook and create,” she says. “I’m always experimenting.” ■

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Goat Cheese

Pairings Beer: Crack open a bottle of Philadelphia Brewing Company’s Walt Wit alongside a wedge of Amazing Acres’ Sea Smoke. The bright notes of this unfiltered wheat ale work wonders alongside complex, slightly acidic goat cheese.

Wine: For fresh or slightly aged goat cheese, try a fruity, highacid white wine, like Pinot Grigio or Chenin Blanc (Vouvray), or a dry rosé. Debbie Mikulak likes to keep it local with a glass of Spiced Apple Wine from Chester County’s Black Walnut Winery, alongside her chipotle goat cheese.

the rise of local goat cheese

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n Pennsylvania and other states around the country, goat cheese is undergoing a renaissance. In her recent book, Goat Cheese (Gibbs Smith, 2008), Maggie Foard points out that, nationally, the number of licensed goat dairies has jumped from “a handful” 20 years ago to “over 200” in 2007. Part of this growth stems from demand, particularly from consumers who are lactose-intolerant. “Goat cheese is easier to digest than cow’s milk,” Mikulak explains. “The fat globules are smaller and more even in size.”

opposite Debbie Mikaluk and Fred Bloom of Amazing Acres Goat Dairy make a statement above Goats from Amazing Acres below Products from Shellbark Hollow

In the Philadelphia area, several established goat cheese artisans supply local markets and cheese counters. Stop by Headhouse Farmers’ Market some Sunday and you’re likely to meet Elly Hushour of Nazareth, PA, who has been making goat cheese since the ’80s under the name Patches of Star. Her goat havarti and queso fresco are also popular at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York. At the Saturday Piazza Farmers’ Market in Northern Liberties, you won’t have to look hard to find the crowd gathered around Shellbark Hollow’s stand.

Pete Demchur and his family produce awardwinning goat cheese in West Chester, and their spreadable chevres and sharp goat cheeses are sold at Di Bruno Bros. and at Reading Terminal Market’s Fair Food Farmstand.

“There are some wonderful goat cheese producers in Pennsylvania—some old, some new,” says Paul Lawler of the Fair Food Farmstand, pointing out several newcomers such as Amazing Acres and Yellow Springs Farm of Chester County. The latter, a native plant nursery, offers an artisanal goat cheese CSA. This Community Supported Agriculture program offers members a dozen allotments of goat cheese— both fresh pasteurized and aged raw—over the course of six months. ■

Serving Ideas: Because it’s light and mild, chevre goes well with sweet or savory accompaniments. Sprinkle it on salads, crumble it over scrambled eggs, or use it to stuff hot pickled peppers or cherry tomatoes.

On a cheese board, serve soft goat cheese with honey and toasted pine nuts, or dazzle it up with fresh herbs, lemon zest and edible flowers. You can also warm goat cheese in the oven and drizzle it with olive oil and cracked pepper.

Get Your Goat

Amazing Acres Goat Dairy amazingacresgoatdairy.com Available directly from the dairy, or at Di Bruno Bros., Talula’s Table in Kennett Square and other small markets. Try Debbie Mikulak’s Sea Smoke, Fromagina (similar to ricotta) or Crottin.

Patches of Star Dairy, LLC weaseljava.com/POS/ Available at the Headhouse Farmers’ Market. Try Elly Hushour’s goat havarti, queso fresco and goat’s milk gelato.

Shellbark Hollow Farm shellbarkhollow.com Available at the Piazza Farmers’ Market, the Chestnut Hill Farmers’ Market, Di Bruno Bros. and the Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market. Try the Demchur family’s new aged Crottin de Chevre and herbmarinated goat cheeses.

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Jarhead Becoming a home artisan is easier than you think

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by marisa mcclellan

ire-roasted tomatoes. Vanilla-rhubarb jam. Plums in honey. Preserved Seckel pears. No, this isn’t the inventory list of some new upscale grocery—these are just a few of the foodstuffs I preserved last summer and have been happily eating all winter long. ¶ Home canning is the latest vintage culinary skill to experience a revival, particularly with the younger, urban set. Folks from coast to coast are rediscovering how satisfying it can be to put up pickles and eat jam made with their own hands. Will this be your summer to start canning? To become an artisan yourself?

History Lesson Home canning is a method of food preservation that has been popular in the United States since the late 1850s, when John L. Mason invented the first reusable jar with a screw-on lid. We know them today as Mason (imagine that!) or Ball jars.

Canning technology has gradually improved since, and in 1915, Alexander H. Kerr came up with the two-part canning lid—a descendant of which is used to this day.

The mechanics behind canning are fairly simple. You fill a clean jar with jam, pickles or whole fruit in syrup, apply the flat lid and the threaded ring to the jar, and submerge the filled jar in boiling water for a prescribed amount of time (times vary widely, depending on what you’re canning).

When you remove the hot jar from the water, the heat begins to escape, taking with it any air left in the jar. The escaping oxygen pulls the lid down, creating an airtight seal. A food-safe sealing compound embedded into the lid aids in the maintenance of the seal. High acid food preserved in this manner will stay delicious for up to a year.

In the last 60-plus years, as the majority of food production became industrialized and the full-service grocery store became the norm, home canning experienced a drastic drop-off in popularity. It went from being a seasonal necessity—how else would you preserve the bounty of your kitchen garden and fruit trees?—to a neglected art, still practiced in more rural areas, but nearly abandoned by city dwellers.

But as concerns over food miles, pesticides, unsustainable farming practices and chemicals in commercially packaged foods have emerged, a segment of the population has rediscovered home food preservation as a way to reclaim control over their stored, shelf-stable foods.

Happily, the rise of urban farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, buying clubs and community gardens has made it increasingly easy to obtain bountiful amounts of seasonal, locally-grown fruits and vegetables for canning.

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Get Started To get started, let go of anything you’ve heard about canning being scary or dangerous. Right now, we’re only talking about the home canning high-acid things like jams, pickles, tomatoes and fruit in syrup. Botulism, that fearsome bacterium, cannot grow in high-acid environments.

This means that it can not possibly develop in your carefully canned strawberry jam. You can safely share it with impressed friends, content in the knowledge that it will cause them no harm.

Now to the canning—first, take stock of your current kitchen supplies. You’ll want to gather some tongs, a wide-mouth funnel, a variety of measuring cups and, if you’re feeling really committed, a jar lifter. (If you’re going to do a lot of canning, I recommend this tool; it’s saved me from a number of hot water burns over the years.) A large, wide, non-reactive pot like an enameled Dutch oven is a good vessel for cooking jams and jellies. A deep stockpot can easily stand in for a dedicated canning pot (even better if you have a small, round rack to sit at the bottom of the pot). A generous stack of kitchen towels is always incredibly helpful.

Now that you have your tools in place, some tips to set you off on the right path:

→ → Work with the freshest produce around. Take care not to purchase more than you can process in a 48-hour period. → → Always can what’s in season. In the Philadelphia area, that means you make your pickled asparagus in May, strawberry jam in June and put up as many tomatoes as you can manage during August and September. → → It can be a challenge to keep your pickles crisp. Cut off the blossom end of cucumbers and slip a grape or cherry leaf into each jar for optimum crunch. → → When making any sweet preserve with bits of fruit or peel in it, stir it off the heat for at least a minute when the cooking time is up. This helps evenly distribute those bits

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throughout. → → When processing your canned goods, never

start your timer until the water has returned to a boil. → → If your recipe calls for a processing time of 10 minutes or longer, you do not have to use sterilized jars, just clean ones. If the processing is less than that, make sure to sterilize the jars by boiling them for 10 minutes. → → Never pour hot preserves into cold jars. The heat shock can cause the jars to break. → → Once the jars have cooled completely, always check to ensure that they’ve sealed tightly.

