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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.
Beans Garlic Hot Peppers Onions Sweet Peppers Tomatoes Zucchini
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Click here to check out our photos from Tomato Tasting!
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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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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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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 |
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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Aquaponics is a sustainable, closed loop food production system where fish and plants are raised symbiotically. Utilizing this method of growing minimizes inputs while producing high yields with absolutely 0 waste. To find out more information about Greenstone Aquaponics click here. |
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Week of August 11, 2015 Issue No. 12
IN THE BAG Tidbits
Max
It is with heartfelt sorrow that I must share the news of the passing of our beloved farm dog Max. It was not a long illness and we had time to give him the love and affection he deserved in his final days. This week he would have turned 12 and for all those years he spent every day running the farm fields and greeting visitors. The past few weeks since his passing I have reflected with family and friends on his life and I would like to share a few memories with you.
I met Max in 2003 on an autumn afternoon at a horse farm in Chadds Ford. He was part of a litter of 13 and he was the ornery pup the owners were having a hard time finding a home for. When I first saw him 12 pups were in a stall with their mother. All the pups except one. Max was roaming outside on his own, stopping to point at the odd stone or bug crawling on the ground. I was told I could get him at a good price but the price didn't really matter. I knew a little about roaming and being on your own. I took him home that day.  His owners were right- Max was a roamer and a runner. I was fortunate that the first farm he called home was the 200 acre Pete's Produce Farm at Westtown School. Much of that first year I kept him tied to my belt only letting him off when we were in the middle of the farm or when I was driving the truck with him running alongside. It was the terrible twos when he was left to roam the farm on his own that we had some trouble. He quickly learned where the Westtown School kitchen was and soon after there were friendly calls from the head chef Ernie to "come fetch your hound". Max also figured out that kids in dorms have food, thus started the occasional stroll back to the dorms with students who worked at Pete's.
Still, Max took to training well and he also started "handling" our groundhog and rabbit problem. Besides occasionally walking himself home to Westtown Station where we resided (over a mile away, I still have no idea how he figured that out) he was very obedient and never needed a leash. He also developed a personality born of being around hundreds of people, young and old, on a daily basis. He was a people dog through and through. 
In 2008 Max and I found ourselves in a fallow field completely surrounded by a hedgerow with nothing but a white farmhouse on the landscape. I had been hired by Willistown Conservation Trust to help develop the WCT Community Farm Program and we were standing in the field that would become Rushton Farm.
It was at Rushton that Max came into his own. Left to run not just farm fields but open meadows and woodland he had found a hound paradise. He was the first official Rushton Farm Staff member with the title of "Director of 4 Legged Animal Control" (he actually got credit card applications- no joke). The land was his passion and the community was his family. On pick up days he would walk the Farmshed and parking lot greeting members and visitors alike. He clearly loved the people and even managed to sway a few who were not partial to dogs. He was a great "starter" dog to introduce kids to canines and he never flinched through tail pulling, ear tugging and even the occasional child who managed to ride him.
Through the twelve years of his life Max and I were attached at the hip. We hiked mountains, walked beaches and most of all visited conserved lands where he could run free. A walk with Max was sometimes a lonely one for he would often run far out of site for long periods of time always finding his way back as you broke for camp or reached your destination. There were times where I questioned the "lack of leash" law I employed, particularly when he would run along the ridge of a cliff or decide to jump across a precipice because it was faster than taking the trail. One of my favorite photos I took of Max was a time where I was standing in the middle of a frozen Saranac Lake, alone, watching a storm roll in from the mountains. Max was nowhere to be seen as the clouds began to block out the sun and the snow started to blow. As I turned to head to shore, out of the distant wood a small figure came hurdling towards me. It was Max knowing it was time to go home.
To the end Max was a farm dog who loved people. His last day was spent at his Rushton home, at a Friday pick up, greeting members and walking the fields. His constant companion of the past five years Hackett followed him occasionally nudging him into a leisurely jog through the wildflowers. It was a beautiful day, and at the end of it Max seemed to know it was time to go home.
