Young volunteers make local food work

More and more young people are getting involved in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s pioneering efforts to promote local food.

Fourteen-year-old Jenny Simmons, who’s at Wadebridge School, has chosen Camel CSA as the volunteering activity for her Duke of Edinburgh’s bronze award programme.

This gives young people the opportunity to become involved in a project that they really care about.

This week Jenny helped prepare the onions for the boxes.  She worked alongside packing supremo Trish and fellow picking and packing team members Cath, Charlotte, Mark M, Mike H, Penny, Robert and Steve.

Marathon

The volunteer growers have at long last completed the marathon task of removing the black plastic mulch from the overgrown strawberry beds. 

They also weeded the beetroot and removed the vicious thistles growing among the Brussels sprouts.   Mark N strimmed the overgrown edges.

Once all the plastic had been dug up and removed, Jeremy got out the tractor and cut back all the surface weeds. 

Now he can go ahead and plough the ground in preparation for sowing a crop of green manure.

 This Sunday’s team comprised expert growers Jeremy and Mark N plus Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Mark M and Mike H. 

We need you!

A big turnout is requested next Sunday when we’ll peel back the protective fleece and assess the damage to the 1500 brassica plants that were planted out last month. 

These are the plants donated by our newest sponsors, Fentongollan Farm at Tresillian.

We must weed the 20 long rows of red cabbage, green cabbage (two varieties), cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli and kale (both red and green).

So please make an extra special effort to turn up.  We need all the help we can get!

Howdy folks, now take your partners!

It’s time to get those feet tapping and your dancing shoes on.  The barn dance in support of Camel Community Supported Agriculture is on Saturday 12 September 7.30 – 11 p.m. in St Mabyn village hall.

All the dances will be called by Howard Burrows, the renowned Cornish caller.  So you don’t need to have any experience.

The event’s being organised by demon dancers and Camel CSA members Mike and Yvonne Haywood.    They say:

“This is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.”

As the proceedings can get boisterous, they respectfully request no children under the age of seven.

Buy your tickets for £4 in advance from Mike and Yvonne on 07966757318 or from St Mabyn PO & Stores.  All the proceeds from this fund-raising event are being donated to to Camel CSA. 

Please bring your own drink.

Children join the beanfeast

Three of Camel CSA’s youngest members contributed their own homegrown veg to this week’s boxes.

Lilac (8), Willow (7) and four-year-old August grew all the runner beans and some of the courgettes.

Core group member Antonina, co-owner of St Kew Harvest Farm Shop, explains:

“Lilac, Willow and August wanted to share their harvest grown at their home at St Kew. 

 

So I paid them £8.60 for lots of runner beans and courgettes and three large marrows which they have grown from seed all by themselves. 

 

They’ve been following our blog, and got concerned about the beans being eaten!”

Seasonal recipe No 9 – Grilled courgette, tomato and bean salad with basil sauce

There are plenty of tomatoes and courgettes in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.  This delicious salad is a firm favourite in my household, especially when we have grown lots of basil.  It comes from Jane Baxter at the Riverford Organics field kitchen.  

Preparation Time: Overnight
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
200g dried cannellini or haricot beans, soaked overnight
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 courgettes, cut into ribbons 5mm thick
a small punnet of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
for the dressing:
1 bunch of basil leaves
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
a pinch of salt
100ml olive oil

Method
1. Put the drained beans in a large pan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour or so, until tender. Drain, season to taste and dress with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Toss the courgettes with the remaining olive oil and grill on a ridged griddle pan (or under a hot grill) until tender and lightly charred.
3. For the dressing, put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and whiz until smooth.
4. Gently mix the beans, tomatoes and courgettes together in a large bowl and add enough basil dressing to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Notes
If you cheat and use tinned beans which have been rinsed and drained, this salad can be prepared in less than 30 minutes.

Nigel Slater makes a similar Courgette, tomato and ricotta bake, which also uses a generous amount of basil.  The first time I made this dish I had a “senior” moment and used mozzarella cheese instead of ricotta.  It was still very tasty!  He has lots of other ideas on how to use up a bumper crop of courgettes.

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

In our share this week

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s vegetable boxes contain a fantastic selection this week.

