Spot the difference

Compare this harvest of local food from Tucson Community Supported Agriculture in Arizona last Friday with the contents of the veg boxes from Camel CSA in Cornwall on the same day.

Tucson CSA’s planned harvest last week - Baby Swiss Chard, Bell Peppers or Cucumbers, Green Chiles (fresh), Green Tomatoes, Jack-O’-Lantern Pumpkin or Cushaw Squash, Radishes, Turnips (Hakurei or Purple Globe), Wheat Berries.

Camel CSA’s boxes last Friday – red onions, baby carrots, parsnips, Swiss chard, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, tenderstem broccoli, green peppers, cauliflower.

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Seasonal recipe No 16 – Parmesan-baked parsnips

From Delia Smith’s Christmas cook book – but why wait till December?  You can prepare them in advance – up to 24 hours – or even prepare and freeze them when they will cook perfectly if allowed to defrost first.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients
600g parsnips
80g plain flour
50g freshly grated parmesan
salt and pepper
groundnut oil
a knob of butter

Method
Combine the flour, parmesan, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Peel the parsnips, then halve and quarter lengthways and cut each length in half across so you end up with smallish chunks. (Of course, if it’s a Camel CSA parsnip, you’ll have to divide it up even more!) Put the parsnips in a saucepan, just cover with boiling water and add salt. Bring to the boil and boil for 3 minutes.

Drain the parsnips in a colander and while they are still steaming, using tongs, drop a few at a time into the flour mix, shaking the bowl to make sure they get a good even coating. As they are coated move them to a tray or plate. You need to work quite swiftly as they only get a good coating when still steamy.

Once they’re all coated you can cook or store them in fridge or freezer. Any leftover flour can be kept in the fridge or freezer for another time – you need plenty in order to coat the parsnips quickly.

To bake, place a large solid roasting tin in a 200C/400F oven with enough groundnut oil just to cover the base and a knob of butter for flavour. Once the oil is hot, remove the tin and place over fairly low direct heat. Place the parsnips in the tin, baste them with hot fat and put in the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, then turn them over, drain off any surplus fat and continue to bake for a further 15-20 minutes until crisp and golden.

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This week’s share

Once again Camel CSA’s growers have put us together a varied and tasty selection in this week’s veg boxes. The potatoes are a variety called Sarpo Axona.

In the small boxes:
* red onions (Camel CSA)
* baby carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (Mark Norman)
* leeks (Mark)
cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Standard boxes will have the same as above plus:
tenderstem broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm)
* green peppers (Jeremy Brown)
cauliflower (from a wholesaler but grown in Tintagel)
and larger quantities of the basics

(* = grown according to organic principles)

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Come to our apple harvest

We’re devoting this Sunday’s volunteer session to picking apples in St Mabyn.

Camel Community Supported Agriculture members are invited to turn up at  between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday.  Look out for the Camel CSA sign on the gate.  Or contact us.

We’re hoping to harvest enough apples to go in next week’s boxes and to turn into delicious, fresh apple juice the following Sunday.  If you’ve got any surplus apples of your own, we’d like you to bring them along then.

In the meantime we’re busy trying to source an apple crusher and press.  So if anyone out there can help us, please get in touch with one of our core (!) group.

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Seasonal recipe No 15 – Indian-spiced warm tenderstem and carrot salad

There are more recipes for using your tenderstem broccoli on the tenderstem website.

Serves: 4
Preparation and cooking time:
less than 10 minutes

Ingredients
200g tenderstem broccoli
3 medium carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
2tbsp black mustard seeds
1 heaped tsp garam masala
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
juice of 1 lemon
chopped coriander to serve

Method
Shave the carrots lengthways into long strips using a vegetable peeler. Steam or boil the tenderstem broccoli for about 2 minutes until almost tender, then add the carrot strips for 1 minute.

While the vegetables are cooking, add the olive oil to a small frying pan and gently fry the mustard seeds until they start to pop. Once they start popping, add the garam masala and ground cumin. Give the pan a quick shake to mix and then tip into a small clean bowl before the spices start to burn. Squeeze over the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the dressing over the tenderstem and carrots and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle generously with chopped coriander and serve immediately.

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We need to attack those docks (again)

There are quite a few jobs to be done on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s veg plot this Sunday.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

“Firstly we need a fresh attack on the dock leaves in our legume and sweetcorn / squash sections. If we cultivate with the tractor we can loosen the roots, get them out and really work on eradicating them this winter ready for planting in spring. We also need to bag up the docks we’ve already removed.

 

“If it’s not too wet we need to strim around the boysenberries and tie up any stems still loose.

 

“Finally we would like to mark out where we plan to position the polytunnels so it is clear how much room is left for our permaculture triangle.  We aim to start getting under control any of that area not currently planted with brassicas by strimming, weeding and thickly mulching with straw, hay and cardboard.

 

“So fingers crossed for a beautiful, dry autumn day!”

