Philadelphia Orchard Project

11/04/2024

This year at POP, we went absolutely bananas for bananas 🍌🌀✨ Originating in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, this herbaceous perennial now boasts over 1,000 varieties all over the world, with only a handful that cold-hardy in our temperate climate.

While the vibrant Japanese Hardy Banana (Musa basjoo) is a widely planted ornamental in Philadelphia gardens and yards, with the capacity to survive temperatures as frigid as -10°F when properly protected, POP is experimenting with two other resilient cultivars including the Musa ‘Rajapuri’ and Musa ‘Orinoco’ at the POP Learning Orchard.

Whether or not they’ll make it through the winter, flower and fruit in our zone next season is still in question, but POP staff and volunteers are readily anticipating how the new additions will fare in the upcoming months.

Interested in learning more about growing cold hardy bananas in Philadelphia? Want to know which cold hardy cultivars offer edible varieties? Curious to learn about how Sharon has been running into hardy bananas since 2019? Check out the most recent POP Spotlight on the Philly Orchards blog now! Link in bio

[Photo Descriptions]

Image 1: a lush, vibrant green ornamental banana plant pictured in West Philadelphia

Image 2: Communications Director, Indy Shome, planting the Musa ‘Rajapuri’ banana in the POP Learning Orchard at the end of May 2024

Image 3: Orchard Director, Sharon Appiah, pictured with the Musa ‘Rajapuri’ in late July 2024

Image 4: The Musa ‘Rajapuri’ pictured at the end of October 2024

Image 5: The Musa ‘Orinoco’ at the POP zone 8 high tunnel in August 2024

Image 6: The Musa ‘Orinoco’ at the POP zone 8 high tunnel October 2024

Image 7: A video of the POP learning orchard ‘Rajapuri’ banana swaying on a lovely summer day

Image 8: The bright green foliage of the ‘Rajapuri’ banana

Image 9: A cream colored banana flower of a mature Musa ‘Basjoo’ growing in West Philadelpjia

Image 10: Sharon pictured with a golden, shedded ‘Rajapuri’ banana leaf from the POP Learning Orchard

11/01/2024

Today we’re highlighting our Orchard Director Sharon who leads our planning and direction at Learning Orchard at the Woodlands!
🍐
Where’d you grow up? I grew up in Worcester, MA!
🍓
What influenced you to start working with the the land?
To be honest, I can’t recall a specific moment that ignited me. I grew up playing outside, so before stewarding, I had a connection to the land through play, exploration, immersion and curiosity. I have always enjoyed being around plants, trees and different bodies of water and understood them as spaces where I felt the most held, so it makes sense that working in collaboration with the land came quite divinely over time.
🌳
What made you want to get involved with POP?
I found the idea of working with fruit trees incredibly enticing! POP seemed like an organization where I could bridge so many of my interests together: working in community, growing and cultivating food that would be accessible to those that needed it and building my agricultural and horticultural skills in a supportive environment.
☀️
What’s been your favorite part about working in a orchard ?
The work grounds me in ways I can’t even begin to describe. I feel grateful for the opportunity to develop relationships with plants that come back season after season and the kinship that is built between all of us who tend to the land and the land itself. I had a friend visit the orchard when I wasn’t there and they said they could feel me there! So many of our orchards feel like sacred spaces and I’m grateful for the trust and exchange.

10/30/2024

As we approach the end of the season, this month presents a few more opportunities to come together. We are excited to offer two public workshops, a handful of volunteer work days, and open hours at the POP Learning Orchard. See you soon!
 

🌳🍊 TRIFOLIATE ORANGE WORKSHOP
Saturday, Nov 9, 1 pm - 2pm
Historic Fair Hill, 2901 Germantown Ave

We will be doing a make-and-take of Trifoliate Cheong, a sugar ferment! These are the most cold-hardy citrus easily grown in our region, but the fruit has a bitterness that makes them more challenging to work with.

