PHILADELPHIA IS UNDOUBTEDLY A MARKET CITY. There are more than 80 seasonal and year-round farmers’ markets in the region—60 within the city limits alone. Echoing national trends including the celebration of local, organic produce and producers, new markets have opened at a steady pace over the last 20 years. According to the Farmers Market Coalition, the number of farmers’ markets in the U.S. has grown from 2,000 in 1994 to more than 8,600 today. With a rich history of community […]

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If you drive down Garfield Avenue in Kearny, the Jersey City and Manhattan skylines rising in the distance, then make a left onto Davis Avenue, the scent grabs you first—a rich, savory perfume that indicates you’re in proximity to an expert barbecue pitmaster. Here, inside Red White & Que Smokehouse, John Easterday ’14 spends his days—make that early mornings—cooking up some of the best smoked meats in New Jersey. A Marine Corps veteran, Easterday honed his craft alongside his boss, […]

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It all began with bread. Pita, to be exact. When Mariette and Elias Bitar brought their family to South Philadelphia in the early 1970s — relocating from Northern Lebanon with three young sons in the uncertain years preceding the Lebanese Civil War — the bread that anchored their every meal was nowhere to be found. There was Stroehmann bread, sure, fluffy and factory-made. There were seeded loaves at the Italian Market, dotted with sesame. But fresh pita, painted dark in […]

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As sunset turned a snowy landscape electric blue on a January Sunday, Julie Donofrio preheated the oven in her bright South Philly kitchen. This particular day would tie the city’s record for cold at just 4°F, pipes bursting in protest across the city. Undeterred, Donofrio, an urban planner at Penn Praxis, prepared the batter for a batch of cinnamon sugar-puff muffins: pouring milk into a clean white bowl, measuring oil and gently breaking eggs. As the muffins baked, cinnamon perfumed […]

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For Tammy Dunwoody of The Art of Cake Studio in River Vale, it goes deeper: It’s a form of tribute. With the launch of her nonprofit, Holly’s Cupcake Bouquets, Dunwoody honors her late sister, who died of breast cancer in May 2017. Along the way, Dunwoody brings a sweet pop of joy to customers and those fighting their own battles with the disease, one photorealistic cupcake arrangement at a time. Read more… Published in the Nov. / Dec 2018 issue […]

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Manhattan cheesemonger Anne Saxelby has famously proclaimed that the future of cheese is female. If so, three Pennsylvania women may be the forerunners that define that future. Standing amid the sloped acres of Birchrun Hills Farm in Chester Springs, the ground heavy from rain, farmstead cheesemaker Sue Miller is in her element. Her herd of Holstein and Jersey cows is near, grazing or strolling to their robotic milker. Also at the farm are her cofounding members of Collective Creamery: Stefanie […]

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