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Why Donating is Important

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Excerpt from The Wild Carrot, June 23, 2020, a weekly newsletter from staff to Rushton Farm CSA members.)

Family Planting

Katerina and Fred delivering first donation to West Chester Food Cupboard 2020.
Last week was our first big harvest with the spring vegetables finally making an appearance. With the abundance of produce coming out of the fields I wanted to take the opportunity to have our family take the first food donation to the West Chester Food Cupboard. Lisa Kiziuk (Bird Conservation Director, UPenn Professor, College Ref, Master of All), Katerina (precocious teen), and I (happy farmer) gathered up 70lbs of fresh vegetables harvested by the tremendous Rushton Farm Staff and headed to the Cupboard to provide produce to members of our community who need it most in these uncertain times.

I realized the importance of our donation when the staff at the West Chester Food Cupboard welcomed our delivery after closing hours. We were greeted with the smiling faces (behind masks) of volunteers who make sure the donated food gets to the people who rely on it. Being able to share this experience with Katerina made me understand why I became a farmer. A farmer’s primary job is to provide. Provide not just to those who can afford food, but those who cannot.

Of course, you do not need to have a farm to provide food for area food banks. If you have a garden consider donating a portion of your harvest. If you do not, consider donating healthy canned goods or volunteering time at a food bank. As always, you can donate your CSA pick-up. All food left at the end of a pick-up day is donated to the West Chester Food Cupboard.

I do think that it is important to share any of these efforts with your kids. My parents involved me in food donation at an early age and it has impacted me ever since. Over the past 10 years, Katerina has helped plant, harvest, and donate food and I would hope it has given her some insight into helping others.

Of course, right now she is helping her friends load up the car for a trip to the shore. Seems about right for a 17 year old rising senior. We still have the rest of the summer to get her into the field and back to the food bank. I can hear her exhausted sigh from here.

-Fred
First drop off at the West Chester Food Cupboard 2009. Photo by Fred de Long/Staff.
Katerina planting apple trees at Rushton 2009. Photo by Fred de Long/Staff.

Rejuvenation at Rushton Farm!

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Rejoice with the Staff at Rushton Farm as we celebrate the start to a new season. Hear first hand from the farmers what is going on, and growing,  in the fields at Rushton Farm. Get a look at the landscape of newly planted crops at Rushton Farm and get gardening advice for your own plants. Learn how you can promote pollinators and other beneficial insects.

Participants will include Field Manager and beekeeper Noah Gress, Production Manager Molly Clark and Willistown Conservation Trust Community Farm Program Director Fred de Long as well as guests from our field staff. Get a view of the farm from the Rushton Conservation Center and enjoy an hour with the people growing food in concert with the surrounding natural landscape of Rushton Woods Preserve.

Feeding Our Community

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(Excerpt from The Wild Carrot, April 21, 2020, a weekly newsletter from staff to Rushton Farm CSA members.)

Share the Bounty

Food insecurity in the United States is always a problem. In these uncertain times, food insecurity has moved front and center as a primary issue that needs to be addressed immediately. There has been a call to action for farmers to prioritize the need for food donations as they start their season. As we begin planting it is with full knowledge that we need to maximize production so that those facing food insecurity can benefit from the fresh fruits and vegetables we grow.

From the first stages of planning for Rushton Farm, we understood that as a community farm we had an obligation to make sure a significant portion of what we grew went to those in need. The Share the Bounty program was established to work with local food banks to see how Rushton Farm could best meet the needs of our local community. Between 12% and 15% of what is grown at Rushton goes to area food banks including the West Chester Food Cupboard and the Chester County Food Bank. That amounts to 3,500 to 4,000 pounds of food a year. Since Rushton Farm began, over 35,000 pounds of fresh produce has been donated.

