West Philly Garden Day

Friday, September 17, 2010

West Philly Gardens Day
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Noon–3PM

For more information about West Philly Gardens Day and workshop registration, visit www.ucityoffthegrid.com.

West Philly Garden Tour Map

Drying Fresh Herbs

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sadly, almost all of my herbs got eaten by squirrels, killed by the heat wave, poisoned by black walnuts, or crushed by construction materials. This past week I decided that instead of harvesting my own, I’d order some lemon balm from the Lancaster Farm Fresh CSA and still have plenty of winter tea. Lemon Balm can be dried like most herbs from your garden - easily. The fastest method is to lay the herbs on a cookie sheet and place them in your oven. Just a little heat - 100 degrees - can try the herbs in an hour or two, or if you have a gas oven with a pilot light you can leave them in there overnight and wake up to dried herbs in the morning. I usually remove leaves before drying, but with some tough leaves, like rosemary, it is easier to dry them on the stalk and then remove them later.

Some people prefer to hang their herbs by their stalks. These bunches, hanging over a kitchen sink, in front of a window, or in a dry attic look and smell lovely, though they can take a bit longer to dry. If left undisturbed, they may hang intact for months, but watch out - they can also get dusty!

A Festival Weekend

Thursday, September 09, 2010

I’ve already mentioned the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival, but there all kinds of festivals happening this weekend for you local food-minded, outdoorsy, green folks. Initially, I was going to write an entry for all of them, but they stacked up! Instead, I’ve compiled a linked list of all the fun events this weekend.

SATURDAY
Safe Routes Philly Family Phest - 8am-1pm
Elkins Oval, on Ben Franklin Parkway between 23rd and 24th Sts., in front of the Art Museum.
Learn bicycle skills and safety during this youth oriented lead-up to Sunday’s Bike Philly

PHS Fall Garden Festival 11am-4pm
Naval Yard
This year this festival is open to everyone - member or not! Demonstrations, children’s activities, annual plant sale, and more.

SUNDAY
Bike Philly - 8am
The Bicycle Coalition has organized this family-friendly bike though the car-free streets of Philadelphia. 10, 20 and 35 mile courses are available. Get out there and enjoy our beautiful city!

Greenfest Philly -  11am-6pm
2nd & South Streets
Philadelphia, PA

Over 200 vendors with green eats, clothing, construction materials, and house supplies, this fun outdoor festival features a clothing swap and eco-poetics competition.

Potatoes, My Way

Monday, August 30, 2010

Last year was my first experiment with growing potatoes and it was revelatory.  When you eat potatoes that were harvested that same day, the flavor is unbelievably earthy and complicated.  I never knew potatoes could taste like that and I am truly a convert.

So this year I expanded my crop and grew four different types of potatoes:  ‘Yukon Gold,’ ‘Red Pontiac,’ ‘Katahdin,’ and some mysterious small blue potato that my friend gave me.  By far, the ‘Yukon Gold’ potatoes were the most dense, buttery, and delicious and I am definitely going to be growing more of them next year. 

I planted my potatoes in April, they bloomed in June, and I started harvesting in July.  There are still some potatoes in the ground and I plan on leaving them for a few more weeks while we eat the ones I harvested this weekend.  If I wanted, I could leave them in the ground and harvest as late as November.  Potatoes are amazing.

My favorite way to eat my potatoes is chopped with onions and sauteed in left over bacon fat (from bacon that I sometimes treat myself to from Milk and Honey Market at 45th and Baltimore in West Philly.  Yum).

Toss in a few slices of tomato with salt and sugar and presto!  Lunch.

August Harvest

Saturday, August 28, 2010

  *  ‘Katahdin’ and ‘Yukon Gold’ potatoes
  * one tiny (and slightly tasteless) watermelon
  * habanero peppers
  * ‘Sungold’ and ‘Tomaccio’ cherry tomatoes
  * ‘Long Slim’ cayenne peppers
  * a ‘Cherokee Purple’ and two other tomatoes
  * red onions
  * an eggplant
  * leeks
  * deformed, end-of-season cucumbers

Enjoy your own summer harvests!

