Philadelphia Orchard Project

Philadelphia Orchard Project Mission. The Philadelphia Orchard Project plants and supports community orchards in the city of Philadelphia.

POP partners with a wide variety of community groups, providing them with an orchard design, plant sourcing, planting supervision, and training in orchard care. Our community partners own, maintain, harvest, and distribute the orchard produce within their neighborhoods, thus expanding community control over their food resources. POP currently supports 67 community orchards and has planted 1,578 fruit trees over the last 15 years!

Hey yall, Deja here, POP’s Community Outreach Coordinator! At the end of August, I had the pleasure of attending first ...
09/11/2025

Hey yall, Deja here, POP’s Community Outreach Coordinator!

At the end of August, I had the pleasure of attending first Farm 2 Table Immersion, where I gathered with 16 other food and land lovers from around the country. We were immersed in both the practical and spiritual elements of cheffing on a farm. We learned how to make kimchi, got a little canning 101 session in preserving the harvest, put our heads together around menu planning and managing a kitchen, we squealed talking about the magic of mushrooms, and were reminded of the sacredness of all lives in transitioning and processing chickens.

Throughout the week, we gathered to talk about our own ancestral food stories and even had the treat of some folks bringing them to the table. We ate a solid 3 meals every day, prepared by each of our hands. Built altars together, reflected on how far we’ve come, and all the beautiful things we want to do and continue doing once we left.

Sometimes there are not enough words to encapsulate a feeling, but what I will say is that there was some divine orchestration in bringing all of us together that week. A week filled with timber-framed beauty, cured sumac, smoked tempeh, towering sunflowers, the most delicious ground cherry shrub, farm pets who rightfully demanded loving attention, sound baths, reverence, tears, and the most brilliant and beautiful minds.

Thank you to Soul Fire staff and our lovely facilitators for bringing this to life and bringing all of us together 💛

WOODFORD APPLE & PAWPAW FESTIVALSaturday 9/20 (rain date Sunday 9/21)At Woodford Mansion in East Fairmount Park2300 Nort...
09/10/2025

WOODFORD APPLE & PAWPAW FESTIVAL
Saturday 9/20 (rain date Sunday 9/21)

At Woodford Mansion
in East Fairmount Park
2300 North 33rd St

Apple Festival: 11 am – 2 pm

Pawpaw Palooza: 12 – 4 pm

Join POP, Woodford Mansion, and Fair Amount Food Forest for the 16th Annual Community Apple Festival (now featuring Pawpaws as well!).

Activities will include:

fresh cider making
apple & pawpaw tasting
pawpaw ice cream
pumpkin painting
cider vinegar workshop
lawn games and light snacks
tours of the Woodford Mansion, gardens and orchard, and the neighboring food forest

This kid-friendly event is free and open to the public.

🌳 The Philadelphia Orchard Project is Hiring a new Executive Director!Since 2007, POP has grown from a grassroots initia...
09/08/2025

🌳 The Philadelphia Orchard Project is Hiring a new Executive Director!

Since 2007, POP has grown from a grassroots initiative into a citywide leader in food justice — now supporting 70 community-owned orchards across Philadelphia. As we continue to grow, we’re evolving our leadership model from Co-Executive Directors to a single Executive Director, who will work alongside a dedicated team.

Learn more about this next phase of growth from POP’s Co-Executive Directors Phil Forsyth and Kim Jordan: https://www.phillyorchards.org/2025/09/08/pop-launches-search-for-new-executive-director

Go Phigs! The city is bursting with fig bounty right now. Today POP staff and volunteers harvested another 25 pounds o...
09/05/2025

Go Phigs! The city is bursting with fig bounty right now. Today POP staff and volunteers harvested another 25 pounds of figs at the POP Learning Orchard at The Woodlands to distribute to community via Food Not Bombs. This brings our total this season to 217 pounds of figs, over 40 pounds per tree with another month of harvests to go!

For best fig harvesting, choose fruit that is beginning to soften and droop on its stem. Color isn’t always the best indicator, so feel each fig before picking! Grab by the stem and wiggle to avoid damaging the fruit. Store on the counter or fridge until they are fully soft for maximal flavor and sweetness!

