Grid Magazine April 2011 [#025]

Sustainable Philadelphia

take one!

april 2011 / issue 25 gridphilly.com

s ta rt p l u s

CSA Guide

yo ur

f i r s t ga r d e n!

Expert Tips from Local Garden G urus

Mark Bittman

grow your own!

(we’re worth the effort!)

2011 is the Year of the Tomato. We’ve got everything you need to celebrate this fine fruit. Start ‘em from seed with a grow kit from our store or pick up a well-nurtured heirloom from our selection in the nursery. We want to get YOU growing and Primex is eager to help. Any questions? We’re No time to grow your own?

Pick ‘em up at Primex! happy to talk tomatoes! ...Not to mention trees, Maple shrubs, flowers and houseplants, eco-friendly Lancaster Acres Farm Fresh products, sustainable solutions and organic Farm, Co-op alternatives...the list goes on! Whatever your LLC gardening needs, we’re here to help you — CSA pick-up location coming wednesdays in spring Grow Your Own .

Primex Garden Center

Independent, family-owned and operated since 1943

435 West Glenside Avenue • Glenside, PA 19038 215-887-7500 • www.primexgardencenter.com saturday: 8 - 5 • sunday: 9 - 5 • mon-fri: 7:30 - 6

2 g ri dhandcrafted p h il ly.c o m food ap r il 2011 delicious, 215-925-5080 cafeestelle.com 444 N. 4th Street (between Callowhill and Spring Garden)

Dating & Social network for like-minded Singles Your resource for inspired connections.

For dating, friendship and fun.

Connecting singles in the Greater Delaware Valley who share an interest in health and wellness, personal growth, sustainability, arts and culture.

www.anaturalaffinity .com Find romance and friendship with people who share your interests

Singles’ events calendar; attend events and create your own.

Join a group, start a group, get together and have fun.

ers ow Gr ow tt kn tha rs oce Gr cele brate all tha is ava ilab le loc ally Visit these markets today and enjoy ...

handmade chocolates, Farmstand cheeses, Farm Fresh eggs, Just-Picked Produce, artisan breads, much more! so and ts Produc iendly local specialities, Pastured Meats and Dairy, Diet-Fr

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1618 e. Passyunk ave., Phila, Pa 19148 215-465-1411 | greenaislegrocery.com

reading terminal Market, Phila, Pa 19107 215-627-2029 | fairfoodphilly.org

4425 baltimore ave., Phila, Pa 19104 215-387-MilK | milkandhoneymarket.com

2521 christian st., Phila, Pa 19146 215-259-toGo | healthybitestogo.com

1610 south st., Phila, Pa 19146 215-545-3924 | pumpkinphilly.com

visit these stores & MeNtioN this aD For Helping you celebrate ly! ral atu ..n 10% oFF a GiFt certiFicate!! ys. ida the hol

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g rid ph illy.c o m ap ri l 2011 / i ssue 25

Cover Story page

page

28

32

Garden Now

So You Think You Can Garden?

Start your first garden for less than $30

Sally McCabe and Mike McGrath with next-level gardening tips.

34 Quix & Dirty

Checking soil for the soup

26 The Opinionist Frank talk with the New York Times’ Mark Bittman.

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Community | Ignite and Stake rake in the micro-grant dough; DVRPC drops its big plan; Clean Air Council’s responsible 5K

12 Energy | Electricity choice demystified; Crane Arts goes solar 14 Media | The minds behind Mind TV; Farmer to the stars Tom Culton pitches a show; Reviews of Soil Mates and Meat: A Benign Extravagance

m ark b i t t m an photo by l eel a c y d r o s s

16 Green Living | Stop junk mail at the source; Recycling challenge: plastic bags; Do it clean with natural soaps 20 Food | Farm profile: SHARE; On tap: PBC Fleur de Lehigh; Madame Fromage: Washington’s Crossing; Now open: Kitchen at Penn and Kennett Restaurant; 7 CSA’s you won’t want to share; Marisa McClellan’s Easter-, Lentand Passover-friendly fare

36 Shoots & Ladders Start your seedlings 38 One on One | John Byrne on the link between unions and sustainability 40 Urban Naturalist Toads gone wild!

42 Events | Speakers, workshops and spring happenings 46 Dispatch My dual-flush debacle

publisher

It’s a Jungle Out There

C

lassic sophomore mistake? Two years ago, our first as backyard container gardeners, we eased into things. It was already April or May when we returned from Laurel Hill Gardens with starter plants of creeping rosemary, parsley, cilantro, broccoli and a couple shoots of lettuce.

We later supplemented with a basil plant I picked up at the South Philly Acme, a very precocious lemon thyme plant, peas and, at the end of the season, we popped some garlic cloves in the ground. Most of it did pretty well in the bathtub-sized raised bed in our tiny patio/back yard.

Last year, emboldened—overly so—by our modest year-one success, and encouraged by a gorgeous Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog that I rescued from a trashcan in the mailroom at my old job, my girlfriend and I went off the deep end. We (OK, I) ordered so many packets of seeds: three types of melon, two types of basil, strawberries, romanesco, hot peppers, artichokes, oregano, squash, fenugreek, carrots, kiwi(!), wormwood (as seen in the scariest parts of the Bible!). We supplemented it all with six varieties of tomato seeds gifted to us by GRID’s Shoots & Ladders columnist, Char Vandermeer (and eventually four more tamats from You Bet Your Garden’s Mike McGrath.) After we started our seedlings in shrimpy peat pots and then cruelly starved them of light, we tried again in vessels made of newspaper wrapped around a drinking glass.

Our ambitions knew no bounds. We drew diagrams on graph paper; drilled drainage holes into a phalanx of $2 Ikea wastebaskets; acquired a battalion of plastic window boxes to stand sentry on our back wall; enlisted and filled with soil an old wooden produce box that’d been left in the basement by some long-forgotten former owner.

Around the time our garlic scapes began to curlicue, we hardened off and transplanted our new, not-leggy seedlings.

Before we knew it, we had approximately 70 plants going absolutely wild in our 5’ x 14’ backyard. Our grill, which we’d used so much the year prior, drowned in green. When a squash plant jumped the wall of the raised bed and bolted toward the back door, we took drastic measures: It was us or it.

Alex Mulcahy 215.625.9850 ext. 102 alex@gridphilly.com editor-in-chief

Brian Howard brian.howard@gridphilly.com interim managing editor

Felicia D’Ambrosio associate editor

Ariela Rose art director

Jamie Leary jamie@gridphilly.com designer

Melissa McFeeters distribution

Ariela Rose 215.625.9850 ext. 100 ariela@gridphilly.com copy editors

Andrew Bonazelli Patty Moran production artist

Lucas Hardison writers

We returned from vacation to discover that our tigger and charentais melons were strangling our jalapenos and yellow pear tomatoes like siblings left alone too long. They’d leapt onto our neighbor’s clothesline, and looked to be eyeing up adjacent Mountain Street. It was the very epitome of what landscape architects refer to as “the overgrown.”

This year, we’re hoping to strike a balance between the furtive baby steps of year one and the bold overdoing it of year two.

Whether you have never caressed a seedling before or are a seasoned green thumb, I hope you’ll find plenty in GRID’s third-annual gardening issue to fuel your backyard dreams this growing season. Vandermeer’s got a cheap-and-easy primer for first timers (p. 28) and we mine McGrath and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Sally McCabe for nuggets aimed at more experienced growers (p. 32) in a cover package gorgeously illustrated by our own Melissa McFeeters.

Happy planting.

Bernard Brown Felicia D’Ambrosio Tenaya Darlington Dana Henry Leanne Krueger-Braneky Drew Lazor Marisa McClellan Ariela Rose Salas Saraiya Sue Spolan Char Vandermeer Samantha Wittchen editorial interns

My Le Bui Caitlin Honan Ashley Huber photographers

Leela Cyd Ross Lucas Hardison Andy McCurdy Kevin Monko illustrators

Dan Allende Kirsten Harper Melissa McFeeters ad sales

Mark Syvertson mark.syvertson@gridphilly.com 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

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c over i llust rat i on by meli ssa mcfe e te rs

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community

Lift Off!

on feb. 10, fishtown pub and music venue johnny brenda’s hosted the seventh installment of Ignite Philly, our local iteration of the highly successful crowd-sourced speaker series taking place in cities throughout America. If you worried in the past that Ignite was too tech-y for your tastes, you shouldn’t anymore. The themes of the night hewed more to civic engagement and urban farming than venture capital or 8-bit music. As always, presenters were each allotted five minutes to speak through 15 auto-rotating slides.

There was still some science fun, with Danny Gerber from the Urban Nutrition Initiative creating smoothies on stage from mangoes, fruit juice and pedal power. Gerber uses the demonstration in local schools to get students excited about a healthy diet. Other excellent green presenters included Joe Forkin and Sarah Thorp from the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation, who encouraged people to “ingest the Kool-Aid” and get ex-

Big Stakes Matt Bennett, permaculture design instructor and leader for Grow Together Mushroom Art Experiment, seemed awestruck during the second Philly Stake Dinner, Jan. 30. “I’m just happy to be here,” he exclaimed to the few hundred Philadelphians crowded into the basement of the First Unitarian Church. “Really, I don’t even expect to win; I’m just proud to share the stage with so many amazing projects.”

Philly Stake Dinner, a recurring, locally sourced communal meal, raises micro grants

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Philly’s Ignite event brings home the goods for charity by salas saraiya cited about the upcoming Race Street Pier, a waterfront park scheduled to open in May. Developer Nic Darling, known for his efforts with 100k House and PostGreen, gave a hilarious talk about a fictional consulting agency (SuckLessConsulting.com) that exists to help stars form entourages, featuring hand-drawn cartoon characters with names like “interim girlfriend” and “the mule.”

Philadelphia was one of 70 cities participating in Global Ignite Week, where attendees in all participating cities were encouraged to donate money to a deserving local charity through donorschoose.org. As of press time, attendees at Ignite Philly had donated more money than attendees at any other Ignite city.  Visit ignitephilly.org to find out more

for creative community projects by asking attendees to pay a small donation. Ten projects— including urban farms, an upcycled materials storehouse, a beekeepers youth training program and a sustainable garment company—were presented to a captive audience of grassroots enthusiasts. The dinner proved so successful that the organizers (an unaffiliated group of artists, activists and local food growers) well outpaced their estimated $750 grant, awarding $1,000 to the Refugee Urban Farm Project for Bhutanese and Burmese refugees in South Philadelphia, $400 to Warrior Writers and $400 to Recycled Artist-In-Residency, with the remaining $750 recycled back into the Philly Stake Dinner effort. —Dana Henry

For more information on the dinners and the projects, visit phillystake.org.

ig n ite ph oto by k ev in monko

Good Eating The DVRPC unveils its food system plan On Feb. 10, the Delaware Valley Regional Plan-

ning Commission (DVRPC) unveiled “Eating Here,” its brand-new food system plan for the Greater Philadelphia Region. The announcement was made at Reading Terminal Market and attracted a diverse crowd of folks interested in creating a more sustainable, fair and accessible food system in our city.

DVRPC Executive Director Barry Seymour shared the plan’s goals, the results of two years of collaboration with local food advocacy groups to analyze the problems Philadelphia’s food system faces (download the report at dvrpc. org/reports/10063A.pdf). “Eating Here” breaks down into six main goals: 1 Support of local agriculture: Largely an effort to maintain affordable land.

2 Continue and expand plans to protect land and natural resources in our region.

3 Lower barriers of entry for new and minority farmers, as well as those that lack necessary funds.

4 Improve nutrition to end obesity and fight preventable diseases by promoting nutrition education and access to technology resources.

5 Encourage the continuation and expansion of the Farm to School program.

6 Encourage collaborative efforts and spirit.

The event also included the awarding of “Plates of Distinction”: $500,000 in grants given by the DVRPC to seven city organizations whose work is in line with the goals laid out by the “Eating Here” plan. The money, provided by the William Penn Foundation, will allow each organization to continue or embark on projects that will benefit local communities. Recipients were Weavers Way Co-op, Greensgrow Farms, Fair Food, SHARE, the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, the Common Market and MANNA. —Ariela Rose For updates on the DVRPC’s “Eating Here” plan and news on other local food-based projects throughout the city and surrounding area, visit our news and events blog, The Griddle, at gridphilly.com.

Art of Science Flora Fantastica: The Whimsical Botanical Art of MF Cardamone

Now through April 17 Free with General Admission

Image ©2010 MF Cardamone

Now through April 24 Free with General Admission

Feeding the Future: Food, Agriculture, and Land Use in Uncertain Times March 22 Impacts of

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Agriculture for the 21st

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A three-part series sponsored by the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. All programs will be held in the Auditorium at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Programs will start with a reception and information exchange at 6 p.m., followed by the presentation at 6:30 p.m.

VISIT THE ACADEMY TODAY! Call 215-299-1000 or visit ansp.org.

1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia

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community

Big & Green Y

Think your event’s too large to be environmentally responsible? The Clean Air Council 5K begs to differ by sue spolan

ou’d think a major, sprawling sporting event involving thousands of people would generate a literal mountain of refuse. But it’s just not so, at least not in the case of the annual Run for Clean Air. Now in its 30th year, this green 5K doubles as the Clean Air Council’s largest single fundraising event.

95 percent of pre-registered participants must register online, reducing the amount of paper forms.

Athletes are provided with information about public transportation options.

“Last year, all of our waste was either recycled or composted,” says Katie Edwards, director of the event that in 2010 welcomed 2,000 runners and 500 spectators to Martin Luther King Drive. “At the end of the day, we had less than one 32-gallon trash bag.”

