Grid Magazine, Philadelphia, PA (2025)

09/16/2025

🥘 The name Edible Alphabet might conjure images of sugary breakfast cereal or playful pasta shapes. That’s not what has drawn more than 1,000 adult learners to this innovative series of free, fun English language classes at the Culinary Literacy Center in the Free Library of Philadelphia since 2016.

Lindsay Southworth, senior program manager, traces the origin of the program to an idea that the “magic in cooking together” would incentivize non-native English speakers to practice conversational skills.

A well-designed curriculum keeps the focus on talking during the sessions, which involve team cooking followed by eating and discussing the delicious result. There are no tests and no deep dives into grammar, just lots of opportunities to learn new vocabulary, practice conversing and make both lunch and new friends.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/09/01/english-classes-at-library-combine-cooking-and-learning/

✍️ Marilyn Anthony
📸 Solmaira Valerio

09/15/2025

⚾ Fifty minutes before the first pitch at a Friday night Phillies game in early June, the line at Greens and Grains already wrapped around and down the concourse at Citizens Bank Park.

Looking on, Kevin Tedesco, Aramark’s general manager at Citizens Bank Park, and Jason Firestone, Aramark’s senior director of concessions, shared the story of how Greens and Grains came to be at the Phillies’ stadium.

Established in 2015, Greens and Grains is a health-conscious, plant-based eatery founded by Nicole Jacoby-Psounos. A lifelong vegetarian, Jacoby-Psounos trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City in 2005, gaining experience in juice making and ayurvedic cooking. A few years later, she reignited her passion for healthy eating and ultimately launched the Greens and Grains concept. Jacoby-Psounos’s husband, who has restaurant experience, is a formal partner in the venture, the chain’s popular gyro sandwich a nod to his Greek roots.

Through connections with South Philly’s Tony Luke’s and MBB Management, Firestone got in touch with Jacoby-Psounos ahead of the 2022 baseball season and arranged to bring the latest iteration of vegan options to the Phillies’ ballpark.

Before Firestone and Aramark signed on Greens and Grains, though, they had to try the food. “We went out to one of their restaurants,” Firestone remembers. “I’m not vegetarian at all. I tried some of their food. I wouldn’t have even known that it was vegetarian. I was blown away.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/09/01/find-plant-based-options-at-phillies-games/

✍️ Patrick Kerr
📸 Jared Gruenwald

09/12/2025

🍄 It’s a balmy day in late August, but the Mycopolitan Mushrooms grow room feels more like a forest floor in mid-October. A thick mist sprays from the ceiling, casting a glowy haze across shelves filled with blooming oyster mushrooms, lion’s mane and a handful of other exotic species.

Pennsylvania is home to the majority of the country’s mushroom production, with most farms concentrated in Chester County. But, strangely enough, instead of Kennett Square, Mycopolitan co-owner Tyler Case drives into the Juniata Park neighborhood of Philadelphia to his farm.

“It’s bizarre, but it makes sense for a mushroom farm to be here,” says Case of the subterranean production space in the basement of the Common Market building. The earliest mushroom farms were in caves, and with an apparatus of lights, misters and air conditioners, Mycopolitan has created a strikingly cave-like environment where mushrooms can thrive.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/09/01/mycopolitan-mushroom-company-grows-tons-of-fungus-in-north-philadelphia-warehouse-basement/

✍️ + 📸 Julia Lowe

09/11/2025

Walk Around Philadelphia is back! The project, a segmented 100+ mile walk around the entire border of Philadelphia, aims to bring people together in shared physical and cultural experiences that connect us to our own bodies, our neighbors, and the landscape of the city. Join the effort to explore the city’s edges this weekend and help make those unique spaces more accessible to all.

👣 Walk from Somerton: This segment covers roughly 10 miles and includes a mix of roads & sidewalks & off-road adventures with some wayfinding challenges and a potential creek crossing or two.

When:
Friday, September 12th at 9:15 am

Where:
Meet on the inbound platform at the Somerton stop of the West Trenton regional rail line
14001 Bustleton Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19116

👣 Walk from Fox Chase: This segment covers roughly 5.5 miles and includes mostly easy walking along sidewalks, with potential bits of off-road forest adventure.