A few of our favorite fig varieties:

1. Bounty from the POP Learning Orchard for donation to

2. ‘Florea’ (also known as ‘Michurinska‘) is one of the hardiest and most reliable and tasty figs, originating in Bulgaria and Romania.

3. ‘Sal’s Corleone’ are very large and prolific figs, by far the best producer by weight in the orchard.

4. ‘Ronde de Bordeaux’ is hardy, early ripening and the tree stays slightly smaller than other figs.

5. ‘Larchwood’ is a variety named and propagated by POP from a tree of unknown origin in West Philly. We love the taste of this fig better than any other, with a flavor like strawberry jam!

At the end of summer, we’re often scrambling to catch up on our w**ding. POP created a brand new resource on Orchard W**...
08/26/2025

At the end of summer, we’re often scrambling to catch up on our w**ding. POP created a brand new resource on Orchard W**d Management to better support our partners and Lead Orchard Volunteers in this important task! It includes suggested resources for w**d identification; recommended w**ding tools; and and overview of management techniques including hand removal, sheetmulching, groundcovers, and chop and drop. We have also now uploaded our POP W**d Identification Guide to be fully accessible on our website as well. Check out both resources on the linktree in our bio!

“W**ds” are simply plants that are growing in places where we don’t want them.

1. POP’s w**d guide examines the characteristics of dozens of the most common city “w**ds”.

2. Mugwort, maybe the most common w**d in the city!

3. Violets are a w**d we often leave in our orchard and food forests, as they are both edible and don’t compete much with most orchard plants. Although you might still remove them from your strawberry patch!

4. Pigw**d or Amaranth is another common plant that we leave or remove depending on context. It is a delicious vegetable but can grow tall and compete with other desired plants!

5. Burdock is common throughout the city and is a strong soil builder with edible roots. However, it grows fast and big and thus often removed from orchard settings!

6. Knotw**d is one of the most challenging plants in the city, as it spreads aggressively through runners and well as having deep roots that make it very hard to eliminate. It can take over acres of untended land. However, its spring shoots are a delicious substitute for rhubarb, so eat it as you remove it from your orchard space!

7. Japanese Hops are one of the most aggressive vining plants in the city, sometimes growing several feet in a single day. They quickly grow over and compete with other plants, so they are always a good candidate for removal!

Orchard Irrigation Best Practices: 1. Water entire root zone, from trunk to drip line, and then some. Watering beyond dr...
08/22/2025

Orchard Irrigation Best Practices:
1. Water entire root zone, from trunk to drip line, and then some. Watering beyond drip line encourages root growth.
2. Use a 5 gallon buckets with a few holes drilled into bottom or very low on sides. Place around drip line. Fill with water. Once emptied, move and repeat. 3. Turn hose down low and leave on for 1-2 hours. Move every 20 minutes until entire area underneath canopy is soaked. In Philadelphia’s generally humid, wet climate, we have long advised that you don’t need to water mature orchard trees unless there is drought. But extreme weather conditions have become our norm. Rainfall has become less predictable, heat more intense, and drought more of the rule than the exception. Make a plan of how you’ll approach orchard irrigation when needed!

Fall can be a time of drought in our region. Last September we had less than 1” of rain for the month and last October we had only trace amounts.

The best way to tell if you need to water your orchard is by feeling the soil! Check soil moisture by digging to the depth of roots and feeling the soil. Fruit tree roots are mostly 8-14”. Water when soil moisture is at 50-60%.

For loam → Clay soils
0-25% Crumbly, powdery, cracked. No ribboning. No to slight stain on fingers. 25-50% May form ball or ribbon, but crumbly/falls apart. No to slight stain on hand
50-75% Soil color darker. Forms ball and ribbons easily. Stain hand.
75 -100% Soil color is dark. Appears and feels moist. May be sticky. Forms ball and ribbons easily. Slick feel when squeezed. Stains hands.

For our full recommendations on orchard irrigation please check out our new resource on Orchard Irrigation. Resource linked in bio.

