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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! -
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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Seasonal recipe No 4 – Swiss chard and potato gratin
Posted on July 25th, 2009 1 commentAnother excellent recipe from the Riverford Organic Vegetables website.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutesServes: 4
Ingredients
500g Swiss chard
75g margarine
2tbsp plain flour
100g cheddar cheese
750g potatoes
4 garlic cloves
600ml (1 pint) milk
salt and pepperMethod
1. Remove and roughly chop the green part of the chard leaves. Cut the stalks into 2cm lengths and steam for 10 mins. Stir in the green leaves and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Wash the potatoes and cut into 1cm slices. Boil for 5 mins until just tender. Drain.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish and layer with half the potatoes, the chard, then the remaining potatoes.To make the sauce:
1. Melt the margarine and fry the crushed garlic for 2 mins. Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 1 min.
2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens.
3. Add half the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 180° Mark 4 for 35 mins.Do you have a recipe for Swiss chard that you would like to share with the rest of us? Just click on Comments at the top of this article and let us have it!
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
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Seasonal recipe No 3 – New potatoes baked in parchment
Posted on July 17th, 2009 2 commentsThis spectacular but easy dish can be found on the Riverford Organic Vegetables website
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutesServes: 4
Ingredients
Per person:
1 sheet baking parchment
5 small new potatoes
5 cloves of garlic unpeeled – wet garlic can also be used
small branch rosemary or several branches of thyme
1 tbsp virgin olive oil
salt & black pepperMethod
The idea for this came from Alice Waters at Chez Panisse.1. If the potatoes are large – cut in half, wash, but leaves skins on. Preheat oven to 200ºC (gas mark 6).
2. Fold the baking parchment in half to make a crease; open and lay potatoes on the lower half. Tuck in garlic and herbs. Pour olive oil over spuds and season with salt and pepper. Bring the rest of the paper down and roll lightly along the edges to form a pouch (a bit like pastry). Make sure that the package is sealed.
3. Bake for 30 minutes and serve immediately. The ‘pastry’ packages will “puff up”. The packages are best opened at the table.
Notes
I first tasted this delicious method of preparing the new potatoes in our veg boxes when visiting Riverford Organic Vegetables in Devon to tour the farm and to have lunch in its Field Kitchen. The resident chef, Jane Baxter, used to work at the River Cafe in London. It shows!If you have a way of cooking new potatoes you’d like to share, please let us have it. Click on the comments link at the top of this post and get writing…
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
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Beautiful plump peas
Posted on July 9th, 2009 No comments
The harvest from Camel Community Supported Agriculture includes some beautiful plump peas in this week’s share. Otherwise we are providing a similar selection of vegetables to last week. The broad bean glut continues so please think of different ways to use these versatile vegetables. Please pick up your box from St Kew Harvest, as detailed in the e-mail to members.
Subscribers can expect all or some of of the following: -
- potatoes (Arran Pilot)
- onions
- broad beans
- beetroot
- peas
- salad pack / lettuce
- cucumber
- courgettes
- turnips
A definitive list and recipe ideas for beetroot will be posted once the boxes have been packed on Friday.
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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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Time for the big push
Posted on April 19th, 2009 No commentsThe next six weeks are crucial for Camel Community Supported Agriculture as we have so much work to do on our two-acre site at St Kew Highway.
We’re holding an additional volunteer session this Thursday 23 April from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Our usual weekend session is next Sunday 26 April from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Please make an extra special effort to come and help out at one of these times. We need to prepare a number of vegetable beds, sow more seeds and plant out cauliflower and cabbage seedlings.
Remember to bring strong shoes or wellies, waterproofs, gardening gloves, drinks and a snack. Also bring tools, ideally wheelbarrows, shovels, spades, forks and rakes. If the weather’s still good you might need suncream and a hat!
Click here for directions to the site. If you have any questions call Antonina at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop on 01208 841818.
Mark Norman, one of our three-strong team of expert growers, has this stark message for us:
“If we don’t get all the planting done in the next six weeks we won’t have enough vegetables later in the year to fill our boxes .
“We need as much volunteer help from members as we can get at this stage so we make the most of the planting season.”
Today we spread another 30-metre-long bed with compost and planted kohl rabi, turnips and radishes. We hoed between broad beans and onions to get rid of annual weeds, and earthed up the early potatoes.
Grateful thanks to expert grower Mark and volunteers Cath, Charlotte, John and Mike S.
