Christmas greetings

Hoping you all have a very peaceful and enjoyable break over Christmas and the New Year.

Thanks to all the volunteers in 2009 – weeders and sowers, pickers and packers. Veg boxes start again on 8 January but no Sunday volunteering for the time being.
             As Jane said:

“There are always fewer jobs during the winter months even when there is more in the ground than we currently have. The recent weather has left the ground so saturated that to work it in any way will only result in damaging the soil structure and getting everyone very muddy!”

And lastly, a date for your new 2010 diary: the Camel CSA Annual General Meeting is on Wednesday 27 January at Egloshayle Pavilions, Wadebridge, at 7.30 pm. The meeting will include a review of the year, election of officers, a slide show, and homemade refreshments.

Seasonal recipe No 25 – Henrietta’s winter salad

Henrietta says this is good ‘as a lunch snack with cheese or cold meats, also with winter casseroles.’ She warns that it’s best to dress the salad just before use otherwise it will become soggy.

Serves 8
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients
100g pumpkin seeds
2 large carrots coarsely grated
200g spinach leaves, washed and thinly sliced
1 red onion, thinly sliced
½ red cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced

For the dressing:
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tbsp runny honey
salt, freshly ground pepper

Method
Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry fry-pan. Put all the above ingredients in a bowl and lightly mix together.

Whisk the dressing ingredients together and add to salad when ready to serve.

This year’s last box …

Jane Mellowship says this week’s boxes are ‘a little fuller than usual to spread some Christmas cheer!’

In the small boxes:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* large bunch of carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
mushrooms (Tregonning Farm, Stithians)
sprouts (wholesaler)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
red cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)
* rosemary sprigs (Jeremy Brown)

Standard boxes will also have:
* winter salad (Jane Mellowship)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
black kale (Rest Harrow Farm)

A plea from the packers

As you might have noticed from the rather random selection of cardboard boxes we had to use, we were struggling to find standard-size boxes last Friday. If anyone has a secret stash of them, could you please pop them in to St Kew Harvest before this Friday? Many thanks.

Seasonal recipe No 24 – Cavolo nero soup

From Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ River Café Cook Book Easy. They add this note, ‘All bean soups are made more delicious with a generous addition of the spicy-flavoured newly pressed olive oil poured over each serving. Tuscan olive oil is pressed at the end of October, which is also when the frosty weather starts and cavolo nero is ready to be picked.’

Serves: a generous 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients
500g cavolo nero
4 garlic cloves
2 red onions
4 carrots
1 celery head
1 dried chilli (or good pinch of dried chilli flakes)
400g tin borlotti beans
extra virgin olive oil (see note above)
½ tsp fennel seeds
200g tin tomatoes
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
¼ sourdough loaf

Method
Peel the garlic, onion and carrots. Roughly chop 3 garlic cloves, the onion, pale celery heart and carrots. Crumble the chilli. Drain and rinse the beans.

Heat 3 tbsp of olive oil in a thick-bottomed pan, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook gently until soft. Add the fennel seeds, chilli and garlic and stir, then add the tomatoes, chopping them as they cook. Season and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the beans and stock, and cook for another 15 minutes.

Discard the stalks from the cavolo nero and boil the leaves in salted water for 5 minutes, drain and chop. Keep 4 tbsp of the water. Add the water and cavolo to the soup. Stir and season.

Cut the bread into 1.5cm slices. Toast on both sides, then rub with the remaining garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Break up the toast and divide between the soup bowls. Spoon over the soup and serve with more olive oil.

This week’s share …

More tasty veg in this year’s penultimate box.

The small boxes will have:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
black kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

The medium boxes will also have:
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* Jerusalem artichokes (Camel CSA)
cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Win a veg box in our raffle

Camel Community Supported Agriculture is holding a raffle at the St Mabyn Mistletoe Fair on Saturday.  And – no surprises – the prize is one of our medium-sized vegetable boxes!

We’re putting the £8 veg box on display to encourage new people to join our community food growing project.   As usual, the box is packed with fresh, seasonal produce. 

Some of this week’s box contents - the onions, shallots, cabbage, carrots and parsnips – are organically produced on our own plot at St Kew Highway. The salad bag, also grown to organic principles, comes from Jane Mellowship in New Polzeath, who is one of our expert growers.

The rest of the veg in the boxes were grown by two of Camel CSA’s local suppliers in north Cornwall.  Richard Hore at Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick, grew the broccoli, leeks, swede and romanesco cauliflower.  James Mutton at Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn supplied the potatoes.

Proceeds

The Mistletoe Fair is being held from 12 noon till 4 p.m. in St Mabyn Village Hall, St Mabyn, near Wadebridge.  Entry is free and all proceeds are going to village hall funds.

You’ll be able to pick up lots of ideas and buy Christmas presents and stocking fillers at the event, which is being opened by St Mabyn village crier Tony Dickinson. Apart from mistletoe and holly for sale there will be books, crafts, games, prizes, cards, jewellery, food, preserves, cakes and plants on display.

There will also be a tombola, children’s workshop and bran tub, and seasonal refreshments.

See you there!

Seasonal recipe No 23 – Vichy carrots

A good way of bringing out the flavour of winter carrots.

Serves 6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients
1kg carrots
50g butter
pinch of salt and black pepper
1 tsp sugar
plenty of chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon

Method
Peel the carrots and slice them. Put them in a saucepan with the butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Just cover with cold water and let them boil until the water has evaporated and they are tender and glazed.

Stir in masses of chopped parsley and the lemon juice to taste.

In this week’s veg boxes …

Hope you managed to find your veg boxes last week without getting too muddy. We didn’t want the contents to float away outside. They’ll be in the same place tomorrow, in the small polytunnel beyond the geese.

This week the small boxes will have:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* cabbage (Camel CSA)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
broccoli/purple sprouting broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm)
potatoes – Wilja variety (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)

The medium boxes will also have:
* salad (Jane Mellowship)
romanesco cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

* = grown to organic principles