While fruit bagging, covering individual fruits for protection, in late May and early June after thinning fruitlets has ...
08/08/2025

While fruit bagging, covering individual fruits for protection, in late May and early June after thinning fruitlets has often been a go-to method of mechanical integrated pest and disease management (IPM for short) used across POP orchards in previous seasons, it can often be a tedious and time consuming task with low rewards on larger orchards with many trees.

This year, one of the ways POP staff wanted to experiment was to try out tree netting at the POP Learning Orchard, specifically over one of the pear trees, to observe if it made a difference in reducing squirrel predation. Last season, Asian pear crop loss at the Learning Orchard was unprecedented, with squirrels acquiring most of the fruit before they were even ripe and going so far as to eating many of the unripe persimmons nearby as well!

A large net was applied over the “Chojuro” Asian Pear (one of the most coveted varieties by our squirrel-friends) in mid-June. Orchard Educator, Alkebu-Lan Marcus applied clamps to old pole saws as a tool to get the net over the tree and hold the net upright in place. Heavy rocks were then placed around the base of the tree to keep them in place.

It’s currently too soon to tell how the whole tree netting is working vs the fruit bagging that is still being used vs trees where no protection has been used, but we are excited at what findings the quickly approaching harvest season will provide. Stay tuned…

[Image Descriptions]

1. Phil and Alkebu-Lan each hilding one tall red pole saw with a clamp attached. The clamp is attached to a long white net

2. A video of Alkebu-Lan and Phil using the pole saws to drape the long white netting over the tree

3. The Asian pear tree covered by the white tree net

4. An Asian pear covered in a beige, nylon fruit covering

5. Light green Asian pear trees without any netting or fruit bagging cover

4.

2.

In July, Corrie, Alkebu-Lan, and Phil got to represent POP at the Giving Grove conference in Seattle. is a non-profit t...
08/08/2025

In July, Corrie, Alkebu-Lan, and Phil got to represent POP at the Giving Grove conference in Seattle. is a non-profit that supports urban orchard organizations across the country. The POP team got to meet and compare notes with affiliate organizations from 16 cities!

With local affiliate , we got to tour 5 community orchards and food forests across the city. We also learned more about fertilizing with plant juice extracts, netting trees, and tasted some new fruits, and all came home with new inspiration and renewed pride in POP’s work in Philadelphia!

1. POP team at the Beacon Food Forest.

2. Sign reminding all to ‘Leave Some for Others’.

3. Himalayan Chocolateberry, a new fruit for the POP team!

4. Beautiful tiled sign about understory plantings.

5. Conference goers amongst the abundant garden beds at Bradner Gardens.

6. Sign explaining the food forest bio swale at Paradise Lots.

7. Trees netted for insect control at Good Shepherd garden.

8. Salmon run at the Ballard Locks fish ladder.

Some highlights from our native herb row at the learning orchard! Planted last year, the herb row has transitioned a row...
07/31/2025

Some highlights from our native herb row at the learning orchard! Planted last year, the herb row has transitioned a row of annual vegetables between tree rows, also known as alley cropping, to a dense native perennial understory. It’s full of insectary plants which have welcomed beneficial bugs to feast and help with pollination for our fruits.
While some plants grew close to their root systems, others spread their stems and flowers wide, reaching for light.

Plants featured:
• Monarda and echinacea flopping on top of each other next to the stone fruit row
• Black cohosh under the plum tree
• Blue vervain and boneset
• Goldenrod growing tall (Caro for scale)
• Angelica bulb early May
• Angelica going to seed in early July
• Solstice Wort flowers
• Butterfly on purple monarda

Last Saturday, we gathered at for a magical Salve Soothe Workshop, where we learned about making herbal first aid balms...
07/25/2025

Last Saturday, we gathered at for a magical Salve Soothe Workshop, where we learned about making herbal first aid balms from Tahnee Simone , one of our favorite herbal and spiritual teachers to collaborate with. 

