The Hypocrisy Living in Your Garden

If you eat organic apples, but use weed killer on your lawn, you’re missing the point

Here's a message to parents: If you buy organic food for your kids but you use toxic chemicals in your yard, you are a big fat hypocrite. I say this as a public service. I’ve been reminded lately that some folks don’t make the connection between pesticides that farmers put on their fields and pesticides that homeowners use to make their lawns or gardens golf-course lush. If you’re going to buy your family organic food because you think it’s healthier, rock on. But remember that all of the health claims around organic food rest on the fact that organic food is grown WITHOUT PESTICIDES. So if you buy organic but use weed killer on your lawn or garden, it kind of defeats the purpose.

Gardening Is Like College

Minus the beer bongs

Like thousands of high school seniors across the country, I was accepted into an elite institution this month. I scored a spot in the local community garden.So far, the community garden experience reminds me a lot of college.

Chow Down: Supersize Me In Reverse

This documentary film — made by local filmmakers — will change your mind about eating vegan

You’ve probably heard Bill Clinton is on a diet. To slim down for daughter Chelsea’s wedding this summer, and in an attempt to reverse the effects of heart disease, President Clinton has (mostly) adopted the vegan diet espoused by renowned Cleveland Clinic doctor Caldwell B. Esselstyn.Does the diet work? The answer is in a new documentary film, Chow Down, by Philadelphia filmmakers Julia Grayer and Gage Johnston.

Cupcake Wars

In real life, the best baked good is the most basic

I was robbed last weekend. Robbed of a title. The title was 2010 Grand Prize Winner in the Mt. Airy Village Fair Baking Contest. At least, I think this was the title. The Mt. Airy Village Fair is a community event, with lots of spontaneity (like the dude in the tallis who climbed up on an overturned bucket and started performing radical spoken word poetry), and the baking contest was sort of loosely organized.

Philly’s Taxing Bloggers … on $11 Profits?

When the city’s not shutting down cupcake trucks, they’re shaking down bloggers who earn pennies per word

Did you hear that the city of Philadelphia wants to tax bloggers? Philly’s been in the news this week because of a kerfuffle prompted by City Paper’s story about bloggers who ran up against one of the city’s nastiest tax surprises: the Philadelphia business privilege tax. The story focused on two Philly bloggers who earned blog income in the low double digits. These meager earnings were nevertheless subject to the BPT, a cost-of-doing-business tax that requires Philly earners to pay $50 a year (or $300 for a lifetime license) for the privilege of making dough in our fair city.

A Foodie Paradise in Chestnut Hill

The new Weaver’s Way Co-op looks like the kind of market you’d find in New York — with a distinctly Philly flair

Early on the morning of May 15, Chestnut Hill residents lined up along the Avenue for the most important event in Northwest Philadelphia since the Battle of Germantown.It was opening day at the new Weaver’s Way Co-op in Chestnut Hill. Located in the former Caruso’s Market building, on Germantown Ave, Weaver’s Way Chestnut Hill was so popular on its opening day that store workers had to lock the doors to keep eager natural foods shoppers out until the store officially opened.

Confessions of a Toad Murderer

I went to a Jersey farm looking for a taste of the green lifestyle. I ended up in a Quentin Tarantino flick

As I’ve been branching out from reading Apartment Therapy to reading garden porn on the Internet, I’ve been developing this idea that the Michael Pollan-approved grow-your-own lifestyle is heavy on the veg and compost, light on the meat and blood. If you believe the magazines, veggies never wither on the vine and terra cotta pots never get weird moss stains after a season on the deck. Nobody in the magazines sweats, and nobody gets dirty, and it’s all paradise in the Garden of Eating.After spending some time on my friend’s New Jersey hobby farm, I’ve discovered that the opposite is true. Living green means shedding blood.

Keep SEPTA Out of My Pants

It’s time for them to ditch the M & F stickers on their passes

I ran across a flyer today for the Ninth Annual Philadelphia Trans Health Conference, which will take place at the Convention Center next month. It reminded me of Philly’s ongoing transgender discrimination problem: the gendered stickers on SEPTA transit passes. The issue has been in the news a bit lately, especially because of the recent drag protest outside City Hall by Riders Against Gender Exclusion (RAGE), who allege that SEPTA’s pass policy is discriminatory.

They Shoot Chickens, Don’t They?

And Philadelphia’s chicken-raising community — which I’m now proudly part of — is none too happy. (Plus: An update on my chickens’ names)

Did you hear the one about the Lower Merion firefighter who shot the chicken? With a bow and arrow? I thought so. The firefighter made headlines when he skewered Connie, a pet chicken belonging to 38-year-old Lauren Seltzer of Belmont Hills, on March 29th. According to an NBC-10 report, Connie flew the coop and was free-ranging in a neighbor’s backyard. The neighbor called the cops. "She said she was worried about it because it was cute, it was really sweet and she didn't want it to get hit by a car," Steltzer said. Animal control was closed, so a policeman called a firefighter who likes to hunt. The firefighter came over with a bow and arrow and shot the chicken. Then he ate it.