Seasonal recipe No 32 – Carrot and ginger soup

A warming soup with a bit of a kick that makes use of the seasonal carrots in our veg boxes – from the Riverford website.

Preparation: 15 Mins
Cooking: 50 Mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 level tsp mustard powder
2.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp parsley, roughly chopped
natural yoghurt to serve

Method
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and soften the onion and garlic with the mustard powder, ginger, pepper and salt, adding 2 or 3 tbsp stock after a minute or so. After another 2 -3 minutes, add the carrots, stirring well. Pour in the rest of the stock, bring to the boil, then cover and leave to simmer for 40 minutes. When it is ready, whiz the soup until smooth in a blender, or using a hand-held stick blender in the pan. Stir in the chopped parsley, saving a little for garnish and reheat the soup gently if you need to. When serving, swirl a spoonful of yoghurt through each portion. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

We’ve passed another milestone

Our picking and packing team prepared a total of 30 seasonal veg boxes for our members this week – an all-time record.  Plus the box we’re offering in a prize draw at the St Mabyn Pre-School Valentine Brunch.

A further milestone was reached.  For the first time, all the contents of the boxes were bought in from other growers.

The fact that we’re buying in such a high proportion of the weekly vegetable box contents at this time of year may seem like an admission of defeat.  But this is far from the case.

In the UK, community supported agriculture comes in many different shapes and sizes.  There’s no “right” or “wrong” way of doing it.

As a not-for-profit organisation we rely totally at present on the goodwill of our members, who make up our volunteer workforce.  This will change as we expand and if we are successful in our funding bids to the Lottery and the Local Action Group.

As we’re working on less than two acres, we’re not in a position to grow large-scale main crops which need constant rotation like potatoes and winter brassicas.  Instead we are concentrating on “high-value” seasonal crops which would be either too expensive to buy in or do not travel well.

Benefits

As a CSA, we’re committed to building up partnerships between farmers and the local community, enabling farmers to sell direct to the public, and providing other mutual benefits.  So that’s why we’re happy to include varying proportions of vegetables in our boxes from small-scale, local growers.

The Camel CSA approach is very much community-led.  It’s organised democratically. Every member has a say in how our project is run.

The core management group is responsible for all the main decisions.  Under the guidance of our three volunteer expert growers, it works out what to grow, how we grow it, what goes in the boxes, what we charge our members and who should supply us. 

All our own onions and shallots – in store since last summer – have been used up at long last.  The remaining parsnips, artichokes and carrots are again well and truly frozen into the ground.

So the carrots, curly kale, onions, purple sprouting broccoli, swede and Brussels sprouts (complete with sprout top!) in this week’s boxes come from Richard Hore at Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick.  

Richard and his family, who cultivate 30 acres close to the relatively mild climes of the Camel estuary, have done us proud this winter.

The winter salad bag was supplied by Jeremy Brown, one of Camel CSA’s expert growers.  It contains a selection of baby leaves such as pak choi, watercress, mustard, rocket and spinach from his polytunnels behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.

The potatoes were grown by Colin and James Mutton of Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn.

Mud, mud… glorious Cornish mud

So much for the first signs of spring.  When the north wind blows in North Cornwall it strikes with a vengeance.

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s picking and packing team discovered this today as they battled against the elements to get this week’s veg boxes ready for our members.

First the root vegetables – the parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots – had to be dug up in the teeth of the gale. 

Then they had to be washed clean of the mud that enveloped them.  By hand. Outdoors. At the edge of the field. 

Try that in freezing conditions!

The adverse weather meant yet again the eagerly-anticipated purple sprouting broccoli wasn’t available from our suppliers. 

Mushrooms were also a little short, so we had to raid our own patch for cabbages. Jeremy Brown provided mustard greens.

In spite of these setbacks, the volunteer team remained very upbeat.  Special thanks to picking and packing supremo Trish and to Robert, Penny, Jennifer, Henrietta, Mike S, Gillian and Charlotte.

First signs of spring in North Cornwall

What a relief to see snowdrops emerging in the woods between St Mabyn and St Kew Highway.

The ground is far too cold and saturated with melted ice and snow for us to start work yet on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s vegetable plot.

Once the earth warms up in late February / early March our volunteer growing team can begin preparing the ground, spreading compost and planting seed into cells to go in the polytunnel. 

In the meantime we’re continuing to harvest our own parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots as well as the remaining onions and shallots in store.  The rest of the weekly veg box contents are being sourced locally from growers in the immediate area.

It’s (s)no(w) problem!

Congratulations to our intrepid picking and packing team who braved the wintry conditions to prepare Camel CSA’s first vegetable boxes of 2010.

Only the onions in the boxes came from Camel CSA’s own share of the harvest.  Our dwindling crops of parsnips, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes and last of the beetroot are well and truly frozen into the ground.

We’re grateful to local supplier Richard Hore of Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick for providing such a variety of green vegetables – leeks, curly kale and savoy cabbage as well as carrots.  And to our expert grower Jeremy Brown who collected the potatoes from Burlerrow Farm in icebound St Mabyn.

