Seeing the City's Farms on Two Wheels

The  put on by  Saturday wasn't just a tour of some of the hidden gardens sprinkled throughout Philadelphia.

It was a look at the city from two wheels. Marshals that rode alongside the 50 or so people that participated in the long ride (there was also a shorter version) blocked every intersection along the 25-mile plus route. The route wound its way through a variety of different neighborhoods, from East Mt. Airy to Germantown through Roxborough and Manayunk to Belmont Plateau and Strawberry Mansion and Brewerytown and various parts of North Philadelphia. It also made its way through other areas.

It's pretty rare to feel like you're riding car-free through the streets of any major city, but that's essentially what happened Saturday while the marshals blocked intersections to allow us to pass. Aside from a few honks and jeers along the way, we were mostly made to feel like rock stars. It felt especially like that as we made our way up 25th Street after leaving Marathon Farmin Brewerytown. Kids played in water spraying from fire hydrants during the , while others pranced around in small, portable pools outside. People on their front porches shouted words of encouragement. It felt good to be part of the parade.

It was also good to get an close view of some of the farms thriving throughout the city. The gardens the group visited along the way often seemed to sprout out of nothingness—we'd be riding along, abandoned factories visible on the side of the road, and then, straight underneath a sign advertising a new Checkers fried chicken sandwich, there'd be a greenhouse and plants gathered together on a lot.

That pattern repeated itself throughout the ride. Some of the spots—like the Wyck Home Farm in Germantown—were tucked behind buildings, essentially invisible to anyone. "Nobody knows about it," farm manager Emma Morrow said.

That's part of its charm. Other farms won me over with their community spirit—children live at the Methodist Home for Children and work at Heritage Farm near Belmont Plateau, and students at work on the Weavers Way farm on the campus. "We're all going to do about 20 minutes of weeding while we're here," Saul farm manager Nina Berryman joked as the crowd gathered around to learn about its CSA, its sustainable practices and its animals.

The crowd laughed. But given that virtually no one audibly complained about the route, the heat, the hills or anything else along the way, it wouldn't have been surprising if people had complied with Berryman's fake request.

The ride's organizer, Chris Hill, beamed with pride as his son, Adam, talked about Marathon Farm, which the younger Hill manages. That farm opened several months ago on a formerly vacant lot and does a lot of work within the community in an area that Hill said is a food desert of sorts. Bees, which are being taken care of there, flew around as people played in a sprinkler nearby.

Participants also got to play a real-life game of Snake when they rode their bikes through the warehouse adjacent at SHARE in Hunting Park (near the old Tastykake building)—it felt that way, at least, as the line of riders meandered its way along the halls there. SHARE provides food to people throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan region, and the warehouse had plenty of canned food on the shelves, which were bathed in darkness for much of the ride through. Biking through such a massive building was thrilling and kind of creepy at the same time, but it was definitely appealing in its own way. I know I don't get many chances to ride my bike through a warehouse.

The farm there felt extremely urban, being underneath a Checkers advertisement and all. But it added a touch of green to the formerly industrial area—five years ago, according to SHARE program director Steveanna Wynn, the site "was a dump."

We also visited the Urban Girls Farm at the Schuylkill Center, where we marveled at the chickens that pecked their way around behind a fence and talked about how the farm prefers not to be certified organic (it's expensive, according to people there, and its farm practices measure up to organic standards anyway).

It was a party when we made our way back to the Mort Brooks Memorial Farm at Awbury Arboretum (the ride also started there), where pasta with olives and a slaw of sorts awaited us. Foamy beer quickly made its way into cups, and we munched on grilled sandwiches, which were served by duitiful volunteers. The  hauled out , and live music played as tired—but happy—bike riders sat among tomato and kale plants to eat their food. Kids from the Methodist Home showed up, as did various Weavers Way employees and folk.

And as raffle winners were selected (an REI gift certificate was at stake), people started to make their way home. Me? I'm pretty sure that next time I ride my bike, I will, just for a second, be looking for a bike marshal standing in an intersection, calmly stopping traffic. And then I'll have to pinch myself and remember the world doesn't work that way.

Oh well. Here's to experiencing that again, exactly one year from now.

To see the long route on a map (it's an approximation), click here.