• Small boxes have an assortment of:
  *potatoes (Camel CSA)  
  *onions (Camel CSA)
  *Swiss chard (Camel CSA)
  *courgettes (Mark Norman / Bokelly, St Kew)
  *carrots (Jeremy Brown)
  *beans (Bokelly, St Kew)
  *small salad bag (Jane Mellowship)
  & tomatoes (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)

• Standard boxes are filled with the same as above, but not the Swiss chard.  They also have:
  *large salad bag instead of small (Jane)
  plus
  *peppers (Jeremy / Jane)
  *parsley (Jeremy)
  & baby leeks (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
  AND some plums donated by Mark Norman’s Dad, who lives in Devon!* = grown to organic principles

Once again, the boxes contain freshly-picked vegetables from Camel Community Agriculture’s own plot at St Kew Highway plus high-quality produce from our three expert growers and an outside supplier.

As the label of our mixed salad bag explains:

This mixed salad has been picked this morning from Carruan Farm’s veg plot managed and grown chemically free by Gav and Jane Mellowship… 
… This bag represents a main ethos of community supported agriculture.  It is supporting an existing agricultural business in the local community by creating a new market and securing it.  We’re sharing the risks and benefits in a close working relationship. 

See Recipe No 9 – Grilled courgette, tomato and bean salad with basil sauce

Our veg boxes are well worth it

The media reports constant debates among “experts” as to the true costs and intrinsic benefits of eating organic food.   Politicians have effectively copped out on this one.  They advocate consumer choice and say buying organic produce should be seen as a “lifestyle” decision.

We have our own way of assessing the value at Camel Community Supported Agriculture. 

Each week one of Camel CSA’s expert growers calculates the “worth” of each box size in terms of retail value. So far, both the small and standard veg boxes have been “worth” more than £5 or £8 in retail terms. The problem is, they don’t necessarily look it.

 What we have to remember is that our vegetables are absolutely fresh. Our volunteers grew a significant proportion of them.  We use organic principles, which means no artificial chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

They may look a little muddy at times (in spite of washing!) but they’ve suffered very few food miles. We can offer smaller, tastier veg, which carry a premium as they have scarcity value.

 We can all easily be sidelined by the two-for-one offers in the supermarkets, but these will conceal a price rise somewhere else in the store and the price cut is always met by the grower – not the retailer. We can’t realistically expect to meet the own brand, so-called “Value” products either.

One of our core group members had this anecdote to tell after his family received their first veg box:

“With regard to value, when one of our children took a look at the standard £8 box this week (our first) they thought it looked like poor value, at which they were challenged to compare the cost with produce on Tesco’s website.

 

“Thirty minutes later, with everything weighed out and the computer consulted, they came back saying the contents would have cost over £11!  So no complaints from us.”

Surpluses

Our very first boxes contained an incredibly generous amount of produce and looked wonderful as a result.  Since then, we’ve had to be a bit more realistic.

Amounts will always vary from week to week depending on gluts, famines and weather conditions (but not locusts, thank goodness!)

In summer there is likely to be more to share out in terms of surpluses. During the “hungry gap” in late winter, there is likely to be less.  But it will even out over 52 weeks of the year.  So loyalty pays off.

Box presentation

 A lot falls down to how the boxes are presented.  In the initial stages of Camel CSA’s vegetable box scheme, this definitely could have done with some improvement.  For some of us volunteers it’s been a steep learning curve!

The core management group has discussed at length how to make our weekly share look more attractive.  For instance, we are busy sourcing shallower boxes and useful things like paper bags, string and rubber bands so we can bunch up some of the smaller veg like spring onions and parsley.  But we do have to be mindful of how much time this can take and we’re reluctant to introduce wasteful packaging. 

It’s worth bearing in mind that members of the well-established Stroud Community Agriculture project have to pack (but not pick) their own share – a big saving on time for the growers and volunteers.

 Our expert growers, who have their own businesses to run, can’t stand over us all the time.  For the moment, they are drawing up some “box presentation guidelines” to help the picking and packing team.

Watch our latest video: Camel CSA - Our first harvest

Broken-backed but not beaten

Camel CSA volunteers have almost completed the back-breaking task of removing the black plastic mulch from the overgrown strawberry beds.  Now we can go ahead and sow a crop of green manure.

The hit team comprised expert grower Jane plus Danny, Mike H and Mike S.  Charlotte made a start on the weeds in the beetroot bed.

We’re looking forward with mixed feelings to our next big task.  We need to weed the hundreds of brassica plants that we planted last month. 

Red cabbage, two varieties of green cabbage, cauliflower, red and green kale, and purple sprouting broccoli are all being shielded from predators under huge swathes of protective fleece.

Friday’s picking and packing team included Trish – who supervised the packing - Charlotte, Mike H, Penny and Robert.