You have to wonder how that’s possible; most runs feature a flotilla of plastic water bottles, gigantic stacks of registration and waiver forms, and scattered, discarded food wrappers.

Edwards stipulates that everything distributed by the Clean Air Council and race sponsors must be either compostable or recyclable under Philadelphia’s guidelines. Jugs of water poured into compostable cups replace disposable plastic water bottles, and “all our race bags are reusable,” says Edwards.

VIP parking is provided for carpoolers and bicycles.

A recyclable B tag will be issued to all athletes.

Some locally grown, fresh food should be served at pre- and/or post-race meals.

Bicycles, electric scooters, electric motorcycles or electric/hybrid cars can be used for pace and lead vehicles.

At least 80 percent of all signage is reused.

Recycling bins are readily available at the event.

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Composting is provided for pre- and post-event meals. Biodegradable/compostable tableware is recommended as well.

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No single-use disposable plastic bottles for water are distributed at the finish line.

Provide race bags that are recyclable and/or reusable.

illustrati on by melissa mcfeeters

The run (Sat., April 16, 9 a.m., 5krunforcleanair.org), is certified by Athletes for a Fit Planet, which requires organizations to adhere to five mandatory and up to 24 elective practices, of which Clean Air pledges to adhere to over a dozen, including asking race participants to use public transit to get to the starting line.

Another way the Run for Clean Air reduces waste is by making all registration forms electronic. When the race began back in 1981, there was no such thing as a website, let alone online forms. “We used to print over 25,000 registration forms,” says Edwards, who notes that all registration now takes place at active. com, which also offers a donation option.

While the Clean Air Run does not require

New signage is made from recyclable or biodegradable materials.

performance-based fundraising, the nonprofit offers an optional Fundraising Challenge. Eric Wilden, Assistant Director of the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement, raised $500 for his participation in the 5K Run for Clean Air in 2009. “I used Facebook. It was pretty easy,” he says. “People want to give to good causes. You put it out there and give a chance for people to be generous.”

The finish line is not the end of the run, at least not where organizers are concerned.

“We create a festival atmosphere, unlike other events,” says Edwards. Sponsors and local organizations are invited to set up ecofriendly tables with the understanding that in a green runner’s world, there will be no wasteful handouts. 

Green portable toilets use nontoxic deodorizer and recycled toilet paper and paper towels.

Environmental education is included as part of race-day activities (e.g. speakers, booth space for environmental organizations and green product and service companies.)

Athletes are encouraged to support an environmental initiative through volunteering and donations.

KOA

energy audits interior design commercial residential

KOAngotti.com At least 25 percent of all the event’s power is supplied by renewable sources, either directly, or through energy credits or carbon offsets.

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Energy

1 Is it important that your electricity comes from renewable sources? If so, you’ll want to choose a

You’ve Got the Power

Seven things you need to know about choosing your electricity supplier by samantha wittchen Like many Philadelphians, in the last few months you’ve likely been bombarded with offers from elec-

tric suppliers trying to lure you away from PECO with promises of lower rates. What’s with all the wooing? On Jan. 1, electricity rate caps, implemented under 1997’s Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act, expired. With the industry deregulated, you now have the freedom to choose who supplies your electricity. A whole new market has opened up to electric suppliers, and they’re all jockeying for your business. Welcome to the Wild West of electricity generation!

So, what does this mean for your wallet? When you shop for an electric supplier, you’re choosing the company that will provide your generation and sometimes your transmission. In Philadelphia, know that no matter where you buy electricity, PECO still maintains distribution infrastructure like power lines and substations, and will service them in the event of an emergency or outage.

Generation represents the largest component of your bill, and if you switch to a supplier who will provide you with a lower rate for generation, this can mean significant savings on your overall electric bill. We know the prospect of choosing a new electric supplier can be daunting, so here’s a quick guide to help you do it. Before choosing, consider the following questions:

It’s Always Sunny at Crane Arts artists are famous for their independent spirits, pioneering once-industrial urban neighborhoods to renew shuttered factories and warehouses into studios and galleries. Now, the Crane Arts Building—a former industrial warehouse in Fishtown that’s been converted into artist studios—is energy-independent as well,

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provider that offers renewable energy. The Energy Cooperative (profiled in GRID’s March 2011 issue, theenergy.coop) is a local, non-profit option that offers 100 percent renewable energy at a very competitive rate. BlueStar Energy Solutions also offers a 100 percent renewable energy option at an equally competitive rate.

2 Do you want a fixed price or a variable price?

A variable price, while often lower to start, may change by month, day or even hour. A fixed price is locked in for a set period of time.

3 What is the length of the commitment, and is there a cancellation fee? Some suppliers, like BlueStar, require that you sign up for a specific period, and charge penalties if you decide to switch in that time. Go ahead and sign up for that one-year contract if you have a fixed rate and don’t anticipate switching suppliers.

4 Will you receive one bill or two? Some providers (like the Energy Co-op) will charge you through PECO’s bill, and you’ll receive one bill per month.

Other companies will send you a separate bill.

Now the fun part: electricity shopping.

1 Take a look at your current bill and locate how much you’re paying per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity generation. You can use this as a point of comparison.

2 Go to papowerswitch.com to shop for electricity. If you choose PECO as your current provider, all prices listed for electric suppliers will be compared to the current rate that PECO offers. The website lists key information about each supplier, including whether they offer renewable energy, whether their price plan is fixed or variable, and whether there are any cancellation fees.

3 Contact the electric supplier directly from the website to get more details or sign up. samantha wittchen is partner and co-founder of iSpring (ispringassociates.com), a sustainability consulting firm serving companies and organizations in the Delaware and Lehigh valleys.

thanks to a partnership between owners David Gleeson, Richard Hricko and Nick Kripal, and power purchase agreement (PPA) firm/tenant Solar States.

A 450-panel, 81-kilowatt solar array on the building’s 20,000-square-foot roof went live on Feb. 24 during a ceremony attended by Mayor Nutter. “This is the largest rooftop installation in Center City,” says Solar States founder Micah Gold-Markel. “We found that the major barrier to mass solar adoption is the upfront cost, so we removed those costs.” With a PPA, owners allow installation of a solar array on their roofs, generating power they agree to buy at a reduced rate. Gold-Merkel says savings vary from project to project, but that the Crane Arts Building can expect to save 25 percent over PECO’s rates.

This type of point-of-use energy generation is key to efficient cities of the future, in Gold-Markel’s opinion. “In terms of priority, covering urban buildings with solar and making them as efficient as possible is of the utmost importance. … We are, of course, fans of big solar fields out in the middle of Pennsylvania, but we think we should be doing all the urban rooftops we can to save our open spaces… [point of use production] is much more efficient than long-haul transmission.” —Felicia D’Ambrosio

Stateline loop 9K/5K Trail Race & family eco-Scavenger Hunt at The Stateline Woods preserve

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Saturday, May 7th • Kennett Square, PA race reg. 8:00/ Start time 9:00 a.m. eco- Scavenger Hunt 10:00 a.m. register online www.tlcforscc.org

Come out and explore the beautiful rolling hills, woodlands, meadows and streams of Southern Chester County while supporting our land preservation initiatives.

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Media

Mind DIY TV

Mind brings the airwaves to the people

M

ind tv takes public television’s long-held commitment to socially responsible broadcasting and updates it for Generation YouTube. The television station’s five-minute programs are made by partner nonprofits, schools and citizens, and cover topics ranging from arts and culture to nature and science to education and social programs.

Flip on channel 35, or check out the 24/7 online video stream, and you might find a feature on local beekeeping, then a segment on children with disabilities in India, followed by Hip-Hop 101 with Rumble and Frenzi. The smorgasbord effect is part of Mind’s charm. “[Mind TV] belongs to the public,” says Mind TV CEO Howard Blumenthal. “We look at Mind as an open system where people can use public media to tell their own story.”

Mind (short for “media independence”) began in 2005 as a program of WYBE public broad-

Books

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casting, and receives funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Aside from a few established programs like Democracy Now, TED Talks and Philadelphia Stories, Mind’s broadcast day is made of short videos capturing grassroots messages with professional polish. Partners (and anyone can sign up, regardless of experience) receive studio workshops, training and equipment rentals, as well as free air time. The resulting programming ends up both geographically broad and topically diverse. A solid range of sustainability-minded programming—including videos on climate-change science, a documentary

Soil Mates

Sara Alway, Author (Quirk Books) • $16.95 It’s both a blessing and a curse for garden writers that the subject is such, ahem, fertile ground for double entendres, puns and unabashed anthropomorphism. On the one dirt-covered hand, scribes feel endlessly clever. On the less grungy hand, it can be hard to cut through all the cute.

And that’s the problem with Sara Alway’s useful but flawed Soil Mates.

Any gardener, especially one with limited ground to cover, will tell you that the key to a successful harvest is finding plants that cooperate. Alway presents 20 edible pairings, following each with a simple recipe. While some, like tomatoes and basil, are no-brainers, others are more obscure, like borage and just about anything, since borage acts as a trap crop, luring pests away from vegetables while enriching soil with potassium and calcium. This kind of too-infrequent tip leaves readers yearning for similarly concrete information. While this gardener is going to give peas and turnips a shot this spring (and truly appreciates the detailed planting chart), she could do with more specifics and fewer sentences like, “Although asparagus doesn’t do much for Parsley, his tall, towering physique is enough to keep her satisfied.” Or this creepy recommendation: “If you have the conditions to make her happy, try welcoming leggy and leafy Celery into your garden bed—and onto your dinner plate.” Ew. —Char Vandermeer

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on local natural habitats and queries about our food system—appears on Channel 35, but Blumenthal maintains that it’s a reflection of public interest rather than network contrivance. Mind does prompt content by hosting monthly public events on social topics like local food, civil rights and literacy. The resulting dialogue leads to more video projects.

“We’re really the next phase of where public media is going,” Blumenthal says. “Because we’re small, we can find places to go that larger organizations like PBS and WHYY don’t necessarily attend.” —Dana Henry

Meat: A Benign Extravagance

Simon Fairlie, Author • (Chelsea Green Publishing) • $24.95 Simon Fairlie takes on the environmental claims of vegan advocates and offers a vision of a village-scale permaculture society in which animals play an integral role, keeping nutrients on the land and converting the best the English countryside can grow into edible protein in the form of pigs and chickens eating food and agriculture waste. For this to work, a ruralized population would live by a much stricter definition of “local” than what is practical today. Fairlie, an advocate of traditional farming, including replacing tractors with oxen, counters some of the “go-veg” camp’s most-exaggerated claims, but he also too-quickly dismisses better-documented livestock problems (for example, that grazing and feed production drive deforestation) and ignores many modern solutions to modern problems. Petroleum might not power the farm of the future, but solar and wind might be more practical than oxen. Though he shows that meat isn’t quite as destructive as its most vocal opponents claim, he fails to demonstrate that livestock can have a lighter impact than the best alternatives, particularly on our side of the pond: our domestic soy is his overseas import. Meat is an ambitious thought experiment, but ultimately proves not useful for consumers making day-to-day dining choices. Read it to start a conversation about the postpetroleum countryside, but don’t give up on moderation just yet.

—Bernard Brown

Farm to Fame

Headhouse Market fave Tom Culton’s small-screen dreams by felicia d’ambrosio

PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY MASTER OF SCIENCE IN SUSTAINABLE DESIGN NEW FOR SPRING 2011

GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES A COLLABORATIVE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY LEARNING EXPERIENCE “The principle of sustainability is reshaping the way we think about the world, encouraging us to improve the way we design, build and live in the 21st century” — Rob Fleming, Program Director

“I

t’s actually not a great time—I’m birthing goats right now.” ¶ Though decidedly eccentric, one would never describe organic-farmer-to-the-stars Tom Culton as inauthentic. From the Silver Springs, Lancaster County, farm that’s been in his family since the 1740s, Culton grows produce that Headhouse Farmers Market shoppers and chefs Colicchio, Keller, Ripert and Vetri obsess over, all without chemicals or even irrigation.

“That’s why my tomatoes have those crazy-high sugar levels,” he says, proud as a new father.

This intensity about the craft of raising food, paired with a natural flair for drama (and the occasional Native American feathered war bonnet), got Culton noticed by local producer Aaron Matzkin. With partner Courtenay Irving he’s pitching Bounty of Awesomeness, a television show centered on Culton Organics.

Become proficient in Green Building Materials, Energy Efficiency, Construction Systems and Sustainable Design “It’s a documentary style, rather than reality TV,” says Culton, who considered film school before choosing to work the land. “There will be lots of travel—I’ll try to solve some predicament on the farm, so we’ll go to someone established, learn and come back with some newfound wizardly approaches.”

In addition to offering a glimpse of life on a working farm, the nascent show proffers the idea that small-scale, sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry are not only important, but fun—a lightning bolt of the farmer’s joy in raising magnificent food.

“I can’t think of one legitimate farmer who ever hosted a TV show,” adds Culton. “TV is a good platform for people to find out where their food comes from. Not everyone reads GRID magazine.”

Not yet, anyway. 

VISIT

www.PhilaU.edu/greengrid apri l 20 11

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Green living

Kill Your Junk Mail Eliminating handbills, unsolicited offers and other unwanted paper detritus is easy and painless by felicia d’ambrosio

F

orty-one pounds. That’s how much the average American household will receive this year in postal junk mail—not including unsolicited catalogs, handbills and phone books.