Jeannie Gerth, a fermenter, gardener, forager, permaculturist, and POP Lead Orchard Volunteer has been tasting and testing trifoliate oranges all season and is ready to share what she’s come up with and what she learned about their medicinal benefits. 

🌳🍇 OPEN ORCHARD
Saturday, Nov 16, 10 am - 12 pm
POP Learning Orchard, 4000 Woodland Ave

Explore what’s growing on at the POP Learning Orchard at The Woodlands!  Open orchard from 10am to 12pm, with a scheduled guided tour at 11am with POP Orchard Educator Alkebu-Lan Marcus. 

🌳🍎 ORCHARD DESIGN WORKSHOP
Saturday, Nov 23, 1 pm - 3 pm
POP Learning Orchard, 4000 Woodland Ave

We will meet in the warmth of the hoophouse to discuss different design approaches and considerations using POP community orchards and food forests as case studies.

We’ll go over plant selection, highlighting climate adaptive plants we love to work with. And then we’ll go out into the orchard to get some hands-on practice in doing soil sampling and creating base maps, a scaled drawing of an existing space, the first step to creating a design.

Visit the EVENTS link in our bio to sign up 🔗
Don't forget to subscribe to our Volunteer mailing list to get email notifications.

Image: A POP volunteer and two young visitors pressing apple cider at POP's Annual Orchard Celebration.

10/28/2024

October 30, 2024 Land Bank Hearing - Outreach Toolkit

Calling all urban agriculture supporters: Philadelphia City Council is holding a public hearing on the Philadelphia Land Bank in a joint session of the Committees on Public Property and Housing on Wednesday, October 30th at 10am in Room 400, City Hall.

What can I do? Show up, spread the word, and provide public comment! We need substantial turnout to tell City Council how the Land Bank can better support and engage with Philadelphia's vital community gardens, farms, and green spaces. If you can’t be there in person, you should submit written comments in advance via email (instructions below).

Why does it matter? The hearing will be attended by a majority of city council, along with several city officials, and will serve as a 10-year retrospective on the Land Bank’s performance. The issues raised in this hearing may become formal legislation or other outcomes that could improve the Land Bank and benefit our communities.

What are we asking for? According to PHDC, over the past four years, only 12 community gardens have received land from the Land Bank, while 59 garden/open space applications awaited settlement as of March 2024. This is unacceptable! We need the Land Bank to clear the backlog of pending garden applications and bring back garden licenses and leases so more growers can secure their land. These applications should be streamlined for gardeners and accessible via an improved website. We also need City Council to find solutions that will improve the Land Bank’s operations, like allocating funds for garden acquisitions and garden-specific staff and updating the Acquisition and Disposition Policies and the Land Bank Strategic Plan with community engagement.

How can I testify? Use the points above as a template! To submit written comments, send your testimony to [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected], by no later than 5pm on 10/29. If you want to sign up to testify in person, you can email the same people or add your name during the hearing.

🔗 For more info, visit the following link (also in our bio): bit.ly/hearing-toolkit

10/16/2024

Join in the fun this Sunday at Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden for their annual HarvestFest event from noon to 3pm. Come celebrate, bring in the season’s harvest and uplift Sankofa Community Farm! This will be a day of community joy with arts and crafts, group fitness, educational workshops, and more. Stop by POP’s table for cider-pressing throughout the event or join us for a workshop on jam-making.

10/15/2024

Did you know hops, the flavoring agent found in beer, comes in vine form? And that it can grow in this climate? This vigorous vine has an interesting history with humans, is easy to grow and has medicinal and culinary use, so it is a good candidate to add to the orchard (with the note that it can spread). 

The POP Learning Orchard has been experimenting with this plant on a small-scale and currently has a fence wall around the nursery dedicated to growing American Hops. 

American Hops (Humulus lupulus) is native to Eurasia but has become naturalized as a global crop. Today, the Pacific Northwest is the top hops producing region in the USA and second to Germany worldwide. 
Though we most often associate hops with beer, where it's used to add a flavor and prevent spoilage, hops can be used in many other ways. 

