🌻 Picking flowers | Outdoorsy Newsletter

Welcome to another edition of Outdoorsy. Here’s the lineup:

☀️ Your forecast: It’s slightly warmer. We’re promised a gorgeous weekend.

— Paola Pérez (outdoorsy@inquirer.com)

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Living in Philly means we’re right next to the Garden State and the farmland-filled Delaware Valley.

Wherever you are in the region, flower farms and festivals offer plenty of chances to pick your own blooms to take home. And right now, sunflowers are the star of the season.

But it’s not just flower-picking — many places offer berry picking, live music, beer gardens, food, and family-friendly activities.

Here are a few spots to consider:

🌻 Find picturesque sunflower fun at Hellerick’s Adventure Farm in Doylestown. (P.S. They kick off a Fall Festival this Friday, including wagon rides, visits with farm animals, and much more for all ages).

🌻 At Terra Farms in Spring Grove, this time of year is all about picking your own sunflowers, snapdragons, zinnias, and dahlias from the 48-acre field.

🌻 Holland Ridge Farms in Cream Ridge, N.J., is full of seemingly endless fields of flowers. At 300 acres, it’s the largest u-pick farm in the country and hosts two annual flower festivals each year.

There’s much more floral fun to be had well into the fall. Get the full list of pick-your-own flower farms and seasonal events just a few tolls away.

🎤 Now I’m passing the microphone to health science and research reporter Kayla Yup.

A deadly fungus found in ancient tombs could make for a promising anticancer drug.

Snake venom could be turned into lifesaving antibiotics.

And extracts from common trees hold promise as therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.

These are three ways that Philadelphia-area scientists aim to build on the long legacy of scientists who have successfully derived new medicines from natural products. Some estimates suggest that 40% of modern medicines come from plants, including the most popular prescription drugs.

Scientists would often find these medicines through trial and error or even happy accidents. The lifesaving antibiotic penicillin, for example, was identified after mold somehow contaminated a petri dish in 1928. The chemotherapy paclitaxel, used for multiple types of cancers, originated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree.

“Nature already made so much stuff for us to explore and then try to learn from,” said Xue “Sherry” Gao, an associate professor in the University of Pennsylvania’s school of engineering.

Now, better experimental tools and technological advances are changing the way a centuries-old approach to drug discovery is carried out. — Kayla Yup

Learn how these scientists discover lifesaving therapeutics in nature.

Staff photographer Jose F. Moreno captured this serene sight on recent early morning along the Cooper River in Pennsauken, N.J.

Linda Blythe wrote in to share some recent adventures:

I biked from Valley Forge to the end of the trail near Phoenixville last week. It was a great ride with lots of lunch choices in Phoenixville. We saw lots of people kayaking and paddleboarding along the Schuylkill Canal. I would be interested in learning more about the rental options for the kayaks and paddleboards.

That sounds like a splendid time! Thanks for telling us about it. We have a guide to canoe and kayak tours, plus a list of of outdoors clubs that can take you paddleboarding and more.

Have any unforgettable memories in the wild? In 200 words, tell me us about your favorite outdoor memories. Pictures, if you have them, are awesome. You might see your adventures featured in a future newsletter.

👋🏽 Until next time.

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