According to the EPA’s most recent Municipal Solid Waste Facts and Figures report, paper and paperboard made up 31 percent of the municipal solid waste stream in 2008. Even though paper is easily recycled in most communities, only about 43 million of the 77 million tons generated in 2008 were recovered for recycling; 44 percent of the junk mail received goes straight to the landfill unopened. Thus, source reduction—keeping goods out of the waste stream by not generating them—is far more effective than waste reduction, a.k.a. recycling.

Reduce your junk mail and prevent marketers from sharing your information by writing “Do not sell or rent my information” any time you send in a warranty, sign up for a contest, or provide your name and address anywhere. Since a national Do Not Mail list is not yet a reality, use the methods below to beat junk mail’s primary offenders at their game. A comprehensive treatment costs less than half an hour on the Web, and is guaranteed pain-free.

Handbills Though the agency is better known for slowing down

restaurant openings, the Department of Licenses & Inspection (L&I) also maintains a “non-delivery” list of properties whose owners who just say no to hand-delivered fliers, circulars and menus—a major component of windblown, streetside litter.

Download the request form at phila.gov/li/UpdDocs/No_handbills.pdf and mail it in to score a nifty “Circular-Free Philadelphia” sticker identifying your home; renters need their landlord or property manager’s signature.

Credit Card and Insurance Offers TransUnion, Experian and

Equifax, better known as the Big Three credit reporting agencies, supply their mailing lists to credit card and insurance companies felling forests to send you unending plastic opportunity. Call 888-5-OPTOUT (888-567-8688) to cease receiving pre-screened offers for five years. The 24-hour recorded message will ask for your name, address, phone and social security number, which is creepy but legitimate in this case: Credit reporting agencies already have this information and use it for verification.

Phone Directories Though it may make it harder to find a

plumber in a blackout or elevate the vertically challenged at the table, visiting yellowpagesoptout.com lets you quit receiving Verizon directories, Yellow and White Pages, after registering and responding to a verification e-mail.

Catalogs Have your mailing label handy when calling the cus-

tomer service phone number of companies sending unwanted or duplicate catalogs. If you’d only like to receive a certain number of catalogs per year, let the representative know how many.

This approach also works for specific-source junk mail that defies categorization.

Direct Mail Marketing The Direct Marketing Association repre-

sents nearly 3,600 companies utilizing direct-mail marketing. In the interest of responding to junk-mail concerns, they maintain DMAChoice.org, where consumers can register to be removed from their members’ mailing lists. Supply your name, address and a credit card number (you won’t be charged, and all info is confidential) to manage mail choices for catalogs, donation solicitations, magazine and credit card offers from national, but not local, marketers.  16

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illustrati on by melissa mcfeeters

by samantha wittchen

ONE SEPTA RIDER USES NEARLY 50% LESS OIL THAN A PRIVATE COMMUTER. BLOOMIN’ AWESOME. go green go

Plastic Bags fact

The U.S. uses nearly 100 billion plastic bags per year. Most of them end up in the

landfill.

Plastic bags are made of polyethylene, which is derived from non-renewable resources, such as crude oil, natural gas or other petrochemical derivatives. When plastic bags break down, they don’t biodegrade— they photodegrade. This means that they break down into smaller and smaller fragments that absorb biotoxins. These toxic bag fragments then contaminate soil and waterways and poison animals when ingested.

Plastic bags are recyclable into items such as composite wood and plastic lumber and decking. However, contrary to the claims of the American Chemistry Council, a trade association that is heavily engaged in fighting plastic bag bans and taxes, the market for recycled plastic bags is much smaller than the amount of bags we discard every year. According to the Clean Air Council, recycling one ton of plastic bags costs $4,000. The recycled product can be sold for $32. Trex, the major manufacturer of composite lumber, says on its website that it recycles 1.5 billion plastic bags per year into its products. That’s still only a little more than one percent of the total bags used per year in the U.S.

problem

Plastic bags are tricky. Recycling them is an option, but even if Americans recycled every plastic bag they used, there simply isn’t a market for that much material. However, it is still important to responsibly dispose of plastic bags so they don’t end up in a landfill, where they can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.

Most supermarkets have a plastic bag recycling receptacle at their entrance. In the Philadelphia region, these include Acme, Genaurdi’s, Giant, Pathmark, Shop-Rite, Wegmans and Whole Foods. You can drop off a variety of plastic bags and wraps, including grocery bags, bread bags, produce bags, newspaper bags, Ziploc bags, Tyvek and paper towel/toilet paper wrap. Just make sure they’re clean and dry.

Of course, the best solution is to not use those ugly plastic bags in the first place. Get yourself some reusable cloth bags and keep a few in your car for unexpected errands. You’ll help the environment and be eco-stylish. 

solution

Source: www.publictransportation.org /facts

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Green living

Scrub’s the Word

Spotted Hill Farm spottedhillfarm.com 530 Colebrookedale Rd., Boyertown

Milk from Donna Howard’s herd of miniature Nubian goats enriches a number of her snowflake-pure, 4.5 oz. soaps based on shea butter, olive oil and cocoa butter.

Gently scented with essential oils, Spotted Hill’s line also includes a summer-ready, chemical-free bug repellant safe for grown-ups, kids and dogs. Slick Pick: Sea Salt with Goat’s Milk and Tangerine Clove soaps, $5 each.

Lather up with these uber-natural, locally produced soaps by felicia d’ambrosio

I

n the same way Big Agra’s obsession with color, uniformity and tolerance for shipping sucked the life out of the sad supermarket tomato, commercial soapmakers siphon naturally moisturizing, bubbly glycerine out of their bars and replace it with chemicals, bulk-building fillers and synthetic detergents. Instead, try cold-process soaps hand-made from silky coconut and olive oils, rich shea butter and “additives” like goat’s milk, honey, poppy seeds and essential oils.

Yadain yadainco.com 1226 Chestnut St. and 532 Green St., German-

town, 215-991-9001 Though based in Harlem, NYC, Yadain manufactures cold-pressed raw soaps from shea butter, palm and coconut oil on-site at both their Center City and Germantown locations. Manager Hanif Muslih distilled the company’s philosophy on personal products thusly: “If you can’t eat it, you shouldn’t put it on your body.” Slick Pick: Therapeutic Raw Black face soap made from dried plantains, for oily/acne-prone skin, $6.99.

Volta Organics voltasoap.com Available at VIX Emporium,

Nice Things Handmade, Weaver’s Way Co-Op Lifelong skin allergies complete with childhood “nasty baths” inspired Lisa Volta to design her organic line especially for the most sensitive-skinned folks. Rich in certified organic extra-virgin olive oil, soaps containing sustainably sourced beeswax, goat’s milk and honey are clearly labeled for vegans. Slick Pick: Trade-specific Fisherman, Mechanic, Chef and Gardener soaps that cleanse and care for hardworking hands. From $5-8.

3

4

Beekman’s C.O.P.A. Soaps copasoaps.com 438 E. Girard Ave., 215-426-5594

6 2 5

Categorized by effect—emollient, grounding, invigorating, relaxing and uplifting, among others—C.O.P.A.’s 4.5 oz. bars are based on coconut, olive, palm and almond oils gone aromatherapeutic with essential oils. They also offer 1.2 oz. bars for gym and travel. Slick Pick: Ginger Carrot gets a warm spice from cinnamon and orange oil; Vetiver Peat yields a calming effect with Haitian vetiver oil and smoky Irish peat, $4 each.

Duross & Langel

1

durossandlangel.com 117 S. 13th St., 215-592-7627

Yadain 1 raw honey tangerine and 2 strawberry ginger shea butter soaps; Duross & Langel 3 Steve’s seed soap and 4 Moroccan cedar; Volta Organics 5 bois de rose face soap and 6 charcoal (in soap saver).

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Duross & Langel’s staff cuts 5 oz. bars from lavish 11-lb. bricks of soap at their Midtown Village storefront. Choose from over 50 bar soaps in a dizzying array of scents, all made from a natural vegan soap base loaded with soy proteins, aloe vera and shea butter. Deodorizing is achieved through the use of sandalwood, lavender and other naturally antibacterial oils. Slick Pick: Shed dull winter skin cells with exfoliating Steve’s Seed Soap, packed with fennel, flax and poppy seeds, and sweet fennel essential oil, $7. 

PENNSYLVANIA CLEAN TECHNOLOGY FORUM |

MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2011, 11AM – 6PM CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL, HARRISBURG

Small Business Opportunities in a Growing Market The Clean Technology Resource Center’s first annual Clean Tech Forum is geared toward users and providers of clean technology. CTRC staff as well as clean tech start-up business owners and experts in the field will discuss topics including: common challenges facing clean tech start ups, how to implement clean technology in a small business, commercialization hurdles, and how to secure financing. The forum will culminate in a networking reception and clean-tech focused business exhibition.

R EG I STER O N LI N E ►

www.pasbdc.org/cleantechforum 1-877-771-CTRC (2782) www.pasbdc.org/cleantech

PROFESSIONAL DEGREES FOR GREEN CAREERS Learn at Temple University’s School of Environmental Design

Earn a Master of Landscape Architecture with a concentration in Ecological Restoration – one of the only programs of its kind on the East Coast.

Temple also offers a nationally accredited undergraduate program in Landscape Architecture and science/ research based degrees in Horticulture.

• • • • •

Hands-on learning Modern research lab and greenhouse 187-acre campus arboretum Design/build studio Professional faculty

For more information: DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND HORTICULTURE

(267) 468-8181

www.temple.edu/ambler apri l 20 11

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food

Farm Profile by char vandermeer

On Tap

PBC’s Fleur de Lehigh Ginger root, lemongrass and rhubarb are among the fresh and dried herbs and spices Philadelphia Brewing Co. (PBC) adds to Fleur de Lehigh, its annual spring seasonal brewed through June. The unfiltered golden is “very much in the style of a Belgian pale ale,” says co-owner Bill Barton.

“Part of the inspiration was the crisis of the [2007-8] hop shortage.

Though there are some hops in it, it’s not the main focus—the herbs balance the sweetness of the malt.”

Andy Farrell, general manager of City Tap House, ordered Fleur on release day, Feb. 28. “It’s a flower in a glass,” he says. “The chamomile, lavender, black pepper and citrus really catches a vinaigrette in a bright salad. Wines are hard to pair with salads, but beers like Fleur de Lehigh are perfect.”

—Felicia D’Ambrosio philadelphiabrewing.com

cheese of the month

Washington’s Crossing

SHARE Food Program Demonstration Garden

I

t’s a gusty February day, but Bill Shick’s face positively glows when he thinks about transplanting seedlings into the wood-and-steel frame that dominates the SHARE Food Program’s demonstration garden: a brand new high tunnel ready to be covered in plastic.

The tunnel, built by Penn State University at SHARE’s 2901 W. Hunting Park Ave. digs, allows Shick and his crew of volunteers to cram in several harvests, extending the growing season. As early spring crops of collards, lettuce and spinach feed up to 200 hungry helpers every month, summer’s tomato and pepper seedlings await their turn in the tunnel.

For Shick, the garden not only connects people to the food they eat; it demonstrates that food can be grown commercially in the city.

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“SHARE has a broader mission of empowering people to help themselves,” says Shick.

“We don’t expect everyone to have a 4’x50’ bed in their backyard, but it is possible to have a 4’x8’ bed. Hopefully, as people volunteer, they’ll become more likely to eat vegetables, or try to start gardens on their own.”

In addition to the high tunnel and raised beds, the garden features compost piles, an orchard and, perhaps someday soon, a chicken coop. All of its lumber, soil, plants and seeds arrived courtesy of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s City Harvest Grower’s Alliance; its 30 fruit trees, from apples to plums to peaches to figs, are part of the Philadelphia Orchard Project. Soon, a heated greenhouse shared by PHS will join this green hive, offering gardening supplies at wholesale cost.  For more, visit sharefoodprogram.org

If you’re a fan of butterscotchy cheeses like Prima Donna or aged Gouda, consider Washington’s Crossing, a new release from seventhgeneration farmer Dwight Ely and his family in Bucks County. You won’t find another local cheese quite like it. Washington’s Crossing smells brothy and sweet—think Parmesan. On the front end, the flavors are acidic and bright, but as it warms in your mouth, this hard cheese releases toffee notes that round off with a feisty hook sharp enough to leave your tongue prickling. This complexity comes from extended twoyear aging, which allows flavors and tiny, pleasantly crunchy amino acid crystals to develop.

Using Jersey milk from nearby Amish farms, the Ely family is producing one of the more interesting local raw-milk cheeses. Though new to the cheese business, they’ve taken their time to develop this recipe and care for the wheels.

Keep your eyes peeled—rumor has it the Elys are just getting started. Serving suggestions: Grate over pasta, or add to a dessert tray with dried fruit, nuts and honey. Chianti or nut brown ale pairs nicely. —Tenaya Darlington, madamefromage.blogspot.com Ely Farm Products, 401 Woodhill Rd., Newtown, 215-860-0669, elyporkproducts.com

Now open

Potting Soil

• Peat-free • Earth friendly • Retains moisture • 100% Organic

OrganicMechanicSoil.com Find our soils at:

Kitchen at Penn Kitchen at Penn is the creation of Nate Adler, a

senior at UPenn’s Wharton School, who came up with a simple concept: food that tastes like mom’s cooking, if she sought out local ingredients, prepared satiating comfort food, and delivered it to you via bike. “It’s mom’s cooking kicked up a notch,” explains Adler.

The business will be a four-person, take-outonly operation run out of Milk & Honey Market’s new kitchen-share space. Adler is joined by Daniel Abrams and Joanna Ehrenreich, juniors at Penn who, at the mention of sustainable cuisine, jumped on board. The chef is Jordan Miller, a

culinary arts graduate of Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador.

