Seasonal local veg in this week’s boxes

This week sees the first courgettes from expert grower Mark Norman and the last of the french beans from the CSA’s polytunnel. Also potatoes from Jeremy Brown at St Kew Harvest. Everyone will have:

* courgettes (Mark)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* french beans (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (St Kew Harvest)

Standard boxes will also have:
* red kale (Camel CSA)
* peas (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

UPDATE: The peas aren’t quite ready despite the recent heavy rain. So, instead, all the boxes have a bunch of freshly-picked radishes and extra kale (lots of it!)

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Seasonal local Cornish veg in this week’s boxes

Another good harvest from Camel CSA’s own plot this week – including the first of the french beans and sweet-scented basil from the polytunnel. Everyone will be getting:
* spring cabbage (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* radish (Camel CSA)
* french beans (Camel CSA)
* broad beans (Mark Norman)
* green onions (Mark)
new potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

Standard boxes will also have:
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

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This week’s seasonal local Cornish veg

All boxes will have:
* 600g new potatoes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* lettuce (Camel CSA)
* spring greens (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
calabrese (Growfair, Cornwall)
broad beans (Growfair)

Standard boxes will also have:
* an extra 400g new potatoes
* baby carrots (Camel CSA)
* sprouting seeds (mung beans) (Mark Norman)
* turnips (Camel CSA/Mark)

* = grown to organic principles

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Country Living comes to Camel Community Supported Agriculture

Our growing operation at Camel CSA in Cornwall has a mention in June’s Country Living magazine. Its Tap into local flavours section highlights what we’re up to. Writer Jane Taylor says: -

Community supported agriculture schemes are the buzzword in local food… no two schemes are alike. Yet their benefits always exceed the sum of their parts.

The article explains what Camel CSA does and includes us in its list of useful contacts. It’s all part of the magazine’s Your Community Needs You campaign, which wants to harness the groundswell of support for local food and regional producers.

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Seasonal local Cornish veg in this week’s boxes

In National Vegetarian Week everyone will have: -
* lettuce (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* spring onions (Camel CSA)
* spring cabbage (Camel CSA)
600g new potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* baby carrots (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)

Standard boxes will also have:
extra 300g new potatoes
calabrese (Growfair, St Merryn)
strawberries (Growfair, Saltash or Hayle)

* = grown to organic principles

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Seasonal local food recipe No 97: A Vietnamese stir-fry

A good way to use this week’s spring onions and some spring greens – from Nigel Slater’s Tender (Vol. 1). As he says, ‘Of all the flavours that seem to bring out the best of the cabbage family’s earthy greenness, few work as effectively as those of Southeast Asia. Ginger, spring onion and garlic have a natural affinity with chlorophyll-rich vegetables of any sort …’

Serves 2 as a side dish

Preparation and cooking: about 15 minutes

Ingredients
about 12 stems or small leaves of chinese greens or small cabbage leaves
2 large cloves garlic
thumb-sized piece of ginger
6 spring onions (though maybe a few more of our CSA baby ones)
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp nam pla (Thai fish sauce)

Method
Put a saucepan of deep water on to boil and salt it slightly. Wash the greens thoroughly. Peel the garlic and ginger, finely chop the garlic and shred the ginger into matchstick strips. Trim the spring onions and cut each into two or three.

Warm the oil in a shallow pan or wok. Toss the garlic, ginger and spring onions in the oil till deep gold, verging on being lightly browned and fragrant. Drop the greens, whole or shredded as you wish into the boiling water. Leave for only a minute or so before draining. Pour the fish sauce in with the garlic and ginger – it will spit and sizzle – then toss with the greens and eat.

More seasonal veg recipes from Camel CSA

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Seasonal local food recipe No 96: Cauliflower cheese with Lord Dalrymple’s top

An Edwardian dish (great name!) that Sarah Raven says was included in her aunt Fortune Stanley’s 1974 cookery book, English Country House Cooking. Sarah reproduces it in her Garden Cookbook. She says that with a crunchy salad of bitter leaves – our own Camel CSA-grown salad leaves would work well – it’s perfect for a light main course.

