Nothing says summer like snacking on some spicy arugula straight from the ground! At the Southside Permaculture Park you can find arugula growing all over the property from around the annual bed to within the swales (keep…
Dandelion Salad
Sprouting up are dandelions– going full speed ahead! If you’d like to make yourself a salad bursting with nutrients and flavor, this is for you! Foraging Tips: You might see dandelion growing along the edge of the sidewalk or by…
Foraging Wild Spring Greens
SPRING IS HERE!!! And while other gardeners have yet to even think about putting seeds in the ground, you can be out there harvesting bowls of fresh greens that just appear without any intervention on your part. Yesterday I biked over…
Lenape ‘Permaculture’: The Three Sisters
The land where the Southside Permaculture Park exists today, and much of the land in Eastern PA, northern DE, southern NY, and NJ, is part of the area of Lenapehoking, “Land of the Lenape”. The people of Lenapehoking (prior to…
Logs, Labor, and Hope for the Future
Yesterday I was going on a walk through the woods when I cam across a fallen tulip poplar tree. The first thing I noticed about this tree was that was full of turkey tail mushrooms. Upon closer inspection, I realized…
A Walk in the Woods: Observe & Interact
After finishing the last test of the semester on Monday, I decided to go for a nice long run to unwind. The air was crisp but not too cold, the wind was fairly calm, and the recent warm rain left…
Feature: The ‘Calitheatre’!
The calitheatre is a calisthenic workout center and lecture/performance space integrated with vines, swales, and rain gardens to be built at the Southside Permaculture Park this coming spring. We just received funding for its construction today, and are very excited…
Foraging Black Walnuts
Black Walnuts (Juglans nigra) are an incredibly abundant wild food source capable of providing significant food security in uncertain times. The tasty nuts ripen in late September to early October and can be stored throughout the winter. They are high…
Guild Highlight
In the absence of human intervention, species of plants, animals, fungi, and bacterial automatically group themselves together in ways that mutually benefit all those involved. Old-growth forest is a prime example of this, with squirrels burying nuts that grow trees…
Fungi: The Forgotten Kingdom, The Missing Link
Fungi are largely ignored and misunderstood by modern society, though their abilities could offer solutions to a broad spectrum of issues that plague our civilization. Many people think fungi are inherently dangerous, that most mushrooms are either deadly, toxic, or…