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Recipe No 8 – Braised celery
Posted on August 21st, 2009 No commentsOne of the staples of the kitchen, celery is used to flavour soups, stocks and many other dishes. It is tasty on its own as a vegetable dish, gives crunch to salads especially a Waldorf salad.
This recipe is from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head of celery
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 or 3 thyme sprigs
salt
225ml chicken, beef or vegetable stockMethod
Trim the root end close to the bottom of the stalks and cut off the leafy tops. Pull of the outer stalks to expose the pale green heart. Cut the group of stalks at the heart in half lengthwise and then in half again as wedges. Line up all the stalks and cut in half crosswise.Into a heavy pan over medium heat, pour in the oil and add the onion and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the celery. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onions and celery have browned a little. Season with salt and add the stock. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the celery is tender. The sauce should be thick and coat the celery; if not, uncover the pan, raise the heat and reduce the liquid as much as needed. Taste for seasoning and serve.
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What we’re getting in our vegetable boxes
Posted on August 21st, 2009 No commentsWe can expect to find some tomatoes and a cauliflower among the contents of this week’s veg boxes.
These vegetables come from Richard Hore, our new supplier at Rest Harrow, Trebetherick (between Daymer Bay and Rock). They’re not grown to organic principles, but are freshly picked and have clocked up few food miles – barely five in fact.The potatoes and onions are our own contribution to the harvest. They’ve been grown by our volunteers on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s two-acre plot at St Kew Highway.
Our expert growers are providing the rest of the box contents. Salad bags – Jane Mellowship, cucumber and curly parsley – Jeremy Brown, celery – Mark Norman.
See this week’s Recipe No 8 – Braised celery
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This week’s boxes
Posted on August 14th, 2009 No comments
We are enjoying some more of our recently-harvested onions in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s veg boxes this week. The Swiss chard, beetroot and potatoes also come from our own plot at St Kew Highway.
Our expert growers have provided most of the rest of the vegetables. Jeremy Brown cultivated some of the cucumbers and the flat-leaved parsley. Jane Mellowship supplied the salad packs. Mark Norman grew the courgettes and the remaining cucumbers, which feature in our Recipe No 7 – Cucumber raita.
We have a new local supplier – Polmorla Market Garden, Wadebridge – which provided the freshly-picked runner beans. Unlike the rest of the box contents, these are not grown organically.
Oops!
The boxes also contain bunches of celeriac leaves, picked in ignorance as they were mistaken for mature flat-leaved parsley.
These could be used as a garnish on salads or soup. However they are rather coarse and have a distinctive, strong flavour.
It emerges that I may have caused irrevocable damage to our celeriac crop as a result of this inadvertent act of horticultural vandalism. This is one of the downsides of relying on enthusiastic amateurs like me.
S-o-o-o embarrassing! -
We’re getting to know our onions
Posted on August 11th, 2009 No comments
One vegetable that Camel Community Supported Agriculture members can rely on this season is the humble onion. There should be enough to fill the veg boxes until the New Year.The growing team got on their hands and knees on Sunday and pulled up hundreds of red and white onions and a row of shallots before the heavens opened and the rain poured down (yet again).
Our onion harvest is now in dry storage in shed space kindly provided by Camel CSA volunteer Mark Malcolmson.
The expert growers have been taking an audit of what’s going to be available from our site at St Kew Highway over the next few weeks, apart from onions. We can expect more chard, beetroot, carrots, potatoes and parsley in the short term.
In November we can look forward to cauliflower and two varieties of cabbage, followed by parsnips and kale. In December we should get some purple sprouting broccoli, with Jerusalem artichokes in January.
Pesky predators
Unfortunately the runner beans, the French beans, the courgettes and our third crop of peas are all looking very sorry for themselves.
We’ve been overrun by voracious rabbits. It’s been a bad year for them. They’ve even been taking chunks out of the onions! The newest predators on the block are a family of partridges, which seem to love the peas.Our financial wish-list includes predator-proof fencing and additional protective fleece, but we don’t have enough money at the moment to do anything more about this. Hence our bid for external funding.
Continuity of supply
In the meantime, we will continue to fill the gaps by buying in vegetables from our three expert growers. Mark Norman has plenty of courgettes, with leeks and swedes to come. He will also have celery and celeriac plus parsnips, potatoes and onions, if need be.