Through this season, Rushton Farm is significantly expanding the Share the Bounty program. Our goal is to donate over 5,000 pounds of produce to those facing food insecurity issues. Our donation garden, Henry’s Garden is expanding. We are sharing plants with area gardeners with the intent that the food they grow is donated. We will be collaborating with area farmers on how, as a community, we can best utilize our efforts. We will be working with area organizations to find support for donation programs. As this crisis continues, Rushton Farm will continue to reach out to those in need and use our tremendous resources to feed our community.

Farm staff hard at work pounding stakes this spring. Photo by Fred de Long

Positive Vibes


Once in a while you get shown the light

In the strangest of places if you look at it right 

During uncertain times, it is so important to keep positive. This is especially true in farming where long hours and heavy labor can wear on those in the field. I have been so proud of the energy and exuberance that Molly, Noah, and Eliza have brought to the fields at Rushton. We have been shorthanded all season, but the effort put out by the Rushton Farm Staff has been nothing short of incredible. Molly’s constant smile, Noah’s wit, and wisdom and Eliza’s cheerful nature (while keeping 20 feet of social distancing) have helped the farm thrive. My own physical and mental health has benefited greatly by these amazing people. I have not felt this good about a season in years. 

Noah giving off positive vibes.

With that said, the real work starts this week and while I am going to be spending time in the field, I may have lost a step or two in my aged body. This week Caitlin Welsh returns to the Rushton Farm Staff to pick up my slack, and she is a welcome sight. Always upbeat and full of energy, Caitlin brings another ray of sunshine to the fields of Rushton. Caitlin is a triple threat being an accomplished birder, an educator and she knows her way around a farm. She will be a great addition as we start planting broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and six thousand onions this week. I am excited to start work in the field with such a talented staff (excited for the comradery, not so much the labor).  

The Rushton Farm Staff is looking forward to the end of May when we can see our loyal community members and share our joy in a new season. Stay well.

Fred

The 2017 staff. Chelsea and Todd are greatly missed, but we have Caitlin, Noah, Fred and Molly starting the 2020 season.

Plants Want to Live

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(Excerpt from The Wild Carrot, April 3, 2020, a weekly newsletter from staff to Rushton Farm CSA members.)

Molly seeding away in the greenhouse, day after day. Photo by Fred de Long/Staff

Plants want to live. It is a simple statement said to a 17-year-old teen named Freddy de Long when he forgot to turn on the fans in a greenhouse on a warm spring day. The greenhouse manager had walked in to find 40,000 seedlings in various stages of wilt in a 120-degree atmosphere. Freddy was summoned from the field and was apoplectic at the sight. Sure that he had ruined the season he apologized deeply and prepared to pack up his things and head home. That is when Marley, the greenhouse manager, said, “Relax Freddy, plants want to live. Turn on the fans, soak them with water, and don’t ever let it (expletive) happen again”. I watered and it worked, the plants were revived. What looked like the end of a season was the beginning of a great one as the revived plants made for a very productive season.

I have been thinking of that experience as we enter a new season at an uncertain time. Over 30,000 plants are growing in the greenhouse as we plant the first peas in the field. The garlic in the field looks great as the first carrots break through the cool soil. Lettuce, greens, broccoli and cabbage stretch as they prepare their trip from greenhouse to soil next week. It is a time of rebirth and the sight of it all is calming in this stressful period. It revives your spirit and makes you appreciate life around you.

I say all of this because Molly, Noah and I are thinking of our Rushton family as we work to grow food for the upcoming season. Our CSA members and Rushton Farm volunteers are deeply missed and we look forward to the end of May and the start of the season when we once again can gather and share in a glorious season of food, friends, and family. We all want to live as we lived before. It will take some time, but soon we will be sharing the bounty of Rushton Farm as a community. Until then we will be sharing what is going on at Rushton Farm through our weekly edition of The Wild Carrot every Tuesday. I hope that this will help our community share in the farm experience as the farm awakens and a new season is born.

Summer is coming. 