Do this by removing the band and gently wiggling the lid. A good seal means that it will not budge. → → Always store jars in a cool, dark place without the bands. This allows you to more easily see any bad seals or bulging lids.

Why Can? Admittedly, home canning isn’t for everyone.

However, for those bitten by the preserving bug, it can be deeply satisfying. It offers an opportunity to engage with one’s personal food supply in a far more active way than is typical in mainstream American culture. It raises awareness of the seasonal cycle of fruits and vegetables. And, if done right, it makes affordable high-quality, handmade food products.

We all know that artisanally-made products are currently in vogue. And yes, it’s always a delight to be able to buy from craftspeople who make their living by practicing their arts. However, an addiction to $8 half-pints of handmade marmalade can quickly start to break the grocery budget.

Canning provides the opportunity to make your own unique, small-batch goods, enlivening your toast, yogurt and sandwiches all year round.

What’s more, a well-stocked pantry of home canned goods means that you always have a quick birthday or housewarming gift within easy reach.

No matter what your reason for canning, you’ve made something that tastes good and, when eaten in January or February, it will be a powerful reminder that the time of abundance will return again. ■

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Marisa McClellan teaches seasonal canning classes; visit foodinjars.com for more dates and times.

Strawberry Jam Makes seven pints

10 cups of chopped strawberries 7 cups of sugar 2 lemons, zested and juiced 2 packets of liquid pectin (that’s one box total)

Prepare your canning pot by filling it twothirds full with water and bringing it to a boil.

When it boils, turn the heat down and keep it at a simmer. Place the lids in a saucepan of warm water and bring them to a gentle simmer, in order to soften the sealing compound.

Put berries, sugar, the lemon zest and lemon juice in a large (at least six quarts), non-reactive pot and cook over high heat for 15 to 20 minutes.

Boil the fruit until it develops a syrupy consistency. Reduce the heat and, using an immersion blender or potato masher, break down some of the fruit. Be careful not to over-blend if you’re using an immersion blender.

Raise the heat back to high and bring the jam to a boil. Once it has reached a sustained rolling boil, squeeze in the pectin. Let boil for approximately 10 minutes, until the jam looks thick and viscous.

Lay out your clean jars. Fill the jars. Wipe the rims with the edge of a towel dipped in boiling water. Top with lids and screw on rings. Carefully lower the jars into the boiling water. When using small jars, you can stack them one on top

of the other if need be.

Process for 10 minutes in the boiling water bath (don’t start your timer until the canning pot returns to a boil). When time is up, remove the jars from the water and put them on a towel-lined counter. They should begin to ping fairly quickly, indicating that they’re sealed. If any of your jars don’t seal, make sure to refrigerate them. Once sealed, the jam will last on the pantry shelf for up to one year (of course, it rarely lasts that long).

Asian-Inspired Quick Pickles Makes one quart

5-6 Kirby (pickling) cucumbers, each cut into six spears 1 chili pepper 1 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar (look for a brand that uses sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup; Trader Joe’s makes a good one) 2 limes, juiced 3-4 scallions, chopped (greens and whites) 2 garlic cloves, sliced 4 sprigs of mint, chopped 1/2 tsp. salt

Pack the cucumber spears into a quart jar.

Slide the chili pepper down in among the cucumber spears.

In a 2-cup measuring cup, combine the rice wine vinegar, lime juice, scallions, garlic cloves, mint and salt. Pour over the cucumbers. Using your fingers, poke some of the garlic slivers, mint and scallion down among the cucumbers.

Screw a lid on the jar, and, holding it over the sink (in case of leaks), invert the jar and give it a good shake, in order to distribute all the delicious bits.

Let your pickles sit in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours before eating.

Pickled Garlic Scapes Makes two pints

1 ½ pounds of garlic scapes 2 tbsp. pickling spice blend 1 ½ cups apple cider vinegar 1 ½ cups water 2 tbsp. kosher salt

Prepare your canning pot by filling it twothirds full with water and bringing it to a boil.