Jane Mellowship will continue to provide salad bags throughout the autumn and winter months. Jeremy Brown can supply salad leaves, tomatoes and cucumbers as well as peppers, chillies and pumpkins.
We are also busy looking locally for new partners who can supply us with potatoes, carrots and other mainstay items to help fill up our veg boxes during the autumn and winter.
Big effort
Volunteer growers, pickers and packers are making a fantastic effort at the moment on Friday and Sunday mornings. Apart from harvesting the onions, the growers have made a concerted attack on the weeds, as well as pruning and tying up the boysenberries. All under the guidance of expert growers Jane, Jeremy and Mark N, helped variously over the two days by Charlotte, Danny, Fiona, Kitty, Mark M, Mike H, Mike S, Penny and Trish.
Friday’s picking and packing team comprised Callum (10), Leonie, Mark M, Mike H, Robert, Tom (11) and Trish, who packed the boxes. They harvested, sorted, counted out and bunched up enough vegetables to fill 23 boxes for grateful members. But they still need more rubber bands!
Many thanks to Jeremy G, who took the pictures.
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This week’s share of the harvest
Posted on July 30th, 2009 No commentsMembers of Camel Community Supported Agriculture can expect to find up to a dozen freshly-harvested vegetables in their boxes this week.
The beetroot, onions, radishes, turnips and Swiss chard have been cultivated on our own site at St Kew Highway.Camel CSA’s expert growing team are providing the remainder of the box contents from their own plots.
Mark Norman has grown the courgettes, which feature in Camel CSA’s Recipe No 5 – Courgette frittata, at his site on the outskirts of Bodmin. He has also supplied the new potatoes, which are Marfona variety. The British Potato Council says these have an almost “buttery” flavour and a smooth waxy texture.
Jane and Gav Mellowship are supplying large and small mixed salad bags from their plot on the coast at New Polzeath.
Jeremy Brown has produced the parsley, spinach and cucumbers on his land behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.
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Our veg boxes are tops!
Posted on July 5th, 2009 No commentsWe’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.
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Our first veg boxes
Posted on July 2nd, 2009 No comments
We’ve done it - we’re starting to eat our own food! More than 15 Camel Community Supported Agriculture members receive their first vegetable boxes on Friday 3 July.
A great deal of human effort has gone into providing these first fruits of our labour. It’s hard to believe that we only started preparing our site at the beginning of March and sowed the first seeds just a few weeks later.
Our first share of the harvest will contain: -
- broad beans
- potatoes
- onions
- beetroot
- Swiss chard
- a bunch of curly or flat-leaved parsley
- turnips and radishes – possibly
- green salad
We’ve grown the first eight items ourselves at St Kew Highway. The salad leaves are being provided by Jane Mellowship, one of our expert growers, who has her own vegetable plot at New Polzeath.
Hard work
We’ve made enormous strides since March – entirely as a result of the dedicated volunteer labour provided by members and expert growers. Some people said we would never manage it, but we have proved that we can.Many hours of hard work have gone into preparing the 40-metre long growing beds, spreading compost, digging up dock leaves, sowing seeds, planting out seedlings, hoeing and an enormous amount of hand weeding. We’re grateful to our expert growing team and all the volunteers who have turned up on Sunday mornings – rain or shine.
Last Sunday we thinned out and hand weeded the parsnips, weeded the Swiss chard, spread compost and dug up yet more dock leaves that were threatening to go to seed.
A big thanks to expert grower Mark Norman, to members Charlotte, Diana, Mike H and Mike S, and to visitors Donna and Marianne.
Another team of volunteers will be picking and packing the boxes every Friday morning. If you’d like to be included on the rota, please contact Mark Norman or phone Antonina at St Kew Harvest.
Box collection
Members must pay for veg boxes in advance. You’ll be able to collect your box every Friday between noon and 5 p.m. from St Kew Harvest Farm Shop, which is next to the Camel CSA site. Treasurer Cathy Fairman has been co-ordinating box payment and organisation. She says:“Your name will be on your box, please take your own box and anyone else’s that you are delivering. Remember to give us feedback as soon as possible.