We put together a total of 23 boxes for our members to pick up. Fortunately our site is next to the A39 “Atlantic Highway” which has been kept relatively clear from ice and snow.

Local food

The fact that we could provide fresh vegetables this week goes to show how important it is to be able to source food locally. 

Supply chains across the country may be interrupted by the big freeze, but we’ve been able to keep our veg box scheme going – with just a little help from our friends in north Cornwall.

As Making Local Food Work said this week in its response to the Government’s widely-reported new national food strategy: “Communities must be engaged in the future of food.”

Many thanks to picking & packing supremo Trish, who fetched the veg from Trebetherick, and to the team – Cathy, Charlotte, Mike H, Mike S, Penny and Robert.

And enjoy our heartwarming seasonal soup! Recipe No 26 – Leek soup with parmesan

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.

Seasonal recipe No 21 – Root vegetable stew

This really tasty recipe comes from Riverford Organic Vegetables. It works just as well without the turnips – just add a bit more of the other roots.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients
2 large onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
250g puy lentils, rinsed
3 tbsp oil
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
250g carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
250g turnips, peeled and chopped
250g swede, peeled and chopped
250g parsnips, peeled and chopped
900ml vegetable stock
1 x 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
salt and pepper

Method
Saute the onion in hot oil with the crushed garlic, until the onion is transparent.

Meanwhile, put the coriander and cumin seeds into a small pan and dry fry for a few minutes, stiring occasionally. Crush with a pestle and mortar. Add the seeds to the onion mixture and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add the root vegetables to the onion mixture and cook for a few minutes. Add the lentils and stir well to mix. Pour in the stock and chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover and simmer gently for 40 minutes (or cook in a medium oven) until the vegetables are tender and the lentils are soft.

Crunchy carrots

We can enjoy our very own carrots in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.  We also have the apples we picked last Sunday in St Mabyn.

All that tender loving care has paid off!  All those painstaking hours spent handweeding carrot beds suddenly seem worthwhile. 

We’ve already taken delivery of our share of the harvest.  So, as they say, this list is just for the record…

In the small boxes: -
*carrots (Camel CSA)
*onions (Camel CSA)
*leeks (Mark Norman)
*peppers (Jeremy Brown)
*salad bag (Jane Mellowship)
*apples – Lord Hindlip (Charlotte Barry)
potatoes (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)
kale (Rest Harrow, Trebetherick)

Medium boxes also have:
*parsnips (Camel CSA)
calabrese or tenderstem broccoli (Rest Harrow, Trebetherick)

* = grown to organic principles

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.

How we’re securing veg supply

Camel Community Supported Agriculture is starting to source vegetables from outside suppliers.  Up until now the contents of our weekly veg boxes have come from our own site at St Kew Highway and from our three expert growers.

Our business plan allows us to buy in up to 40% of box contents over the course of a year, but during the rest of Year Zero we may have to increase that proportion.  Provided our bid for external funding is successful, this should not need to happen in the future.

This new move has led to some debate among members.  It’s proved impossible to source sufficient organic vegetable supplies within a 30-mile radius.  However we are in contact with some reliable small-scale local suppliers whose vegetables are not grown to organic principles.

Compromise

So we have a dilemma.  Do we insist on organically-grown vegetables that could come from afar or do we buy local vegetables that may not be organic?

Either way, we have to compromise: either by clocking up extra food miles or temporarily abandoning our organic food-growing principles.

We’ve been sounding out the views of members at our recent volunteering sessions and over the ether.  The response has been interesting.

With a couple of exceptions, members feel they would rather eat local food that is not strictly organic provided it comes from within our own immediate community in north Cornwall.  They don’t like the idea of clocking up food miles by using suppliers who are some distance away – maybe as far as east Devon. 

Local food

Ideally, the membership would like to source organic veg locally but realise this is not practicable in the short term.  They say they’d rather keep our veg box scheme going over the winter months and use the opportunity to start building up important local networks of small vegetable growers.  

Some responses from our members: -  

“Very happy with that – a pragmatic response to a short term problem.”

 

“We would definitely support the option of buying in local non-organic veg over shipping it in from further afield or taking a box holiday.” 

 

“Buy from local, especially small-scale local, rather than organic from further afield if necessary (fewer food miles).”

 

“We’d be happy with local produce even if not totally organic rather than shipping it in.”

Green manure

Our volunteer teams have been busy weeding row after row of carrots.  We’ve also begun the laborious task of pulling up the plastic mulch from the disused strawberry beds in preparation for sowing a crop of green manure. 

Thanks to Sunday’s volunteers – expert growers Jeremy and Mark N, helped by Carmen, Charlotte, Danny, Ian, Kitty, Mike H and Mike S, plus Finn aged five and three-year-old Keira.  

A special mention to Steve, who singlehandedly weeded a whole 29-metre-long carrot bed on Friday.  Trish masterminded the packing of the boxes along with pickers Charlotte, Mike H and Penny. 

Watch our latest video: Camel CSA - Our first harvest