When it boils, turn the heat down and keep it at a simmer. Place the lids in a saucepan of warm water and bring them to a gentle simmer, in order to soften the sealing compound.

Measure one tablespoon of pickling spice into the bottom of each jar. Wash and trim the garlic scapes. Fill the jars with garlic scapes using one of two methods: Either chop them into two-inch lengths and pack them in, or go with the naturally curly nature of the scapes and swirl them into the jars. (This technique will leave some empty space in the center of the jar, which you can then fill with shorter bits of scapes).

When your jars are filled, make the brine. In a medium saucepot, combine the vinegar, water and salt. Bring to a simmer, stirring until the salt is dissolved.

Using a wide-mouth funnel, pour the brine over the garlic scapes, making sure to leave half an inch of headspace (that’s the amount of room between the top of the brine and the rim of the jar). Using a chopstick or plastic knife (you don’t want to use metal on jars that will be processed in a boiling water bath), work the air bubbles out from around the garlic scapes.

When all the air bubbles have been removed, wipe the rims of the jars with a clean towel to remove any spilled brine. Apply the simmered lids and screw the bands on. Process in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (starting the timer when the pot returns to a boil). When the processing time is up, remove the jars from the bath and let them cool on a towel-lined counter top. These pickles are good for up to one year.

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/recipes

Recipe Box These fresh, easy recipes are perfect for the upcoming season of seaside snacking and backyard barbecues by marisa mcclellan, foodinjars.com

Whole Grain Strawberry Shortcake Makes six shortcakes Biscuits

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour 1 ½ tsp. double acting baking powder ½ tsp. salt 1 tbsp. cane sugar 3 tbsp. cold butter 1/3 cup cold milk Strawberries

1 quart strawberries, washed and sliced 2 tbsp. cane sugar

Whipped Cream

½ pint of heavy whipping cream 2 tbsp. cane sugar

Cucumber and Red Onion Salad 1 English cucumber or 3 smaller Kirby cucumbers ½ red onion ½ cup seasoned rice wine vinegar 2 tbsp. olive oil 1 tsp. dried dill ½ tsp. kosher salt ¼ tsp. garlic powder 5-6 grinds of pepper

Wash and cut the cucumber into thin half moons. If you can’t find English or Kirby cu26

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cumbers, conventional slicing cucumbers will also work. However, they’ll need to be peeled and de-seeded.

Cut the red onion into thin slivers. (Scallions and spring onions can also be substituted.) Combine the cut cucumbers and onions in a medium serving bowl.

Whisk together the dressing ingredients.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Pour the dressing over the vegetables and stir to combine. Allow the salad to sit for at least 10 minutes prior to serving so the flavors have a chance to marry.

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Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Sift the dry ingredients together. Using a pastry blender, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it is in small bits. Add the milk, stir together with a wooden spoon until just combined.

Turn out onto a clean board or countertop.

Knead for 30 seconds and then pat the dough out so it’s approximately half an inch thick. Using a clean glass or biscuit cutter, cut the dough into rounds.

Lay out on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the tops are brown and the biscuits have puffed up tall.

While the biscuits cook, toss the chopped strawberries together with the sugar. Set aside for a few minutes, so the strawberries get nice and juicy.

Using a hand mixer, whip the cold cream into soft peaks, adding the sugar at the very end.

To assemble, cut the cooled biscuits in half.