The menu consists of seasonal soups, sandwiches and entrées ranging from salads and homemade pasta to meat and vegetarian dishes.

Lancaster Farm Fresh and Common Market will provide produce, while pork and beef will be sourced from Green Meadow Farm in Gap. Try the vegan bastilla—flaky layers of phyllo dough encasing a mix of seasonal vegetables, topped with fresh rosemary and toasted walnuts. —Ariela Rose 4529 Springfield Ave., 267-475-6724, pennkitchen.com

Kennett Restaurant Queen Village newcomer Kennett is the latest venture of Johnny Della Polla, who recently ran Yards Brewery’s tasting room, and Stephen Starr vet Ashley Bohan. The pair, along with executive chef Brian Ricci, reopened the narrow S. Second St. space in early December, replacing the Lyons Den bar with a warm and woody room bookended by a handsome bar

and glowing, wood-fired pizza oven. The restaurant offers Queen Villagers a vegetarian-friendly menu that highlights locally sourced ingredients.

Small, simple plates, like beets and feta, and roasted parsnips with parmesan allow this season’s bounty of root vegetables to shine. And bigger plates, including a homemade veggie burger and lively risotto, offer much-needed warmth and comfort. Della Polla and Bohan are also pursuing certification through the Green Restaurant Association, meaning that not only the food, but also the restaurant’s space and practices, must meet high sustainability standards. —Ariela Rose 848 S. Second St., 267-687-1426 kennettrestaurant.com

Philadelphia Gardens, Inc. GREEN + SUSTAINABLE GARDEN INSTALLATION + DESIGN TONI ANN FLANIGAN PHILADELPHIAGARDENS.COM 215.951.9193

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food

Share and Share Alike There’s a whole lotta CSAs out there Late May through November is a grand time

to live in the Delaware Valley. Area farms burst with the freshest local produce, from peas and wild ramps in the spring clear through late fall’s coveted Honeycrisp apples and snappy Asian pears. Joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program keeps small farmers growing nutrientrich food in a sustainable fashion. Members provide funding in the beginning of the season in exchange for a share of the harvest, manifested as a bulging box of deliciousness every week. CSAs often fill up fast, so the time to think about joining is now. Here are seven programs that have us reaching for our checkbooks. —Felicia D’Ambrosio

Down to Earth Harvest

Kimberton CSA

Greensgrow Farms

downtoearth.csa@gmail.com

KimbertonCSA.org

Greensgrow.org

Last season, Phil Smeltz and Robert Todd’s startup operation on leased land in Lancaster produced enough food to sustain two market stands and a small CSA. This year, Down to Earth Harvest will offer full (27 weekly pickups) and half (13 bi-weekly) shares from their very own farm in Kennett Square. Though not certified organic, their CSA overview states they are filing for certification and currently exceed commercial standards.

The area’s first CSA and only biodynamically farmed garden; 28-week full shares are estimated to feed two adult vegetarians or a family of four. Half shares can pick up every other week, or two households may split a share to benefit from weekly pick-up. In addition to a wide variety of extra-pure vegetables and herbs, Kimberton’s program includes freechoice items like greens and herbs that members may take as needed, as well as you-pick berries, peas, beans, flowers and tomatoes.

This most-wanted urban CSA collects five to eight veggie items, two types of fruit, a locally produced cheese and a “dairy” option—your choice of Pequea Valley yogurt, Amish-style butter, eggs, tofu or seitan—in one box. Full shares last 25 weeks, with one week of vacation built into the cost. Half shares pick up biweekly for a total of 13 weeks.

Springtime lettuce, peas, radishes, bok choy and dandelion; summer corn, melons and tomatoes; fall leeks, sweet potatoes, beets and carrots Pickup On the farm in Kennett Square; West Chester, Rittenhouse, Bala Cynwyd or Centreville, Del. Deadline Payment in full due May 1 Cost Full, $675 or $715; half, $350 or $365, depending on pickup location Highlights

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High summer yields extravagantly sweet cherry tomatoes, watermelons and cantaloupes in addition to basil, beets, celery, cukes, onions and summer squash.

Flowers make appearances as well.

Pickup At the farm, 415 W. Seven Stars Rd., Phoenixville Deadline None, but space is limited Cost Full, $880; half, $500; shared, $1,000 Highlights

Highlights In addition to locally grown produce from Greensgrow’s urban farm and the rural farms they work with, goodies like Metropolitan Bakery bread, Oley Valley mushrooms, Linvilla Orchards apple cider and locally produced honey show up on occasion.

Pickup At the farm in Kensington, 2501 E. Cumberland St., on Saturdays or Thursdays Deadline New members may apply the first week of April, caps at 500.

Cost Full, $775; half, $435

ph oto by Mik aela D. Marti n

Artfully arranged weekly deliveries from Blooming Glen Farm (far left), Greensgrow Farms (top right) and North Star Orchard (bottom right).

Blooming Glen Farm BloomingGlenFarm.com

With a harvest season that begins in late May and runs through early November, Blooming Glen’s 24-week full shares will feed one family and include access to pick-your-own crops.

Though half shares are not offered, two households may split a share and alternate pick-up weeks to gain access to Tom Murtha and Tricia Borneman’s Bucks County bounty—all grown without synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or genetically modified organisms.

Each CSA member agrees to work four hours on the farm per season, or two hours for split shares.

Highlights Arugula, cucumbers, kohlrabi, napa cabbage and strawberries in spring; herbs, flowers, heirloom tomatoes, melons, hot peppers and eggplant through the summer; and parsnips, raspberries, shallots, celeriac, beets and broccoli in the fall.

Pickup At the farm, 98 Moyer Road, Perkasie, on Tuesday or Friday Deadline Payment in full is due May 1.

Cost Full, $780; split, $410

Red Earth Farm RedEarthFarm.org

Lancaster Farm Fresh

North Star Orchard

LancasterFarmFresh.com

NorthStarOrchard.com

The big boy of local CSAs, Lancaster Farm Fresh draws from a cooperative of 64 small family farms growing certified organic vegetables and raising grass-fed animal products.

Their 25-week season includes seven to 12 varieties of organic and heirloom vegetables in a full share; a half shares keep a small household stocked with four to nine types. CSA members have the option of enhancing their share with 20-week fruit, 20-week flower, and hormonefree meat and egg add-on shares.

Ike and Lisa Kerschner call their combination of organic and integrated pest management farming practices “certified sensible.” Fruit lovers in the ’burbs will benefit most from North Star’s lush 12- or 15-week fruit shares, which they predict will yield an 8.5 lb. bag per week. A 22-week vegetable share is available at just one location.

Highlights If certified organic is a must, this is the way to go; for serious veggie-centric cooks, the full share includes plenty of tasty toys: cremini mushrooms, garlic scapes, dinosaur kale and cippolini onions, and others.

Pickup All over the city and ’burbs, plus NYC, Baltimore and D.C. Deadline None, but space is limited Cost Full and half vegetable shares, $700 and $425; fruit, $180; flower, $280

Highlights New varieties of apples like Adam’s Pearmain; crisp Asian pears, peaches, plums and a variety of veggies. Due to space constraints, no corn or melons.

Pickup Cochranville only for veggie shares, but fruit shares can be picked up in Eagle, Phoenixville, Havertown, London Grove, Cochranville, Kutztown, Horsham and West Chester.

Deadline None, but space is limited Cost Fruit, $225 or $275; veggie, $500

top photo by He le n H o rstma n n -A l l e n / b otto m p h oto by taylor h oldswort h

Located near Hawk Mountain in Schuylkill County, Red Earth’s Michael Ahlert and Charis Lindrooth run one of the few CSAs that allow members to choose their produce online every week. The 23-week season fills a full share box with 10 items every week; a partial earns six items every week. Add-on herb, yogurt, fruit and egg shares are available to supplement the basic vegetable assortment, all grown without the use of synthetic or chemical substances.

Highlights: In addition to all of the exquisite edibles, membership includes invites to events like September’s harvest barn dance and potlucks at the farm. Members keen on medicinal herbs will appreciate the organic herbal vinegar, Echinacea tincture and herbal honey included in the herb share.

Pickup: Locations include Chestnut Hill, Fairmount, Mount Airy, Queen Village, Rittenhouse Square, Roxborough and West Philly, plus a dozen more outside the city; or pick up at the farm in Orwigsburg.

Deadline: None, but space is limited Cost: Full, $585; partial, $425; add-on shares of fruit, $117; eggs, $44; herbs, $62; yogurt, $95

To find more CSAs and farmers markets near you, visit localharvest.org and use their zipcode locator tool. apri l 20 11

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food

Addition by Subtraction Don’t let Lent, Easter and Passover limit your culinary adventure by marisa mcclellan

I

grew up in a fairly secular household, with a Jewish mother and a Unitarian Universalist father. Because we weren’t particularly religious, our approach to the springtime holidays of Passover and Lent/Easter was vague at best. This meant that while we’d nearly always attend a Seder, leavened breads and grains were still on our table. Likewise for Lent and Easter; my sister and I got the chocolate eggs without making any of the preliminary sacrifices.

Yearning for the sense of virtue found when something is given up for a time, I spent my teens and 20s alternating between my two birthright traditions, looking for something that felt the most right. What I learned had little to do with faith, but a great deal to do with culinary discovery. The limitations imposed by intentionally subtracting one category of food at a time turns out, paradoxically, to be freeing and full of adventure.

This month’s recipes are as appropriate for Lenten resolutions as the Passover sacrifice of all things leavened. They also happen to be entirely vegetarian, making them equally good choices for meatless Mondays or Fridays.

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First is a Creamy Broccoli Soup, luxurious with the addition of homemade cashew cream in place of dairy. Next is a one-pot Quinoa and Kale Pilaf that was inspired by a recipe created by Portland, Ore.-based food writer Deena Prichep. Finally, impress your fellow diners with these Veggie-Stuffed Red Peppers. Tasty and so good for you, too!  marisa mcclellan is a food writer, canning teacher and dedicated farmers market shopper who lives in Center City. Find more of her food (all cooked in her 80-square-foot kitchen) at her blog, foodinjars.com.

Quinoa and Kale Pilaf with Goat Cheese and Walnuts serves four 1 2

1 5 1

1

cup quinoa cups water tsp. salt bunch lacinato kale, chopped into ribbons oz. feta, crumbled lemon, zested and juiced cup walnuts, chopped and toasted tbsp. walnut oil salt and pepper to taste

Combine the quinoa, water and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, covered. Pile the kale on top of the quinoa and cook for an additional five minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and leave the lid on for another five minutes.

While the quinoa and kale cooks, pile the feta, lemon zest and juice, toasted walnuts and walnut oil in a serving bowl. When the quinoa and kale are finished cooking, pour them into the bowl on top of the other ingredients.

Stir to combine. Taste and add salt and pepper as necessary.

Veggie-Stuffed Peppers serves three to four

Broccoli Soup with Cashew Cream serves four as a starter or two as a main course 1 1

cup cashews tbsp. coconut oil small onion, minced 1 bunch broccoli, chopped 1 quart vegetable broth cup flat leaf parsley

salt and pepper to taste

The night before you want to make the soup, soak the cashews in one cup of water. Just before you begin making the soup, put the cashews and their soaking water in the blender and purée until creamy. Set aside.

In a medium-sized soup pot, heat coconut oil.

Sauté the onion and broccoli until they start to brown. Pour the vegetable stock over the vegetables; if necessary, add a bit of water until they are just submerged. Add the flat leaf parsley and simmer until vegetables are soft.

Use an immersion blender to purée. Add the cashew cream and stir to combine. Check for seasoning, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with a few chopped and toasted cashews.

3 red peppers, cut in half, deseeded 1 tbsp. olive oil large onion, finely minced 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 large carrot, diced 12-14 cremini mushrooms, diced 2 small Yukon gold potatoes, diced 1 tsp. dried rosemary 2 cups baby spinach leaves cup chopped and toasted almonds 6 slices Havarti cheese

Arrange red pepper halves cut-side up in a roasting pan and set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onions, garlic and carrots and cook until browned. Add the mushrooms, potatoes and dried rosemary and stir to combine. Cook until the potatoes are nearly soft, adding a bit of water if things start to stick.

When the potatoes are nearly soft, stir in the spinach and chopped almonds.

Spoon the filling into the waiting red pepper shells, taking care to really pack the filling in.

When all the peppers are filled, add ¼ cup of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, or until the peppers are tender.

Once the peppers are tender, remove the foil from the pan. Lay the cheese over the stuffed peppers and bake until it is melted. Serve hot.

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Can you pinpoint an exact moment when you knew you were going to end “The Minimalist” and move into this new role?

It never occurred to me that I could make it happen until [the fall of 2010]. I pitched the [new] column to the Opinion people, and they liked the idea. At the same time, the Magazine was going through changes, and the new editor wanted me to take over that [cooking] column. What an opportunity.

The op-ed column… it’s an idea whose time had come, and I consider myself fortunate to have been in a position to pitch it. I was maybe a week ahead of the curve. [Laughs] If it hadn’t been me, it would’ve been someone else. It’s something that should be happening. The way I pitched it was to say, “Food, like economics, like politics, touches everybody’s life, all the time. It’s the prism through which you can look at anything you want to look at.” Having been writing about food for a long time and having been making noise increasingly in the policy world… I’m sort of trying to walk a line between modesty and immodesty with this, I guess. [Laughs] But it’s not as if I’m not qualified to do this.

How do you define your role now? What is your responsibility, your vocation?