Hops can be used in marinades, infused into oil for salad dressing, and steeped into a tea as a sleep aid. The young shoots in the Spring can be added to meals, typically salads. 

Medicinally, it can aid digestive issues, skin irritations, and mental health, and is available in many forms. 

Hops can also be used for different crafts and textile arts. The stalks can be used for wicker-making and the fibers can be used for making fabrics and ropes. The cones can be used for garlands and wreaths. 

This multi-use plant has so much to offer. 
Learn more by checking out the POP blog!
🔗 Link in bio

10/11/2024

Back in late May, we tested two different fruit bagging methods at the POP Learning Orchard —nylon maggot bag “sox” and organza bags—on a variety of fruits including apples, pears (European & Asian) and plums. Our goal? To see how these physical barriers held up against pests, diseases, and the elements. Here’s what we discovered over the summer!

Nylon Sox Results:
This material worked well for apples & pears in June and July, but by August, many were getting chewed through by squirrels. European pears thrived the best with these sox, but stone fruits? Not so much. Smaller insect pests got through, and stone fruits didn’t reach full size and were often found shriveled up in the material especially after rain. We had a better experience with the maggot bags last season when they were soaked in a peppermint oil solution, which may have provided an additional deterrent to pests.

Organza Bags Results:
Loved that we could *see* the fruit growing inside! However, organza bags had no stretch and needed to be resized as the fruit developed. Stone fruits fared better with organza and thanks to the fast-drying material, a few even survived! But again, squirrels found their way through.

No Bags:
Surprisingly, some fruits without any bag protection made it through the season! Asian pears and persimmons, in particular, survived the pest pressure—persimmons likely thanks to their astringency and late season ripening.

Final Thoughts:
While fruit bagging can be a v for protecting fruit from some orchard pests, it can also be a time-intensive process and may be more practical for smaller orchards, as managing large spaces—especially those near trees with active squirrel populations—can become challenging.
Bagging can be implemented as a part of a broader integrated pest management (IPM) strategy. Combining bagging with other measures such as intentional site selection, pruning, thinning, orchard hygiene, and, if needed, holistic sprays, may provide a more comprehensive approach to safeguarding fruit.

Fruit bagging has its place, but success comes from layering techniques for better protection and healthier yields.

Image Descriptions in comments below!

10/09/2024

We are grateful for the bounty of our ‘Catawba’ grape vine, one of the stars of the POP Learning Orchard this year! Since late August, we’ve harvested over 57 pounds of these magnificent grapes from just one vine! That doesn’t even include the grapes enjoyed by our avian friends.

The flavor of the Catawba grapes is incredible, with kids and adults alike remarking that they didn’t even know they liked grapes until they tried them! This heirloom variety is of predominantly native fox grape parentage (Vitis labrusca) and was the most commonly planted grape in the United States from around 1825 to 1850. Catawba wines grown in the Ohio Valley were considered the first great American wines. Catawba is also one of the parents of the ‘Concord’ variety still commonly grown today.

1. Grapes ripening on the arbor at the POP Learning Orchard at The Woodlands.

2. Cluster of reddish purple grapes ready to be harvested.

3. Happy members of SWWAG (Southwest and West Agricultural Collective) gathered under the grape arbor in August.

09/30/2024

POP's Annual Orchard Celebration is this Saturday! Please join us at the POP Learning Orchard at .

Press your own fresh apple cider, make pinch pots using plant materials with , enjoy serene vibraphone music by .river, and of course just hang out and celebrate with us.

We will be offering delicious fruits from our partner orchards including and , produce from , cookies from , and hard cider from .

Each year, we also like to honor our dedicated team of Lead Orchard Volunteers and recognize one of our many amazing partners with the Purple Fig Award. This year, we're highlighting .

There will be a limited number of chairs available, but please feel free to bring your own sheets to sit on.

The event is open to the public and family friendly. It is free, but donations are much appreciated.