Max, we loved you
You will be remembered
We will run again -Fred
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PAW PRINTS Notes from the field
(With assistance from Aaron de Long- Max can't type)
I have spent my entire life on farms. I consider myself fortunate in this regard. I hear about dogs who live in cities who, perhaps, never get to dig out a groundhog burrow, or roll in manure, or lap water out of a scum-slicked, algae-ridden puddle, and I can only shake my head in sadness. Indoor dogs may live longer, but do they really live?
People often ask me what the farm means to me, Max, farm dog legend. To me, the farm is chasing deer. The farm is chasing rabbits. The farm is also chasing groundhogs as well. And then, after the chase, the farm is naps. Naps in the Farmshed. Naps in the shade of the maple. Naps in the hedgerow, and even, sometimes, naps in the cab of my human's pick-up truck (when it's cold). The farm is all these things, and many, many more, but, I have to admit, something about the farm still troubles me, even after all these years. It's a simple but profound question.
Why?
There are multitudes of rabbits, groundhogs, deer, birds, mice, raccoons, stray cats, voles--I could go on and on, here-running around these fields and woods, so why do you people slave out in the broiling sun all summer long growing green things to eat, when you could just munch on something like a nice, tasty song sparrow, instead? I mean, you're already catching them in nets! And don't even get me started on the carrion available locally. It's literally everywhere! If you want green things, just eat grass. It's what I do. Incidentally, ingesting large amounts of grass is a great purgative in case you do happen to eat some bad carrion. Which will happen, eventually. Even the best of us chew a curdled opossum now and then.
So there it is: the farm doesn't totally make sense to me, but let's be honest, many things humans do make little sense to me--from wearing clothes to using dining utensils. I suppose these things bring them joy. That must be why they wear pants when it is ninety degrees out, or cut up succulent steaks into dainty little pieces, rather than tearing them apart with their teeth and swallowing huge chunks half-chewed. Joy makes a kind of sense, in itself. It's like, I'm rarely going to catch a deer, and I know it, but I chase them, anyway. I chase them because I like to. I chase them because that's what dogs do, and so, I suppose, farming's what people do. I don't claim to understand it, but I am certainly thankful for it. It has given me a good life.
Peace and Bones,
Max For a video of Max in the countryside 
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RECIPES
What to do with all those veggies
Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
with Feta
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2 cups butternut squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3/4 cup quinoa
- 1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes, drained (reserving 1/4 cup juice)
- 1 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, plus more for garnish
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta, plus more for sprinkling
- 1 garlic clove, minced
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4 large red bell peppers
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Arrange the squash on a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until slightly tender, but still firm. The squash will finish baking in the peppers. While the squash is roasting make the quinoa.
3. In a small saucepan, bring 1 1/4 cups water to a boil over high heat. Add the quinoa, give it a quick stir, and cover with a tight fitted lid. Simmer for 15 minutes over low heat. Turn off the heat and allow the quinoa to steam covered for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and fluff with a fork. All of the water should have absorbed.
4. In a medium bowl, add the tomatoes and reserved 1/4 cup juice, zucchini, basil, feta, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Stir to combine. Add the cooked quinoa and butternut squash. Gently stir to combine. Set aside.
5. Fill a baking dish with enough water to cover the bottom. The water will help steam the peppers when baking. Cut the tops off the peppers. Remove the ribs and seeds with a paring knife. If the peppers don't stand up on their own, barely trim the bottoms so they sit flat in the baking dish. Spoon the quinoa mixture into the peppers. Arrange the peppers in the baking dish. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove the foil. Sprinkle the peppers with feta and continue baking for 10 minutes until cheese is slightly melted. Garnish with basil and more feta if so desired. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.
- Jen Aesque, Salted Kitchen
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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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