Seasonal recipe No 5 – Courgette frittata

A quick and easy recipe from Patience Gray’s Honey from a Weed. Tasty too!

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes

Serves 2

Ingredients
3 or 4 courgettes
1 small onion
olive oil
4 eggs
parsley
1 dessertspoon pane grattugiato (crushed crumbs from oven-dried bread)
1 dessertspoon grated parmesan
salt, pepper

Method
Wash, dry and dice the courgettes and chop the onion. Pour a little olive oil into an omelette pan, and fry the courgettes and onion on a quick fire until they brown, tossing them often, adding a minimum of salt.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with a little salt, pepper, some finely chopped parsley, and add the pane grattugiato and the grated parmesan. Pour the egg mixture over the browned contents of the pan and reduce the heat.

When the frittata is almost set, take a large plate, lid or board, cover the pan with it and reverse the frittata on to it. Then slide it back into the pan. Both sides should be brown. Serve at once, or let it cool and eat it on a picnic.

Notes
You can make a quantity of pane grattugiato (a good way of using up odd bits of bread) and it will keep well in a jam jar.

Have a look at these recipe suggestions on the eat the seasons website.

If you’ve got a favourite courgette recipe you’d like to share with the rest of us, please insert it as a comment on this post.

Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.

This week’s share of the harvest

They really do deserve a medal!

The volunteer growing team braved monsoon conditions on Sunday to plant nearly 1,000 brassica seedlings donated by Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s latest sponsors – Fentongollan Farm at Tresillian.

The rain ran down inside our collars, our trowels got clogged with wet earth and our boots became totally caked in mud, but we all remained remarkably cheerful. 

In all, we planted 10 long rows – five of purple sprouting broccoli (two varieties) and five of winter cabbage (Dutch white and primo).

The generous donation of over 1,500 plants means that we can look forward to plenty of green vegetables in the early part of next year. 

By then we hope we’ll have been successful in our bid for outside funding from the Lottery’s Local Food programme to enable us to buy a polytunnel to raise our own seedlings and salad crops. 

Jeremy Hosking of Fentongollan explained why he offered us his surplus brassica plants:

“We do raise millions of plants every year – 80 million in fact.  We have certain lines that don’t always sell out so rather than throw them away we like to give them away.”

And for this we’re extremely grateful!

Intrepid

Last Friday Camel CSA expert grower Jeremy Brown and our secretary Mike Sadler singlehandedly planted 450 donated kale seedlings – both red and green varieties. 

Later this week we will plant the cauliflower and leeks that make up the remainder of the gift from Fentongollan.  Weather permitting, we’ll also start preparing another planting area.

The torrential rain is helping the seedlings to put out new shoots.  At least they won’t need watering in.  Lengths of fleece are protecting them from a long list of hungry predators - from rabbits to badgers to pheasants to pigeons to slugs to snails.

A big thank you to the intrepid growing team – expert growers Mark Norman and Jeremy Brown plus Charlotte, Gillian, Kitty, Mike H, Mike S, six-year-old Sophie and Freddie, aged four.

Sharing the harvest

There was also a keen turnout last Friday to help with the picking and packing of 24 vegetable boxes for our members.  Grateful thanks to expert grower Jeremy Brown and to Callum, Henrietta, Jenny, Mark, Mike H, Penny, Robert, Steve and Trish.

Over the next few weeks we can look forward to more onions, potatoes, Swiss chard, beetroot, turnip, radishes, lettuce and parsley plus runner beans and another crop of peas.  Provided we get some warm sunshine and the slugs and snails stay away, we will also have some French beans. 

However the non-stop rain is also resulting in a new crop of weeds, so the growing team needs all the help it can get on Friday and Sunday mornings.

We look forward to seeing you.  Just make sure you bring waterproofs and wellies! 

Watch our latest video: Camel CSA - Our first harvest

Our bid for Lottery funding

Camel Community Supported Agriculture is making good progress in putting together the information needed to bid for additional funding.  The money we get will help us make the St Kew Highway site fully productive over the next three years.

We will be submitting applications to the Lottery’s Local Food programme and  East Cornwall Local Action Group (part of the South West Regional Development Agency).  A fully-costed business plan is being prepared with the help of our team of expert growers.  This will form the basis on which the CSA goes forward.

If our bids are successful we will begin to realise our aims of achieving full sustainability, building partnerships with the local community and creating employment opportunities.

Welcome to Camel CSA’s youngest member

Our congratulations go to to proud new parents Dan and Kate Goodwin, whose baby daughter Hollie was born on July 22.

We look forward to seeing some weaning ideas and baby food recipes inspired by the fresh seasonal vegetables in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s weekly veg boxes!

Seasonal recipe No 4 – Swiss chard and potato gratin

Another excellent recipe from the Riverford Organic Vegetables website. 