Registration is not required, but it is recommended. Visit the link in our bio to sign up 🔗

Please join us!

09/27/2024

October, we're ready for you!

+ Volunteer work days are open for registration.

++ The ANNUAL ORCHARD CELEBRATION is just one week away! Saturday Oct 5, 12-3pm, at the POP Learning Orchard at . Come through! We'll have fresh fruits, music from .river, and activities for the whole family including making pinch pots using plant materials with .

+++ On Sunday Oct 20, our partners are hosting TWO harvest festivals! You've got from 12-3pm and from 11am-4pm. We'll be at Sankofa with the cider press and leading a workshop on jam making.

Visit the EVENTS link in our bio to sign up 🔗
Don't forget to subscribe to our Volunteer mailing list to get email notifications.

Image: cutting lemon balm with the Raíces de Cambio youth at .

09/26/2024

¿Alguna vez comiste una fruta deliciosa y te preguntaste si puedes plantar la semilla para hacer crecer un nuevo árbol?

Les invitamos a leer nuestro blog Cultivo De Árboles De Duraznos a Partir de Semillas
https://www.phillyorchards.org/2024/09/26/cultivo-de-arboles-de-duraznos-a-partir-de-semillas/

09/13/2024

Our team had a blast learning from .aissance this morning about designing flower arrangements! As some of you may know, we recently added floral bouquets to our free food distribution to emergency food services. We are now more equipped to provide ✨balanced 🌸radiant 💐bouquets with flowers in the Learning Orchard. Huge thanks to Gen for sharing her craft and to for the gorgeous flowers

09/12/2024

Are you ready for some harvest fest fun? Celebrate the season at the 15th annual Community Apple Festival at Woodford Mansion in East Fairmount Park on Saturday, 9/21, 11-2pm. The POP team will be helping to press fresh apple cider. Other free family friendly activities will include apple tasting, pumpkin painting, and tours of mansion, orchard, and food forest.

This year’s event will also combine with Pawpaw Palooza at the adjoining Fair Amount Food Forest, with additional activities 12-4pm. Pawpaw tasting, pawpaw ice cream, and workshops on apple cider vinegar, herbal honey infusions, and ceramic resin botanical art. Wow!

09/05/2024

Honey Fest this Saturday!
from our partners at Philadelphia Beekeepers Guild and Wyck Historic House, Garden, and Farm

15 years and counting… Every September since 2009 we have held Honey Fest in Philadelphia. 15 years running One Day Only Wyck House Upcoming event Honey Fest Saturday Sept. 7, 2024 10:00 AM &…

09/04/2024

08/27/2024

Earlier this summer our Orchard Coordinator Carolina designed and planted a native herb row with the help of staff and volunteers. The herb row which is filled with both culinary and medicinal herbs is meant to demonstrate which herbs can grow well in the understory of our orchards and food forests.

The row features an array of beautiful meadowy plants including Echinacea, Boneset, Monarda, and Blue Verbain among others.

Read more about this new herb row on our blog and come check out the herb row at our next open orchard hours September 18th at 6pm during Nature Night

08/22/2024

Hello Phigadelphia! Fig trees have started to ripen fruit across the city and should continue to produce into October. We are so grateful for these tasty, bountiful, easy care fruit trees. In fact, we love them!

1. Three open fig fruits in the shape of hearts.

2. A flat of harvested figs from the POP Learning Orchard, bound for distribution via community partner

3. Purple ‘Chicago Hardy’ figs ripening on the tree.

08/21/2024

ALLIES IN THE ORCHARD — Nitrogen fixing plants.

The importance of nitrogen in the soil cannot be stressed enough. It is essential for all life forms, as it is needed to make important molecules for life, including RNA, DNA, and proteins.

It is among the top three most vital nutrients required by plants, alongside potassium and phosphorus. Nitrogen assists with chlorophyll production, photosynthesis, and the formation of amino acids (proteins that are vital to plant health and growth).

