Camel CSA’s funding success makes the headlines

There’s been lots of media coverage about our Lottery and ECLAG grants over the past few days.

Camel residents grow their own - BBC News video

Green-fingered enthusiasts in north Cornwall are celebrating -  James Churchfield Show 28-10-10 – BBC Radio Cornwall 

Cornish vegetable home-growing scheme awarded £60,000 in grants - Western Morning News

Vegetable group wins grants - Cornish Guardian

Community Supported Agriculture near Wadebridge awarded £60,000 in funding - Wadebridge People

Community Supported Agriculture - words & pictures and that… blog

Watch all Camel CSA’s videos

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Seasonal local food recipe No 68: Stuffed squash

A recipe from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook in which you can use butternut or any winter squash.

Serves 2
Preparation/cooking: about 1½ hours

Ingredients
1 medium-sized squash
generous drizzle of olive oil
salt and black pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds, freshly ground
3 tbsp crème fraîche
3 tbsp chopped sage or chives
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Cut the squash in half. Drizzle the cut flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and cumin. Bake, cut side upwards and covered with foil, on a baking tray in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Prick it with a fork to check that the flesh is soft. If not, give it a few minutes more.

Take the squash out of the oven, lower the setting to 180C/gas 4 and leave squash until cool enough for you to handle.

Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits, and discard, then scoop out most of the flesh with a tablespoon into a bowl and mix this with the crème fraîche and 2½ tbsp of the sage (chives are good in summer). Best to do this with a fork, or give the mixture a quick zap in a processor to get rid of any lumps of squash. Check the seasoning. Spoon the squash back into the empty skins.

Scatter the parmesan and remaining herbs over the top and then bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the top starts to look brown and crunchy.

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Mark’s mushrooms in this week’s Cornish veg boxes

A special treat this week of shiitake mushrooms from Camel CSA member Mark Malcolmson.

Small boxes will have:
* shiitake mushrooms (Mark)
potatoes (Benbole Farm)
* mixed squash – two of Dumpling/Celebration/Harlequin (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)
* leeks (Jeremy)
* mixed bag of kale (Jeremy)

Standard boxes will have the same with extra potatoes plus:
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)

NOTE: the carrots are damaged by carrot root fly but there should still be enough undamaged carrot to use

* = grown to organic principles

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Watch these videos about what Camel CSA does

These videos are about what we do and how we make local food work within our north Cornwall community. They were filmed at the Lottery and EU funding launch on our site behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.

David Wilcock of FoodiesSW recorded the first two videos on his smart phone. He also did own audio report of the event. Camel CSA member Shayne House videoed BBC Spotlight reporter John Danks as he was filming us.

Watch all Camel CSA’s videos

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Big turnout to mark Camel CSA’s funding success

We celebrated our £60,000 Lottery and EU funding success today on our plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.

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We’ve been awarded £60,000 from the Lottery and the EU

Camel Community Supported Agriculture members are celebrating success! Our growing-own-food scheme has won £60,000 funding.

We’ve been granted £47,984 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food Programme and £12,484 from the East Cornwall Local Action Group (ECLAG) to help us expand.

The Growing Food, Growing People project will reflect our main aims: to provide fresh, seasonal local food, reduce food miles and to reconnect people with the land where their food is grown.

We’ll be offering social, learning and volunteering opportunities for disadvantaged and unemployed people in north Cornwall. They’ll find out how to sow, grow, harvest and prepare their own vegetables. This will happen during educational sessions and site visits that we’re organising in partnership with schools, charities and other local organisations.  

The grant funding will enable us to employ professional growers to cultivate the site and to provide advice and assistance to our volunteers. We’ll also be investing in three poly tunnels, a bore hole and water tank, irrigation system, sheds, a small tractor, rabbit-proof fencing and a variety of horticultural tools.

We’re launching our expansion today on our plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.

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Carrot washing goes on as polytunnel goes up

It’s been a productive end to the week on Camel CSA’s site at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.

While the new polytunnel framework was being painstakingly put together, the volunteer picking and packing team were harvesting our own homegrown carrots, sweetcorn and beetroot from the veg plot.

As the freshly-dug carrots are so muddy they all need to be washed before they can be weighed and placed in the veg boxes. This Friday the job fell to Penny and Anne, who tackled it with characteristic goodwill and enthusiasm.

The eagerly-awaited polytunnel will house all the winter salad crops we’ve been sowing – corn salad and rocket, as well as two varieties of both mustard and mizuna. It’s the first of three big polytunnel constructions that our expert growers Jeremy and Mark N are overseeing at the far end of our two-acre site over the next 18 months.

Also on our shopping list are a small seeding tunnel, cold frames, a borehole, water tank, pump, irrigation, rabbit fencing, tractor, plough, cultivator, rotovator, storage sheds and other vital horticultural equipment.

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Seasonal local food recipe No 67: Double pepper broccoli

From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Good as a vegetable side dish, she says, or, with rice, as a light supper.

Serves 4-6
Preparation and cooking: about 15 minutes

Ingredients
600g calabrese or sprouting broccoli
1 sweet red pepper
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp dried chilli, crumbled
3 tbsp chicken or vegetable stock
salt

Method
Trim the broccoli, retaining much of the stem as well as the heads. If the stems are tough, pare off the outer layer and then cut the stems into chunks. If using calabrese, separate the heads into small florets, breaking them off the main stem.

Deseed the pepper and then cut it into strips.

Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan and add the mustard seeds. Add the crumbled dried chilli and, when the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the broccoli and stir to combine. Add the strips of pepper and stock, and stir again.

Cover the pan, turn down the heat and cook for about 4-5 minutes, or until the broccoli is tender but crisp. If any liquid remains in the pan, raise the heat and boil it off. Season with salt before serving.

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Super savoys in this week’s Cornish veg boxes

This week the small boxes will have:
* Lord Hindlip and Bramley apples (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Benbole Farm)
* parsnips (Mark Norman)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)
savoy cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)

Standard boxes will have the same plus extra potatoes and:
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* leeks (Jeremy)

* = grown to organic principles

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Foundations set for Camel CSA’s first polytunnel

Our expert growers have begun constructing the new polytunnel. Jeremy, Mark N and Gav have dug foundations and concreted in the base poles ahead of putting up the main framework.

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