Busy growing our own veg

The growing team has been kept well occupied over the past two Sundays preparing beds, sowing beetroot and carrots, and hoeing the borage. We’ve also cleared the last of our own broad beans, which have gone over.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

If we get a good downpour we now need to mulch the celeriac, celery and sweetcorn with the green manure which was cut recently.

We’ve had a good wet spell so it is an ideal time to do this. It will help the soil to hold moisture and improve the soil structure as the green manure decomposes, not to mention reduce weeding!

Seasonal recipe No 52: Pasta with broad beans and beurre blanc

As this week’s boxes contained the produce from the Camel CSA’s two rows of broad beans which were picked clean this morning, it’s perhaps the last chance for a broad bean recipe. This is from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. She recommends using tagliolini or fine spaghetti. Slightly fiddly recipe but the result is very tasty.

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients
250g broad beans, shelled weight
350g tagliolini or fine spaghetti
75g fried pancetta or prosciutto
2 tbsp finely chopped summer savory or thyme, to serve
grated parmesan cheese, to serve

For the beurre blanc:
4 tbsp white wine
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 heaped tbsp finely chopped shallots
salt and black pepper
175g unsalted butter, cold and diced

Method
To make the beurre blanc, reduce the wine, vinegar, shallots, salt and pepper in a small saucepan until you have only a tablespoon of liquid left. Whisk in the cold butter bit by bit over a very low heat or using a bain-marie, until thick and creamy. Season. Keep it warm in a vacuum flask or bain marie.

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Cook the beans in the water for 4 minutes. Remove them, reserving some of the cooking liquid, and cool them quickly in a sieve under cold running water.

Pop some of the bright green beans out of their skin by pinching them with your thumb and forefinger; this adds a wonderful colour. Discard the skins and puree half the beans with a tablespoon of the cooking water.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until just al dente, leaving a tablespoon or two of cooking liquid in the pan. Add the bean puree, pancetta or prosciutto and the beurre blanc, and stir. Season carefully.

Lastly throw in the remaining beans and stir. Serve with summer savory or thyme and grated parmesan.

More broad bean recipes recommended by Camel CSA

Broad beans in our birthday boxes

Yes, it’s a whole year since we packed our very first vegetable boxes …

Treats in store this week come from our professional growers Mark Norman of Bodmin, Jane Mellowship of Polzeath and Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest as well as some of Camel CSA’s own produce, all of it grown to organic principles.

In the small birthday veg boxes:
potatoes ‘Pentland Javelin’ (Mark)
garlic (Mark)
lettuce (Jeremy)
spring greens (Jeremy)
broad beans (Jeremy)
spring onions (Jane)
swiss chard (Camel CSA)

The standard birthday vegetable boxes will have:
extra potatoes (Mark)
courgettes (Mark)
beetroot (Mark)
salad bags (CSA)

Update: Please make sure you wash the leaves in the salad bags, as some are a little muddy after yesterday’s very welcome burst of rain.

Come and get stuck into our veg plot

Make the most of this lovely spring weather.  Come and share in the push to get our vegetables in the ground.  There’s lots to do.

We need plenty of people at our volunteer growing session this Sunday 11 April to prepare some more beds and spread compost.  There’s also celery and broad beans to plant out as well as beetroot and parsnip seeds to sow.

Please join us between 10am and 1pm on Sunday.  You’ll find us on the plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.  If you can, bring tools – hoes, spades, forks, trowels, rakes, wheelbarrows. 

Help us to get veg growing again

It’s time to get growing again

Help us to get veg growing again

The next volunteer growing session is on Sunday 11 April.  We’ve decided to give everyone a rest this Easter Sunday.

We do need all the help we can get to plant veg at this time of year so please consider coming along for a couple of hours next Sunday between 10am and 12 noon.  

You’ll be made very welcome.  We can guarantee you unlimited fresh air, plenty of exercise and some friendly company… PLUS you’ll come away feeling you’ve achieved something worthwhile.

Expert grower Mark Norman says:

“A small gang of us created a new growing bed, spread compost, and sowed lettuce and beetroot Detroit last week.  But we really could have done with some extra assistance. 

On Sunday 11 April there’ll be broad beans and celery to plant out, and more beetroot plus parsnip to sow.  Also compost to spread and additional growing beds to prepare.  Please bring tools – hoes, spades, forks, trowels, rakes, wheelbarrows…”

More and bigger helpings

The extra potatoes in our shares are put there in direct response to a plea from Camel CSA members.  Standard boxes contain 2.5 kg of Wilja spuds this week and there are 1.5 kg in the small boxes.

Our picking and packing volunteers had to dodge some sharp, heavy showers as they picked, dug, sorted and weighed the veg on Friday.  The team’s now rigged up some rudimentary shelter to help them escape the worst of Cornwall’s wild autumn equinoxal weather.

Picking and packing supremo Trish explains:

“We’ve been loaned a gazebo which we put up over the sorting area.  We’re hoping it’ll stay put and not take off once we put a couple of ties into the wall.