So why all this talk about nitrogen? Well, despite the fact that 78% of the atmosphere’s is made up of nitrogen, most of it is an inert form that is not usable to plants!

Additionally, the soil is easily depleted of nitrogen since it is used in such high quantities, and it is easily leached away by the sun and water.

This is where the primary nitrogen fixers jump into the picture. These plants plants help transform inert atmospheric nitrogen into forms that plants can use.

Can you name either these nitrogen fixing plants? There are many more in the full blog post.

Learn more by checking out the POP blog!
Link in bio 🔗

Image descriptions: (1) A shrub with green leaves and red berries. (3) A shrub with green leaves with white flowers.

08/15/2024

Check out our latest blog POP TIPS: Growing Perennials in Pots. This blog outlines important considerations for growing in containers in Philly. For people with lack of access to land planting in containers may be the only option!

“The last thing you want is to rush forward and bring plants home to an uninhabitable place to live. Like with any garden or orchard design the most important things to consider are space, light, and water access.”

Read this blog through our website with the link in our bio
☀️ 💦 🪴

08/13/2024

Our understory flower features continues! This month we’re featuring Purple Cone Flower aka Echinacea purpurea.

This herbaceous perennial is native to North America and can often be found at the heart of many pollinator gardens. It typically grows between 2 to 4 feet tall and features striking, daisy-like flowers with vibrant purple petals and a prominent, spiky, brown central cone. The plant has lance-shaped, dark green leaves arranged alternately along the stem. Echinacea can be seen in a wide range of colors including yellow, white and orange.

Besides nurturing pollinators, it has been a friend to many First Nations communities to support the body internally by strengthening the immune system and externally applying to wounds and burns. The Cheyenne, Dakota, Fox, and Winnebago used echinacea as an analgesic, chewing the roots and seed heads to relieve toothaches and sore throats.

In western herbalism echinacea purpurea is valued for its potential to stimulate the immune system, reduce inflammation, and enhance overall resistance to infections. It is available in various forms, including tinctures, teas, capsules, and extracts. Remember to consult a doctor before trying plant medicines.

Due to its potent medicine, it has become less common to see in the wild and more often seen cultivated, if you see it in a forest it’s best to leave it!

Pictures of the echinacea in the Learning Orchard at the Woodlands

08/07/2024

Last week, three members of the POP team (Corrie, Kim, and Sharon) were fortunate to be able to attend the national affiliate conference hosted by . We were the only non-affiliate group invited to participate in what we suspect is the only national orchard conference. It was a jam-packed agenda and a wonderful opportunity to learn and network.

We met folks from a number of other organizations that partner with Giving Grove on their food forest or community orchard programs, including (sorry if we missed anyone!)

Photo captions:
1. Giving Grove sign on an easel outside the room where we met, in front of a colorful mural of a large hand and a heart with the word“love” in the center.
2. Community garden located across the street from the office. Corn, sunflowers, and other crops can be seen growing in raised beds.
3 + 4. Recently planted tart cherry and European plum with helpful signage and abundant mulch.
5. Sign located at the same new food forest as photos 3+4, located outside a middle school. It defines a food forest in English and Spanish.
6. Site of a new orchard planted with , a fierce grassroots org that purchased land through an environmental justice settlement agreement.
7. Well established community garden in Wheat Ridge. This site includes a “linear orchard” in between a walking path and a fence, beyond the community garden space.

08/02/2024

Harvesting joy! Today, in addition to assorted veggies, berries and herbs, the POP team delivered bouquets of orchard flowers to Food Not Bombs West Philly. Fresh flowers cut from our new edible cut flower garden, as well as from existing food forest companion plantings and pollinator gardens at the POP Learning Orchard at The Woodlands.

07/25/2024

We hope you've been staying cool and enjoying the summer! Come work alongside POP and our partners at one of our volunteer work days in August. (Note that some of the timings may shift for weather safety, so look out for updates.)

Visit the EVENTS link in our bio to sign up 🔗

Don't forget to subscribe to our Volunteer mailing list to get email notifications.