Lee and Meenal also described their commercial services, a weekly pick-up of food scraps from area restaurants, bars and farmers markets. At the time, as a new business, they had a few commercial accounts. A year later, they have weekly accounts with Wine Thief, InFusion, Earth Bread and Brewery, Umbria, Night Kitchen Bakery, Chestnut Hill Farmer’s Market, Jonathan’s Best, Weavers Way Coop in Chestnut Hill, Tavern on the Hill plus two center city accounts. As GRINCH leader, Alix Rabin, likes to say “environmentalism is an idea whose time has come.” Composting is one of the most important elements of that truth.

By recycling and composting, we keep trash out of landfills. Ever notice the hulking landfill just before you reach Philly International Airport? Winged vermin descend upon it while ozone killing methane rises from it. No one wants to live near it. So how can we reduce the size of our collective landfill footprint? According to the Clean Air Council, each day the U.S. throws away enough trash to fill 63,000 garbage trucks! Here are 5 ways that I have reduced the amount of trash in my own business and at home:
1) Buy Local: The tomato grown in New Jersey has traveled a shorter distance than the one from Belgium. The Jersey tomato may be less worldly, but it’s sure to be more delicious. I don’t eat them when they’re not in season. A few local items per week in my grocery basket add up to a big difference.
2) BYOB-Bring Your Own Bag: I keep 6 or 7 canvas bags in the trunk of my car and try to avoid plastic bags all together. Plastic bags are a petroleum by-product that can choke sea life and birds and will not bio degrade.
3) Buy Things with Less Packaging: Spring mix lettuce and spinach are often sold in giant plastic boxes. I look for loose lettuce or lettuce in bags. Does that bunch of asparagus really need a cardboard and plastic encasement? At my bakery, we ask customers if they need bags and napkins instead of automatically giving them out.
4) Recycling: Now that Recycle Rewards with Recycle Bank have returned to Philly, we have even more incentive to recycle plastics, aluminum and paper. Americans throw away 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour! We have a water cooler at the bakery for staff to refill their aluminum bottles so that we never need to grab that plastic bottle.
5) Composting: We compost all food scraps and coffee grounds. Participating staff bring food scraps from their home to add to the collection picked up by Philly Compost. Since we began composting, we have reduced our garbage at the bakery by one 30 gallon garbage bin per week!

As my grandmother who lived during the Great Depression used to say–”It All Adds Up!”

       by Amy Edelman, Owner of Night Kitchen Bakery

Out on a Limb – a Tree Adventure exhibit emerged from a nation-wide field of 16 entries to earn the honor. In announcing the award, the judges cited Out on a Limb – a Tree Adventure exhibit as “imaginative, exciting and innovative. This exhibition succeeds in combining kids’ desire for adventure and parents’ interest in safety into a fun sense of perceived danger. Highly worth a visit to see!”

The competition judges were guided by the National Association of Museum Exhibitions (NAME) Standards for Museum Exhibition and Indicators of Excellence. Among the criteria imposed upon entrants was the relevancy of exhibition media, content and design to its theme, subject, collection and audience. This was the 22^nd year of the competition.

Morris Arboretum’s Tree Adventure exhibit is an arboretum-wide exhibit with a central theme that explores the relationship between plants and people with its overriding message: we need trees, and trees need us.  The exhibit begins on the dramatic and iconic structure Out on a Limb, which takes visitors 50 feet up into the treetops for a true bird’s eye view of the forest. From Out on a Limb, visitors can cross a Suspension Bridge to a giant Bird’s Nest (complete with huge robin’s eggs for children to sit on), scamper onto the Squirrel Scramble’s rope netting skirting two towering trees, head to the top of the Wissahickon Vista platform for sweeping views, or just wander along the 450 feet of canopy walkway, rising high above the forest floor. Designed by Metcalfe Architecture & Design, Out on a Limb is fully accessible to strollers and wheelchairs alike, providing the sense of climbing a tree for anyone who experiences it. 

To explore the rest of the Tree Adventure exhibit, visitors are given a Passport to Adventure to travel the arboretum’s 92-acre garden and learn the critical role trees play in our environment. Other stations include learning about living fossils, trees’ root systems, comparing nature’s temperatures, and experiencing life in another era.

 “What is especially rewarding to see is people of all ages engaging with the exhibit, not just having fun, but learning about trees and the importance of caring for them in our communities.  The exhibit has been terrific for attendance as well. It has increased gate attendance by 46% since we opened last July, including many first time visitors to the Morris Arboretum. And they are becoming members; the number of new members has grown by 118% and our membership is the highest it’s ever been,” says Morris Arboretum Director, Paul Meyer.  “Morris Arboretum is honored to receive this prestigious national award from AAM.”  Meyers continued.

The entries for the competition came from museums large and small, reflecting the vast array of museum types, including art, history, children’s, science, zoos and aquariums.

“Our world and our audiences demand creativity, scholarship and authenticity in museum exhibits these days,” said AAM president Ford W. Bell. “Clearly the winners of this prestigious competition have met ─ and exceeded ─ these benchmarks, as evidenced by the reaction of the public and their peers.”

The Morris Arboretum is a 92-acre horticulture display garden that features a spectacular collection of rare and mature trees and colorful gardens.  The Arboretum features numerous picturesque spots such as a formal rose garden, swan pond, meadows and the elegant Fernery, the only existing one in North America.  The Morris Arboretum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 

Our blogging team will be  Peggy, Peggy, Fran and Kate of the Chestnut Hill Business Association as well as guest bloggers, who also have some great tales to tell!

Our goal is to share the Chestnut Hill experience and all of the great shops, customers, restaurants and attractions that make Chesntut Hill so special and such a destination.

Speaking of destination – did you know that we have been chosen as one of twelve distinctive destinations by the National Trust for Historic Preservation?

Learn fun and interesting stories and facts about our wonderful town.  But more importantly we’ll  be bringing you the ‘cast of characters’ that we all know and love here on the Avenue – like our very own Chef Roller or ToyDad Fran and many others.