Addition by Subraction No, it’s not a

Don’t let Lent, Easter and Passover limit your cheesesteak Mark Bittman with a culinary adventure by marisa mcclellan chocolate, olive oil and salt baguette sandwich from Addy’s in Portland, OR.

The Opinionist Food writer and former Minimalist columnist Mark Bittman gets expansive on the NYT op-ed page

M

ark bittman is “the minimalist” no more. After spending 13 years exploring no-frills home cooking in his New York Times food column, the author and journalist has moved on to a fresh challenge: a weekly slot in the Times’ Opinion section, a platform for him to discuss the farinterview by drew lazor reaching food issues that influence what ends up on the American dinner table. (He will continue to write about cooking for New York Times Magazine.) GRID touched base with Bittman to talk big ideas—all while he prepped a cumin- and chili-scented stir-fry of veggies, brown rice and black beans in his New York City home.

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It’s clear that I’m interested in food policy and what’s right and wrong in the food world. That’s what I want to be doing. Whether it becomes a political column is a long-term thing… or whether it becomes more personal and lighthearted, that’s all down the road. I’d like to think it becomes many different things—not only a weekly analysis of policy or current events, but a discussion of food in the broadest, and hopefully truest, sense.

One thing I struggle with, as far as the American diet goes, is how much responsibility falls on policymakers to shape how we eat, and how much responsibility falls on the individual to get educated and seek out sustainable choices.

Is there a specific split there in your mind?

Sadly, it’s entirely up to individuals to press the government to do the right thing. It’s the government’s role to make the food supply better. That needs to happen, [but] it’s increasingly clear that will not happen without us pushing them. It’s up to us to change diets and educate ourselves.

It’s all on us. The Feds are under so much corporate pressure; they’re not going to make positive change unless they’re pushed by people. And I’m not sure I would’ve said that six months ago, but things have gotten worse-looking.

The government is not acting for or responding to the needs of its citizens—it’s acting and responding to the needs of its corporate benefactors. Money is coming from the corporations, but not enough pressure is coming from citizens.

The government is reacting to where the money and pressure is coming from. Most decisions that ph oto by Leela Cy d Ross

come from government agencies seem to be wrong about food, and wrong about everything that concerns consumers. How do you change that?

A California woman recently filed a lawsuit against Nutella, claiming she was duped by an advertising claim that it was “part of a balanced breakfast.” What is your opinion on this approach to hold a company accountable for duplicitous marketing?

I think the corporations do need to be held responsible for misleading advertising. That’s part of the problem here. There are a bunch of people in the media, in the public arena and NGOs who are on the right side of this struggle, but most have no money to speak of. Meanwhile, advertising, marketing and lobbying budgets are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The people we need to look at are the cereal companies and McDonald’s and fast food companies—big food conglomerates.

Look, all marketing is intentionally misleading. Here’s the thing: If you write that you should do away with Happy Meals, a certain amount of people will say it’s a parent’s problem, parents need to be teaching their children. But parents are just as susceptible to marketing as anybody else. It’s trying to sell stuff to people who don’t need it, or trying to get you to buy more of stuff you do need. It’s about trying to sell stuff, targeting both children and adults. It’s very difficult to say to your kids, “Don’t eat at McDonald’s” when you yourself have been sold on eating at McDonald’s. It’s tough to say “Don’t eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch” when you yourself are eating Reese’s Peanut Butter Puffs.

In your mind, what is the worst eating habit Americans have, and how would you suggest we break it?

That’s simple: We eat too many animal products. Even worse than processed food—though it’s not a huge gap—is the animal product thing.

We should be growing food for people first, animals second. And cars, by the way, third.

What’s it going to take to fundamentally change the American attitude toward eating? You’ve mentioned the formation of a “Civilian Cooking Corps” in your new column.

What is that?

The government is reacting to where the money and pressure is coming from. Most decisions that come from government agencies seem to be wrong about food, and wrong about everything that concerns consumers.

Cooking Corps. It’s funny—I’ve received maybe a dozen e-mails saying, “We’re already doing that, here’s our program.” It’s really quite cool.

There’s this huge corps of unemployed people.

You start a program where unemployed people are trained how to cook, and trained how to cook for other people. They have two jobs: to cook for people who are unable to do it for themselves, and to teach other people how to cook. Someone will say that’s pie in the sky. Fine. But if you end corporate subsidies on commodity foods, you have a lot of money floating around that can be put to good use for a change.

In your debut Op-Ed column, you lay out “A Food Manifesto for the Future,” but point out that many of the ideas are “frequently discussed, but sadly not yet implemented.”

So, what’s it going to take to implement them? What’s the first step?

The [government-issued agricultural] subsidies thing gets back to that discussion. That’s huge.

If we could take some of this money and turn it toward education, that would be even bigger.

Ending subsidies would be a form of taxation on Big Food, taking away their ability to produce junk food cheaply. The price of some food— lousy food—would go up, and that’s not entirely a bad thing.

Speaking of prices: The argument I see coming up time and time again in the “real food vs. frankenfood” debate is money.

While it’s our hope that every citizen gains

access to sustainable foods, I foresee many struggling to afford to systematically change how/what they eat. How do you tackle this looming question of cost?

Look, people worldwide manage to eat better than we do with less money. I get that it’s difficult for people to get to and from real markets, and that’s a huge issue, one that has to be resolved. And surely real food is too expensive for many people. That’s why we need to subsidize food—and cooking, for that matter—for people who legitimately can’t afford it. We already do that, to some extent, but that’s one federal program that needs more, not less, money.

Is it an altogether good thing that Walmart, America’s largest, most influential retailer, has teamed up with First Lady Michelle Obama to push for healthier food and more product transparency? Or should we as consumers be wary of this move?

Both. Well, not altogether a good thing, but on the whole, better rather than not. Retailers are different from producers. They can make money selling whatever you want to buy. You want to buy canned tomatoes? Fine. You want to buy Snickers? They don’t care. But the people who make Snickers cannot make canned tomatoes. In other words, Walmart is agnostic as to whether they sell you crap or real food—food you can use to cook. They’ll figure out a way to make money either way. On the other hand, the alliance to produce “better” processed food? This I could do without. 

I do think that people are legitimately busy, and people don’t have the cooking skills, and that’s really a deadly combo. You can’t really have an impact on how busy people are, but you can encourage and teach them that cooking is a high priority. There needs to be an ongoing campaign heralding the joys of cooking, if you will—and the rewards of it. Food needs to be affordable and sustainable, as we know, and available.

Then people need the skills to put those things together. They need to want to cook, have the ingredients they need, and they need to have the skills. That would be the aim of the Civilian This feature is reprin ted fro m G R ID ’ s sister pub l ication C owbel l Magazin e.

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No more excuses.

This is the year you’ll start your first container garden. Here’s how you’ll do it (and for less than 30 bucks).

story by C ha r Va ndermeer

•

illustrations by melissa m c f eeters

F

ifteen years ago, this fledgling gardener lived in a drafty trinity on an Astroturfed alley, next to the Dumpster of a dubiously run Italian restaurant. All sorts of refuse would magically appear on the doorstep. Sure, this spelled dread in the form of a dark, undulating wave of cockroaches lining the alley and swarming around our tiny hovel’s stoop. But on that grim tide also washed ashore the occasional useful treasure. To wit: The first patch of urban soil this writer tended was in a whitewashed window box lovingly constructed from cast-off wooden shipping pallets left to rot alongside the remnants of last night’s surf ’n’ turf special.

That experience ruined both Italian restaurants and surf ’n’ turf for us, but the success of that first on-the-cheap planter lingers. In the intervening years, and through several relocations to less-roach-infested byways, the garden has grown (though outdoor space hasn’t) to include a variety of vegetables—which offer much more in terms of return-on-investment than ornamentals. And just because you might not have an odoriferous Dumpster to mine for treasure, it doesn’t mean you have to break the bank build-

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ing yourself a low-maintenance and functional container garden. In fact, a well-endowed garden featuring self-watering containers, organic potting matter and a variety of veggies can be yours for under $30. Honest.

Container gardening isn’t all that tough; it takes a little dedication, a healthy dose of optimism, a half-baked plan and lots of water. Assuming you’ve got the first couple elements under control, we’ll lend a hand with the planning and watering.

Make a Plan Most edibles require a full six to 10 hours of light, so suck up some vitamin D and keep an eye on the sun—remember, the days will get longer through June 21—and map out a little space on your front steps, sidewalk, backyard, fire escape or balcony. If your access to sunny outdoor space is extra-limited, consider installing upper-story window boxes (assembled from scrap lumber), as they tend to be less susceptible to interference from neighboring buildings.

No-stress container winners include lettuce, radishes, carrots, herbs, spinach and chard. Plus, with these stalwarts you can expect some early returns by planting radishes and greens in mid- to late- March.

Herbs will flourish through the summer and well into the fall. And if that’s all you grow in your first year, there’s no shame in that. But let’s face it—no garden would be complete without tomatoes. And this is where that optimism and dedication come in handy. Tomatoes come in two basic varieties: determinate and indeterminate. Determinates are smaller and produce most of their fruits in one impressive spurt. Indeterminates can tower up to 12 to 14 sprawling feet and produce continuously throughout the season. As seductive as indeterminates are, do yourself a favor: Start with determinates and consider cherry tomatoes, which have much shorter ripening times.

Food & Shelter Like us, plants need a place to call home and some juice in their veins. Trash-picked 5-gallon buckets and large wastebaskets are pretty perfect. They’re cheap or free and plentiful, and all you need to do is drill a few drainage holes. (Some rocks or chunks of Styrofoam at the bottom of the container will further aid drainage.) You’ll have to keep a close eye on the soil, though, and make sure your plants are thoroughly watered. In the heat of Philly’s summer, you may even need to douse them two or three times per day. (For a slightly more involved, but ultimately easier approach to watering, see sidebar: The Amazing Self-Watering Container, on p. 30.)

Getting Dirty Now that you’ve built your army of lowmaintenance planters, it’s time to fill them with nutritious soil. Hop over to the Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center, where Philadelphians can haul away up to 30 gallons of rich compost for free. Their screened-leaf compost is composed of leaves and herbivore manure and is free of sewage and sludge. The Park’s compost is tested regularly by Penn State, and the analysis is available on the Center’s website.

Because drainage and air circulation are important considerations for container gardens, you’ll need to cut your compost with a lighter mix. Sadly, dirt ain’t cheap. You could scan Craigslist for free clean fill, but clean is never all that clean. You could be inviting

diseases, pests and unwanted chemicals into your garden. Instead of gambling, head down to your local garden center and prowl the dirt wall, looking for damaged bags of potting soil. (Some garden gurus swear by “soil-free mix,” which is apparently as amazing as it is elusive—I went 0-for-8 trying to find the stuff at garden centers last year.) Grab every last messy one and head up to the checkout. With a winning smile, inform the cashier of the bags’ deplorable condition; if they’re feeling especially generous, you may walk out with a busted bag of free dirt. A recent trip scored one free bag and another marked down from $6.17 to $1.54.

Fill your containers to the brim and prepare to seed.

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The Amazing

Scrounging Seeds

Self-Watering Container

A

You can start with pre-started plants in your first year, but remember: They’ll set you back about $5-$10 per plant. Seeds, even those purchased from your local garden center, are much easier on the bank account. Or, keep an eye open for seed saving events, like the ones Bartram’s Garden (bartramsgarden. org) holds throughout the year, allowing you to swap seeds with like-minded folks. You can also recruit a few friends to join you in your endeavors, each bringing a packet of tomatoes, lettuce, greens, cucumbers, radishes and herbs to the table. Swap. Seed. Grow. (For tips on starting seeds, see Shoots & Ladders, p. 36. For tips on transplanting your seedlings, pick up next month’s Grid.)

Before you know it, your garden will be sprouting all sorts of homegrown goodness.

And with two self-watering containers ($9 apiece), free compost and some cut-rate dirt ($5), and a supply of seeds ($3-$4 per packet), you can have it all for under $30. 

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s watering represents the most difficult balancing act for novice container gardeners to master, self-watering containers accomplish both shelter and food in one tidy package. A self-watering container is essentially a two-chamber vessel—water on the bottom, soil on the top, with a channel (called a soil wick) to draw the water into the soil. Sadly, a decent-sized selfwatering planter can run from $30-$150.

But fret not. It’s pretty easy to make your own on a budget.

Honest. All you need are a few containers, a smaller pot or two to serve as soil wicks—a $2 ornamental pond planter basket works perfectly, as do repurposed plastic food tubs or the bases of 2-liter soda bottles once they’ve been peppered with dozens of small holes—an optional watering tube, a couple of supports, a sharp knife (or better yet, a jigsaw; either way, BE CAREFUL) and some heavyduty tape.

First, scour your basement, take a walk on trash night, fearlessly Dumpster-dive in search of cast-off 5-gallon buckets, rejected storage bins and empty Kitty Litter pails. Also keep your eyes peeled for smaller containers to use as your soil wicks. Avoid plastics 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, which will break down during sweltering summers and leach chemical nastiness into the soil. If scavenging fails or if you simply don’t have the fortitude to face the neighborhood Dumpster, for about $9 you can buy an 18-gallon storage bin or two 5-gallon buckets and all the necessary materials to make your container from scratch.