A special thank you to to Penny and Robert Manders and to Mike Haywood for volunteering to help Mark with the first harvest and packing.
Happy eating!”
Feedback on box content and any queries about veg box administration should be sent to Cathy at thefarm@bodminmoor.co.uk
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Reap the rewards
Posted on June 24th, 2009 No commentsIt’s that moment we’ve all been waiting for! We’re about to harvest some of our own food.
Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first vegetable boxes will be ready on Friday 3 July. Any member who would like to share in the harvest should contact our treasurer Cathy Fairman as soon as possible.
The first boxes have been allocated to members who have paid in advance. They will be ready to collect on Friday 3 July from St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at any time between 12 noon and 5 p.m. Cathy says:
“We are all hoping that these boxes will meet expectations. Please, please, if for any reason you are not totally happy let us know. We really want to get this right so your input is crucial.”
We also need volunteers to pick vegetables and pack the boxes. Cathy adds:
“We will be picking and packing the vegetables on Friday mornings. Times will vary and we would like to form a rota of volunteers to help the growers in this. Any members who would be able to help please let me know.”
Volunteer growers
If any members would like to help on the site at St Kew Highway outside the normal volunteer times on Thursday and Sunday mornings, please contact expert grower Jeremy Brown on 07971762227 or phone St Kew Harvest Farm Shop on 01208 841818. There’s lots to do as usual!
Last Sunday we constructed more growing beds, spread compost, sowed extra carrots, did loads of hand weeding, spread concentrated chicken manure on the potatoes and dug up scores of dock leaves that were threatening to go to seed.
Many thanks to expert growers Jane and Jeremy B and to volunteer members Carolyn, Cath, Charlotte, Diana, Mark M and Mike S.
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Jobs for Sunday 14 June
Posted on June 13th, 2009 No comments
There’s a great deal to do at Camel Community Supported Agriculture this Sunday as the growing season continues apace.As expert grower Jeremy Brown explains: -
There are runner beans to plant out and French beans to sow. We also need to sow some more rows of carrots.
Everything needs weeding – the carrots (yet again!), the parsley and celeriac… But the onions are okay.
The early potatoes also need weeding and ridging up. The peas need supporting and tying up.
Just turn up to join the team on our site at St Kew Highway between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
If you can’t manage Sunday, why not come to our new mid-week volunteer session every Thursday morning at the same time? Or ring Jeremy Brown on 07971762227 if you’d like to help out another day.
Mid-summer celebration for members
Don’t forget it’s our mid-summer barbeque next Saturday 20 June in St Mabyn from 6 p.m. onwards. Please contact Charlotte Barry if you can come at charlotte.barry@btinternet.com so we have an idea of how many people to expect. Everyone is asked to bring some food for the barbeque, a drink and a seasonal side dish or pudding. Don’t forget to bring your own plate and cutlery as well!
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Mid-week volunteering
Posted on May 12th, 2009 No commentsMembers are more than welcome to volunteer to work during the week - not just on Sunday mornings.
Give expert grower Jeremy Brown a ring on 07971762227 to find out when it might be convenient to help out on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s vegetable beds. Weather permitting, of course!
He’s there every day as a member of the farming family who own the land and who have generously offered it rent-free to Camel CSA for the first few months. He grows his own vegetables on the adjoining plot to sell at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.
Jeremy can arrange to meet you on the site and explain what jobs need to be done. These might include sowing seeds in the potting shed, spreading compost on new beds and weeding around our emerging crops.
Last Sunday we got several new beds raked, fresh compost spread and more seeds sown, including an extra row of peas and some more radishes. We planted out beetroot and chard seedlings and hoed up weeds in the pea, onion and shallot beds. The devastation to the first rows of peas that had to be replaced was caused by the pea and bean weevil, not slugs. Apologies all round. Either the resident pheasant or a partridge has been having a go at the spring onions, but the damage is not lasting.
A big thank you to Sunday’s energetic crew – volunteer expert growers Jane, Jeremy B and Mark N and volunteer members Carolyn, Charlotte, Diana, Kitty, Mike H and Mike S.
We had a useful discussion during the tea break about the kind of activities we want to organise for the Open Day on Sunday 7 June – Open Farm Sunday. Any suggestions welcome.
Click here to view our entry on the Open Farm Sunday website.
