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

Blackcurrant bliss in this week’s veg boxes …

and peas and cucumber too.

Contents of our vegetable boxes this week are provided by Mark Norman, Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest and Camel CSA’s own plot, all of it grown to organic principles.

Small vegetable boxes will have:
potatoes – Pentland Javelin (Mark)
carrots (Mark)
blackcurrants (Mark)
peas (Jeremy)
cucumber (Jeremy)
broad beans (Camel CSA)
salad bags (Camel CSA)

Standard veg boxes will also have:
extra potatoes
mixed courgettes (Jeremy)
marrow (Jeremy)
swiss chard/perpetual spinach (Camel CSA)

Seasonal recipe No 51: Stir-fried beetroot tops

A recipe from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook which she says came from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. A good way of using those beetroot leaves and a nice change from chard or spinach.

Serves 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

Ingredients
450g beetroot greens
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 fresh green chilli, cut into long thin slivers
3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into long slivers
½ tsp salt

Method
Strip the beetroot greens from the stalks and cut them into fine ribbons.
Put the oil in a large pan and warm over a high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the chilli and ginger. Stir them around for a minute and then add the greens.

Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and cook until the leaves have wilted. Add the salt and stir, then add 4 tbsp water and bring to a simmer.

Cover again and cook on a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the greens are tender.

More beetroot recipes recommended by Camel CSA

Seasonal recipe No 50: Double beetroot and apple salad

This quick and refreshing salad is ideal for people who don’t like the after-taste of raw onion. It comes from a useful little book called Seasonal Salads by Paddy Byrne and David Scott, founders of  the renowned Everyman Bistro in Liverpool. ”Raw beetroot and cooked beetroot have very different flavours and texture and this salad cleverly makes use of both,” they say.

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients
1 large cooked beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large raw beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large eating apple, cored and cut into thin matchsticks
juice of half a lemon
5ml (1 tsp) grated lemon peel
25ml vegetable oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Reserve a little of both types of beetroot and mix the remainder with the apple.  Add the lemon juice, oil and salt and pepper to taste and toss the salad. Mix the lemon peel with the reserved beetroot and use it to garnish the salad.

Variation
Those people who don’t care for the taste of raw beetroot could try it with just par-boiled beetroot.  Cook raw beetroot in plenty of water until the outer skin will just rub off. Now drain them and cool under running water until they are quite cold. The centres remain bright red and crisp while the outer areas are softer and a darker ruby red. Grate the beetroot and continue as directed in the recipe.

Try these other beetroot dishes from Camel CSA’s recommended recipes.

Tasty chard in the veg boxes

… as well as more of the mixed basil, baby carrots and other spring vegetables, all supplied by two of Camel CSA’s expert growers – Mark Norman of Bodmin and Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest.

* new potatoes (Mark)
* carrots (Mark)
* Swiss chard (Jeremy)
* salad bag (Jeremy)
* basil (Jeremy)

Standard boxes will also get:
* extra potatoes
* calabrese (Mark)
* spring greens (Jeremy)

* = grown to organic principles

Solar energy future on our doorstep

Cornwall’s first solar farm could be right next door to us – just across the A39 from Camel CSA’s veg plot.

Our community supported agriculture scheme rents its two-acre field from the Brown family of Benbole Farm, St Kew Highway, near Wadebridge. 

The family are part of the Benbole Energy Farm consortium which plans to erect photovoltaic panels on a 15-acre site between St Kew Highway and St Mabyn. These would generate enough electricity for 600 homes.

Public consultation evenings are being held at St Kew Golf Club on Tuesday 8 June and Tuesday 15 June from 6 pm.

Cornwall’s ‘Silicon Vineyards’ aim to triple solar capacity in UK - Guardian
Massive solar farms planned to treble energy generated from sun in UK - Western Morning News

We’re raising the roof

At long last we have a shed to shelter our volunteer picking and packing team from the Cornish elements.  

We’re marking the occasion with an informal picnic at the veg plot this Sunday 23 May.  This will start to happen as the volunteer growers finish work about 12.30 pm.

It’ll be a chance to get together and celebrate the season, plus anything else that comes to mind…

Everyone’s welcome. All ages of course.  Please bring your own food and drink and be prepared to share it!  I expect we’ll be on site until around 3pm.

According to a rumour from the Met Office it promises to be sunny and warm, so keep your fingers crossed.

They’re springing up everywhere!

The number of community supported agriculture projects like ours is increasing all the time, notably in other parts of the far south-west of England.

Members of the newly-formed Trevalon Organic Co-operative at Herodsfoot near Liskeard in east Cornwall are coming to see us during our volunteer growing session next Sunday. 

They’re hoping to get a perspective on how we’ve achieved our 50-strong membership and and built up a list of more than 30 weekly veg boxes in just over a year.

St Just Allotment and Growers Association and Lands End Peninsula Community Land Trust have just secured an 18-month land lease from Cornwall Council to set up Bosavern Community Farm at St Just in west Cornwall.  They want to set up a CSA to prevent this 36-acre organic farm from going into private ownership and to keep it in perpetuity for the benefit of the local community.  

In Devon, Chagford Community Agriculture members have got planning permission from the Dartmoor National Park Authority for three polytunnels and two sheds.  This means the project is now eligible for £38,600 of funding from the Lottery Local Food Fund.

The newly-formed Broadclyst Community Farm is based on 32 acres of National Trust land on the Killerton estate near Exeter in east Devon. 

Occombe Farm, which is run by Torbay Coast & Countryside Trust, is setting up a 4-acre smallholding as a CSA scheme.  It’s been awarded £475,000 from the Lottery Food Fund for its One Planet Food project. 

These new CSA schemes in the south-west join the already up-and-running Harrowbarrow and Metherill Agricultural Society (known as Hamas) in east Cornwall, Lowarth Brogh (Badger’s Garden CSA) near Penzance in west Cornwall, and Exeter Community Agriculture in Devon. 

And of course us - Camel CSA at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.

Seasonal Recipe No 44: Cornish asparagus with bacon and parmesan

The Cornish asparagus in our veg boxes comes from Gill and Roger Derryman at Lower Croan, Sladesbridge near Wadebridge.

It’s a busy life on their mixed farm beef and cereal farm. The Derrymans produce prime organic beef from their suckler cows.  Most of the cereals grown are fed back to the cattle. They have five acres of asparagus they sell at the farm gate and to local retailers over six to eight weeks in May and early June.

It’s a very time-consuming and labour-intensive crop. At this time of year Roger is out cutting the asparagus spears daily from 7am so Gill (pictured) can start selling them from 10am onwards.

As everything is so late this year, we can look forward to having this very seasonal vegetable in our boxes until about mid-June.

Gill has lots of recipe ideas for asparagus, but this is her favourite as it’s so easy. It makes a light lunch dish with new potatoes, or a simple starter.

Serves 4

Preparation: 5-10 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

250g Cornish asparagus (around 8 spears)
150g dry-cured back bacon
1 tbsp butter or olive oil
50g thinly-shaved parmesan cheese
freshly-ground black pepper

Method
Gill says:

Fry the chopped bacon in the butter or oil until crisp.  Meanwhile, snap off the ends of the asparagus stems and steam the spears upright for no longer than five minutes.  Place them on a warmed dish, top with the crispy bacon and sprinkle with parmesan shavings.  Serve with Cornish new potatoes.

How to cook British asparagus – the basics

Other asparagus recipe ideas: -

Sensational recipes for British asparagus
Blanched asparagus with almonds, shallots and lemon
Roasted asparagus salad with honey toasted goat’s cheese