Volunteers carry on constructing rabbit-proof fence

It’s been invigorating work keeping the voracious Cornish rabbits out of our veg patch.

Our volunteers have almost finished constructing a rabbit-proof fence all round our two-acre plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.

The area at the back of the plot has proved the most challenging, as we’ve had to erect a double fence. This is to protect the native windbreak hedge that’s going to provide a valuable haven for wildlife.

So today’s jobs included hammering in fence posts and laying down a weed-suppressing membrane.

Video

We’ll finish these tasks later in the week when we take part in a video commissioned by Making Local Food Work, the umbrella organisation that supports community food enterprises.

The aim of the short film is to raise the profile of community supported agriculture projects among communities that haven’t yet got to grips with this collaborative concept.

It’ll show Camel CSA members at work – the picking and packing team preparing our weekly veg boxes, the growing team led by our three professional growers, and the families who support us.

Will our efforts inspire others to join the growing CSA movement in the UK, I wonder?

Watch Camel CSA’s videos

Wadebridge School students plant our windbreak hedge

Vocational students from Wadebridge School dug in and planted hundreds of native hedgerow plants for us around our veg plot.

The Year 11 students enduring freezing conditions on the day that early snow fell in parts of Cornwall. 

Assistant head Lee Batemen accompanied them to Camel CSA’s site at St Kew Highway, where he got stuck in too. Lee said: “Wadebridge School is very community focused and we encourage our students to actively get involved with all sorts of community projects like this one.”

Under the guidance of Camel CSA’s professional growers Jeremy Brown and Mark Norman, the students planted mainly hawthorn with hazel, guelder, blackthorn and dog rose. These will provide a haven for wildlife and shelter from the Cornish gales.

The 15-16-year-olds are following a mix of vocational pathways from agriculture to mechanics. They’re already helping to develop the school’s own veg plot on the Wadebridge allotment site.

Youngsters hedge their bets with a day on the land – Cornish Guardian.

Rabbit-proof fence

Camel CSA’s own volunteer growers have also been busy constructing a sturdy rabbit-proof fence to protect the hedge plants and to keep the bunnies and other predators off our vegetable crops.