“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.

Thursday is the food festival Night Market Philadelphia, which will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the corner of 39th and Market streets. This night market, a celebration of local food vendors and ethnic and gourmet restaurants, will have a Philly Beer Week twist.

The previous edition of the festival in South Philly drew enormous crowds and caused a few pretty big lines, which called for necessity for more vendors for future night markets. So this time, event organizer The Food Trust is bringing over 30 street food carts and restaurants, including Guapos Tacos, Nomad Pizza, with its traveling wood fired oven, and Little Baby’s Ice Cream. The event will also feature music by local bands, street performers, and crafts.

Finally, the event is part of Philly Beer Week and the West Philly pub The Blockley will set up a beer garden at 39th and Market with a fine selection of craft brews from Victory, Yards, Troegs, Rogue and Brooklyn.

The Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative’s Youth Development Program is hosting its annual “Eats and Beats” event this Saturday beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Woodland Presbyterian Church (401 S. 42nd).

The event helps support the youth-led Rooted in Community Conference and some of this year’s proceeds go toward the expansion of the Mariposa Food Co-op. Rooted in Community, a national organization dedicated to empowering youth to take the lead in their communities to address food justice issues, is holding their conference in Philadelphia on July 27-31.

Tickets are available on a sliding scale for $15-$50 and are available online here.

Here is a late reminder about the food justice movie night tonight at The Rotunda (4014 Walnut St.). Food Stamped, a film about a couple trying to make healthy meals on $4 a day, the typical food stamp allotment, screens at 6:30 p.m.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and dinner will be served. The entire event is free and a discussion will follow the movie.

The Netter Center for Community Partnerships and the Urban Nutrition Initiative are co-hosting the event, which is one in a monthly screening of films related to food justice issues.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that there is nowhere in Philadelphia where you can get a whole, free-range, herb-roasted chicken delivered to your door complete with sides.

Until now.

West Philly’s newest chicken joint, Roost, isn’t really a joint at all. It’s a hole in the wall with a stainless steel metal counter, a chalkboard menu and just enough room to salivate.

Owned by the Milk and Honey Market duo of Annie Baum-Stein and Mau Daigle, Roost is located at 4529 Springfield Ave., a couple of doors up from Wayne’s Garage. They’re using the adjacent kitchen of the recently dissolved Kitchen at Penn, which has gone on hiatus with the graduation of its general manager. The Kitchen’s chef, Jordan Miller, is the mastermind behind Roost, which offers fried chicken and chicken tenders along with the rotisserie, and a selection of sides that includes coleslaw, mashed potatoes and gravy, greens and mac ‘n cheese. Oh, and by the way, some amazingly good homemade buttermilk biscuits.

Whenever possible Roost uses locally grown ingredients, including the chickens.

“The farmers we use are up the road,” said Miller.

That means that the chickens, which are from Bell and Evans, are organic and a little smaller, like chickens used to be. These have no hormones or antibiotics like the factory-raised chickens with the Dolly Partonesque breasts available in the grocery store now. It also means that they are, pound-for-pound, more expensive.

Roost is also putting together a vegan menu for the herbivores out there.

A half rotisserie ($9.50), which includes a biscuit, and a side is just about right for two adults. Altogether we paid $12.50 for a half chicken and a small container of red cabbage coleslaw. We were in and out in 5 minutes. The “out” part is important – it’s take out, delivery or eat standing on the sidewalk. No tables and no chairs here.

It’s not Popeye’s prices for sure and if you stop by in person and order fried chicken you will have to wait a few minutes while it is actually fried. Thankfully, there are no heat lamps.

Our only criticism was that our biscuit was not quite done and a little gooey inside. But we chalked that up to the newness of the operation. They are still finetuning things. Roost has been unofficially open for about a week. The official opening is pending and the current hours are 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. They are closed on Tuesdays. The delivery range is Woodland to Market and 38th to 50th.

The complete menu is here. They accept major credit cards and cash.

Correction: The Saturday meeting is 10 a.m. to Noon.

The Mariposa Food Co-op is hosting two community meetings this week to allow residents in West Philly to get a look at its new location on Baltimore Avenue and hear more about the progress of its expansion plans.

The first meeting is Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the soon-to-be Mariposa location at 4824 Baltimore Ave. Residents will have the chance to tour the new building, which is a five-fold increase in size over the old space, and talk to Mariposa staff and members about expansion plans. The new building is scheduled to open in October and rennovations will begin in earnest this summer.

Another open house will be held on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.10 a.m. to Noon and follow a similar format. State Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. is scheduled to attend this open house as well to talk about the expansion.

Mariposa continues to seek support for the expansion and there are a couple of ways you can help out. A membership drive is currently under way for the new store. A loan campaign is also ongoing and donations are always accepted.