Only in Bucks County!: Langhorne

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Only in Bucks County: St. Marys Rehabilitation Hospital

As much as my blog started as a way to highlight the new scenery I experienced when I moved to Bucks County, it's evolved into more as I meet more people, continue exploring, and learn even more about the area.

I've highlighted small businesses unique to Bucks County; but today I want to share with you a much larger organization that's doing great things to improve the quality of life locally.

Over the past month I was invited to tour the new St. Mary Rehabilitation Hospital in Langhorne to photograph patients as they planted an inaugural therapy garden.

The garden will be cared for and harvested by patients.

The newly constructed garden beds are raised so that they're wheelchair and walker accessible. Patients can practice balance, standing endurance, and other mobility tasks while gardening.

Digging in the dirt and planting have long been therapeutic.

Gardening is also a great social interaction. Pictured here are hip and knee replacement

patients Elda and her new friend Sandi Fine. The best news is that they've both been

released to go home days after we met.

Way to go Sandi and Elda!

Fresh tomato and basil salad could be a choice on the menu as the gardens start to yield produce!

Other herbs and veggies planted were spearmint, chocolate mint,

cucumbers, peppers, and eggplant.

Nora, who is almost completely recovered from her surgery, volunteered to water the beds

over the long hot weekend. Nora told me that she's been snipping a few mint leaves

to add into her ice water each morning.

In the month since the beds were constructed, filled with soil and planted, the tomato and cucumber plants have really taken over. The gardening upkeep and activities are not only a form of therapy, but they now providing fresh organic produce on a daily basis.

St. Mary Rehab Hospital provides inpatient rehabilitation to people with acute neurologic, medical or orthopedic conditions. Their main number is 267-560-1100 and the address is:

1208 Newtown-Langhorne Rd, Langhorne, PA 19047

"To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves."

~Mohandas K. Gandhi

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Only in Bucks County: One Cup Joe

Today I visited a new store in Newtown/Langhorne by the name of OneCupJoe. Since my blog is generally about unique experiences in Bucks County and I'm a huge fan of shopping small and supporting local, I think it qualifies as a post.

Got a Keurig? Well then, do I have the place for you!

Introducing... OneCupJoe

OneCupJoe is a unique concept in coffee-selling developed by two local businessmen. The original store in Bensalem is celebrating its one year birthday, and I had the pleasure of spending some time with co-owner Jeremy Zevin at the six month old Newtown location. Here is what I learned:

OneCupJoe sells only single-serve coffee pods. Not only are there interesting types and flavors you can't readily get in one place, get this... YOU CAN MIX AND MATCH.

Walk in to the brightly lit store, grab a specially made orange "K-cup" holder, and choose 24 of your own personal favorites from 265 different types of coffee and tea for just $14.99. (I did the math.) (It's 62 cents a cup.)

Store Supervisor Jenny helps stock the Newtown shop.

Again, these guys aren't just offering the same K-cups you see for sale at the big-box stores. They're innovators in researching and obtaining the newest and very best in the industry. For instance, Lavazza, the icon of fine Italian coffee, finally brought their 100+ years of roasting to a K-Cup... and OneCupJoe began to carry it the very next week!
And when Tim Horton's (Canada) new medium-roast French Vanilla coffee became available... they grabbed it and stocked that too.

OneCupJoe also sells K-cups from Brooklyn based micro roasters Brooklyn Beanery, boasts an organic line of coffee pods by Marley, and they just began to carry the only loose leaf tea available in individual brewing cups. Plus, if you're a fan of The Food Network like me, there are some really bangin' flavors put out by Emeril, Wolfgang Puck, The Cake Boss, and one of my secret crushes, Guy Fieri. (swoon)