this week's 
HARVEST  LIST

This list may change,
Rushton Farm Bag but here's our best guess of what you'll be getting in your share this week.

 

                                     

Beans

Carrots
Cucumbers

Eggplant

Onions

Scallions

Tomatoes

Zucchini

 

 

 


2015 CSA MANUAL
Just about everything you need to know about the Rushton Farm CSA is located HERE!
CSA manual

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.   

WHEREABOUTS
RQP sign

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 




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.
ARCHIVES
See prior email communications from Willistown Conservation Trust, including recipes and past issues of the Wild Carrot. Go to the archive.   
Week of July 27, 2015 Issue No. 10
IN THE BAG Tidbits 
Thirteen varieties of tomatos were served at our eighth annual Tomato Tasting.

 

Our eighth annual Tomato Tasting was held at Rushton Farm last Saturday, and as has happened for so many years, the weather smiled upon us and the glorious produce from the Farm combined to create a magical evening.

 

Kudos to all of the staff and volunteers who helped us with this event that showcases everything that is special about the farm. Yes, the farm is beautiful, and yes the tomatoes are delicious. But it's the PEOPLE who really make it special: our CSA members, our trustees, our volunteers, our supporters, our friends, and our staff. Most of all, it's our farmers and their staff - Fred, Noah, Chelsea, Todd, Jared and Justin - who make the farm special.

 

And boy do they know how to grow tomatoes!

 

The fact that this is our eighth season and our eighth Tomato Tasting is a bit mind-boggling. There is a lot more than tomatoes going on here now. It's been quite an eight years.

 

Growing healthy food for the community on land protected from development was the original kernel of inspiration when we created Rushton Farm back in 2007. So much has unfolded around the farm since that memorable day when Fred and the farm staff broke up the soil for the first planting: the surrounding Rushton Woods Preserve grew to 86 acres;  aspiring farmers from all over the country came for training; trails, wildflower meadows, and native trees and shrubs were planted; the Bird Conservation Program blossomed as we discovered so many species thriving because of the symbiosis between the farm and the Preserve; the Education Program took off as hundreds of students, scholars, and scientists came to learn about and study the interactions between the cultivated and the natural areas, all of it rich in habitat and biodiversity.

 

Today our program staff members are considered thought-leaders in their respective fields, and conservationists from around the country look at Rushton Farm and Rushton Woods Preserve as a model.  

 

It's been quite an eight years, indeed.  Thank you for continuing on this journey with us.


- Jodi Spragins

WCT Staff and volunteers
Willistown Conservation Trust staff and volunteers show off the skewered cherry tomatoes. 

-Fred

   

Tomato Tasting guests
150 friends and supporters came to the farm for the eighth annual Tomato Tasting.

 

 

RECIPES 
What to do with all those veggies


We have had many requests for recipes of the goodies  we served at this year's Tomato Tasting, so we're listing them here. The delicious produce from Rushton Farm took all of the food over the top.

All of our preparations were greatly enhanced by the gorgeous extra-virgin olive oil from Kastania, donated by the owners who were also present at the event. Hopefully you got a chance to meet Penelope and Andrei. We can't stress enough what a difference great olive oil makes in your cooking.

In addition to the tasting tomatoes, we served: 

  • Skewered cherry tomatoes with mozzarella (two kinds - cow's milk, and Goatzarella from Yellow Springs Farm) and basil.
  • Fresh chevre from Yellow Springs Farm with peppercorn, topped with Rushton Farm honey.
  • Gazpacho (recipe below)
  • Fresh chevre from Yellow Springs Farm topped with spicy tomato chutney (recipe below)
  • Roasted juliet tomatoes with basil (recipe below).
     
Bruschetta
Bruschetta at the 2015 Tomato Tasting was made by volunteer Karen Petrauskas for the
eighth year in a row!

Our Basic Bruschetta       

 

Ingredients

  

12 to 14 fresh ripe plum tomatoes (about 1 3/4 lbs)

2 T minced garlic
2 T minced shallots
1 cup fresh basil leaves
1 t fresh lemon juice

Salt and coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup finest olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, slivered
8 thick slices of peasant bread 

 

1. Cut the tomatoes into 1/4 inch dice and place in a bowl. Toss with minced garlic and shallots.

 

2. Chop the basil coarsley and add to the tomatoes, along with the lemon juice, salt and pepper, and 1.3 cup olive oil. Set aside.