Onion sets

Last Sunday a small team braved the steady Cornish drizzle to plant out onion sets, put up posts and wire and tie in the remaining boysenberries. 

Luckily we had the help of two “WWOOFers”.  No, not the four-legged variety!  

Helen and Rachel are volunteers from London who’ve signed up for the  World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) exchange network.  Farmers and horticulturalists offer food, accommodation and opportunities in return for volunteer help from people wanting to learn about organic lifestyles.

They were “lent” to us by Cathy and Dominic at South Penquite Farm, where they’d been working over the weekend.  Helen and Rachel are hoping to leave their jobs in London eventually to work on the land. We look forward to seeing them in Cornwall again soon.

Many thanks on Sunday to expert growers Mark N and Jane, as well as Charlotte, Mark M and Mike S.  Another team of stalwarts turned out for picking and packing day last Friday - p & p supremo Trish plus Charlotte, Gillian, Jenny, Leonie and Penny.

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What’s in the boxes …

This week another great selection of fresh seasonal veg in the boxes, including some Tenderstem broccoli. In case you haven’t come across this before, it’s a very tender sort of broccoli with, according to the Tenderstem website, a texture closer to asparagus. Nutritious too – a 100g portion will provide your full daily requirement of vitamin C.

The small boxes will have:
* red onions (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Jeremy Brown)
Maris Peer potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
tenderstem broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Standard boxes as above plus:
* 140g salad bag (Jane Mellowship)
* runner beans (Mark Norman)
and larger quantities of the basics

Large boxes will be as standard with the addition of:
* crown prince squash (Jane)
* celeriac (Jeremy)
* courgettes (Mark)
* 2 small salad bags (Jane)
2 bags tenderstem broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm)
plus larger quantities of leeks, potatoes, onions and carrots

(* = grown to organic principles)

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Keeping up the momentum

Our seasonal veg boxes will continue to be available to members throughout the winter months. 

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s core group has decided that continuity of supply should be a top priority.  This is despite the fact that we’ve harvested most of the vegetables we’ve grown this year.

By the start of next year, we’ll have eaten all our own remaining parsnips, carrots, onions, celeriac, parsley and beetroot.  By then we will have only cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts and (hopefully) some sprouting broccoli to fall back on.  That’s provided the rabbits leave some for us.

So the proportion of vegetables we buy in from other local growers will continue to increase significantly over the next few weeks.

Expanding

Our financial applications to the Lottery’s “Changing spaces” Local Food programme and the East Cornwall Local Action Group are about to be submitted.  Core group members have been furiously working out last-minute cash flow projections.  Then we face several nerve-racking weeks while we wait on tenterhooks to discover whether we’ve been successful. 

We need an injection of capital to realise our dream of expanding and consolidating our growing-our-own-food project. 

It will fund the purchase of equipment, materials and resources to set up a self-sustaining growing operation on our existing site.  It’ll also support the start-up costs of providing a training and educational programme for volunteers and local groups.

We want to employ an expert grower to manage cultivation, guide volunteers and oversee group visits to our St Kew Highway plot.

After the three-year funding period elapses, we’re confident we can be totally self-sustaining.  But we need that initial boost to invest in equipment like a small tractor, packing shed, bore hole, poly tunnels, tools and the all-important predator-proof fencing. 

However we’re well aware that there is only a 50% chance (at best) of getting Lottery money.  The competition is stiff: there have been so many applications for a share of the £50m pot of gold.  

Committed

We’ve proved as a group that we can get a community agriculture project off the ground and keep the momentum going, come what may.

None of this would have been possible without such committed volunteer input from a large proportion of our members.  Membership now stands at just under 50 households. 

As well as the three expert growers, we reckon that we now have around 25 regular volunteers working at various administrative tasks during the week, tending the plot and cultivating the vegetables in all weathers on a Sunday, or picking and packing the boxes every Friday morning.

Along with the land so generously made available by the Brown family, our dedicated and loyal volunteers are our most valuable asset.

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Jobs for Sunday

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

“On Sunday we’re planning to plant out onion sets.  It’ll make a change from weeding!  Also putting up posts and wire and tying in the remaining boysenberries.  

 

“See you there!” 

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Seasonal recipe No 14 – Spiced creamy swede

An upmarket version of the Scottish classic ‘bashed neeps’, taken from the Riverford Organic Vegetables website.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Serves: 6

Ingredients
1 medium swede
½ tsp ground ginger
pinch of finely grated nutmeg
25g butter
coarsely chopped parsley
2 tbsp creme fraiche
salt and pepper

Method
Peel the swede and cut into small cubes. Boil in salted water for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and mash or puree in a food processor until smooth.

Stir in the butter, spices and seasoning. Return to the pan and heat through gently.

Stir in the creme fraiche, and pile the mixture in a serving dish. Sprinkle with parsley and garnish with an extra swirl of creme fraiche.

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