Fall Vegetable Gardening

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

It’s Fall!  Okay, maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, but I just can’t wait to get to my favorite season (and the weather these past two days has been such a tease).  But even though we’re still in the thick of the summer crop harvest, it’s not too early to start thinking about cool weather crops again.  If you want to get a jump on your fall garden, come to this fun workshop taught by Sally McCabe at the new South Philly garden store Urban Jungle!

When:  September 9th, 6pm
Where:  Urban Jungle, 1526 E. Passyunk Ave. (at Tasker)
What:  Fall Vegetable Gardening - Join community gardening guru Sally McCabe of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to learn how you can grow vegetables in the cooler weather of fall.  Find out what kinds of vegetables can be grown, how to extend your harvest of vegetables into the winter, and how to do it all in a small space!  Cost includes instruction, wine, and snacks.  $20 per person.

Click here to register!

Current Harvest

Monday, August 23, 2010

On a recent trip to my community garden plots (one at the St. Bernard Community Garden and one at the Woodlands Community Garden) I brought home the following haul:

A huge bouquet of zinnias, over a pound of potatoes (‘Yukon Gold’ and a mystery blue), and several ‘Cherokee Purple’ heirloom tomatoes.  I also picked a bag of swiss chard, and a half pound of ‘Sungold’ cherry tomatoes.

My butternut squash is starting to really take over my Woodlands plot, and my cayenne and habanero peppers are all starting to ripen now.  My cucumbers have been a disappointment, along with my tomatoes overall.  But the swiss chard is going gangbusters and I will have potatoes to harvest well into September.  So I can’t complain, not really.

Happy harvesting!

Support the Emerald Street Urban Farm at a Puppet Performance

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Take a trip up to increasingly green Kensington to support the Green Street Urban Farm project at York and Dauphin. PuppetTyranny will perform JM Barrie’s magical story “Peter Pan in a Kensington Garden” (not Philadelphia’s Kensington, but a Kensington all the same) in the park across from the farm on 8pm on Friday August 13th and Saturday August 14th for a suggested donation of $5 - $10. Bring a kid, bring your dog, bring a local picnic and enjoy!

Philadelphia Weekly Press Release:

PuppeTyranny! brings its trademark sock and marionette whimsy to J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan prelude, transposing the adventures of Peter from Edwardian London’s posh Kensington Gardens to Philly’s own urban Kensington. The troupe’s ragtag band of actors, musicians, puppeteers and Lost Boys patch together shadows, animation, live music and dance to bring to life the story’s various fantastical characters, including fairy queens and invisible flying goats. Peter is as strange a creature as any: Not yet the boy crocodile hunter of Disney fame, he’s a downy newborn, escaped from his crib and convinced he’s a bird. Baby Peter’s dreamy after-hours adventures in the park are enough to push the old nostalgia button—even if our own childhood idylls involved more tube slides than immortal birds. The show repeats on Saturday. -Lauren Smith

8pm. $5-$10. Emerald Street Urban Farm, 2312 Emerald St. 267.909.2633. puppetuprising.org

West Philly Garden Day

Monday, August 09, 2010

Come check out this great event in September.  I’ll be teaching a workshop on “Starting a New Community Garden” at The Woodlands Community Garden (pictured above) at 2pm, so come by and say Hi!

West Philly Garden Day

From Noon to 3:00PM on Sunday, September 19th, visitors will have a chance to learn more about the many beautiful ornamental and community gardens in University City on a self-guided tour of these often hidden gems.  Community gardens across University City will open their gates and welcome visitors to learn more about growing their own food in University City.  Along the way, visitors will be able to stop and admire the nominees for University City’s annual Inspirational Garden Awards.  Throughout the day, a series of workshops will offer opportunities to learn about starting your own community garden, bee keeping, planting fruit trees, and other gardening topics.  At 4:00PM, join us at the Woodlands Mansion for a presentation of the annual Inspirational Garden Awards to some of the most beautiful gardens in University City.  Contact Seth Budick at (215) 243-0555 for more details.