Food intuition

We’ve had a visit on site from our newest member Gabriel Evans, a chef from New Zealand, who is author of the Food Intuition online food journal. 

Gabe’s setting up a cookery school in St Columb, near Newquay.  He says:

“There’s lot of misinformation and confusion around food and diet.  My focus is on natural, wholesome food; what it really is, where to get it and how to prepare, cook and eat it.”

We assume that includes the vegetables grown on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s plot at St Kew Highway!

Recipe No 8 – Braised celery

One of the staples of the kitchen, celery is used to flavour soups, stocks and many other dishes. It is tasty on its own as a vegetable dish, gives crunch to salads especially a Waldorf salad.

 This recipe is from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.
 
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
 
Serves 4
 
Ingredients
1 head of celery
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 or 3 thyme sprigs
salt
225ml chicken, beef or vegetable stock

Method
Trim the root end close to the bottom of the stalks and cut off the leafy tops. Pull of the outer stalks to expose the pale green heart. Cut the group of stalks at the heart in half lengthwise and then in half again as wedges. Line up all the stalks and cut in half crosswise.

Into a heavy pan over medium heat, pour in the oil and add the onion and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the celery. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onions and celery have browned a little. Season with salt and add the stock. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the celery is tender. The sauce should be thick and coat the celery; if not, uncover the pan, raise the heat and reduce the liquid as much as needed. Taste for seasoning and serve.

What we’re getting in our vegetable boxes

We can expect to find some tomatoes and a cauliflower among the contents of this week’s veg boxes.

These vegetables come from Richard Hore, our new supplier at Rest Harrow, Trebetherick (between Daymer Bay and Rock).  They’re not grown to organic principles, but are freshly picked and have clocked up few food miles – barely five in fact.

The potatoes and onions are our own contribution to the harvest.  They’ve been grown by our volunteers on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s two-acre plot at St Kew Highway. 

Our expert growers are providing the rest of the box contents.  Salad bags – Jane Mellowship, cucumber and curly parsley – Jeremy Brown, celery – Mark Norman. 

See this week’s Recipe No 8 – Braised celery

How we’re securing veg supply

Camel Community Supported Agriculture is starting to source vegetables from outside suppliers.  Up until now the contents of our weekly veg boxes have come from our own site at St Kew Highway and from our three expert growers.

Our business plan allows us to buy in up to 40% of box contents over the course of a year, but during the rest of Year Zero we may have to increase that proportion.  Provided our bid for external funding is successful, this should not need to happen in the future.

This new move has led to some debate among members.  It’s proved impossible to source sufficient organic vegetable supplies within a 30-mile radius.  However we are in contact with some reliable small-scale local suppliers whose vegetables are not grown to organic principles.

Compromise

So we have a dilemma.  Do we insist on organically-grown vegetables that could come from afar or do we buy local vegetables that may not be organic?

Either way, we have to compromise: either by clocking up extra food miles or temporarily abandoning our organic food-growing principles.

We’ve been sounding out the views of members at our recent volunteering sessions and over the ether.  The response has been interesting.

With a couple of exceptions, members feel they would rather eat local food that is not strictly organic provided it comes from within our own immediate community in north Cornwall.  They don’t like the idea of clocking up food miles by using suppliers who are some distance away – maybe as far as east Devon. 

Local food

Ideally, the membership would like to source organic veg locally but realise this is not practicable in the short term.  They say they’d rather keep our veg box scheme going over the winter months and use the opportunity to start building up important local networks of small vegetable growers.  

Some responses from our members: -  

“Very happy with that – a pragmatic response to a short term problem.”

 

“We would definitely support the option of buying in local non-organic veg over shipping it in from further afield or taking a box holiday.” 

 

“Buy from local, especially small-scale local, rather than organic from further afield if necessary (fewer food miles).”

 

“We’d be happy with local produce even if not totally organic rather than shipping it in.”

Green manure

Our volunteer teams have been busy weeding row after row of carrots.  We’ve also begun the laborious task of pulling up the plastic mulch from the disused strawberry beds in preparation for sowing a crop of green manure. 

Thanks to Sunday’s volunteers – expert growers Jeremy and Mark N, helped by Carmen, Charlotte, Danny, Ian, Kitty, Mike H and Mike S, plus Finn aged five and three-year-old Keira.  

A special mention to Steve, who singlehandedly weeded a whole 29-metre-long carrot bed on Friday.  Trish masterminded the packing of the boxes along with pickers Charlotte, Mike H and Penny. 

Watch our latest video: Camel CSA - Our first harvest