-Fred

First pea sprouts emerging from the soil. Photo by Fred de Long/Staff

Community Supported Avifauna

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Volunteer, Kelly Johnson, in awe of a Blue Jay banded October 10th. Photo by Blake Goll

Rushton Woods Preserve is a place where people gather in celebration of abundance. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members gather for their share of the soil’s bounty each week, and myriad groups from the community, schools, and universities gather at the songbird banding station to witness the bounty of the sky. Much like the agricultural harvest, our bird catch follows seasonal patterns that can help a visitor (or bird bander) develop a deep connection to the rhythm set forth by Earth’s 23.5 degree tilt.

View of Rushton Farm in Fall from Fred’s wagon. Photo by Blake Goll

As this was my first year participating in the Rushton Farm CSA, I noticed some interesting correlations between the harvest and the catch. My favorite crisp spring vegetables like kale, radishes, turnips, broccoli, leeks, and little gem lettuces have all made an encore appearance now that the cool fall weather is here. These I liken to our butterflies of the bird world, the “special” warblers, that we can only expect to see during spring and fall migration: Black-throated Blue Warblers, Chestnut-sided Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, Northern Parulas, Black-and-white Warblers, and American Redstarts.

  • American Redstart banded in September. Photo by Blake Goll
  • Black-and-white Warbler banded in October. Photo by Celeste Sheehan
  • Male Chestnut-sided Warbler banded in September. Photo by Blake Goll
  • Northern Parula banded in September. Photo by Jim Moffett
  • Black-throated Blue Warbler banded in September. Photo by Jim Moffett

Throughout the summer, I was overwhelmed with tomatoes and zucchini. These prolific crops mirror our common birds that breed at Rushton all summer long like Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats. Catbirds are a bander’s tomatoes making up the bulk of our catch August through September; they even ironically dwindled in numbers at about the same time as the tomato harvest finally ended a couple of weeks ago. And just like the tomatoes, we miss them when they’re gone.

Rushton Nature Keeper releasing a banded Gray Catbird October 10th. Photo by Blake Goll

Now CSA members are enjoying the hardy winter produce like squash and sweet potatoes, while our avifauna has shifted to tough winter birds from the north like White-throated Sparrows, kinglets, and Hermit Thrush.

  • First White-throated Sparrow of the season (10/1) Photo by Celeste Sheehan
  • Golden-crowned Kinglet Oct 16th. Photo by Celeste Sheehan

Recent highlights include a young male Rose-breasted Grosbeak on October 10th, our third Yellow-breasted Chat on October 1st (thanks to our new reduced mowing regime), a couple of young female Sharp-shinned Hawks in September, and a young male Scarlet Tanager on September 23rd.

  • Rose-breasted Grosbeak banded October 10th. Photo by Blake Goll
  • Yellow-breasted Chat (third of the season!) banded October 1. Photo by Jim Moffett.
Young female Sharp-shinned Hawk banded September 17. Photo by Jessica Shahan.
Young male Scarlet Tanager banded September 23. Photo by Blake Goll

Black-throated Blue Warbler numbers are back up this year from our previous year’s alarming slump. One little female got our silverware on October 1st and decadently dined for five days, increasing her body weight by 22%. A handsome male Black-throated Blue checked in on October 10th as our one-thousandth bird of the season, making this fall our most productive yet by almost double our past records.

Our 1,000th bird banded of the season on October 10th: a Black-throated Blue Warbler. Photo by Jodi Spragins

This local boom may seem peculiar in the wake of the recent article in Science, citing the devastating loss of 3 billion birds in the past 50 years as a result of habitat loss, pesticides, climate change, and other human threats. However, the majority of our birds are hatch year birds that have yet to complete the most perilous journey of their lives: their first migration in the Anthropocene. Thank goodness we can offer them temporary sanctuary within a community of people who care about open space and the abundance it supports.

There’s a lot going on in the woods,

Blake

The Rushton banding crew with No.1,000 (a Black-throated Blue Warbler). Photo by Jodi Spragins