For more than 30 years, we have worked to raise truly nourishing food while restoring the land entrusted to our care.
Our mission is to raise the highest-quality, most nutrient-dense pasture-raised food possible—food that nourishes and heals our local community while improving the land and surrounding ecosystem.
As Mennonites, three core values of our Anabaptist faith guide how we live, how we treat others, and how we care for the animals and land entrusted to us.
Following Jesus shapes how we care for every part of God’s creation. We seek to treat our animals with compassion and respect by raising them as they were created to live—outdoors, free to express their natural instincts, eating a species-appropriate diet, and growing at their natural pace. Nothing is rushed simply to make production faster or cheaper.
For more than 30 years, our family’s regenerative farming practices have built healthier soil, protected clean water, preserved open land, and created habitat for wildlife. These practices produce healthier animals and more nourishing food while strengthening the local community that depends upon this land.
We strive to approach our relationships—with people, animals, and the land—with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, and love. We believe good farming should restore what has been damaged and leave the land, our community, and future generations better than we found them.
Tussock Sedge Farm lies within the ancestral homeland of the Lenape people. We recognize that we are only the current caretakers of this land, which has now been farmed by Mennonite families for more than 250 years.
The farm as it exists today began nearly 30 years ago, when Henry and Charlotte Rosenberger set out to create a sustainable family farm that would restore the land, protect the surrounding ecology, and preserve open space for future generations.
Over the years, Henry and Charlotte preserved land that might otherwise have been lost to development, planted thousands of trees and shrubs, restored permanent wetlands, and created valuable habitat for wildlife. They introduced 100% grass-fed and grass-finished Red Angus cattle and made rotational grazing, careful animal husbandry, and ecological restoration the foundation of the farm.
What began with approximately 80 acres of pasture and hayfields in the 1990s has gradually expanded to nearly 1,000 acres today. Preserving this much farmland in the suburbs of Philadelphia is an important part of our mission.
We also believe that a healthy local food system depends upon farmers supporting one another. That is why we provide a long-term lease on part of our land to Blooming Glen Farm, a neighboring organic CSA vegetable farm. Together, these efforts help protect farmland from development and ensure that our community continues to have access to high-quality, nutrient-dense local food.
Today, Henry and Charlotte’s youngest daughter, Tonya, and her husband, Sean, manage the farm’s day-to-day operations. Together with our dedicated team, we divide our time among animal care, pasture management, hay production, mechanical repairs, order fulfillment, customer service, and the many administrative responsibilities required to keep a working farm running 365 days a year.
Before working full-time on the farm, Tonya spent 15 years as a registered nurse in emergency-room and hospice care, while Sean worked in information technology, project management, and website design. Those experiences continue to shape how we approach animal care, business planning, customer service, and the daily challenges of running the farm. Ranching is more than our livelihood—it is our passion and the work we believe God has called us to do. In everything, we seek to honor and glorify Him.
Farming runs deeply through both sides of our family. Tonya’s ancestors were among the early Mennonite settlers of this area and farmed here for generations, while Sean’s family worked the red clay of rural Georgia throughout much of the twentieth century. We are grateful to continue that heritage, and we hope the farming legacy we are building today will be carried forward by our children in the years ahead.
Our approach is simple: care for the animals, restore the land, and treat both with the utmost respect. Animals flourish when they live outdoors, breathe fresh air, move freely, and express the instincts with which they were created. Because every species has different needs, we do not believe in forcing animals into a standardized production system. Instead, we provide each one with the environment, diet, time, and attentive care it needs to thrive.
Cattle are at the heart of our farm and have shaped the way we care for all our animals and land. As ruminants, cattle and sheep are designed to eat grass—not grain—and ours spend the growing season rotationally grazing fresh pasture. We have raised 100% grass-fed and grass-finished beef for nearly three decades, continually refining our grazing and finishing practices to produce exceptional marbling, tenderness, and deep beef flavor.
Our heritage-breed pigs live outdoors, where they can graze, root, explore, and wallow, while our chickens and turkeys forage through pasture for grass, clover, seeds, insects, and worms. Their supplemental feed is made from organic ingredients without corn or soy. Across the farm, we do not use antibiotics, added hormones, or vaccines, and our pastures and hayfields remain free from herbicides, pesticides, insecticides, and other chemical sprays.