When:
Saturday, September 13th at 7:05 am

Where:
Meet at the Fox Chase regional rail station (end of the Fox Chase line)
440 Rhawn St, Philadelphia, PA 19111

👣 Walk from Broad Street (WAITLIST): This segment covers roughly 10.5 miles and includes mostly sidewalks, some off roading and steeper hills.

When:
Sunday, September 14th at 9:00 am

Where:
Meet at the H-Mark in Elkins Park on Old York Road
7320 Old York Rd, Elkins Park, PA 19027

👣 Walk from Broad Street Group B: This segment covers roughly 5.5 miles and includes mostly easy walking along sidewalks, with potential bits of off-road forest adventure.

When:
Sunday, September 14th at 9:00 am

Where:
Meet at the H-Mark in Elkins Park on Old York Road
7320 Old York Rd, Elkins Park, PA 19027

➡️ Learn more about Walk Around Philadelphia and its upcoming events at https://www.jjtiziou.net/

09/11/2025

🎨 In 2023, Cheltenham-based artist Rebecca Schultz completed a yearslong art project, “Mapping Our Watershed,” by stitching together tree bark rubbings, monotypes, soil-water watercolors, leaf prints, drawings and other media to construct a map of Cheltenham and the Tacony watershed. In total, more than 60 people contributed 90 pieces of artwork to make up this textural, layered collage in what Schultz calls a “participatory art and community science project.”

It began with a series of free, all-ages outdoor workshops held in collaboration with the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, the Cheltenham Center for the Arts and Friends of High School Park. People gathered on the banks of local streams to learn about such watershed-related subjects as riparian buffers and soil health; then they made art together using natural materials.

“Mapping Our Watershed,” which was displayed in the Elkins Park SEPTA station and Fairmount Water Works, captures the essence of Schultz’s art-making philosophy and creative process.

“I explore what keeps ecosystems healthy and why they’re essential to our survival,” Schultz says. “I believe that this idea that we’ve become disconnected from the rest of the living world is at the heart of the [climate] crisis we’re facing.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/09/01/rebecca-shultz-examines-our-relationships-with-ecosystems/

✍️ Emily Kovach
📸 Joseph Simpson

09/10/2025

With Philadelphia’s history and reputation for not having the cleanest rivers, and few access points to get out on the water, organizations like Discovery Pathways are on a mission to connect Philly residents with local waterways through paddling, kayaking, and fishing programs. Adam Forbes, founder of the local nonprofit, and other advocates envision the city’s waterways with less pollution, more boat launches, and far more accessible water recreation. But to do that, they, along with larger consortiums like Riverways, need to generate demand for those access points.

➡️ Read the full story at gridphilly.com

09/09/2025

🌳 In June 2023, I followed my friend Josh past old, arching oaks and tall tulip poplars along a path in Carpenter’s Woods in Wissahickon Valley Park in search of a rare and intriguing pair of trees he had heard about. We eventually arrived at two initially normal-looking trees: a 45-foot tree that was growing towards a gap in the forest canopy, and a smaller 20-footer nearby. The taller tree’s blooms were on the wane, and long, fragrant stalks of creamy white flowers littered the forest floor. I took a closer look. We had found what we were after — two healthy, apparently blight-resistant American chestnut trees. These were the largest ones I’d ever seen.

Just over a century ago, the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) dominated much of the woodlands east of the Mississippi River. The trees provided an abundance of nuts to wildlife and humans alike and supported pollinators with their plentiful summer flowers. The species was essentially wiped out in the early 1900s by an introduced pathogenic fungus called chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica).

The Carpenter’s Woods chestnuts are puzzling for a few reasons.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/09/01/mysterious-blight-free-chestnut-trees-grow-in-city-park/

✍️ Andrew Conboy
📸 Chris Baker Evens

09/08/2025

💧 In last month’s edition of Grid, we shared the perspectives of advocates who want to see more recreation in Philadelphia’s rivers, creeks and lakes. But do powerful stakeholders share this vision of a water-happy Philadelphia? Turns out, it’s complicated.

The federal Clean Water Act created a regulatory system in which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state deputies like the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) determine which recreational activities should be available in a particular waterway, and thus to what degree they need to crack down on nearby polluters.