This is part of a community medicine-making workshop series that we started this year. We invite community herbalists to lead a medicine-making workshop where folks come together to learn about herbs and their medicinal and spiritual properties. Then we work together to make bulk batches of medicine that are shared for free with the community through distro hubs like .bird_rising, , and Get Fresh Daily to name a few. Get some at the  Black Farmers Market tomorrow at 7/26 from 11am - 3pm!

We worked with comfrey, calendula, and yarrow - underutilized herbs that tend to be in abundance in our orchards! We sipped on some lovely tea (rose, tulsi, goji berry and ginger!) while Tahnee grounded us in what it means to soothe ourselves during challenging times and how our plant allies can play a big part in that. They reminded us that the skin is our largest organ and that while the world may be in chaos, the care we extend to ourselves and one another will carry us through. 

They began by introducing us to the herbs and letting us take in their presence, while explaining the connection between the herbs, the planets, and healing powers they’re associated with. 

Yarrow, associated with the planet Venus, is a cooling herb used for fever reduction and inflammation loves to break through the heat. 

Calendula, associated with the Sun, brings vitality to skin. It’s best used topically and assists with bruises. 

Comfrey, associated with Saturn, is also used topically for its wound healing properties. However, it's advised to use with caution as it will not properly heal deep puncture wounds and is best for shallow cuts. 

We melted and combined beeswax and the herbs, prepared in a solar infusion using apricot and sunflower oils.

Continuing on our journey with medicinal tree blooms, today we’re highlighting the mimosa tree, Albizia julibrissin, als...
07/17/2025

Continuing on our journey with medicinal tree blooms, today we’re highlighting the mimosa tree, Albizia julibrissin, also known as persian silk tree. Photos here from our lovely popharvest event at Iglesias Gardens in North Philly.
You might see mimosa trees on the side of the highway or randomly placed throughout the urban tree canopy. Their pink puffy flowers and fern like fronds are alluring to humans and all kinds of pollinators, blooming from late May to the end of July.
Like many non native ornamental trees, Mimosa trees are native to Asia and were brought here by European settlers as they designed their landscapes with ornamental value at the forefront. While they are very beautiful these trees are also highly invasive, making it hard for native plants to survive under their wide spreading canopy. As a member of the bean family, it forms flat bean pods that disperse their seeds more effectively than our landscape can handle.

Removing the flowers can help reduce the amount of seeds they disperse and lucky for us, they can be consumed safely by many humans. Medicinally, the flowers and bark have been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine where it is known as the ‘Full Happiness Tree”. It can provide support to the nervous system, especially around moodiness, irritation, and grief. During our harvest participants shared that they use it for emotional transitions and to provide tranquility. Like with any medicinal plant make sure you are careful with how it might interact with your own body and medications you take.

Stay tuned for our next popharvest events which will include chokeberries and wineberries!!

Taiji in the orchard last Wednesday was a success! The rain in the hourly forecast cleared with a bright sky and warm br...
07/08/2025

Taiji in the orchard last Wednesday was a success! The rain in the hourly forecast cleared with a bright sky and warm breezes as participants drew deep breaths, flowed through movements and received thorough one on one adjustments from facilitator Caleb Arnold. If you missed out on Taiji in the orchard, Caleb teaches a weekly beginner class at in West Philly.

If you’d like to continue moving with us in the orchard this summer, keep an eye out for more POP Learning Orchard activations with wellness and movement classes led by some of Philly’s best!

Image descriptions below:

Image 1: Deja and Simone stand across from each other, hand to hand and practice finding their center

Image 2: Caleb guides Sharon through the finding your center exercise

Images 3 & 4: Caleb provides one on one adjustments to participants

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4000 Woodland Avenue
Philadelphia, PA
19104

Telephone

+12157241247

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Plant the Future with POP!

POP partners with a wide variety of community groups, providing them with an orchard design, plant sourcing, planting supervision, and training in orchard care. Our community partners own, maintain, harvest, and distribute the orchard produce within their neighborhoods, thus expanding community control of food resources. POP currently supports 62 community orchards in neighborhoods across the city and has planted 1,258 fruit trees over the last 11 years!