When processing time comes, we work with trusted, small-scale local artisan butchers who share our commitment to careful handling and quality over speed or volume. Our beef is dry-aged to develop greater tenderness and flavor, and all of our regularly stocked meat is carefully cut, vacuum sealed, and flash frozen to preserve it at peak freshness. The only exception is our seasonal Thanksgiving turkeys, which are offered fresh and never frozen.
We believe labels and certifications alone can never tell the whole story. Standards can contain loopholes, and the same words can mean very different things from one farm to another. Instead, we choose transparency. We want our customers to understand where their food comes from, how the animals were raised, what they were fed, and why we make the choices we do.
We work with nature rather than against it, allowing the seasons, soil, weather, and needs of the animals to guide our daily decisions. Our animals grow much more slowly than animals raised in conventional confinement systems, and we consider that time essential.
Farming does not pause for weekends, holidays, or bad weather. Meet the dedicated people who care for our animals, manage the land, prepare customer orders, and keep Tussock Sedge Farm operating 365 days a year.
Founders
Co-Owner & Business Director
Tonya and Sean manage the farm’s day-to-day operations together. She oversees bookkeeping, finances, human resources, paperwork, and many of the administrative details that keep everything running smoothly, while stepping in wherever help is needed.
Her backgroundTonya spent 15 years as a registered nurse before transitioning to her family’s farm. She loves being outdoors, finding natural and efficient ways to accomplish things, and seeing the farm continue to grow and thrive.
Farm favoritesGround Beef is her favorite because everyone in the family enjoys it, and she especially loves the calm and peaceful presence of the cattle.
Beyond the farmTonya enjoys baking, gardening, walking in the creek, bicycling, playing board games, weaving rag rugs, sewing, and spending time with her family.
Co-Owner & Operations Director
Sean and Tonya manage the farm’s day-to-day operations together. He oversees planning, forecasting, logistics, inventory management, ecommerce, website development, marketing, and many of the systems connecting the work in the fields with the customers the farm serves.
What guides his workFaith and family come before everything else. As a follower of Jesus, Sean believes we are called to be peacemakers, care for creation, and share the love of Christ through our actions.
Farm favoritesIt is difficult for him to choose between versatile Ground Beef and a tender Picanha Steak. His favorite animals are the cattle—large, graceful, powerful, and remarkably peaceful.
Beyond the farmSean enjoys spending time outdoors with the children, hiking, walking in the creek, riding bicycles, and playing games together.
Ranch Manager
Gray manages the farm’s day-to-day animal operations along with equipment and field responsibilities, including hay production, manure spreading, pasture work, and keeping the ranch’s many moving parts operating smoothly.
His backgroundGray is passionate about homesteading, farming, living outdoors, and remaining closely connected to the land and the food his family eats.
Farm favoritesHis favorite meal is Kielbasa cooked over an open fire with a baked potato in the coals. His favorite place is among the cattle, listening to them peacefully snap grass as they graze.
Beyond the farmGray enjoys concerts, searching flea markets and record stores for vinyl albums, and attending Celtic festivals with family and friends.
Ranch Hand
Benjamin brings a positive attitude, plenty of youthful energy, and a willingness to help wherever he is needed across the farm.
Farm favoritesHis favorite meal is London Broil prepared on the smoker with roasted potatoes and salad. He especially enjoys the calm and peaceful nature of the cattle.
Beyond the farmBenjamin loves baseball, plays for a local school, and enjoys spending time with his friends and family.
Ranch Hand
Ranch Hand
Order Fulfillment Manager
Order Fulfillment Team
Order Fulfillment Team
Farm Mascot
Pizza serves as farm greeter, hunter, and supervisor of anything interesting happening nearby.
About PizzaHe is a Maine Coon cat who often acts more like a dog. He runs over to greet visitors, climbs onto people’s shoulders, and loves being scratched—a lot.
Farm favoritesHis favorite food is whatever someone is willing to give him, and his favorite animals are the pigs because they are warm to sleep beside.
Lovable Goofball
Shadow’s primary responsibilities include being cute and keeping everyone entertained.
About ShadowHe is a Golden Mountain Doodle—a mix of Golden Retriever, Bernese Mountain Dog, and Poodle. His favorite things include meat, bones, running, sniffing, chewing, chasing, fetching, and occasionally napping.
Farm favoritesHe likes chasing chickens, and the cattle even let him lick their faces.
We are grateful for the opportunity to care for this land, raise animals with respect, and nourish our community. Every order helps preserve local farmland and supports a more resilient food system rooted in healthy soil, healthy animals, and genuine relationships.