To make the storage bin model, first hack the edges off the lid off so that it

will fit snugly inside the bottom third of the container. Mark the outline of the container you’ve chosen for your soil wick onto the lid and slice that away, too. Then, tuck the soil wick into the hole and place supports (bricks or hunks of Styrofoam) under the lid—these will help support the weight of the potting mix—and slide the lid snugly into place. Poke a hole at the top of the water reservoir to serve as an overflow valve. If you have a hose, create a 2-inch filling hole at the top of the reservoir, just below the support lid. If you’re relying on a watering can, cut a hole into the support lid and insert a tube that extends from the top of the potting area to the bottom of the receptacle. Using heavy-duty water-resistant tape, seal the edges between the water reservoir and planting area to prevent soil from filling the reservoir.

You can also try this with stacked 5-gallon buckets, the top bucket acting as the potting area, and the bottom the reservoir.

Do keep in mind that the larger the container you use for your soil wick, the wetter the soil.

Tomatoes, lettuce, melons and cucumbers are thirsty buggers, while root vegetables, peppers, eggplants, beans and herbs prefer slightly drier soil. It’s a good idea to allow your reservoir to empty completely before refilling, to encourage air circulation and promote healthy root systems. A large storage bin container can comfortably house one large plant like a tomato or cucumber, surrounded by smaller plants such as basil, lettuce or chard. If you take the bucket route, stick to one large plant or a couple of smaller ones per container. —Char Vandermeer

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by brian h o wa r d

T

Once you’ve learned the rules, it’s time to start breaking them. Sally McCabe and Mike McGrath tell you how.

Extend Season

Once you’ve learned to grow warm-weather crops, says McCabe, you need to push the envelope. Inspired by the massive September 2006 E. coli-related spinach recall, McCabe ripped up her lawn and, on Oct. 10, Columbus Day, planted her “own damn spinach,” which provided her with salads through T ha n k s givi ng and Christmas that year. With the help of cold frames (McCabe takes old house windows and props them up to capture heat from the sun), she says Philadelphians can grow just about all winter. Extend the season on both ends with cool-, cool-warm- and warm-cool-season crops. “In Philadelphia, December and January are the only months you really aren’t planting.”

here are Rules and then there are rules.

Big-R rules are meant to be followed; little-r rules have some wiggle in them. When it comes to gardening, once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to start bending, extending and inverting the tenets that guided you through your first few growing seasons. For tips on how to take your gardening to the next level, we tapped the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s community gardening doyenne Sally McCabe and the host of WHYY’s You Bet Your Garden, Mike McGrath.

They had lots to say.

use

The Fairmount Park Organic Recycling Center (3850 Ford Road, 215-685-0108) offers up to 30 gallons of compost to residents for free. “Go when it hasn’t rained for four days or so,” advises McCabe. The compost will be lighter and easier to carry. “Many municipalities also have composting sites,” says McGrath. “Bring home as much of it as you can. You’ll never wish you had less compost. That’s the whole raison [d'être] for this publication, isn’t it? Compost is the ultimate recycling.”

Free compost

Make

Your

Own Soil

Compost opportunism is smart, but even smarter is making your own—with a little help from some little friends. “If you’re in the city, get a worm bin,” says McGrath. “Put it under your sink, put it in your basement. Put it under your bed if you’re that type of person. If you’re trying to compost food waste outdoors, you’re a criminal—you’re breeding vermin, and not the small, cute kind. Worms will take all your kitchen garbage and turn it into fabulous fertilizer.” In this rare case, he advises investing in a commercially made set-up. “You buy the worms and the bin once, and it is a non-mechanical machine that will process your food waste into worm castings and tea forever. There’s no better gift for someone who has a little garden than a big bag of worm castings.”

For gardeners with a little more space, McCabe suggests composting the wood chips from your garden’s path. “Where the wood chips meet the soil, critters are chomping away at them. In the fall, dump them into your beds.”

Learn Your

Microclimates Even within the tiniest concrete backyard container garden there are differences in sun, temperature and wind from one square foot to the next, says McCabe. Learn these variances, and you’re half way to extending your growing season.

Keep a Journal “I can usually get some firsttimers to do this,” says McCabe, “but everyone should write things down.” Not having to reinvent the wheel each season puts you one step closer to really knowing your garden’s microclimate.

For more great advice, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Garden Tenders, a 7-week class (though it may run longer) for people who want to start community or individual gardens begins Wed., March 23, 5:30-8:30p.m. Course costs $25 and preregistration (pennhort.net/gardentenders) is required.

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Start Canning

Grow in Pots

“This used to be 400-level gardening, but now it’s more like 200-level” says McCabe.

“But don’t use your grandmother’s instructions—the technology has really improved.”

Which is to say, check with an extension service (Penn State and Michigan State are good ones) or buy a current book (the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving is a good one) and don’t, say, try to can in your dishwasher like grandma did. As to what you should can, tomatoes and peaches are no-brainers, but “read your labels,” advises McCabe. “Seed catalogs will tell you which varieties can well.” GRID recipe queen Marisa McClellan’s blog, foodinjars.com, is another excellent resource.

“In the city, use containers,” says McGrath. “So much of the soil is contaminated with lead. You can get it tested, but then you have to remediate it. Better just to avoid it.” McGrath advises learning techniques for reusing potting soil (the Feb. 19 episode of his radio show addressed this). “Buy the right stuff the first time and if you’re clever, you can reuse it for a decade. A $10 bag of soil-free mix is a better investment than $1.50 for a white bag that says ‘dirt’ in which you might find Jimmy Hoffa’s ring.”

Use the City iving in the city, believe it or not, gives gardeners certain advantages.

“This is cliché, but plant a fig tree,” says McGrath. “In the center of the city, you don’t need to protect it over winter, the city tends to duplicate its natural Mediterranean environment. People who live 10 miles outside the city can’t do this because the city is a heat sink.”

This goes for other tender perennials including rosemary and Canna lilys. “People in the suburbs can’t leave these out over the winter,” he says. “They’re just missing the climate that would allow them to do that.”

L

And remember, gardening is good for the city. “Everything you plant successfully improves the air a little bit. Every worm bin under a sink improves the city exponentially,” says McGrath. “You may think ‘Yeah, big deal, I’m not throwing out my apple cores and my lettuce leaves.’ But you’re turning something worthless, that’s a double health risk, into an absolute super bonus.

The most environmentally sound and personally rewarding thing anyone in the city can do is to get into vermiculture. Every bag sitting outside that doesn’t have garbage in it is dozens less rats down the line.”

Branch Into Fruit Vegetables are all well and good, figures McCabe, but things get really sweet (literally, figuratively) when you start growing fruit.

Investigate Backyard Fruit Growers (www. sas.upenn.edu/~dailey/byfg.html) and the Philly Orchard Project (phillyorchards.org).

involve kids

“They can be your kids, neighborhood kids, anybody’s kids,” says McCabe, “but you must involve kids. Kids don’t know where food comes from, and they need to.”

Share With People

Sharing is, yes, a nice thing to do, but it’s also a way to expand your knowledge, says McCabe. “If I buy a six-pack of Roma tomato plants,” McCabe figures, “I only really need two, so I give two each to two friends.” And then those friends will pay it forward and back. And soon you’ve got a big network of people willing to share ideas and extra plants, seeds, etc.

Sing &

Dance

Remember, gardening is something you’re doing for enjoyment. “If it is not fun, you should do something else,” says McCabe, bluntly, adding that some people feel so freed by their gardens, they celebrate “Naked Gardening Day” (which is, incidentally, May 14; hit wngd.org for more). We won’t tell you that you should participate, but we won’t tell you that you shouldn’t.  Mike McGrath’s You Bet Your Garden airs on Saturdays at 11 a.m. on WHYY 90.9 FM and lives online at whyy.org/91FM/ybyg. He will speak at the Delaware County Environmental Fair, Sat., April 9, 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., Strath Haven High School, 205 S. Providence Rd., Wallingford, earthcarecouncil.org

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FutureFarmers’ Cervantes-inspired Soil Kitchen installation highlights the connections between a city’s dirt and its food by sue spolan

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et’s see what dirt mama’s cooking up in the Soil Kitchen. This recipe calls for earth, vegetables, a little Cervantes and a lot of wind power. ¶ Soil Kitchen, a temporary public art project coming to Second Street and Girard Avenue in Northern Liberties from April 1-6, will transform a vacant building into an installation that combines a soil testing facility, a soup kitchen and an educational center. On the roof, a windmill will serve as power source, beacon and inspiration.

The environmental art group FutureFarmers chose the location for its proximity to the nearby statue of Don Quixote. Amy Franceschini, one of FutureFarmers’ founders, has had Cervantes on the brain pretty much forever. “That book did something for me as an artist. I have a lack of confidence sometimes, and I have to convince myself to believe in what I am doing.”

After receiving a request for proposal from the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, who were looking for projects to coincide with the concurrent Brownfields 2011 conference, the San Francisco-based FutureFarmers put together a work that dovetails perfectly. Brownfields 2011, which runs from April 3-5 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, is devoted to economic and environmental redevelopment.

Soil Kitchen is set to offer soil testing and soup, all gratis.

According to Dan Allende, Soil Kitchen Project Manager, “When I first met Amy in Baltimore, one of her ideas was to turn a vacant house into a windmill, bringing life again into an abandoned home.”

Allende explains that Quixote reaches into the past to become a knight, and decides he will resurrect chivalry, battling a windmill that appears to be a giant. The story, he says, is an allegory for the encroaching industrial revolution. In Cervantes’ world, the windmill represents the end of subsistence farming, when those who worked the land had to go to grist mills to get grain processed. Soil Kitchen uses the same symbol to draw attention to the issues of the urban landscape, farming and industry.

According to Theresa Rose, public art project manager at the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, Soil Kitchen, which will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily during its fourday run, is practical as well as artistic.

“We’re asking people to bring soil samples from their yards to be tested at the site in exchange for soup which will be made from local vegetables,” says Rose. “FutureFarmers wants everyone to be aware of their soil, and where

things come from. It’s a cyclical thing, with soup ingredients coming from the ground, and the windmill serving as beacon to the site.”

which soup will be served.

The Soil Kitchen opens on April 1, with dirt testing to take place from April 3 to 6. FutureFarmers Francescini, Allende and Ian Mathew Cox arrive March 10 to start construction. The windmill, says Francescini, will be made from locally sourced materials, including gears from old bicycles.

Francescini, who hails from California, came to farming activism at a young age: “I grew up on a huge industrial farm near a pesticide company and was really sick as a kid,” she remembers. “After a divorce, my mom and I moved away, and she started an organic farm, becoming an activist against pesticides. I grew up between two ideologies of farming.” While both sides were interested in getting good food to their customers, it was a highly politicized battle in an “insane constructed environment.”

Soil Kitchen, like all FutureFarmers projects, is Francescini’s way of creating a more playful point of entry into that controversy. 

FutureFarmers wants everyone to be aware of their soil. It's a cyclical thing, with soup ingredients coming from the ground, and the windmill serving as a beacon to the site.

i llustr at i o n s by dan a l l e n d e

—theresa rose

Because there might be a wait for the soil to be tested, says Rose, FutureFarmers will provide almost constant public programming, including farming activists, soil remediation and recipe swaps. While the soup will be made off site at the kitchen of Chestnut Hill’s Cosmic Catering to comply with Health Department regulations, the windmill will power a stirring cauldron from

Soil Kitchen, April 1-6, 11a.m.-6p.m., Second Street and Girard Avenue, soilkitchen.org. Brownfields 2011, April 3-5, the Pennsylvania Convention Center; online registration closes March 18; visit brownfields2011.org.

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shoots

ladders

by char vandermeer

Up and at ‘em

Swiss chard seeds (bottom) produce scarlet-stemmed seedlings (left).

Sprout and About

Y

Now’s the time to get a jump on your seeds

ou’ve made your list and checked it twice, crossed out all the naughty low-yield seeds that didn’t work last year, keeping only the nice. By now, you’re surrounded by little armies of seed packets awaiting their moment in the sun—or, if not the sun’s actual rays, then at least the eerie glow of fluorescent tubes.

April is that magical time when your garden is a perfect blank canvas, full of promise, awaiting nurturing thumbs. According to Penn State Cooperative Horticultural Extension’s Planting Guide, Philadelphia County’s average last frost date is April 20. While this may indeed be the case, the past few growing seasons have instilled a certain degree of caution in this particular South Philly gardener. Last year, after all, tomatoes were transplanted on April 24; four days later, they endured a deluge that dumped nearly two inches of hard rain on the tender transplants, and the next day temperatures plummeted to an overnight low of 38 degrees. It was a rough start to a rough season.

As most seeds require four to eight weeks of devoted indoor care before being transplanted to their final destination—and assuming you’re targeting an early to mid-May transplanting frenzy (more on that next month!)—come March and April, seed planting can commence. All this counting backwards, from last frost to first seed, is the hardest part of successfully starting a garden from scratch.

First, take a look around for containers you can use to house your seedlings. Those little black trays from last year’s flowers, yogurt cups, discarded water bottles (chopped in half ) and used paper coffee cups—all thoroughly cleaned with hot, soapy water—are great options. Egg 36

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cartons (though so very tempting) are simply too small; peat pots (though so very convenient) dry out far too quickly to be of much use. Repurposed plastic receptacles work marvelously.

Punch a few small holes in your motley crew of containers to ensure adequate drainage.

Then splurge on a bag of organic soilless seedstarting mix. You could use regular old dirt, but you’d be inviting bugs and diseases into your seedlings’ beds. And while you can certainly make your own soilless mix, sourcing ingredients is even tougher than counting backwards.

Carefully dampen your starting mix thoroughly. The mixture should be moist, not muddy.

Fill your collection of containers with the planting medium. Tamp the mixture down gently.

Drop one to three seeds in your container, depending on its size, pressing gently to a depth that’s about twice as deep as the seed is wide, and then cover with a thin layer of the dampened starting mix. Label each container with the type of seed and date sown. Finally, cover your makeshift pots with plastic wrap to retain moisture.

