Grumblethorpe Mysteries: Historic Home and Garden in Germantown

 

Historic Grumblethorpe on Germantown Ave. built in 1744 (photo source: www.nj.com)

Herb Garden (in April) off of the kitchen with sundial 

I began my internship with Grumblethorpe in April with the task of bringing some order to the herb garden, designing a pollinator garden for the students who come to learn about caterpillars and butterflies, 

and to add signs and design a brochure for visitors.  

It has evolved into a mystery solving expedition for me: 

What plants were grown here by the Wister family historically? 

and how to exemplify the fantastic exploration and scientific  

curiosity with weather, rare plants, minerals, bees, forests, and astronomy 

that was a part of the Wister homestead?

 A vegetable and formal bed beyond, with the ancient Ginko tree on the left

 Formal bed with boxwood-border bed and pergola gates

 The observatory Charles Wister built

After reading Suzanne Wister Eastwick's compilation of the family garden records, 

the mystery only deepened with descriptions of family ties to Academy of 

Natural Sciences collections, the first person recollections of the wild garden filled 

with collected orchid and fern species from the Wissahickon, 

the "Beemaster" with 25 hives who brought a swarm 9 miles to the house in a wheelbarrow, 

the amateur astronomer who built an observatory to watch eclipses and the transit of Mercury, 

as well as the interest in meteorology, designing of iron rain gauges and clock-making.

Chickens looking for a bite to eat

 Side path around original stone wall

Great Front Stoop Gardens and City Planters

 Reclaimed wood planter,  Girard Ave.

 Raised bed vegetable garden, West Philly

Happy Garden Cards to Die For

I found a set of these cards in a high school classroom I was visiting and had to have them, so I searched Etsy, only finding partial sets until I spotted this one at Bright Wall Studios.  These awesome retro cards has plants and tips on growing them but the surprise is all of the gardening advice from canning, pickling, making terrariums, designing medicinal herb beds and Ready Made-style building projects from outdoor tables, benches, window boxes and kids garden projects. The indoor gardens section is a trip back in time to when folks filled their houses with plants and had stands with grow lights and incorporated plants into their interior designs. It's amazing how relevant the whole set is and how much more plant saturated people's lives were back in the day. I'm in OCD Garden heaven.

Food from my Garden CONTEST

My garden has been supplying enough dino and red russian kale for three families a week and plenty of spicy radishes I finally figured out how to use, I've been slicing them up thin and putting them in quesadillas and omelets. I've been waiting and watching two broccoli heads develop and they are pretty close.  Any ideas of good recipes to use them in? Leave a comment with a recipe idea and get put in a drawing for a free 8 x 10 print from the garden!

Volunteer at your Local Urban Farm!



I visited Farm 51 for their workday today and fell in love with their space, a diverse mix of raised beds of vegetables, chicken coops, nice people and good food.

Philadelphia Seed Swap

The Seed Swap at Earth Cup Cafe, 45th and Pine Streets

Yummy Squash, Bean and Eggplant Seeds

Sorting the seeds into catagories

Mira and Joel, Co-Coordinators of the Philly Seed Exchange Mira is also involved with the Blue Red Yellow project growing plants in the city to make natural dyes. She was featured in Grid Magazine and had a demo table at Swap O Rama Rama last year.

The Philadelphia Seed Savers are holding seed swaps across the city this spring so be sure to check out this link to see when the next ones will be held!

Philly Flower Show

Matisse-themed garden

Comparing Composters for the Garden

I stopped by the garden today to drop off some food scraps to compost and I started looking around at all of the composters in our community garden. Because of the blanket of snow, it's easy to spot the different designs and I thought it would be interesting to hear from the gardeners what they think of the type they selected.

The Earth Machine was given away for free to residents who attended a compost workshop with the city. Not sure if it is still going on. Many of the garden members have these.

Succulent and Cactus Pots

Cooking From The Garden and Farm

I've been cooking every weekend, mostly because I have no money and need food and getting it from the garden where it grows for free is the only way to eat, but I love cooking so it's been a fun time. I stopped by the garden last weekend and found turnips, chard, over-grown scallions, chives, fennel and the usual herbs and a few leaves of collards that were not hole-city. Oh, and a few red tomatoes!

I got them home and wanted to capture my harvest so I started taking pictures on the counter, which turned out to be a great backround for green veggies. I'm just so proud I can grow a vegetable. They may not be gorgeous, but they're mine!

I cooked up some Middle Eastern Stew, then muffins, first with banana, barley, oat, then with pumpkin from the Halloween pumpkin and pumpkin seeds.

Washing Greens

Cutting the Chard

This weekend I cooked up similar but better stew, Yam and Chard Stew.

1 large yam

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 turnip (I used three small ones)

1/2 yellow onion

10 large chard leaves

1/2 cup rice (I mixed basmati and arborio)

3/4 cup red lentils (I got them from Margerum's Herbs)

1/2 tablespoon curry

1/2 tablespoon cumin

salt and pepper

I'm working on my food photography in hopes of getting some cookbook or local farm/food vendor advertising work. If you know anyone, let them know I'll do it for free to get some experience!

I convinced my family to fork over $4.50 a lb. for a bird from a local farm in Lancaster and despite all of the complaining about the price of turkeys at ShopRite, it was beautiful and tasty. We joked about having no idea how to cook a turkey without a pop-up button or wrapped in plastic, and it did take an hour longer than we thought it would, but it was super good.

I brought over beets and Peruvian Purple potatoes from the garden (further convincing my family I was crazy), but my mom loved the potatoes and you barely need butter they're so smooth. My mom has a funny masher that makes everything look like fat noodles.

Walk Into The Woods Opening Night

Etsy-Tastic Spring Items!