Perrystead Dairy opened in spring 2021 on the site of a former parking lot. As an urban creamery producing high quality, artisanal cheeses and dairy beverages with milk produced on Pennsylvania family farms, it joins a growing rank of makers and crafters revitalizing the ‘Workshop of the World’—Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. Using the concrete rubble, construction fill, and detritus from the previous paving to build seat walls and benches, Apiary transformed the entrance into a terraced garden for seating and open air markets. The planting palette started with the otherworldly cardoon (Cynara cardunculus), an artichoke relative with technicolor violet thistle flowers, which has long been used as a plant-based rennet substitute. The beds include myriad culinary and aromatic plants used in cheese production and flavoring, that thrive with little additional irrigation and are intended to self seed throughout.
SIZE: .25 Acres
YEAR: 2020-2021
LOCATION: Kensington, Philadelphia, PA