You’ll need to check in regularly, making sure the soil is consistently moist; I’ve found that a spray bottle does an excellent job of watering in these early days. Once your precious seeds begin to germinate, remove the wrap and expose them to the light.

Like all newborns, seedlings are needy suck-

ers and require temperatures of 65 to 75 degrees.

Once they’ve germinated, they’ll benefit from 12 to 18 hours of light a day—hence, the magic of fluorescent lighting. Seedlings starved for light and warmth will shoot for the skies, but their stems will be straggly and weak, their leaves tiny and anemic. This “legginess,” in plant parlance is a bad, bad thing. So, if you’re a doting seedstarter, rotate your pots regularly so each seedling receives adequate light from all angles and expose them to a few hours of gentle fan-fueled breeze to encourage strong stems and discourage fungal infections.

Happy sowing.  char vandermeer tends a container garden on her South Philly roof deck; she chronicles the triumphs and travails at plantsondeck.com.

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?

”

on

with

john byrne

by dana henry

Udel Climate Godhead Talks About Unions’ Role In Our Green Future

I

n November, Dr. John Byrne, director of the University of Delaware’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP) and distinguished professor of energy and climate policy, served as honorary chair of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Cleantech Conference. During the proceedings, he realized something was missing, specifically that most of the presentations concerned technological innovation without addressing how those advancements would be implemented. Further conversation, he figured, would need to include organized labor. Dr. Byrne shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to Working Group III, part of the U.N.- and World Meteorological Organization-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and co-chairs the oversight board of Delaware’s nonprofit Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU). Byrne returned to Philadelphia in February for a joint “Investing in the green-energy economy will create discussion with AFL-CIO leadership at the Jewish Labor Committee/Israeli three to six times more jobs than an investment of Consul General Green Jobs Reception.

He gave GRID a primer on the complex the same amount in the fossil fuel economy, with shift to a green energy economy.

You have championed the phrase “the kind of energy system we need to see to move safely through the 21st century.” What does such a system look like?

We really are in a catch-up role. The benchmark for carbon emission is 3.3 tons per person, per year and the United States is at over 19 tons per person, per year. It seems very difficult to bring that down, but for a practical perspective, we will—through new construction, demolition and recommissioning of our building stock—change 70 percent of the total square footage in the United States by 2030. That’s in the nature of how our economy works. The question is whether we will make those changes in a matter that allows us to significantly reduce the risk of climate change.

We also need to refocus our transportation on low emissions, both in the fuels we use and in our use of public transit. The United States is way behind Europe and Asia in use of public transit.

The SEU transfers the business of energy retrofitting from the utility companies, which are arguably in the private sector, and places it in the hands of the nonprofit sector. Has there been any indication that this model is viable?

Before Delaware passed the SEU, Delaware was typically ranked, by agencies that evaluated energy efficiency, at the very bottom. In the past two years, Delaware has created more homes 38

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investments in improved building performance and solar energy generating the most new jobs.”

that meet the Energy Star standards of the EPA than any other state, on a proportionate basis.

And we were the fastest to make improvements in the efficiency of the appliance stock. In May, we will undertake for our state $30 to $40 million of investments in energy changes to our public schools and government buildings.

The financing strategy does not require the government to raise taxes or steal money from other budgetary needs. Instead SEU finances energy improvements out of the [projected] energy savings. Financing comes from an SEU bond, not a state bond.

What will the process of shifting to a lowcarbon economy mean for the future of our workforce and organized labor?

In order to make major changes in our carbon footprint for our building sector and our transportation sector, we are going to need to organize our workforce to make commitments to new energy technology options. Historically, organized labor has played a major role in large infrastructure projects and will be needed to make this transition to a green-energy economy.

Investing in the green-energy economy— improved buildings and transportation, and the use of renewable energy—will create three to six

times more jobs than an investment of the same amount in the fossil fuel economy, with investments in improved building performance and solar energy generating the most new jobs.

Philadelphia has its share of leaders in the green energy space, including Mark Alan Hughes, chief author of the city’s Greenworks Plan [who has returned to teach at UPenn]; Kristin Sullivan in the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability—she heads the Solar America Program initiatives in Philadelphia—and Erik Johannson, SEPTA, who is working on performance upgrades of SEPTA buildings and the use of roof surfaces at bus terminals to collect solar energy for electricity generation.

You’ve written widely on the climate change “debate.” Is there still a debate in the science community? What is the nature of current arguments within the science community regarding climate science?

The question of whether human activity has changed the chemistry of the atmosphere is not in dispute. The question of whether the change in the chemistry of the atmosphere risks higher temperatures is not in dispute. Where the disputes lie are in trying to figure out how fast we are going to see climate change. 

ph oto by Wi lli am Bretzger/Th e News Jou rna l

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urban naturalist

by bernard brown

wrong object of affection; male toads have been documented attempting amplexus with tennis balls, clods of soil, the boots of researchers and, saddest of all, females they’ve found dead on the road. (It’s a lot easier, I suppose, to seduce the ladies that don’t hop away.)

But the road, or more specifically the enormous wheeled contraptions of metal and glass that roll along it, is the biggest threat to Philadelphia toads ISO love. Toads breed in the water but live in the surrounding woods and yards. Remember the slow and clumsy part?

Combine that with a defensive instinct (effective in leaf litter, but less than useless on the road) to take a It’s spring break few hops, hold real still and try to blend in, and for amphibians you’ve got a recipe for road pizza.

Happily for the toads of Upper Roxborough, repare for a trilling experience. Any minute now, the Amer- a committed band of animal advocates and conican toads of Philadelphia will wake up from their winter slumbers. cerned neighbors operates the Toad Detour project. The old Roxborough Reservoir, long unused For a few weeks, they’ll rub their eyes, hop around a bit and lazily eat and overgrown, has become party central for a few worms or beetles. Then a crack of thunder and a long day of rain will the local toads, many from the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Educasignal party time for these explosive breeders. tion’s grounds. Toad Detour Learn more volunteers shut down some First, you’ll hear the males singing their little Of course, other species about how you can of the surrounding streets on three-chambered hearts out: a high-pitched trill are even more committed become a toad peak migration nights so that that sounds like those bird-shaped water-whistle to sex (ask the male black crossing guard at the toads can get in to do their toys, merging into a chorus in a marsh, a pond, widow spider). And I suptoaddetour.com. business and then hop home maybe the slow fringe of a rain-swollen creek. pose if we only mated six again.

The females, each bloated with thousands of or seven times in our entire Those eggs soon hatch out, and the fat, black eggs, follow their ears to the sexiest-sounding lives, we’d be similarly focused on sealing the toad in the chorus. This toad Adonis will use deal. Nonetheless, the toad libido is impressive. tadpoles grow legs and strike off into the world special rough patches on his hands—the very More than once I’ve approached a pair in am- about a month later, traveling en masse from groovily named “nuptial pads”—to hold tight to plexus, and have never had any trouble catch- water to wherever. The Toad Detour volunteers her back. This grip is called amplexus, and he’s ing them. Toads are slow and clumsy by nature, return for the running of the toadlets; the peanot gonna give her up until that sweet moment and the male compounds these shortcomings by sized toadlets are even worse at crossing streets when he fertilizes those eggs as the female lays tenaciously hanging onto his lover’s back, even than their parents.  them in long strands tied around aquatic weeds though slowing her down means they could both bernard brown is an amateur field herper, partor sticks. Multiply this act by hundreds of toads perish. and you’ve got what the scientists call a “breedThe male toad stares death in the face from the time bureaucrat and director of the PB&J Campaign; ing aggregation,” and what you and I would call back of the object of his affection and does not let read about his forays into the natural world at an orgy. go. Never mind that he may be holding onto the phillyherping.blogspot.com.

Toad-ally In Love P

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mar

mar

PASA’s Farm Meets the Table Pennsylvania Association for 14 The Sustainable Agriculture brings local farmers and buyers together for its secondannual Farm Meets the Table event, hosted by PASA’s Southeast regional office and chef Sean Weinberg. To get the most out of this event, it is strongly suggested that only local growers who have the desire to sell their home grown items on a commercial scale register. Non-PASA members are welcome to attend. →→ Mon., March 14, 5:30 – 7 p.m., $20 sug-

gested donation, Restaurant Alba, 7 W. King St., Malvern, registration closes March 4, for more information, contact event coordinator Denise Sheehan at denise@pasafarming.org or call 610-458-5700 x317, gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1946&EID=8765

mar

Green: The New Black only African-American 15 Philadelphia’s talk radio station, 900AM-WURD, presents “Green: The New Black,” a discussion featuring prominent social activists and environmentalists John Francis, Ph.D., and Van Jones.

The talk will highlight the importance of environmental justice and sustainability with regard to human rights. →→ Tue., March 15, 5:30 – 8 p.m., $15 – $75,

Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St., for more information, or to register, visit eventbrite. com/event/1291927189/zvents

mar

Urban Sustainability Forum: Great City Agenda for City 17 Next Council Made up of over 100 civic, health, business, labor and environmental organizations, the Next Great City Coalition has created an agenda to help City Council candidates make Philadelphia the Next Great City. Representatives from Next Great City and PennFuture will share the details of the agenda, and how these plans will help transform our city’s economy, environment and quality of life.

After the presentation, City Council candidates of both parties will have an opportunity to share their positions on issues such as energy, waste, transportation, land reuse and food access. This will be the first of three forums addressing these issues. Visit ansp.org for information on the April 6 and 21 Candidate Forums. →→ March 17, presentation from 5:30 – 6:30

p.m., Butterfly Gallery, the Academy of Natural Sciences, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy.

For more information and to register, visit nextgreatcitycouncilagenda.eventbrite.com.

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→→ City Council reception and forum, 6:30 –

8:30 p.m., Main Auditorium. For more information and to register, visit philacouncilatlarge.eventbrite.com

mar

La Salle University’s Symposium 19 Sustainability The Explorer Connection at La Salle University will host its first ever Sustainability Symposium, “Sustainability: Is It More Than We Think?” It will emphasize an interdisciplinary framework for examining and practicing sustainability, drawing on key issues of sustainable development from a local, national and global focus. Come and be part of the exchange of ideas on the current state of sustainable development. →→ Sat., March 19, 9:15 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., La Salle

University, 1900 W. Olney Ave., registration closes March 10, for information on the event schedule, visit myintranet.lasalle.edu/ sites/explorer_connection/Sustainability_ Symposium/sustainability.html, to register, visit sustainsymposiumlasalle.eventbrite.com

Old World Wine, County Cheese 23 Chester Tria Café cheese expert Jenny Harris joins Joe Brandolo of Slow Food Philadelphia to take fromageophiles on a guided tasting tour of Chester County’s handmade cheeses, paired with complimentary Old World wines. Featured cheeses will also be available for purchase at the conclusion of the program. →→ Wed., March 23, 7 – 9 p.m., $15 – $25, the Res-

taurant School, 4100 Walnut St., for registration and more information, visit gifttool.com/registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1946&EID=8772

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Kimberton Green Fair 2011 Waldorf School invites ev02 Kimberton eryone with a passion for sustainability and green initiatives to the second annual Kimberton Green Fair. Expect up to 40 vendors, artists, practitioners and educators. Other highlights include keynote speaker Bill Mettler of Transitions Town Cheltenham, a freshly prepared organic lunch sold to benefit the school and local acoustic music. →→ Sat., April 2, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Kimberton

mar

Silent Auction to Provide Foods to Local Families 20 Local Henry Got Crops!, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm managed by staff from Weavers Way Co-op, partners with Saul High School to bring you their “Share a Share” fundraiser. This silent auction aims to help raise money to bring locally grown foods to families throughout Philadelphia, as well as provide students at Saul with educational opportunities through Weavers Way Community Programs. →→ Sun., March 20, 3 – 5:30 p.m., Unitarian So-

ciety of Germantown, 6511 Lincoln Drive, for more information, contact Henry Got Crops! at 215-843-2350 or Nina Berryman at nberryman@weaversway.coop

Waldorf School, 410 W. Seven Stars Rd., Phoenixville, for more information, visit kimbertonwholefoods.com

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Silent Auction to Benefit the Environmental 02 Pennsylvania Council Mingle at a cocktail reception on the banks of the Delaware River and help out the Pennsylvania Environmental Council by bidding on various vacation getaways and unique items donated by local businesses that care about the environment. All proceeds will benefit PEC’s work to improve our rivers and communities. →→ Sat., April 2, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., Corinthian

Yacht Club, 300 W. 2nd St., Essington, for more information, visit pecpa.org/ phillyauction

mar

Food Co-op Spring Community in South Philly 21 Forum Recent winners of a $1,000 Ignite Philly grant, the South Philly Food Co-op will hold a community meeting covering progress made over the past year, and report on their initiative to open a cooperative grocery store in South Philadelphia by 2012. Find out how to get involved— members of the steering, outreach and legal/ finance committees will be on hand to answer questions about the initiative.

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PV America Solar Conference The Solar Energy Industries Associa03 tion and Solar Electric Power Associa04 tion team up for this massive (3,000 05 buyers/experts/industry big shots) conference at the Convention Center.

What’s got GRID extra-excited is that Saturday, April 5, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is “public day” when they’ll throw open the exhibit hall doors to any and all parties, registered or not, interested in checking out the latest in solar tech.