Serves 4
Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes

Ingredients
1 large cauliflower
175g butter, plus a little more for the dish
3 tbsp flour
6 tbsp single cream
250g strong cheddar cheese
salt and black pepper
1 tbsp mustard
6 eggs, separated

Method
Preheat a moderate oven (180C/gas 4). Divide the cauliflower into chunks and steam it for 3-4 minutes. Put the cauliflower in the bottom of a buttered souffle dish.

Melt the butter, add the flour and stir over a gentle heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the cream and cheese. Season and add the mustard and cook for 3-4 minutes, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens to the consistency of double cream. Take off the heat and stir in the egg yolks.

Whisk the egg whites and fold in. Pour the souffle mixture over the cauliflower and bake in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until the top is browned and risen.

More cauliflower recipe ideas from Camel CSA

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Camel CSA members carry on sowing, growing, planting

Cornish growers have experienced weather conditions ranging from drought to monsoon in a matter of days. Our own team has been alternately watering thirsty crops and wading through sticky mud.

The extended dry spell in Cornwall means we’re a little behind with some tasks. However the recent rain has enabled us to sow more peas, beans, parsnips, radishes, beetroot and carrot directly into the ground and plant out broccoli, cabbage, bunched onions, Swiss chard, lettuces, turnips and parsley.

The kohlrabi hasn’t germinated well outdoors, so we’re about to sow some in modules, along with more cabbage, Brussels sprouts, calabrese, celeriac and purple sprouting broccoli. We’ve also sown hundreds of winter squash seeds.

Salad leaves, french beans, leek seedlings, spring onions and baby beetroot are thriving in the polytunnel, though the indoor carrots aren’t doing so well.

Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes rely heavily at this time of year on fresh supplies bought in directly from other local farmers and growers who’ve built up strong relationships with us. This mutually beneficial approach is all part of being a CSA.

They include Cornish asparagus produced by the Derrymans at Lower Croan, Sladesbridge; cauliflower and spring greens from Richard Hore of Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick; leeks and spinach from Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest; potatoes from Johnny Brown of Benbole Farm, St Kew Highway and James Mutton of Burlerrow, St Mabyn; rhubarb and mung beans (sprouted in his linen cupboard!) from Mark Norman in Bodmin.

In the aftermath of a long, hard winter it’s become more and more difficult to source fresh, seasonal veg grown within this 10-mile radius. When forced to cast our net county-wide we buy from Growfair Cornwall. But at least we’ve kept this side of the Tamar!

Fortunately our own early salad crops are sprouting fast.

Our volunteer picking and packing team spend some time every Friday morning cutting individual lettuce leaves from the polytunnel and outdoor-grown oriental greens – including spicy mustard, mizuna and mibuna - before bagging them up for the boxes.

The other immediate jobs involve covering the second polytunnel to house the tomatoes, completing the small seeding tunnel and getting the roof and windows finished on the potting shed.

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Seasonal local veg in our boxes this week

Expert grower Jane Mellowship reports that she’s ‘having the hardest time yet filling the boxes with Cornwall grown contents.’ Sadly, the Cornish rhubarb she’d hoped to get hold of is not available. Hopefully, she says, ‘standard box customers will understand when they get smaller boxes and realise that over the year the value of the contents does even out.’

Everyone will have:
* lettuce (Camel CSA)
* mixed salad bag (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
spring greens (Restharrow Farm)
asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* leeks (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)
* sprouted mung beans (Mark Norman)

* = grown to organic principles

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Cornish asparagus for all in our Good Friday boxes

Small and standard boxes will all be getting:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
spring greens (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
cauliflowers (Restharrow Farm)
* leeks (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)
asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)

Medium boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* rhubarb (Mark Norman)
round lettuce (Growfair, Cornwall)
swede (Growfair, Cornwall)

* = grown to organic principles

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