Place the bottom biscuit on a plate and heap on a layer of strawberries. Top with a spoonful of whipped cream. Balance the top half of the biscuit on the cream. Repeat with layers of strawberries and cream. Serve immediately. ■

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6/30/2010

Best Prenatal Massage

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May

22

Foraging Farm Tour with Wildman Steve Brill

Go for a two-hour walk around Pennypack Farm & Education Center and learn how to forage for berries, greens, medicinal herbs and seeds. Wildman Steve Brill will lead the way as you tackle wild foods. →→ May 22, 1 – 3 p.m., Pennypack Farm &

Education Center, 685 Mann Rd., Horsham, 215-646-3943, visit pennypackfarm.org/ education to register

May 15

May

26

Spotted Hill Farm Fest: A Celebration of Country Life

If the hustle and bustle of the big city has got you itching for a taste of the simple country life, Spotted Hill Farm’s first-ever Farm Fest is the event for you. Children and adults alike can interact with the farm’s many animals and enjoy music, games, food, a plant sale and goods from local farmers and craftspeople. Rain or shine. →→ May 15, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Spotted Hill Farm,

530 Colebrookdale Rd., Boyertown, spottedhillfarm.com

May 15 16

→→ May 15–16, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m., Penn’s Landing

Great Plaza, Columbus Blvd. btwn. Walnut and Chestnut Sts., artstarcraftbazaar.com

20

Bicycle Coalition Urban Riding Basics at Wooden Shoe Books

Just because you dropped the training wheels at age six doesn’t mean you know the ins and outs of bike lanes, traffic rules and drivers with road rage. Join the Bicycle Coalition for an informative class and discussion on the Basics of Urban Riding. →→ May 20, 7 – 8:30 p.m., Wooden Shoe Books,

704 South St., bicyclecoalition.org

May 21

DVGBC A View from the Top: Green Roof Tour & Presentation

Starting in July 2010, the Philadelphia Water Department will begin collecting stormwater fees based on the amount of surface area covered in impenetrable materials such as asphalt, concrete and stone. Installing a green roof is one way to avoid this fee. See them up close and learn about the benefits at this event. →→ May 21, $25 DVGBC members; $35 non-

members; $15 students, 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m., visit dvgbc.org to register (deadline May 19)

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→→ May 26, 6 – 8 p.m., $18 members;

$23 non-members, Chanticleer, 786 Church Rd., Wayne, 215-988-8869, pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.org

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Featuring over 100 artists and crafters, Art Star’s annual event is sure to provide you with your handmade goodies fix. The handpicked artists will offer a wide array of wares, including paper goods, ceramics, clothing, paintings and sculpture.

May

Why buy bouquets of flowers when you can create beautiful arrangements from what’s growing outside your door? A Chanticleer horticulturist will guide you through techniques for creating seasonal flower arrangements.

May

Art Star Craft Bazaar 2010

Chanticleer Demonstration: Flower Arranging From the Garden

Delaware Valley Earth Force Green Scavenger Hunt

Leave the shovels and maps at home— you won’t actually be searching on this scavenger hunt. Instead, come ready to taste locally-grown food, explore new and renovated green houses and learn more about Philadelphia’s quest to become the “Greenest City in America.” →→ May 23, $23 Adult Early Bird registration;

$13 Child Early Bird, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., City Hall, 1 Penn Sq., 215-884-9888, visit earthforce.org/section/offices/delval/ dvevents to register

June 5

Creatures of the Abyss

The depths of the world’s oceans are home to some of the most beautiful and strange creatures on earth. The “Creatures of the Abyss” exhibit will take you on a journey through this unimaginable world. →→ June 5 – Sept. 6, Academy of Natural

Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., 215-299-1000, ansp.org

June 5

Generate. Degenerate.

The challenge: to make and perform a multimedia piece using only sustainable energy. The result: a revolutionary and intimate performance powered by a bike. Held in conjunction with the SCEE’s opening reception for “Elemental Energy: Art Powered by Nature.” →→ June 5, 8:30 p.m., The Schuylkill Center

for Environmental Education, 8480 Hagy’s Mill Rd., call 215-482-7300 ext. 110 to register, schuylkillcenter.org/events; mirodancetheatre.org

