Local Food

David Zelov has a rare job: He's a full-time farmer in Philadelphia. Weavers Way Co-op in Mount Airy hired him last week to manage the organization's tiny but expanding farm at Awbury Arboretum in Germantown. Zelov's new position is the latest sign of growth in Philadelphia's local-food and urban farming scene, which was celebrated at last week's Urban Sustainability Forum at the Academy of Natural Sciences. "If you live in Philadelphia, want to buy local food, want to use your food dollar to make a positive impact on the environment and the local company, and you are willing to do a little research, you have a lot of opportunity to do so," Ann Karlen, director of the White Dog Cafe Foundation's Fair Food Project, said during her remarks.

USED TO BE, eating off a food truck meant grabbing a kielbasa or some General Tso's - or, if you were feeling reckless, a gyro. These days, thanks to the recession and the culinary world's teenagerlike eagerness to follow trends, Philly has a growing fleet of gourmet trucks that serve up delicacies like pork bulgagi and buttercream cupcakes. This weekend, old-school carts meet their tweeting newbie counterparts in our city's first-ever Vendy (as in "vendor") Awards, a competitive celebration of sidewalk grub.

* A benefit barbecue will be held from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tuesday at Yards Brewing Co. (901 N. Delaware Ave., yardsbrewing.com) for Anthony Gualtieri, a longtime fixture on the local food scene (expediter at Le Bec-Fin, manager at Stateside, waiter at Parc). He is recovering from injuries suffered when he was struck by a car while riding his bike recently. $20 donation at the door; $10 gets you food from Wes Thompson's Smoky Mutt's Southern Barbecue, and there's a cash bar featuring $5 Yards pints.

THINK GREAT American food towns and what comes to mind? Definitely San Francisco/Napa for wine and farm-to-table cuisine. Then there's New Orleans for eclectic Creole bites, Memphis, Tenn., for barbecue. And don't forget Boulder, Colo., home to an awesome farmer's market and a slew of innovative food companies. Or Portland, Maine, where craft beer and fresh seafood form a perfect union. New York? Natch. But aren't we forgetting something? How about our hometown? Philadelphia deserves much more than its connection to the cheesesteak when it comes to making a culinary splash.

By Bryan Collins The face of City Council is changing. At least five new Council members will replace retiring incumbents in January, and there is fierce competition for other seats. This new energy should be harnessed to enhance the city's environmental quality, strengthen its neighborhoods, and increase its economic competitiveness. During the 2007 mayoral election, the Next Great City coalition, led by PennFuture and 130 partner organizations, urged the candidates to focus on neighborhood quality-of-life issues such as parks, energy efficiency, recycling, and transportation.

We were out at 5:30 a.m. putting up handmade signs with directions. Our banner had been hung over the train station canopy. And we'd done as much local advertising as we could with our limited budget. It was the first day of the new farmers' market in downtown Swarthmore, and everyone was nervous. We had worked with Bob Pierson of Farm to City, the organization that helps communities set up farm markets, and had four of our five farmers ready to go on the last Saturday in May. But, we worried, what if we threw a party and nobody came?

The state claims uprooting the Camden Children's Garden will "enhance" the economic-development potential of the downtown waterfront. What a load of fertilizer. The plan to bulldoze most of the 14-year-old garden - a fun, funky landscape that blends elements of arboretum, playground, and amusement park - would enhance nothing. And it would obliterate the waterfront's only public attraction with true Camden roots. Most people who work at the garden live in the city. So do many among its dwindling number of paying patrons.

Far too little of Center City's success has translated into progress for Philadelphia's low-income neighborhoods. But one surprising exception has been the growing availability of fresh, locally grown foods in communities far from the foodie redoubt of downtown. In 1992, three years before Steven Starr opened the first Continental and informally kicked off Philadelphia's (second) restaurant renaissance, the city had no more than three or four farmers markets. Twenty years later, one organization - the Food Trust - operates 30 markets on its own. And most of those, Food Trust executive director Yael Lehmann said, are in low- or mixed-income neighborhoods.

How did we ever find food before the Internet? Joining the collection of online tools are a few new apps for the Web and iPhone designed to make foraging easier. Software developer Joe Krill seems, on paper, to be a major food-truck fan, given that he just launched Chowspotter.com , a Web resource for those trying to find Philadelphia's migratory culinarians. But no. "I haven't really eaten at a lot of them," he said. "I tend to eat healthy and pack my own salad. " He simply was looking for something to do on the side.

Re: "Suburban dining: First, you wait," by staff writer Adam Fifield, July 16. We all seem to be living among suburban sheep who think that Cheesecake Factory, Outback Steakhouse and the like are the only eating places around. I shook my head in disbelief when I read the quotes from the masses and restaurateurs. I also couldn't believe that the president of Outback Steakhouse, Ben Novello, had the nerve not to apologize for the way his patrons are sometimes treated - like the cattle he serves.