“You guys make being healthy easy!” — Nicole, Frenchtown, NJ
The Farmers
John Crooke, Farmer
Tinicum CSA is owned and operated by Bucks County native John Crooke. John grew up sharing the chores with his brothers on his parents’ dairy farm. He enjoys waking up early, drinking yerba mate, and preparing tasty meals with his wife, Amanda, and his daughter, Althea. He also enjoys in-depth conversations about Tolkien’s Middle-Earth and 90s era Star Trek. His interest in organic vegetable farming began at Cornell University, where he co-managed the student farm at Dilmun Hill. He is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Paraguay, where he worked for three years in Agricultural Extension and Corps Member Coordination. John especially enjoys the edible results of vegetable farming and is excited to share this abundance with the community.
Rori Imhof, Assistant Manager
This is Rori’s 5th season working at Tinicum CSA. She was born and raised in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Her favorite thing about working at the farm is the early morning mist coming off the river. Rori is still undecided about where her life is going to take her, but she knows that it will include an appreciation for the natural world and a focus on sustainability. In her free time, you might find Rori snowboarding, hiking, road biking, or making art.
Sarah Gerhardt, Farm Crew
This is Sarah’s 3rd season at Tinicum CSA. Sarah grew up in the Adirondacks and fell in love with plants at a young age. She is a passionate horticulturist and has been working on various sustainable agriculture projects and farms for the past 10 years. She has a passion for environmental education and most recently taught in ecological design courses. As an educator she is always looking for ways to expand her breadth of knowledge and is currently in herbal medicine school. Sarah is rooted in values of truly caring about the land and each other and has found that farming has been a great way to connect people with nature. When she’s not farming or gardening you can find her teaching or practicing yoga, making herbal concoctions, knitting, or strolling on the towpath.
Hannah Shine, Farm Crew
This is Hannah’s 2nd season working at the Tinicum CSA. Growing up in a home that valued local and organic veggies and meats, Hannah delights in cooking, baking and mixing libations for family get-togethers. Hannah spent many years as a hot glass artisan and enjoys her summers adventuring on the river with her brothers and friends.
Lielle Nahum, Farm Crew
This is Lielle’s 2nd season working on the farm. She began as a member of Tinicum CSA and loved it so much that she reached out to John to join the team! Learning to farm and steward the land has been Lielle’s path for the past several years, and working at Tinicum CSA has fostered this interest and passion. She loves working in the fields and spending time with the wonderful CSA community. When she’s not at the farm, you can find her riding horses, spending time with her chickens, tending to her garden, or crouched down identifying local flora (and wondering if it is edible!).
Samuel Villegas, Farm Crew
This is Samuel’s 1st season at Tinicum CSA and he is here on an H2A Visa. He is from Oaxaca, Mexico where he worked as an organic farm and bee-keeping inspector. He is excited to be a part of the 2024 Farm Crew and to contribute his agricultural knowledge and expertise to the team. His favorite vegetables are carrots and beets.
Jorge Solano, Farm Crew
This is Jorge’s 1st season at Tinicum CSA and he is here on an H2A Visa. He is also from Oaxaca, Mexico where he’s worked on various farms. Jorge is especially happy to be working with vegetable production, and is eager to share his professional farming experience with the crew. He’s a big fan of lettuce and potatoes.
Miranda Evarts, Farm Crew
Miranda is thrilled to be joining the crew for her 1st season with Tinicum CSA in 2024! She loves everything about working on the farm, but especially the fact that she can still dig around in the dirt as an adult. Miranda studied biochemistry in Burlington, Vermont and loves learning about all the microscopic goings on with our food (both in the soil and plants)! She is also passionate about climate justice and environmentalism. When not at the farm, you can find Miranda knitting, going rock climbing or learning the guitar.
Charlotte Molter, Farm Crew
Charlotte is excited to begin her 1st season with Tinicum CSA! A Hunterdon County native and longtime veggie lover, she enjoys working outdoors and getting familiar with the abundance of crop varieties. When she’s not on the farm, Charlotte studies the local flora to enrich both her illustration work and baking endeavors. She also has an intense passion for strawberries and dreams of living on a strawberry farm one day.
