Our veg box scheme is a year old

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first veg boxes were distributed exactly a year ago today.

Over the last 12 months our volunteer picking and packing team have braved extreme conditions - frost, snow, hail, gales, mud, rain and shine - to prepare the weekly vegetable boxes for our members.

Together with our growers and local suppliers in north Cornwall they ensure that the quality of the veg box contents remains of a consistently high standard.

Between us we’re growing a fantastic variety of fresh seasonal vegetables.

Our veg box scheme has vacancies for new members. So if you’re interested in a regular weekly supply of locally-grown food, please contact us.

We’ll make sure you feel very welcome.

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

Cornish asparagus in the veg boxes

At last! We’re getting the first of the Cornish asparagus and Cornish Early new potatoes in our veg boxes this week:

Cornish asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)
Cornish Early new potatoes (JH Allen & Sons, Marazion)
spinach (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
onions (Rest Harrow Farm)
* salad leaves (Jeremy Brown)
* baby carrots (Jeremy)
* parsley (Camel CSA)

As well as larger quantities of some of the above, standard boxes will also have
* baby beet (Jeremy)

* = grown to organic principles

Tasty spring greens in the veg boxes this week

As predicted, this week’s veg boxes are a little bit more restricted but it’s a tasty selection nevertheless. All boxes will get:

potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
onions (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
spring greens (Rest Harrow Farm)
white cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
spinach (Rest Harrow Farm)

Standard boxes will get larger quantities of some of the above.

Popeye’s favourite in this week’s veg boxes …

But a bit of a warning too: box contents are smaller this week as available produce begins to run low. We’re entering the “hungry gap” – we may be enjoying the warmer, longer days but unfortunately they mean that the winter brassicas are beginning to bolt and the new sowings such as broad beans are not yet ready to harvest. Still, this week we should be getting (although we’re not 100 per cent sure until tomorrow):

Small boxes:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
onions (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* spinach (Jeremy Brown)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
* salad leaves (Jeremy)

Medium boxes will have more of some of the above plus:
mushrooms (Tregonning Farm, Stithians)
sprouting broccoli (Cornish wholesaler)

* = grown to organic principles

Fresh salad leaves this week

This week’s small veg boxes will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
onions (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
carrots (Rest Harrow Farm)
kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
* salad leaves (Jeremy Brown)

Standard boxes will have more of some of the above plus:
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm)
* coriander (Jeremy)
* radishes (Jeremy)

* = grown to organic principles

Enjoy sprouting broccoli this week

… it won’t be around for much longer!

Small boxes will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
onions (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
carrots (Rest Harrow Farm)
kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
white sprouting broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Standard boxes will have some extras of the above plus:
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm)
parsnips (Rest Harrow Farm)
red cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)

Large boxes will also have:
* coriander (Jeremy Brown)
* salad leaves (Jeremy)
* spinach (Jeremy)

* = grown to organic principles

Seasonal recipe No 38 – Cauliflower with saffron, pinenuts and raisins

Henrietta recommends this recipe from Sam and Sam Clark’s Moro cookbook. They say that the white cauliflower shows off the saffron’s colour beautifully and turns this “parochial vegetable into quite a glamorous one”.

Serves 4

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 medium cauliflower, broken into small florets (keep the smallest leaves)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced
50 strands saffron, infused in 4 tbsp boiling water
3 tbsp pinenuts, lightly toasted
75g raisins, soaked in warm water
sea salt and black pepper

Method
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the cauliflower, put the lid on and bring to the boil again. Blanch the cauliflower for a minute then drain in a colander and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy saucepan until hot but not smoking then add the onion with a pinch of salt. Stir well, reduce the heat to low and cook very slowly for about 15-20 minutes until golden in colour and sweet in smell. Be sure to stir the onions every 5 minutes so they cook evenly and do not stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat, drain the onion and keep the oil.

Set the same saucepan over a high heat and add the olive oil back to the pan. When the oil is hot, add the cauliflower and leaves. Fry until the cauliflower begins to colour, then add the onion, the saffron-infused water, the pinenuts and drained raisins. Give everything a good toss and cook for 5 more minutes until the saffron water has more or less evaporated. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Proud to be a community supported agriculture project

Community supported agriculture… It’s quite a mouthful isn’t it?  And even more to get your head round.

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked the question: “How are your allotments going?”  Or: “What’s the latest on your veg box scheme?”

This sort of remark is kindly meant, of course.  But sometimes it makes me want to scream: “That’s not what we’re about.  We’re a community supported agriculture project.”

Which means little to 99.9% of the people I come across. 

A community supported agriculture (CSA) project has very specific characteristics.  It aims to reconnect people with the land where their food is grown.  It’s a partnership between farmers and members of the local community.  The economic risks and benefits are shared between those who grow the food and those who consume it.   

Local food

It’s all part of an expanding grassroots movement found across Europe, Japan, the US and Australia.  It comes in many different shapes and sizes – from large farms supplying produce to hundreds of regular subscribers to small community food-growing projects like ours at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.

It can be hard work, as it nearly always requires some voluntary input.  But the common thread running through every single initiative is a willingness to co-operate over food production, to connect with the land and to commit to working with the seasons to produce a steady supply of local food.

And that’s why those of us who belong to Camel Community Supported Agriculture are proud to be part of this growing movement.