Philadelphia

I pledged to go local for 40 days. When I came up with the idea, I didn't prepare nor think of how to execute the strategy. Confession: (Find out how I fared as a locavore after the jump!)

Earth Day is this Sunday (obviously.). Philadelphia had a city-wide cleanup effort this past weekend, but that doesn't mean you should wait for a city-wide initiative to volunteer. Instead of hosting a birthday or holiday party at home, organize a volunteer outing to a local park or community garden. Philadelphia has a lot of green space (and litter), so start with a community park or number of blocks. Read on!

At Green Philly everyday is Earth Day but that doesn't mean we shouldn't reflect and celebrate properly! Read on for info on some of the Earth Day happenings to check out in Philly this week.

I don't know about you but sometimes I go through major breakfast ruts. Cereal and english muffins with almond butter start to bore my taste buds after devouring for weeks on end. When I need to shake up my morning meal treats like these delicious muffins come in to play. You can bake a batch (or two ) to eat all week long or share with friends and co-workers. I opted to share these this past weekend at Green Philly's Spring CleanUp. I had a couple requests for the recipe, so here you are!

Philadelphia hosted its 5th Annual Philly Spring Cleanup this past Saturday, April 14th from 9 AM - 2 PM.  Over 350 projects across the city encouraged citizens to volunteer to make our city a prettier place. The theme of the Cleanup is "Keep Up the Sweep Up", which emphasizes residents and organizations to sustain the effort towards a cleaner & brighter Philly year-round. Although we haven't received the exact stats from this past weekend yet, the past 4 cleanups have boasted 45,000 volunteers, collected over 5.8 MILLION pounds of trash - which is enough to fill Lincoln Financial Field up to 17.4 feet high. As we mentioned, we hosted a Philly Spring Cleanup Day site at 8th & Poplar this past weekend.  The fields are a host to many PSSC leagues, and many local residents use the fields for soccer games, taking kids & pets. At first glance, the fields didn't seem too bad. But when we started looking around, there was a lot of litter: (See more pics & stats from the day, after the jump!)

Hope you had a chance to prepare for a sustainable Easter this weekend!  Here's what you missed this week on the green front, as well some Photo Friday fun below:

Reader Ryan asks: Where can we recycle computer laptop batteries? Answer: Good news for you, Ryan!  You can recycle laptop batteries in a few places:

Don't frown urbanites. Even if you don't have grass in your city property limits, you can still grow your own food this season. I started planting seeds for the first harvest of my container garden last week.  Obviously I didn't inherit my dad's gardening skills regardless of my DNA, so it has taken some experimentation over the past 2 years.  (I was an Urban Dummy just a short time ago!)  Here's the basics if you're considering to plant this season.

Vegan Chef Wheeler Del Torro is hosting his African-Cuban street food Barrio pop-up this Saturday, March 31st at 7 PM (location: Philly, to be revealed). While many are apprehensive about his request-an-invite-only system, don't count out the event yet.  We talked with Wheeler about his crappy writing skills & veganism and can't deny his infectious passion for his cooking and his pop-ups. Find out more about Wheeler & his Barrio pop up (And discover how you and a guest can get FREE Tickets) after the jump!