 

“It was good to stay reasonably dry while doing the packing and it meant we could leave the boxes under cover at the end.”

Friday’s band of helpers alongside Trish were Penny and Robert, Mike H, Henrietta and Jennie M.

The growing team still have broad beans to sow and garlic sets to plant which we hope (weather permitting!) to get finished this Sunday.  See you then.

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

Beautiful plump peas

The harvest from Camel Community Supported Agriculture includes some beautiful plump peas in this week’s share.  Otherwise we are providing a similar selection of vegetables to last week. 

The broad bean glut continues so please think of different ways to use these versatile vegetables. Please pick up your box from St Kew Harvest, as detailed in the e-mail to members. 

Subscribers can expect all or some of of the following: -

• potatoes (Arran Pilot)
• onions
• broad beans
• beetroot
• peas
• salad pack / lettuce
• cucumber
• courgettes
• turnips

 A definitive list and recipe ideas for beetroot will be posted once the boxes have been packed on Friday.

Our veg boxes are tops!

We’ve had an enthusiastic response from our members to Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first vegetable boxes.  This is despite some teething problems with distribution.

Tony says:

Our first standard veg box

“The box looks fantastic! We’re looking forward to next week’s already.”

John and Cathy are delighted with the quality:

“The cucumber which was sweet and fresh and the lettuce and onion we used in a salad.”

They like the wide and interesting variety of vegetables and have found new ways of using them:

 ”The beet greens we cooked almost like a spinach or spring greens and had with fish - better than spinach – along with broad beans and potatoes.

 

The beets will be roasted and eaten with a lamb casserole with the rest of the onion, turnips and courgettes and we will try your broad bean soup.  Nothing wasted.”

In the end, both small and standard boxes contained potatoes, broad beans, beetroot, turnip, cucumber and onions.  Standard boxes had a salad pack and small boxes a lollo rosso lettuce.  In addition, standard boxes contained Swiss chard and courgettes.  There wasn’t enough time to pick parsley.

We have a glut of broad beans, so each box was given an extra £4-worth at shop prices!  We don’t yet have our own poly tunnel, so our three expert growers – Jane, Jeremy and Mark – supplied the salad bags, lettuce, courgettes and cucumber.

New team

Grateful thanks to our volunteer picking and packing team of expert grower Mark Norman, Mike H, Penny, Robert and Trish.  Mark says:

” It’s great to see some new faces.  I hope the boxes going out means that we’ll see even more volunteers next week.

 

As first boxes they are excellent.  I hope we can keep the variety going.”

If you would like to volunteer, either picking and packing or planting and cultivating, just turn up on a Friday or Sunday between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.

Compost bin

This Sunday we constructed a compost bin from wooden pallets lashed together with binder twine.  At long last we have somewhere to dump the annual weeds, unwanted plant tops and thinnings.

A great deal of effort was devoted to the backbreaking job of cutting down the remaining dock leaves to stop them going to seed and spreading all over the site.  We were grateful there were so many of us to share this potentially soul-destroying task!

We weeded the Swiss chard, carrots and brussels sprouts.  We planted more radishes to replace the ones which had gone to seed in the hot weather.

A big thank you to expert growers Jane and Mark N and Charlotte, Danny, Ian, Mark M, Mike H, Mike S.

Seasonal recipe No 1 – Broad bean soup

The first of Camel Community Agriculture’s weekly recipes celebrates our first-ever veg boxes.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients
125 g (4 oz) chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
60 g (2 oz) butter
0.5 kg (1 lb) shelled broad beans
2-3 good quality bean pods
chopped fresh sage or parsley
salt, pepper, sugar
6 tablespoons double cream
lemon juice, chopped green onion stalk or chives

Method
Soften the onion and garlic in butter without letting them colour.  Add the beans, a litre (1.75 pints) water, the pods and a few sprigs of the herb you choose.  When the beans are cooked (approx 10 mins), sieve or blend the soup. Reheat, adding more liquid if necessary to dilute.  Season to taste, with a pinch of sugar.  Add a little more chopped herb, the cream, the onion stalks and a few drops of lemon juice to bring out the flavour.

Notes
This soup recipe taken from Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book is simple, quick and good.  Jane Baxter, the resident chef at Riverford Organic Vegetables’ Field Kitchen, has adapted it into Broad bean soup for children who hate broad beans!  She discards the pods before blending the soup.  I agree with her that it is essential not to skimp on the cream.

If you don’t like to use cream and butter for economic or health reasons, try this Vegetarian Society “cordon vert” recipe for Fresh broad bean and mint soup. There’s also a delicious-sounding recipe for Broad bean pate.

Danny, one of our core group members, recommends Chorizo and broad bean salad.  Danny says:

“I tried this absolutely delicious broad bean salad. My kids loved it as well!!!

Simply fry an onion, add the sliced chorizo and put the podded broad beans in at the end. I topped it with fresh parsley and some parmesan. YUM!

I did it again with bacon instead of chorizo…..equally yummy!!”

For tips on how to cook, store and freeze broad beans have a look at the useful eat the seasons website.

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