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June 6

Philly Fun Ride

Part Philadelphia International Cycling Championship, this 14-mile lap of the race’s route will give you a chance to test your skills before the competition starts. Here’s your chance to take on the world-famous Manayunk Wall. →→ June 6, 7 – 9 a.m., more details and route

map available at procyclingtour.com/ phillyfunride.htm

June 12

Satellite Second Saturday

Presented by VIX Emporium and the Satellite Café, this monthly arts-andcrafts event features handmade creations by local artists. This month, make your own terrarium at VIX with Beth Richey while enjoying live music and refreshments. →→ June 12, 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., The Firehouse,

50th and Baltimore Sts., call 215-471-7700 to pre-register for the terrarium workshop, vixemporium.com

June 13

15th Annual Arts in the Park

This celebration of art, entertainment and family fun will feature 50 juried artisans, live music, children’s activities, a plant sale and refreshments. →→ June 6, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. (rain date: June 13),

$3 suggested donation; children are free, High School Park, between Montgomery Ave. and High School Rd., Elkins Park, 215-7828082, highschoolpark.org

June 18

DVGBC Green Schools Tour

Local schools are going green. Imagine the possibilities during this DVGBC tour of Germantown Friends and Harriton High Schools. →→ June 18, 11:30 a.m. – 6 p.m., $20 members;

$30 non-members, Germantown Friends School, 31 W. Coulter St.; Harriton High School, 600 N. Ithan Ave., Rosemont, 215399-5790, visit dvgbc.org/education/view/ green-schools-tour-0 to register

June 19

Linvilla Orchards Raspberry Festival

Nothing signals the arrival of summer better than vine-ripened berries, especially if you pick them yourself. At this midday festival, you can pick the orchard’s in-season produce, sample local foods, dance to live music, feed some furry friends and shop the large farmers’ market. →→ June 19, 9 a.m. – 6 p.m., $25, Linvilla

Orchards Entertainment Garden, 137 W. Knowlton Rd., Media, 610-876-7116, linvilla.com

June 19

CDC Bowling Ball

Join the Community Design Collaborative at their 14th annual fundraising event. Enjoy raffle prizes, snacks and collectable CDC pint glasses, whether you choose to bowl by day, attend the mixer or bowl by night. →→ June 19, Bowl by day: 4 – 6 p.m.; Mixer:

7 – 8 p.m.; Bowl by night: 8 – 11 p.m., AMF Boulevard Lanes, 8011 Roosevelt Blvd., bowlingball.eventbrite.com

June 20

From Beaks to Feathers: Birding 101

June 22

Cooking Asian Greens

Interested in becoming a birder, but not sure where to get started? This program will teach interested ornithologists the birding basics. Test out your skills on Briar Bush Nature Center’s trails and in the Bird Observatory.

Ever picked up a bunch of bok choy and wondered what to do with the rubbery green leaves? What about tatsoi? Learn how to select and prepare these delectable greens—your taste buds and health will reap the benefits.

→→ June 20, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m., $5 per person;

→→ June 22, 7 p.m., $15, Pennypack Farm and

$10 for a family of four, Briar Bush Nature Center, 1212 Edge Hill Rd., Abington, 215887-9079, briarbush.org

Education Center, 685 Mann Rd., Horsham, 215-646-3943, visit pennypackfarm.org/ education to register

URBANSUSTAINABILITYFORUM

Featuring: < Chris Mooney Author of Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future

Who Will Tell The People: Science and Sustainability in the Media

Alex Mulcahy

Thursday, May 20

Publisher of Grid Magazine

6:00- 6:30 p.m. Reception 6:30- 8:30 p.m. Program Academy of Natural Sciences 19th St. and Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Beth McConnell

Executive Director of the Media and Democracy Coalition

Visit ansp.org for more information

Moderated by: Sandy Shea

Philadelphia Daily News Editorial Page Editor

electric bike sales + service take on the hills G go further have more fun! savor the e-bike experience with free test rides 22 models G starting at $550 authorized Trek Ride+ dealer

