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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.
Basil
Beets
Carrots
Eggplant
Garlic
Hot Peppers
Onions Sweet Peppers Tomatoes
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Save the dates!
Friday, August 5th
Friday, September 9th
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RECIPES WANTED!
10th Anniversary Cookbook
Recipes Wanted!
It's hard to believe that next year will mark 10 years since the CSA began at Rushton Farm. What a wonderful journey it has been. A cookbook is in the works to help celebrate the occasion. We have many recipes in our coffers but would like to have CSA members share a favorite recipe or two. Recipes that use the fruit or vegetables found in our shares are preferred. Please email recipes to Allyson McTear at amctear@verizon.net or place hard copies in the folder in the farmshed by September 2nd. Many thanks and stay tuned for cookbook updates.
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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 of Farm Program
Noah Gress - Field Manager
Chelsea Allen - Field Manager
Eliza Gowen - Outreach Coordinator
Todd Alleger - Agroecology Project Coordinator
Molly Clark - Rushton Farm Apprentice
Fabien Richard - Student Research Apprentice
Katie Pflaumer - Student Research
Apprentice from the University of Pennsylvania
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Week of August 2, 2016 | Volume IX | Issue No. 11
IN THE BAG Tidbits from the staff
It's sauce making time!
Members may have noticed a steady increase in the quantities of tomatoes in the share the past few weeks. This has been an unusual season because the tomatoes seemed to stay green on the vine for a long time before bursting forth and ripening all at once. The plants are hitting their peak production just in time for the dog days of summer. We are currently harvesting over a dozen varieties with many of them being unique "heirloom" varieties that have been cultivated for their flavor and texture. Because of the time and care needed to grow these exceptional varieties we have a limited window in which to take advantage of the summer harvest. Over the next couple of weeks there should be between 5 to 10lbs of tomatoes in the share each week so get the canning jars ready!
The Rushton Farm Staff is hoping to take advantage of a large amount of tomato "seconds" and made up a batch of "Rushton Red" tomato sauce. All ingredients we use are grown on the farm including onions, garlic, shallots, parsley and basil. We will have jars available for sale to members in the next few weeks.
-Fred
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THE DIRT Notes from the field
We celebrated the mid-point of the season with the always fun Tomato Tasting on Saturday night. The rain could not stop the enjoyment of many different creations using tomatoes fresh from the Rushton fields. The food was excellent and I want to thank all the volunteers who helped set up and prepare the food, particularly Karen Petrauskas who has prepared her wonderful bruschetta for every one of the nine years we have had the Tomato Tasting!
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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.
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| 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
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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
- Chop tomatoes and bell pepper.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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| 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
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| | 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
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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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