TODAY: Philadelphia Orchard Project Festival and Fundraiser

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Come on out to Liberties Land Park and celebrate the Philadelphia Orchard Project. Tacos, Cupcakes, Beer and great bands!

The Penn Garden

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Through the efforts of U Penn undergrads, spearheaded by Sandra Zhao, there is now a community garden on campus.  The mission of The Penn Garden is ” to educate the Penn community about urban agriculture and to advocate for environmentally friendly, fair food systems.”  There will be an Urban Studies course on urban ag developed around the garden, and lots of work days for the greater West Philly community to help plant and harvest.  The food will be sold to the dining hall, sold to the community at the on-campus farmer’s market, and donated to local food banks.  Here’s the garden’s blog.

What to do with Garlic Scapes?

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Perhaps garlic scapes have popped up in your CSA share, or you’ve seen them recently at a farmer’s market and thought “what do I do with these?
You’re not alone. Before I signed up for my first CSA last spring, I’d never seen a scape or even heard of them. A garlic scape is the greens that garlic bulbs shoot up out of the ground while they are growing (much like onion greens). Farmers remove the scapes so that the garlic bulb devotes more of its energy to making itself big and fat. While farmers used to throw scapes into the compost or feed them to animals, they’ve become a popular market produce and herald of the new Spring season.

So what do you do with them? Basically, anything that you would already do with garlic. Scapes taste like garlic, but with a milder, greener flavor. You can chop them (all the way through the flower) and add them to stir-fries, soups, salads, casseroles, burritos, and really, anything else. Many scape lovers find them especially delightful ground into pesto. I like to fry the scapes before using them (like garlic). Because they are milder, you can use many more scapes than you would white garlic cloves. A good estimate is about one full scape per garlic clove (if you are substituting) and you will still have milder flavor. And if for some reason you just can’t stand garlic, they also look beautiful in a vase!

Help Odwalla plant a tree in your state!

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Odawalla, the natural juice and smoothie company, is planting trees all across the US this summer with their “Odwalla Plant A Tree” Campaign. Just click on the site below, select your state, and vote using either your email or Facebook accounts. It’s that simple! PA is currently in second place for number of trees planted. The sky’s the limit!

Green cherries

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

This little dwarf sour cherry tree I planted in the backyard 2 years ago was not thriving, so I dug it up in March and moved it to a giant pot out front. Even with the unintentional root pruning it endured, I have way more cherries in development than before. I counted 41. Not exactly a pie yet, but a couple of nice handpies, perhaps!

Dandelion Wine

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

All this sun and rain and sun again left me with a bumper crop of dandelions. Before I covered the lot next door with raised beds and obliterated their yellow-bloomed bliss, I decided to use this bright “weed” for something useful. Crouched in the yard on a 70 degree Saturday, my basket of dandelion blooms garnered a lot of attention. Folks walking by stopped to ask what I was doing. A mini-van of curious neighbors pulled over to discuss my harvest, and turned out to be State Representative and her husband. My elderly neighbor got so excited he dug up a giant ceramic crock from his basement and donated it to my wine making effort. But what exactly is dandelion wine, and how do you make it? I’ve done some internet and word-of-mouth research and this is what I’ve discovered:

1. You only use the buds of newly opened, non-sprayed dandelions. If you want less bitter wine, use only the yellow petals.
2. Many old recipes call for the addition of orange juice and zest, cloves, even ginger to enhance the flavor.
3. Dandelion wine needs a LOT of sugar. Depending on how little you use, you can brew with traditional yeast, but a larger sugar addition needs champagne yeast (available at brewers stores) and will produce a drier, more alcoholic wine.
4. The wine needs to ferment anywhere from three weeks to one year.

I’ve started my first batch, but who knows if it will be a success. Have you ever tried dandelion wine? Ever made your own? Post your tips here and we’ll all benefit from this old recipe for “liquid sunshine” that makes good use of a lovely, if bothersome “weed.”