My guests for this episode are Nate Kleinman of the Experimental Farm Network, Paul Glover the founder of Philadelphia Orchard Project, Robyn Mello of Philadelphia Orchard Project, and Kirtrina Baxter of Public Interest Law Center, in this first of the Philadelphia Round Table conversations, recorded earlier this year at Repair the World.

During the discussion, they share with us ways in which cities provided numerous opportunities for permaculture practitioners, as well as visions of why working in urban spaces is important to the future of creating an abundant, regenerative world. Before we begin, a few thanks.

The first is to Dirk McGurk, for being the man with a plan who organized this event. It’s been a while since I was in Philly, and Photographer John and I had a good time wandering around the neighborhood before the event and spending time with everyone who came out.

The second is to Jamie Bright of Chakra5 Studios, out of Burlington, Vermont, for letting me demo the microphones that were used in this recording.

Finally, I’d like to thank you, the listener for your ongoing and continued support of this show through your donations, sharing of links with friends and family, and taking the time to call, email, or write in letting me know how this work helps you. Together we make a difference. Thank you.

I’m grateful for what the panelists share with us today because of the unique role that cities can play in our lives. Growing up on a rural dead-end street, the beginning migration to the exurbs of the small city of Hagerstown, Maryland, where I called home throughout my childhood, there were always large connected lawns, with houses fully inhabited. My neighbors didn’t move until they sold a house, and there were no vacant lots. Land there, as with where I now call home, was expensive and rarely available. Farms butted up against well manicured lawns and no one I knew at the time grew a garden.

Yet in Philadelphia and other cities like it, is an opportunity to walk short distances to find many neighbors and open spaces, and to find old plants, and breed new ones, adapted to the spaces more and more people will inhabit in the future, and to care for the people around us; to understand the historical and cultural underpinnings of issues like access to land, systemic racism, and oppression so that together we can mitigate those vectors on cultural and individual abundance.

Along the way if I can assist you, wherever you call home and whatever leg of the journey you are on, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources
Nate Kleinman nathankleinman@gmail.com 215-264-0446
The Experimental Farm Network
Experimental Farm Network (Facebook)
Experiemental Farm Network (Instagram)

Paul Glover
PaulGlover.org
Citizen Planners Los
Angeles a History of the Future
Patch Adams

Robyn Mello robyn@phillyorchards.org 215-571-9506
Philadelphia Orchard Project
Beardfest.net

Kirtrina Baxter kbaxter@pilcop.org
Public Interest Law Center
Garden Justice Legal Initiative
Grounded In Philly
Black Permaculture Network
Black Permaculture Network (Facebook)

Other
Permies United (Facebook)
Occupy Vacant Lots
Soil Generation
Clear Creek Schoolhouse

I’ve known Robyn for many years, after meeting in Philadelphia during a presentation given by Peter Bane at the Awbury Arboretum alongside the executive director of POP, Phil Forsyth. Along the way we’ve kept in touch as I continue to follow her work in Urban Permaculture. Not only is Robyn an amazing permaculturist, she is also a musician with The Radicans and an organizer for BeardFest.

Find out more about Robyn and her permaculture work at PhillyOrchards.org.

Resources:
Philadelphia Orchard Project
The Radicans
BeardFest

We met several years ago in Philadelphia, before she joined Philadelphia Orchard Project, when Peter Bane came to the city to speak about his work and The Permaculture Handbook, and kept in touch as I followed what she was doing in and around the city.

In addition to her work with POP, Robyn is an awesome musician with The Radicans, an organizers of BeardFest, a music, art, and sustainability festival, and an all around amazing permaculture practitioner. During the conversation we talk about the start of the project, what the organization does, including outreach beyond planting orchards, and Robyn gives a long list of plants that included beyond just trees. The resulting installations have more in common with food forests than what you might imagine when first hearing the word orchard.

Find out more about Robyn and Philadelphia Orchard Project at PhillyOrchards.org. You can also listen to her with The Radicans, and checkout BeardFest via the links below.

As I mention in the opening with Robyn, this is just an introduction to Philadelphia Orchard Project and Ms. Mello. We have a longer, more in-depth conversation that will follow this one in a few weeks. In the meantime, if you are in the area, check out POP and see about getting involved.

If along the way there is any way I can be of assistance, my door remains open for any listener, professional, novice, or in-between. You can reach me and continue the conversation by leaving a comment below. 

Resources:
Philadelphia Orchard Project
The Radicans
BeardFest