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
500g Swiss chard
75g margarine
2tbsp plain flour
100g cheddar cheese
750g potatoes
4 garlic cloves
600ml (1 pint) milk
salt and pepper

Method
1. Remove and roughly chop the green part of the chard leaves. Cut the stalks into 2cm lengths and steam for 10 mins. Stir in the green leaves and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Wash the potatoes and cut into 1cm slices. Boil for 5 mins until just tender. Drain.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish and layer with half the potatoes, the chard, then the remaining potatoes.

To make the sauce:
1. Melt the margarine and fry the crushed garlic for 2 mins. Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 1 min.
2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens.
3. Add half the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 180° Mark 4 for 35 mins.

Do you have a recipe for Swiss chard that you would like to share with the rest of us?  Just click on Comments at the top of this article and let us have it!

Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.

What’s in the boxes

This Friday’s veg boxes from Camel Community Supported Agriculture will include more of those wonderful baby carrots that went down so well last week.

The small box will contain: -

• potatoes
• onion
• peas
• carrots
• beetroot
• courgettes
• lettuce or 100g salad bag
• 1/2 cucumber
• spring onions
• radishes

The standard box will contain all these vegetables in larger quantities plus Swiss chard, turnips, a whole cucumber and a 140g salad bag rather than a lettuce.

Sharing the Big Lunch surrounded by yurts

Bad weather meant we had to move Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first Big Lunch event from our site at St Kew Highway to South Penquite Farm on Bodmin Moor, home of Cathy our treasurer.

We sheltered in the farm’s education centre from the strong wind and the rain which was getting even heavier. Our members mixed with campsite guests to enjoy a delightful lunch with a huge variety of delicious dishes. 

Everybody made such an effort to create amazing homemade food for all of us to share.  Broad bean salad, vegetable stir fry, pea soup, seasonal spelt salad, tortilla, quiche and lots of cakes disappeared quickly.

The children were able to enjoy themselves on a bouncy castle and play football in the barn.  Then they disappeared to seek further adventures in the campsite’s three yurts. 

Adults enjoyed folk music entertainment on harmonica and guitar.  There were smiles, laughter, singing and talking all around the table.   Jonny Blenkin, one of the campers, said:

“Thank you so much for inviting us. We had a fantastic time.”

(This post was written by both Danny and Antonina.)

Broad bean glut over

Camel Community Supported Agriculture regrets to announce that the broad beans have gone over, so there are none in the latest veg share.  You probably have mixed feelings about this.  But remember to keep all those recipes for next year!

Some succulent baby carrots are included in the veg boxes this week.  We did sort them out, but some of the tops are a little chewed.  We think either rabbits or badgers are the culprits.

There are surplus older peas available at the box distribution point for any members who would like to help themselves.  They are rather starchy, but can be used in soups and casseroles. 

The small £5 box contains: - 700g potatoes, 700g peas, baby carrots, two onions, Swiss chard, spring onion bunch, 100g salad bag, a few chive stems

The standard £8 box contains: – 1kg potatoes, 1kg peas, baby carrots, three onions, Swiss chard, spring onion bunch, 140g salad bag, bunch of chives, cabbage, cucumber

If you’d like to give feedback on box content, please click on the comments link at the top of this post. We really want to know what you think.  Also tell us what you’ve done with the vegetables.

More and more Camel CSA members are signing up for a share in the harvest.  We filled a total of 22 veg boxes this week, up from just 15 a fortnight ago.

Please remember to return your empty box when you collect your fresh one next Friday.

And don’t forget the Big Lunch on the site at 1 p.m. on Sunday!  We look forward to seeing you there.

Watch our latest video: Camel CSA - Our first harvest

Seasonal recipe No 3 – New potatoes baked in parchment

This spectacular but easy dish can be found on the Riverford Organic Vegetables website

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
Per person:
1 sheet baking parchment
5 small new potatoes
5 cloves of garlic unpeeled – wet garlic can also be used
small branch rosemary or several branches of thyme
1 tbsp virgin olive oil
salt & black pepper

Method
The idea for this came from Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.

1. If the potatoes are large – cut in half, wash, but leaves skins on. Preheat oven to 200ºC (gas mark 6).

2. Fold the baking parchment in half to make a crease; open and lay potatoes on the lower half. Tuck in garlic and herbs. Pour olive oil over spuds and season with salt and pepper. Bring the rest of the paper down and roll lightly along the edges to form a pouch (a bit like pastry). Make sure that the package is sealed.

3. Bake for 30 minutes and serve immediately. The ‘pastry’ packages will “puff up”. The packages are best opened at the table.

Notes
I first tasted this delicious method of preparing the new potatoes in our veg boxes when visiting Riverford Organic Vegetables in Devon to tour the farm and to have lunch in its Field Kitchen.  The resident chef, Jane Baxter, used to work at the River Cafe in London.  It shows!

If you have a way of cooking new potatoes you’d like to share, please let us have it.  Click on the comments link at the top of this post and get writing…

Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.

Watch our latest video: Camel CSA - Our first harvest