WORK AT THE TRUST!

We're looking for a special person to join our staff.  Learn more about the job.  

As schools finally let out for the summer I wanted to be sure you know about some of the amazing non-farm activities that are going on at Rushton Farm and the surrounding Rushton Woods Preserve.

Our Junior Birding Program has been meeting monthly since April, and as CSA members, we'd like to extend an invitation to your kids to join this fun, free program.    

Junior Bird Club participants look for feathered friends at Rushton Farm.

Designed for kids 8 - 12 years old, these  youngsters are learning all about birds and migration, beaks and eating habits, bird identification and more.  Our open spaces and sustainable practices make the farm and preserve teem with feathered friends!

Check out this week's posting on the Willistown Conservation Trust Bird Blog , which includes  a wonderful description of last week's activities, as well as more great photos. 

If you are interested in signing your child up for the Junior Birding Club, please contact Lisa Kiziuk at lkr@wctrust.org.

The new bird banding shelter at Rushton Woods Preserve.

Now that it is open to the public, we hope that you will take some time to explore the trails of the surrounding Rushton Woods Preserve, and admire our beautiful new Bird Banding shelter located behind the hedgerow, built by Eagle Scout candidate Cody Pitz.   

This shelter was the site of an intense several weeks of banding birds passing through during the spring migration, and now hosts banding activities that measure nesting and breeding birds in the Preserve.

 Potatoes are one of my favorite crops to grow and eat fresh from the garden.  As the world's fourth most important food crop after wheat, corn, and rice, the potato is a nutritious starchy staple rich in carbohydrates, magnesium, potassium and moderate amounts of vitamins B and C.  Although highly valued and grown commercially for its storage capabilities, the advantage of a small scale CSA model is being able to grow not only for yield and storage capabilities but for a diversity of shapes, sizes, colors, textures and of course, flavors.  This year we have more than doubled the bed footage devoted to potatoes (2700 bed feet), trialing new varieties such as Yellow Finn, Bintje, and Banana fingerlings. 

The potato plants are now about a foot tall, many of them are flowering, indicating that the tubers are starting to size up under the soil's surface.  The next step in cultivating our crop is to "hill" or "earth" the plants.  This is important for several reasons.  As the tubers size up they push their way up to the surface of the soil and become exposed to light.  By hilling the potatoes they are unable to produce the chlorophyll that makes them green and inedible.  Other advantages of hilling include moisture retention, weed control, warming the soil, and making a more inhospitable environment for slugs.  Lastly, hilling the potatoes gives the stems more support and provides more room for the potato tubers to grow. 

Last Wednesday we started this labor intensive project but were only able to hill 300 of the 2700 bed feet, being pulled away to keep up with the multitude of other tasks to be done on the farm.  Needless to say, we could use some extra hands.  What would be an all day project for the farm staff should only take a couple of hours with a half dozen volunteers. If you have time we would greatly appreciate any help this Wednesday anytime between 9am and 4pm. Thanks so much.  See you at the farm!


 

- Ashley