About This Site

The site is focused on finding and eating locally grown/produced food in Philadelphia, its surrounding suburbs, and South Jersey. Whether you consider yourself a locavore, an adherent to the 100 Mile Diet, a Slow Food-er, or something else, we can all agree that eating local is not only good for you, it's good for everyone!

Ten Reasons to Eat Local [click the link for more info]

1. Eating local means more for the local economy.
2. Locally grown produce is fresher.
3. Local food just plain tastes better.
4. Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen.
5. Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic.
6. Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons.
7. Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story.
8. Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism.
9. Local food translates to more variety.
10. Supporting local providers supports responsible land development.

We're not barefoot hippies with patchouli stank running around trying to save the world. We're students, homemakers, and professionals just trying to do what's best for us and what's best for our community - which is to eat local as often as possible!.

The writers

Gabriela lives in Northwest Philadelphia with her husband and dog, and first developed her fascination with heirloom tomatoes, artisan cheese, and hand-crafted chocolate in her native California. A librarian, she regularly uses her coworkers as test subjects for her compulsive baking habit. Given her utter absence of a green thumb, she relies on twice-weekly trips to the various Philly farmers markets and Reading Terminal to supply the produce she seasonally obsesses over, from rhubarb and asparagus in spring to sour cherries and seeded watermelons in summer to hard squash, cranberries, pears and quinces during the holiday months.

After watching too much Mario Batali on the Food Network, Kevin purchased his first CSA in 2000, and he's only gotten worse since. More than a decade later, Kevin and his wife subscribe to two CSAs, a meat-and-egg buying club, and Farm to City's Winter Harvest program. They are frequent shoppers at the Fair Food Farmstand and Headhouse Square Farmer's Market. Oh, they also have a plot in their neighborhood community garden. And, no, they can't explain how they manage to eat all that food.

Stephanie recently moved to West Philly and lives with five friendly people who sample her vegan kitchen adventures. Chasing the urban homesteader dream, she composts with a passion, nurtures windowsill herbs (although they sadly and consistently die), knits hats and gloves year-round, and procures kale and sweet potatoes, among other goodies, at the Clark Park farmer’s market. She also loves bicycling, backpacking, reading poetry, and playing the guitar. She gardens at the the Walnut Hill Community Farm (or will, at least, once it comes to life again in the spring) and is training, with mild trepidation, for the Philly marathon.

Jackie lives with her husband, three children, and two cats in Northwest Philadelphia, just blocks from the Wissahickon. When she's not cooking, reading or writing, Jackie knits sporadically, gardens seasonally, and is the treasurer of her local Friends of the Free Library branch.

Nic Esposito is a writer, sustainable philosopher and urban farming activist. As the co-founder of Philly Rooted, he has worked to bring two community gardens, an urban farm and a grower's cooperative to West Philadelphia. He also speaks and lectures frequently on the topics of sustainability and urban farming through out Philadelphia, most notably at the 2010 TED X conference in Philadelphia. He published his first novel "Seeds of Discent" in April 2011 and is currently working on his second novel about the industrial food system and sustainable craftsmanship. He lives and works from his homestead in the Kensington section of Philadelphia.

Nicole [email], 39, lives with her husband, two cats, and one dog in Delaware County. She is a freelance writer and as-of-yet unpublished novelist, keeps a small vegetable garden, and loves to cook and read. She swears she's learning a bevy of skills [like cheesemaking and spinning yarn] so she can drop off the grid and live like a hermit or survive in case of the shit hitting the fan politically, but she really just likes to learn new things. Nicole also likes to go skydiving now and then, and is a member of the 2010 women's club crew nationals silver medal-winning dragon boat team, Philadelphia Flying Phoenix. She is the founder of Farm to Philly.

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