 

3. Heat the 1/4 cup olive oil in a small skillet. Saute the slivered gralic until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Discard the garlic and reserve the oil.

 

4. Toast the bread and cut each slice in half. Arrange the lices on eight small plates. Brush the garlic flavored oil over each slice, spoon the tomato mixture over the bread, and serve immediately.

 

The mixture should be at room temperature. Do not refrigerate - that will compromise the flavor.

 

- From the New Basics Silver Palate
 


   

 

 

 

Tomato Chutney
Spicy Tomato Chutney was served on a cracker with fresh chevre (goat cheese).

Spicy Tomato Chutney        

 

Ingredients

  

2 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes
1 red bell pepper
1/2 cup red-wine vinegar
3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
3/4 cup chopped scallion greens


  1. Chop tomatoes and bell pepper.
  2. In a medium saucepan bring vinegars to a boil with sugar, salt, mustard seeds, black pepper, and red pepper flakes, stirring occasionally, and stir in tomatoes, bell pepper, and scallions.
  3. Simmer mixture, uncovered, stirring occasionally (stir more frequently toward end of cooking), until thickened and reduced. Cooking time will depend on how much liquid your tomatoes give off, usually 90 minutes to three hours.
  4. Cool chutney completely. Tastes best after it sits in the refrigerator for a week.       Chutney keeps, covered and chilled, for a total of 2 weeks.  
- Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
 

 

Roasted juliet.
Roasted Juliets make the perfect
pop-in-your mouth appetizer!

Roasted Tomatoes         

 

This recipe is best with Italian plum type tomatoes, but you can use any type of tomato, so long as it is fresh and vine ripened.  Larger tomatoes will take longer and the heat may need to be reduced after they are carmelized in order to dehydrate them a bit. The small plum-shaped Juliet tomatoes are our favorites for appetizers.

The finished product can be used in endless ways, yielding an amazingly concentrated, rich, deep, sweet tomato flavor to all kinds of dishes.  Chop it up and use as a base for tomato sauce; serve on crackers as an hors d'oeuvre; puree with stock and and fresh herbs for an amazing tomato soup; put it on toasted bread with mayonnaise and basil for a fabulous sandwich, etc.  

They can also be frozen in Ziploc bags - the texture will be lost, but the flavor will be there and a perfect base for sauce.
 

 

Ingredients

  

Plum tomatoes - preferably Juliet or San Marzano (use all the same kind for even cooking)  

Best quality olive oil
Grey salt to taste
Pepper to taste 

 

Preheat oven to 400, and rub olive oil over a rimmed cookie sheet or baking pan. We prefer disposable foil cookie sheets which we re-use several times, since clean-up of the pan is difficult.   

 

Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise, toss in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper, making sure all of the tomatoes are coated.   

 

Place on the pan skin side down. 

 

Roast in the oven until the tomatoes begin to caramelize - the tops should start to get brown.  Usually takes 30 to 45 minutes or so, but you have to keep watching them. They go from red to black quickly, so don't forget about them! Bigger tomatoes will take longer.  

If using a large tomato variety other than plum, turn the heat down to 325 after caramelization, and continue roasting until the tomato has shrunken and dried up a bit.   

 

Remove individual tomatoes as they are done - they may not all be done at the same time. Keep them skin side down to form a little cup to hold the juices. Let them sit on the counter for a few hours uncovered - as they dry out the flavor intensifies.

Tip: For an extra treat, deglaze the pan with some wine or stock, scraping up all the browned tomato bits and reserve for your next sauce or soup.

 

 

- Jodi Spragins 

 

 

 

Gazpacho tastes best if refrigerated overnight.

Rushton Farm Gazpacho         

 

1 cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
2 red (or green) bell peppers, cored and seeded
4 plum tomatoes
1 red onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 cups of tomato juice from fresh cored, peeled and seeded tomatoes

1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup good olive oil
1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1 T. Rushton Farm honey

 

 

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess! After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.  

 

 
- Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

 

About Us

  

Rushton Farm is part of Willistown Conservation Trust's Community Farm Program.  donate nowWillistown  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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