Presently, most attention in Philadelphia is on the Delaware River, where the interstate Delaware River Basin Commission has debated in recent years whether to upgrade the regulatory designation of the stretch of river passing through Philadelphia to match that upstream in Northeastern Pennsylvania and downstream in the Delaware Bay. Doing so would require water quality suitable for such “primary contact” recreational activities as swimming and tubing. Environmental groups and some members of City Council, led by Councilmember Mark Squilla, have advocated in support, stating their belief that the river has improved enough in recent decades to warrant a regulatory upgrade. That could force industrial polluters and sewage plants to spend more money on newer treatment methods.

But in 2023 the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) released a study on recreation in the river that reads a bit like a 178-page laundry list of all the reasons it’s not a good idea: regular traffic of huge commercial container ships, powerful currents, floating debris and too few points of ingress and egress chief among them.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/08/01/can-the-city-help-philadelphians-swim-canoe-and-kayak/

✍️ Kyle Bagenstose
📸 Jared Gruenwald

09/06/2025

Thanks for covering us in this month's issue! We had a blast showing reporter Julia Rowe around the farm.

Press pieces have been a great way of chronicling our farm's growth over the years. It's fun to look back and see how far we've come as farmers and business owners.

Thank you Grid Magazine!!

09/05/2025

Events happening in and around Philadelphia this weekend!

FRIDAY, 9.5
First Friday Opening — Philadelphia Love + The Jane Gallery 1st Birthday Bash: It’s The Jane Gallery’s first birthday, and we’re pulling out all the stops to celebrate an amazing year of honoring the art of woman, q***r, and nonbinary artists! Party with us as we open our newest show: Philadelphia Love. Bringing together artists from all walks of life, Philadelphia Love is a beautiful collection of local works that celebrate the city that brings us together.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/first-friday-opening-philadelphia-love-the-jane-gallery-1st-birthday-bash/

SATURDAY, 9.6
The Big Paddle — Two Cities, One River: Riverways Collaboration and the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild will co-host The Big Paddle, a 10-mile paddle up the Delaware River that will start at Pyne Poynt Park in Camden, New Jersey, and finish at Pleasant Hill Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event celebrates the region’s shared love of the river while promoting more recreational opportunities in urban natural areas.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/the-big-paddle-two-cities-one-river/

SATURDAY, 9.6
Bike Ride for a Safe Germantown: Join State Representative Andre Carroll, representatives from the City of Philadelphia, and community groups for a press conference and bike ride. We’ll enjoy a tour of this historic neighborhood to highlight the the current state of road infrastructure and behavior in Germantown and the need for greater traffic safety measures.

➡️ Learn More: https://gridphilly.com/event/bike-ride-for-a-safe-germantown/

09/04/2025

🛶 Uber-urban South Philadelphia might seem an unlikely place to find the next generation of naturalists, environmentalists and outdoor aficionados.

But over the past four years, Adam Forbes, founder and director of the Philadelphia-based nonprofit Discovery Pathways, has done exactly that. After early career stops working with migrants, secondary school students and English language learners, Forbes stumbled upon water-based recreation as a catalyst for a diversity of city residents, particularly teenagers, to take an interest in the natural world.

The seed of the idea was personal — Forbes has long been a paddler himself and majored in environmental studies at Pitzer College in California. But things only started to come together after he moved to Philadelphia in 2009 and found work with the Nationalities Service Center, where he helped create community gardens for Nepalese and Burmese immigrants, and the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program (PAMEP), through which he taught after-school English as a second language classes. Forbes’s manager at PAMEP had a key connection with Pennsylvania state parks.

“They hosted us for two camping trips every summer … as a reward for students who came to summer school,” Forbes says. “It was this kind of blip for our program, but it was the most powerful thing of the year, and a lot of the students who came on those camping trips were the ones who stayed connected to us and graduated on time.”

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2025/09/01/discover-pathways-brings-kids-to-the-water-and-nature/

✍️ Kyle Bagenstose
📸 Jared Gruenwald

09/03/2025

If the Carpenter’s Woods chestnut trees are indeed resistant survivors, questions about their origin arise. In the middle of the woods with no trees known to be resistant nearby, how did they get there?

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