Stephen Evarts, Farm Crew
The 2024 season is Stephen’s 5th year at Tinicum CSA. Stephen is a local of Hunterdon County and has been a Delaware river dweller all their life. Their fondness for nature and farming grew from an early age while playing in their backyard creek, picking ripe and sunny cherry tomatoes from the family garden, and raising their backyard pet chickens. Stephen has worked in food service for four years, but particularly enjoys working at Tinicum CSA because plants tend not to complain and, of course, the great crew on board at the farm. Currently enrolled at Raritan Valley Community College, Stephen hopes to pursue a career in Anthropology or Linguistics. Typically, during their downtime, Stephen reads, travels, dabbles in languages, bakes cakes, watches soapy Korean or Spanish telenovelas, takes nature walks, or swims in the river.
Our Promise
Although Tinicum CSA is not certified organic, all our produce is grown in accord with organic principles and methods. We do not use any synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers. Everything we grow is GMO-free.
If you have any questions about our practices, you are welcome to stop by, ask questions, and see our fields for yourself! We believe that this direct, person-to-person trust and transparency is more meaningful and sustainable than paying a third-party certification corporation to vouch for our growing practices.
What We Believe
We believe there are four essential elements of Tinicum CSA. First, we insist that what we do must be good for the members who participate in our CSA. We believe that what we grow is healthy, nourishing, and a good value for a full season of produce. Second, we commit to leaving the land on which we farm in even better growing condition than the way we received it. Third, we are determined that our efforts on the farm should afford us a dignified quality of life. And finally, as responsible citizens of the local community, we intend to do right by our neighbors, other local businesses, and the community.
The Land
We respectfully acknowledge that Tinicum CSA is on the ancestral and seized land of the Lenape people, who have stewarded it throughout the generations. We pay our respects to elders both past and present.
We feel fortunate to be farming the fertile bottomland soil of the Schneiderwind farm which overlooks the scenic Delaware River, immediately across the bridge from Frenchtown, NJ. Over the years this land has evolved to support different kinds of production. In the past, Walter Schneiderwind grew primarily sweet corn and cut flowers here, and more recently, his son Craig manages the property and the Schneiderwind Farm & Nursery. These days the farm features a diversity of their own and local: annual and perennial flowers, landscape plants, honey, farm fresh eggs, maple syrup, produce, and seasonal items such as pumpkins and Christmas trees. We’re pleased to be working side-by-side with Craig to strengthen the tapestry of local agriculture in the Bucks County & Hunterdon County region.
The Tinicum CSA Tale
Tinicum CSA was established in 2013 by Bucks County native John Crooke and Minnesota native Stefan Streit, who met each other in 2012, while they were both working as CSA apprentices at Sisters Hill Farm in Stanfordville, NY. Stefan and John worked together to create streamlined, small-scale farm systems that follow ecological methods, while prioritizing the farmers’ well-being. For the first 5 years of Tinicum CSA, the two farmers continually pursued sustainability for both the farm and the farmers. All of this led to providing full seasons of abundant, tasty produce for the community. In addition to offering great CSA shares, the farmers always worked to improve the CSA experience for its Members. Whether it was expanding pick-up times, offering a new pick-your-own item, or simply planting flowering perennials, Stefan and John continually considered how to make the farm a more welcoming and beautiful place to visit. At the close of the 2017 season, Stefan decided to return to his Buddhist monastic pursuits, which he had begun prior to vegetable farming.
We are also deeply grateful to be the beneficiaries of three years of diligent work by Nate Walker and Heather Brady of Open Acres CSA. In 2010 Open Acres launched its first season at Schneiderwind Farm and continued through the end of 2012. Nate and Heather brought a new element to the locale by providing an impressive array of seasonal produce from May through November. Fostering a keen sense of land stewardship and community outreach, they built a firm foundation for a CSA — vegetables grew in great bounty, and community members richly enjoyed the harvest. John and Stefan are grateful to inherit their already-established business and their spirit of optimism, hard work, and compassion.
Join us in celebrating delicious, seasonal feasting and a strong tradition of local agriculture: