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]
- Eating local means more for the local economy.
- Locally grown produce is fresher.
- Local food just plain tastes better.
- Locally grown fruits and vegetables have longer to ripen.
- Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic.
- Buying local food keeps us in touch with the seasons.
- Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story.
- Eating local protects us from bio-terrorism.
- Local food translates to more variety.
- Supporting local providers supports responsible land development.
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.
Renee works as a registered and licensed dietitian in Philadelphia. She believes the balance between nourishing your body with foods and living an active lifestyle is vital to achieving a positive state of mind. She finds energy from running and yoga. Renee has consumed a plant-based diet throughout her life and made the “official” switch to vegetarianism three years ago. She enjoys sharing recipes and advice on consuming nutritious foods on her blog Renee’s Healthy Weighs. Also, she loves to travel and taste local cuisine all over the world.
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.
Anne is a freelance photographer who enjoys venturing through the rural PA farmlands and exploring the bustling city markets. While not discovering the bounties of Pennsylvania produce, she is tending to her vegetable garden while watching her kids play in the mud.
Nic Esposito is a writer and urban homesteader from Philadelphia. He has developed multiple community farming and gardening projects in the city and currently co-operates Emerald Street Urban Farm with his wife Elisa and their community in Kensington. Nic speaks and writes frequently to promote sustainable thinking and is also the founder of The Head & The Hand Press. He published his first novel Seeds of Discent in 2011.
Nicole [email] is the founder of Farm to Philly. She lives with her husband, two cats, and one dog in Delaware County. She is a freelance writer and editor, 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 enjoys dragon boating, outrigger canoeing, and skydiving. Her first novel is a psychological thriller titled THE TRAJECTORY OF DREAMS (Bitingduck Press, March 2013).