→→ Mon., March 21, 7 – 8:30 p.m., Neumann-

Goretti High School Auditorium (entrance at 11th and Moore St.), for more information, contact Alison Fritz at southphillyfoodcoop@ gmail.com or call 516-314-2323

→→ April 3 – 5, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Pennsylvania

Convention Center, 1101 Arch St., attendees and exhibitors can register at pvamericaexpo.com

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Environmental Justice Caucus bond with prominent community 03 Come leaders to share success stories and discuss significant environmental justice issues at the Environmental Justice Caucus. This is an occasion to connect with your peers and converse about our community achievements and visions for the future, as well as environmental justice and Brownfields 2011 issues. Light refreshments and entertainment will be provided.

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Household Hazardous Drop-Off Event 09 Waste Take part in this month’s waste drop-off, which will accept household hazardous wastes from fertilizers to paint thinners, as well as old computer equipment and televisions. →→ Sat., April 9, 9 a.m. – 3

→→ Sun., April 3, 6 – 9 p.m., Academy of Natural

Sciences, 19th St. and the Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., RSVP to Metrini Geopani at 215-8142939 or geopani.metrini@epa.gov by March 18, brownfields2011.org/en/Page/50/Envi-

p.m., Streets Department’s Training Center, State Rd. at Ashburner St., for a complete list of accepted waste, visit phila.gov/ streets/hazardous_waste.html

ronmental_Justice_Caucus

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Roll Up Your Sleeves a difference by volunteering at 03 Make the Awbury Arboretum, located in the heart of the city. By planting vegetables, removing invasive plants and maintaining trails, participants can help preserve the beauty of this historic green space. This event will take place rain or shine, so make sure to bring gloves and a poncho if necessary. →→ Sun., April 3, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., $12 trans-

portation fee, Awbury Arboretum, 1 Awbury Rd., if you do not need transportation, or for more information, contact Rashmi Mathur at 215-814-5234 or at mathur.rashmi@epa.gov

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Recycling Tour of Materials Center 06 Recovery Wissahickon Growing Greener will host a family-friendly grand tour of the Materials Recovery Center in King of Prussia. This opportunity to learn all about recycling processes will be held in a conference room overlooking the facility. The 30-45-minute presentation includes a question and answer period. →→ Wed., April 6, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m., RSVP to Erin at wissahickongrowinggreener@gmail. com and please include ages of children if

applicable.

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PSU Master Gardeners: EZ Steps Growing Vegetables 09 to Philadelphia Master Gardener Julie Cox will address fundamentals and frequently asked questions on beginning a vegetable garden. Topics up for discussion include, but are not limited to, site selection, planning, nurturing, harvesting and soil testing using an organic approach. →→ Sat., April 9, 9 – 11 a.m., $10, Fairmount

Park Horticulture Center, N. Horticulture and Montgomery Dr., pre-registration is requested, for more information and registration, visit philadelphia.extension.psu. edu/Horticulture/2011_Series_flyer.pdf

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Satellite Second Craft Market 09 Saturday Help welcome spring at Satellite Second Saturday Craft Market, held outdoors in Cedar Park. Browse a fine array of affordable handmade goods from local artists and crafters, including eclectic jewelry, ceramics, prints and paintings, adult and children’s clothing and accessories, local baked goods, soaps and, yes, even hula hoops.

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→→ Sat., April 9, 10 a.m., $10, University of

→→ Sun., April 10, 2 – 6 p.m. Mishkan Shalom,

theatrealliance.org/tickets/reserveTickets. aspx?perf_no=16128&org=nn

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Break out the popcorn for Pennypack Farm and Education Center’s ongoing sustainability movie series, presenting Suzan Beraza’s humorous documentary Bag-It. The film follows “average guy” Jeb Berrier as he delves into what happens to plastic bags and other single-use plastic containers once we are finished with them. →→ Tue., April 12, 7:30 – 9:30 p.m., $10,

Ambler Theater, 108 E. Butler Ave., Ambler, for more information, call 215-345-7855 or visit pennypackfarm. org/Education/Movie-Series/146/

50th St. & Baltimore Ave.

Garbage Is My Bag miss award-winning environmen09 Don’t tal educator Jack Golden as he stars as Dr. T, a comedic expert who delves into a mountain of trash in search of answers to our garbage problem. Dr. T combines knowledge with humor to communicate the idea that rubbish is too good a resource to be thrown away.

Pennsylvania Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut St., for more information or tickets, visit ticketing.

Bag-It!

→→ Sat., April 9, noon – 5 p.m., Cedar Park,

Ground for Hope of organizations, includ10 Aingconsortium GreenFaith, the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement, the Shalom Center, Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, will host this educational afternoon helping clergy, seminarians and their congregations launch environmental efforts and network with other religious/environmental leaders.

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4101 Freeland Ave., for more information, contact Rev. Fletcher Harper at revfharper@ greenfaith.org

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CLEAN UP and GET DOWN: Service Project 16 Community and Dance Party The Sustainable Business Network of Philadelphia (SBN) will celebrate its 10-year anniversary by bringing members together for a community clean-up and party in keeping with their mission“to build a just, green and thriving economy in the Greater Philadelphia region.”

Clean Up: SBN and Greater Philadelphia Cares are organizing plenty of planting, trash pick-up and fun. The first 50 members to sign up get a free volunteer T-shirt . To register, visit sbncleanup.eventbrite.com to secure your free volunteer ticket. Get Down: Visit sbngetdown.eventbrite. com to purchase a member ticket for $25, or nonapri l 20 11

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member ticket for $30 for the Get Down after party, complete with a locally sourced dinner and two drink tickets. Dancing shoes are optional, but highly encouraged. →→ Sat., April 16, Clean Up, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.,

location: TBA; Get Down, 7:30 – 11 p.m., Yard’s Brewing Company, 901 N. Delaware Ave., sbnphiladelphia.org/events/view/ save_the_date_earth_week_service_project_ and_dance_party/

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Philadelphia: The Greenest in the Country 16 City President of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society Drew Becher will lead a discussion on making Philadelphia the greenest city in the country, highlighting PHS programs that strive to motivate people to improve their quality of life and transform communities through horticulture. →→ Sat., April 16, 11 a.m., Lewis W. Barton

Arboretum, 1 Medford Leas, Medford, NJ, for more information, call 609-654-300 or visit mlra.org/index.htm

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The 5K Run for Clean Air 5K Run for Clean Air has developed 16 The into Philadelphia’s largest Earth Day celebration, a certified green event marked by great anticipation. Situated on the spectacular banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the run promotes sustainable and healthy neighborhoods, clean air and advancement of the region’s environmental health. →→ Sat., April 16, 9 a.m., $20 – $120 to run,

Martin Luther King Dr. at the Art Museum, no team registrations or changes after April 11, to register, visit active.com/running/ philadelphia-pa/5k-run-for-clean-air-2011

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Uhuru Flea Market the third annual Uhuru Earth 16 Celebrate Day Fest and Flea Market, sponsored by the Uhuru Solidarity Movement. The event features local arts and crafts, clothing, food and drinks, live music, speakers and workshops on sustainability, green living, urban gardening and social justice. →→ Sat., April 16 (rain date Sun., April 17),

9 a.m. – 5 p.m., Clark Park B at 43rd St. and Chester Ave., for more information, visit uhurufleamarket.blogspot.com

Got an event?

E-mail events@gridphilly.com.

Wissahickon Earth Day Event 16 Volunteer For Earth Day, TerraMar will team with the Fairmount Park Commission, Wissahickon Restoration Volunteers, the Philadelphia Rock Gym, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Commission to clean up and maintain three sites of shared natural resources in the Philadelphia area. This year, help beautify the hiking area of Fairmount Park, the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and Ralph Stover State Park.

gridphilly.com

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Cobbs Creek 5K Run/Walk some fresh air by joining Darby23 Get Cobbs Watershed Partnership, Philadelphia Parks and Recreation and the Philadelphia Water Department for the first annual 5K run/walk through West Philadelphia and the trails of Cobbs Creek Park. Designed to help participants rediscover all of the beautiful areas Cobbs Creek, all proceeds will benefit revitalization efforts in the park. →→ Sat., April 23, 8 a.m., $10 – $20 to run/

→→ Sat., April 16, 10 a.m., for more information and to sign up, visit meetup.com/Adventurers-in-Action/events/16494586

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SA VA Nature Worship: Spring Show and Street Fair 20 Fashion SA VA Nature Worship will present SA VA’s spring collection during an outdoor fashion show on the 1700 block of Sansom Street. Neighboring businesses will be vending outdoors; a DJ and special guest speakers are also on the roster.

A portion of proceeds from the event will benefit the Career Wardrobe, a remarkable organization assisting women transitioning back into the workforce.

walk, 63rd & Cedar Sts., to register, visit fairmountparkconservancy.org and click donate now, then the events bubble to select Cobbs Creek 5K.

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Earth Day Native Plant Sale Pinelands Preservation Alliance 30 The will be selling an assortment of wildflowers, trees and shrubs native to the Pinelands and/or South Jersey. Trees like the Black Gum and Virginia Pine and wildflowers like the New England Aster and Yellow Wild Indigo are excellent for backyard use. Proceeds will benefit PPA’s mission to protect and preserve the Pinelands. →→ Sat., April 30, 11 a.m. – 3p.m., The

→→ Wed., April 20 (rain date Thu., April 21), 6 – 8 p.m., 17th & Sansom St., sbnphiladelphia.org/ events/view/sa_va_nature_worship_spring_ fashion_show_community_street_fair

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Spring Fling: Party with your Planet 21 The Philadelphia Zoo hosts its Spring 22 Fling, “Party with your Planet.” Learn 23 how you can save the environment through music, games and information from local environmental organizations. Guests are encouraged to bring old sneakers, cell phones, plastic bottles and newspapers to recycle.

Pinelands Visitor Center, 17 Pemberton Rd., Southampton Township, N.J., for more information, visit pinelandsalliance.org/ calendar/v/444/4/2011

Are you working towards

a more sustainable

Philadelphia?

We’d love to see you in the pages of

→→ Thu., April 21- Sat., April 23, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.,

free with admission to the Philadelphia Zoo, $15 – $18. Philadelphia Zoo, 3400 W. Girard Ave., for more information and ticketing, visit philadelphiazoo.org/zoo/Visit-The-Zoo/ Calendar-of-Events/Party-with-your-Planet. htm

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Earth Day Festival Academy of Natural Sciences show22 The cases their valuable research on the environmental health of streams, lakes and estuaries during their Earth Day Festival. The festival is comprised of four important events: Meet the Real Environmental Scientists, Tools of the Trade, Testing for Toxins and Eco-Action Expo. →→ Fri., April 22, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., free with

general admission, $10 – $12, The Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th St. & the Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., for more information visit ansp.org/earthday/index.php

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Adventures in Dual Flush

researched our options and fell in love with the photos of a Caroma Caravelle One-Piece toilet.

It was beautiful: glistening white porcelain with shining silver buttons on top, a solid base to make cleaning easier, and a mere .8 gallons per flush for the number-one button.

I ordered it online. The environmentally reby leanne krueger-braneky sponsible dual-flush toilet probably had the largest carbon footprint of any of our purchases: It ive years ago, my husband and I bought our first house. After look- was manufactured by an Australian company ing at countless poorly renovated properties, our egos got the better and shipped from a distributor in Iowa because I couldn’t find one locally. of us and we decided to take on a do-it-yourself rehab of a two-story The plot thickened when we were ready for rowhouse in West Philadelphia. Between us, we had exactly zero construction installation. We hired an old-school, Philly-born experience. I was also committed to doing a rehab that was as green as our and-bred plumber who had never seen a dualflush toilet before—which would have been OK budget would allow, using locally sourced materials whenever possible. had he admitted it at the time. Instead, he got These were the days before Greenable and the Environmental House the base installed, the seat on, but could not get the buttons to work. He Store made green home renovation projects easier. I started to research adamantly insisted we were missing screws or a washer or some other building materials online—VOC-free paint and clay plaster, water-based arcane toilet paraphernalia. The search for missing toilet parts went on sealants and Energy Star lighting fixtures—and got excited about dual- for a number of weeks and since we were in desperate need of a toilet flush toilets. before we moved in, we learned to flush the toilet by, no joke, poking it For readers who’ve yet to experience the majesty of a dual-flush toilet, with a straw. let me explain. In contrast to the one-flush-fits-all standard, a dual-flush Months went by—five, in fact—as the plumber continued to insist there toilet has two buttons: one for number one, the other for number two. It was something wrong with the toilet. A call to customer service in Austrais a fascinating concept, and in some countries with water issues, such lia finally determined that he was wrong; we had all the parts we needed, as Australia, dual-flush toilets are now mandated by the government. I the thing just wasn’t installed correctly. As the day of our housewarming party approached, I became more anxious. We were expecting 50 people at a house with just one toilet. It was crucial that we get it to work.

My husband bravely rolled up his sleeves and locked himself in the bathroom. He finally got it working—flushing with the actual buttons, not with a straw—a few short hours before our housewarming party. We proudly toured our guests through the bathroom that night and explained how the toilet worked. Many of them had never seen a dual-flush toilet before and were appropriately impressed.

Five years have gone by and we visit the toilet often. It has gotten so much use that the seat is now loose, but we can’t figure out how to get it off to fix it. My father-in-law recently inspected it, and declared that the bolts for the toilet seat were put in upside down. Since it’s a one-piece toilet, the bolts are on the inside, so the whole toilet would need to be unbolted from the floor to fix the seat. There’s no way I’m calling that oldschool plumber this time. 

F

leanne krueger-braneky is executive director of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia (sbnphiladelphia.org), a 500-plus member organization that brings together local leaders who share an interest in running successful companies that have a positive social and environmental impact.

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