Philadelphia has the largest 4H chapter in the country! 4H is just one of several programs sponsored by the Pennsylvania State University Philadelphia County Cooperative Extension; others include demonstration community gardens, a nutrition program, and a commercial horticulture program. Funding comes from state and federal governments.

The offices of the Penn State Cooperative Extension are in the Urban Education Building at 46th and Market Streets. On most days during the growing season, however, fewer than half the desks are occupied. The work of the Extension Service and its staff is outside the office, anywhere and everywhere in the city.

The Urban Gardening Program was established by U.S. Congress in 1976. Under this program, seven Urban Gardening Advisors follow 490 gardens throughout the city of Philadelphia. Doris Stahl, the Urban Gardening Regional Advisor for West Philadelphia, summarizes their mission, "We are here to make people healthier through better nutrition, exercise, and through controlling chemicals. It just starts out as growing your own food." In West Philadelphia, Ms. Stahl advises about eighty gardens. Ms. Stall characterizes the gardens in West Philadelphia as being larger than average with more people per garden. This she attributes to the fact that, in West Philadelphia, vacant land tends to come in large parcels, often the site of a block of collapsed rowhouses.

The Urban Gardening Program teaches new gardening ideas and methods. Demonstration is one of the programs major tools. Doris Stahl recalls working in her own plot in the garden formerly at 56th and Haverford. In the first year, she mulched her tomatoes with salt hay. Her busy summer schedule--working the garden-hotline phone, advising gardeners in her region, teaching hydroponics classes to 4-H youth, and running community gardening workshops--left little time for daily garden maintenance. Yet her tomato harvest was at least as big as her garden neighbors, even though they worked at it much harder. The other gardeners took note, and the next year they asked about the salt hay. There was plenty of salt hay to be had, and she happily shared it with the others. Trading experiences with other gardeners is the most effective way of learning, and this is what the demonstration gardens do. The Urban Gardening Program maintains nine demonstration gardens. Throughout the growing season demonstrations and workshops are scheduled. The public is always invited.

The Philadelphia County Extension Office also runs nutrition programs. A few years ago, the staff introduced a new twist to an existing program that provides food coupons to suppport calcium and protein nutrition. They developed coupons that are redeemable for produce at tailgate farmers'markets only, thus reinforcing two of their programs: nutrition and commercial horticulture. In Philadelphia there is now a 55 percent redemption rate for the WIC Coupons.

The history of the tailgate farmers' market goes back nearly twenty years to when the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia began a joint program of farmers' markets on church grounds. The dual purpose was to provide a convenient market for nearby farms and fresh produce for city residents. Once the markets were underway, the Department of Agriculture discontinued its participation in the program. The Archdiocese continued to support the markets, but eventually stopped paying staff to run the program. At that point, the farmers were left to their own devices. They were free to use the church grounds on Saturdays, but they had to organize the markets on their own. As markets closed for one reason or another, there was no umbrella organization to help the farmers start new markets.

When Andy McNitt was hired by the Penn State Cooperative Extension Office in commercial horticulture, there was only one major market still operating. This was at the old firehouse at 50th Street and Baltimore Avenue. After the local civic association and private developers converted the firehouse into an indoor market, however, the farmers were forced to move, and McNitt helped them find another location. Since he started at the Extension Office, McNitt has revived several other tailgate markets. The Cooperative Extension Office has no formal role in the management of the markets. It merely provides an office, a phone, and a person to be a liaison between individual farmers and government officials when one is needed.

Now, the tailgate farmers' market operates on a parking lot at 49th and Spruce Streets on Saturdays during the growing season. The tailgate market has been at its current site for over three years. Two benefits of the location are good visibility and plenty of parking. The farmers drive in from Lancaster and Chester Counties and from New Jersey. The organization of the market works primarily on "gentlemen's agreements." The farmers manage themselves and their small number insures personal working relationships among them. The Garden Court Civic Association has beeen very supportive of the market. As Andy McNitt explains, "We have to have a link in the neighborhood. You can't just come in from the outside and say here is this market and expect the people to support it."