“Local” is all the rage these days. Local food, local beer, shopping local. A celebration of the local begins Saturday in West Philly as the University City District puts on the first “Sustainable Saturday.”

This Saturday’s theme is “Grow it Yourself” and features a self-guided tour of community gardens in West Philly and a “farm-to-table” trolley tour includes stops at Walnut Hill Community Farm, Milk & Honey Market, and Farm 51, chats with local growers and sellers and a dinner made with local ingredients.

The day kicks off, of course, with the Clark Park Farmers ‘ Market, which will be back to normal now that the “A” section of the park is open again.

Here are some details on the rest of the day:

Noon – 1 p.m. • Foraging for Edible Plants

USciences Lower Mill Creek Garden (43rd and Chester). A few folks from Wild Foodies from Philly will talk about foraging for edible and medicinal plants.

Noon to 1 p.m. • Creating an Urban Homestead

Farm 51 (51st and Chester). Learn about what you can and can’t do in your backyard as well as the basics of keeping vegetables and animals in the city.

Noon to 1 p.m. • Irrigating With Stormwater

Walnut Hill Community Farm (Ludlow Street between 46th and Farragut – near the 46th Street El stop). The farm has an innovative solar-powered stormwater irrigation system. Come hear how you can rig up a stormwater system in your yard.

1 p.m. to 2 p.m. • Sustainable Landscaping

Chester Avenue Community Garden (on Chester between 47th and 48th). A workshop on edible landscaping with Phil Forsyth of Forsyth Gardens and the Philadelphia Orchard Project.

2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. • Ice Cream Tour and Tasting at Bartram’s Garden

Bartram’s Garden (54th and Lindbergh). This one is a no-brainer. You get to forage around Bartram’s Garden for a little while and then make ice cream with what you have found. This also includes a tour. Tickets are $10 for adults/$8 for students and seniors/Free with a Bartram Pass. You pay when you get there. But you still need to RSVP here.

3 p.m. to 7 p.m. • Philly Homegrown West Philadelphia Farm to Trolley Tour

Paul Steinke of the Reading Terminal Market will host the tour. Participants will get a chance to see urban farming and beekeeping in action and sample locally grown foods. The tour concludes at the MidAtlantic Tap Room and Restaurant (3711 Market St.) for a dinner made with locally grown ingredients. Tickets are $45. RSVP here.

Other Sustainable Saturdays will be held July 16, August 20 and September 17.

A West Philly-based yoga instructor Fatima Adamu is offering summer evening yoga classes now until July 27 at her home studio located at 4705 Baltimore Avenue, 3rd Floor.

Classes will be composed of a focus on alignment, pranayama (breath exercises) and on increasing overall body strength while cultivating a spirit of playfulness, self-acceptance and self-lovin’.

You need to bring: a yoga mat and a water bottle.

Rates are: $10 per class; 3 classes for $25; 4 classes for $30.

To learn more about the classes click here. To sign up go to this page. To contact Fatima call 215-203-4219 or email: fatimeula [at] gmail.com.

Community members (and they mean everybody) are invited to the Henry C. Lea School (47th and Locust) on Saturday for its first ever Community Fun Day, which will include music, dancing, vendors and a bunch of family stuff.

The day kicks off at 10 a.m. Now this day is not all about fun and games (though it mostly is). The school is looking for some volunteers to help paint. The painting is part of an ongoing project to transform the inside aesthetic of Lea. To help out write: leacommunity [at] gmail.com or call Yvette at 917-602-7998.

Oh, and did we mention that there will be a bounce house?

Proceeds from the community day will also help offset the costs of a new playground.

The Lea School will also unveil their new t-shirts during the fun day, which principal Dr. Lisa Bell-Chiles has approved as a school uniform option for students. The t-shirts will be available in child and adult sizes and sport the phrase “We are Fami-LEA,” a play off the famous Sister Sledge tune (just try getting that song out of your head now).
 

Fellow West Philly residents Andrew Simonet (choreographer) and Manfred Fischbeck have helped put together a fascinating dance show, which begins at Drexel’s Mandell Theater (3300 Chestnut St.) tomorrow, June 17.

Sam-Gam Bam! (“sam-gam” means “flow together” in Sanskrit) is a collision of classical and experimental American and South Indian dance, a blend of traditional and modern. A classical Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam, which is featured in the show, began 2,000 years ago and represents divine mythology in performance.

The show is a product of collaboration among three Philly-based dance companies: Group Motion, Headlong, and Three Aksha. The companies are quite distinct in style, but find common ground through this presentation of dance.

The shows schedule:

June 17, 18, 23-25 – 7:30 p.m.

June 19 – 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. To buy tickets click here.
 

The day that many of us have been waiting a long time for has arrived. Early this morning the fences came down at Clark Park “A” and it didn’t take long for people to pour in with books, coffee, kids and dogs in tow.

The official opening ceremony is today at 4 p.m.

A few things still need to be worked out, such as how best to accommodate the chess players that have dueled in the park for years. The biggest visible change, of course, is the graveled round open space where the flag pole (and a lot of mud) used to be.

Several orange cafe-style tables and chairs will be distributed around the space. They will be locked to one another to help prevent theft.

Today is a great day for the opening. The weather is nice and the Thursday farmer’s market starts at 3 p.m. So get out there and take it all in.

Are Baltimore Avenue and Spruce Street in West Philly among the worst places in the city to ride a bike?

The good folks at the Philadelphia Weekly think so. In “The Five Best (and Worst) places to Bike in Philly,” writer Daniel Denvir pans the two streets because of the proximity of parked cars to bike lanes. He writes of Baltimore Avenue:

Baltimore Avenue, the main drag of queer, anarchist, vegan, crusty West Philly? It couldn’t be—but it is! I know two people who have had car doors opened into them, one of whom broke her collarbone. A sleepy side street where you can bike down the middle of the road may be slower than a big street bike lane, but it is always safer to bike without parked cars immediately to your right.

First, we have no problem with queer, anarchist, vegan or crusty (that’s one of the reasons why we live here) but, dude, have you been to West Philly lately?

Baltimore and Spruce (along with Kensington Avenue and “all those bike lanes next to parked cars”) rank fourth on the list of the worst behind the Ben Franklin Parkway, Girard Avenue and Greys Ferry Bridge.

We’re not sure if they are among the worst streets in the city. But getting doored does suck.