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This list may change, but here's our best guess of what you'll be getting in your share this week.
Arugula
Cooking greens
Escarole
Hakurei turnips
Little gem lettuce
Scallions
Sunflower sprouts
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| Braised Greens Tacos is a great way to use the greens in your share this week. Find the recipe at the right.
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| 2015 CSA MANUAL |
Just about everything you need to know about the Rushton Farm CSA is located HERE! 
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Fred de Long- Director
Noah Gress- Field Manager
Chelsea Allen- Field Manager
Eliza Gowen- Outreach Coordinator
Todd Alleger- Agroecology Project Coordinator
Jared Ingersoll- Rushton Farm Apprentice
Katie Pflaumer- Research Student- U. of Penn.
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WHEREABOUTS
Rushton Farm is located within the 85-acre Rushton Woods Preserve on Delchester Road, just south of Goshen Road in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.
Address: 911 Delchester Road Newtown Square, PA |
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KEEP US IN
THE LOOP!
Email is our primary means of communicating all CSA matters, so please contact us if your address changes, or if you'd like a family member's address to be added to the CSA mailing list.
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Week of June 8, 2015 - Issue No. 3
IN THE BAG Tidbits from Fred
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The farmshed garden is looking good. Help yourself to a few snips of herbs. Chive blossoms make a lovely addition to spring salads.
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A few cool nights and a couple of inches of rain really helped to ease the stress of a season that has been off to a slow start. Now it looks like we are getting into the spring veggies with the greens coming on strong and a huge bounty of spring peas right around the corner.
As the field crops begin to take off so are our pick-your-own crops. The raspberries have a heavy fruit set and will be ready to pick soon and the blackberries are showing great promise. The cut your own annual flowers and our perennial garden will be open for picking in a week or so and we are excited by the diversity in the garden this year. Even the limited planting of strawberries in the Farmshed Garden have done well. As always look to the blackboard at pick up to see what is available to harvest and keep in mind that we want the pick-your-own crops to be available for all our members so try to take a reasonable amount.
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Landscape painters from Wayne Art Center enjoyed the
saturated colors at Rushton Farm on an overcast day last week.
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One of the benefits of belonging to a CSA is understanding and appreciating the seasonality of the fruits and vegetables we eat. Eating with the seasons connects us with our food. The cool temperatures of spring provide us with the lush greens we feature at the beginning of the season. Rich in vitamins these greens are some of the most nutritious foods we grow. It is nature's way of nourishing us after a long
winter.
As the days grow longer and the heat rises, the greens make way for tomatoes, squash, peppers and some of the more traditional summer crops. These foods have grown with the season and have ripened under the hot summer sun bringing out their flavor. By August the melons have ripened signifying the peak to the summer crops.
-Fred
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THE DIRT Notes from the field
BIOBLITZ: Rushton Woods Preserve, with its many habitat types including sustainable agriculture, was selected for this 24-hour event in which teams of volunteer scientists worked together to find and identify as many species of plants, animals, microbes, fungi, and other organisms as possible.
This past weekend the fields of Rushton were the place to be as students, scientists, researchers and naturalists descended on Rushton Farm and Preserve as the first ever Bioblitz took place.
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Herpetologists walk the meadows searching for amphibians during the 24-hour Bioblitz.
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A Bioblitz is when an area, in this case the 85-acre Rushton Woods Preserve, is intensely studied through biological surveying to record all the living species within that area. Groups of volunteer scientists conduct an intensive field study over a 24 hour period. In the Rushton Bioblitz this included bat experts, entomologists, and ornithologists among others.
The Rushton Bioblitz was developed and coordinated by Heather Kostick as part of her masters degree Capstone project for the University of Pennsylvania. She gathered 37 scientists and volunteers to target 25 sites on the preserve for analysis that included recording and/or collecting plants, insects, water data and wildlife. By looking at the data collected we will have a much better understanding of the Rushton Woods Preserve ecosystem.
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Jolie Chylack conducted stream biology data collection at the Rushton Woods Preserve Bioblitz
held this past Saturday.
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One of the many highlights was the "Batmobile" ably driven by Rushton Staff member Todd Alleger. Todd drove bat experts Sarah Bouboulis and Sarah Deutsch through the Rushton fields recording bats to determine their population density and species.
Other highlights were the beetles collected from pitfall traps by Adam Mitchell, the stream water data collected by Jolie Chylack, and one of our resident box turtles sighted by Allison Fetterman.
Heather Kostick and her volunteers worked tirelessly through Friday night and into Saturday afternoon to collect this important data, and we look forward to seeing the results!
- Rushton Farm Staff
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RECIPES
What to do with all those veggies Braised Green Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 12 ounce bunch Swiss chard, washed (or collard greens, kale, etc.)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 large white or red onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth, or water
- 12 corn tortillas, warmed with a bit of water in a kitchen towel in the microwave
- 1 cup crumbled queso fresco (or feta, or goat cheese)
- A large handful (6-10) cherry tomatoes
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
- (Alternatively, a store-bought salsa or hot sauce will work)
Procedures
- Heat the oil in a large (12 inch) skillet over medium high, add the onion and cook until golden but still a bit crunchy, 4-5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, slice the greens crosswise into 1/2 inch slices.
- Add the garlic and chili flakes to the onion and cook for an additional minute, then add the broth or water, a large pinch of salt, and the greens. Reduce heat to low and braise, covered, for about 5 minutes or until the greens are nearing tender, but not quite finished.
- Meanwhile, put the cherry tomatoes into a dry skillet over medium-high heat until blistered, transfer to a small food processor with the chipotle pepper and a large pinch of salt, and blend until smooth.
- Remove the cover from the greens and cook off the moisture until it is nearly dry. Season with salt if necessary. Fill each taco-two tortillas thick-with a tongful of the greens, a spoonful of salsa, and the queso fresco.
From seriouseats.com
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About Us
Rushton Farm is part of Willistown Conservation Trust's Community Farm Program.  Willistown Conservation Trust is a non-profit organization working to preserve and manage the open land, rural character, scenic, recreational, historic, agricultural and natural resources of the Willistown area and nearby communities, and to share these unique resources with people of all ages and backgrounds to inspire, educate and develop a lifelong commitment to the land and the natural world.
To learn more or to find out how you can get involved visit
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