550 Carpenter Lane G Philadelphia PA 215.821.9266 www.phillyew.com

Highwire Gallery &

Frantz

Piekema

Eric Frantz Present

June 4th- 28th

First Friday Opening Reception

Tymowczak

Moloney

2 0 4 0 F r a n k f o r d Av e n u e • w w w. h i g h w i r e g a l l e r y. c o m

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by tenaya darlington

Greatest Hits

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ome people geek out over wine. Others, old vinyl. For me, it’s cheese. The stinky stuff. Stilton. Fontina. Époisses. When I meet a strong cheese, it stops me cold, the way hearing a new song on the radio can make you pull over the car, motivated by a desire to really listen. You don’t forget those moments: the first time you heard Led Zeppelin or the night a neighbor let you borrow the Kinks. Me, I never had those moments—we didn’t listen to rock ‘n’ roll in my house, only classical—but I remember the wild cheeses we ate, and they still sing to me. ¶ I remember eating Raclette when I was five, a pungent melter that my Swiss grandparents served with boiled potatoes around the holidays. We’d sit around the table all evening, toasting potato rounds, scraping melted cheese onto our plates, the adults laughing and talking in a guttural language. Raclette will always recall those evenings in Cleveland, when my grandparents were still young and I wore barrettes. Raclette, to me, is youth.

When I was a teenager, I liked to host parties for my friends. My father would roll the pop-up camper into the driveway, and we’d stay up all night playing cards, dressed in wild and strange costumes. One night, I brought a wedge of caveaged Gruyère into our cramped haven, stinking up the place. “It smells like feet! Get it out of here,” my friend Jodi wailed. I was so accustomed to the smell that I didn’t even notice. I walked the cheese back to the house, head hung low, ashamed of my parents’ taste. It didn’t matter that I was wearing a purple wig. Yeah, Gruyère—it will always smell like adolescence.

At college, I got into fondue. I met people who shared my taste for strong cheese, mostly English and Classics majors. When I showed up with a wedge of Fontina, people got excited, hiding their bricks of shrink-wrapped supermarket cheddar in shame and breaking out the $12 wine—big bucks in those days. We made fondue using my grandmother’s Swiss recipe, blending Emmentaler, Fontina, kirsch and nutmeg. Those were halcyon days. Fontina will always conjure ripped jeans and funny hats, studying the Romantics and saving up for a rich, fruity wedge to share with friends.

Then I moved to Wisconsin, a cheese lover’s wonderland. Goat cheese rolled in ash was my latest revelation. I still remember sitting on the grass at a farmers’ market in Madison, eating a whole pack of Fantome Farm’s goat cheese rolled in black dust. It was subtler than the cheeses of my youth, lemony and light—I had found my new Peppermint Pattie, a real breath freshener. Now, whenever I visit my family, we eat this cheese together. We simply refer to it as “candy.”

Five years ago, I transplanted my Midwestern roots to Philadelphia. I found Di Bruno Brothers and made fast friends with a crew of tattooed cheesemongers. Here were people that spoke my language, who took cheese seriously. Each spring, to commemorate my move, I go down to South Philly and blow some bills on strong cheese. It’s not just because I love the taste (though I do)—I know those pungent flavors will serve as a marker for remembering the year to come.

The year I bought my first house in Philly was the year of Stilton. I ate it slathered on bread with chutney at the Mann Center that spring. The year I gave up my car, I went through a Caerphilly phase—oh, the Welsh and their hard, aged wheels! And now, in my fifth spring, I have discovered an unforgettable raw milk, washed-rind cheese from Connecticut called, oh yes, Hooligan.

It tastes like a blast of backwoods wind, mixed with the smell of rural dive bar, right down to the peanut shells ground into the floor. One bite, and I was transported home. By the second bite, I was dancing. ■

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Tenaya Darlington writes the blog Madame Fromage (madamefromage.blogspot.com) and leads occasional cheese tastings at Quince Fine Foods (209 W. Girard Ave.).

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