Seasonal Cornish veg in our boxes this week

These are the planned contents for this week’s boxes, but subject to change or, more likely, extras depending on what’s available as we pick and pack tomorrow.

Everyone will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* runner beans (Mark Norman)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* calabrese/sprouting broccoli (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* kohlrabi (Camel CSA)
* radish (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)

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

* = grown to organic principles

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Seasonal local veg in this week’s boxes

First, a plea from the packers: if you have any of those small plastic containers such as tomatoes, peaches etc are often sold in, it would be great if you could bring them in to the shed. Many thanks.

This week everyone will have:
* potatoes (St Kew Harvest)
* onions (csa)
* french beans (csa)
* kohlrabi (csa)
* tuscan kale (csa)
* sugar snap/podding peas (csa)
* spring onion (csa)
* basil (csa)

Standard boxes will also have:
* tomatoes (csa)
* cucumber (csa)
* sprouting broccoli (csa)

* = grown to organic principles

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Seasonal local food recipe No 106: Sweet cucumber pickle

A great way of using the cucumbers that are growing so well in the CSA’s polytunnel. I halved the quantities of this recipe (from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook) for three of the cucumbers we had in this week’s boxes. It made three mustard-size jars. It should store for up to a year, but keep in the fridge once opened.

Ingredients for 5 small jars
3 large cucumbers
2 onions
50g salt
600ml white wine or distilled white vinegar
450g granulated sugar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp celery seeds
5 cloves
½ tsp ground turmeric

Method
Peel the cucumbers and cut lengthways into thinnish sticks about 6-7cm long. Thinly slice the onions into half moons. Put the cucumber and onions and salt into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with salt. Cover with a weighted plate and leave for 2-3 hours.

Rinse the cucumber and onion in cold water and then let stand to drain. While they are draining, put all the remaining ingredients into a pan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and lift the cucumber and onion out of the liquid. Put into warm sterilised jars. Return the liquid to the heat and boil rapidly for at least 10 minutes to reduce it. Pour the liquid over the cucumber in the jars and cover.

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Seasonal local food recipe No 100: Gooseberry sauce

Two recipes for a sauce to accompany grilled mackerel or roast pork, both from Nigel Slater’s Tender Vol. II. The second one makes use of elderflower cordial and ginger – an idea taken from Yotam Ottolenghi.

1. A gooseberry sauce
Makes enough to accompany grills mackerel or roast pork for six.
Ingredients
500g gooseberries
50g sugar
3-4 tbsp water
Method
Top and tail the gooseberries, tip them into a stainless steel pan, then add the sugar and water. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Use warm or at room temperature.

2. A hot gooseberry and ginger sauce
Enough for 6
Ingredients
400g gooseberries
100g caster sugar
4 tbsp elderflower cordial
large lump of fresh ginger, about the size of your thumb
Method
Top and tail the gooseberries and tip them into a pan with the sugar and cordial. Peel and coarsely grate the ginger and add to the pot. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for ten minutes. Serve with pork or oily fish.

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All our own! Seasonal local veg in this week’s boxes

The contents of this week’s boxes come from Camel CSA’s own plot at St Kew Highway and from our own expert grower Mark Norman’s smallholding on the outskirts of Bodmin.

We’ve all sharing a bumper French bean harvest. This early crop is growing really well in our first polytunnel.

Everyone will have:
* French beans (Camel CSA)
* round cabbage (Camel CSA)
* salad bags (Camel CSA)
* new potatoes (Mark Norman)
* carrots (Mark)
* gooseberries (Mark)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes as well as:
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Mark)

* = grown to organic principles

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Extra volunteering sessions for Camel CSA members

The spring planting rush is on. So we’re setting up some additional volunteering sessions on weekdays. 

From now until September volunteer growers can help out on our site at St Kew Highway on Mondays from 2-4 pm and on Fridays from 10-12 noon.

The Friday morning growing slot is at the same time the picking and packing team prepares the weekly veg boxes. This in addition to our all-year-round Sunday morning team sessions.

Expert grower Mark Norman will be on hand to advise and guide us on the finer art of vegetable growing.

There’s lots to get done over the next few days both inside and out. Onion sets and broad beans need sowing  and there’s spring cabbage to plant out in the newly-prepared growing beds.

And of course there’s still plenty more dock weeds to dig up.

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We’re digging, ploughing, sowing and growing

Camel CSA’s growing team continue to prepare the veg beds and sow seeds on our community veg plot.

Expert grower Jeremy Brown has ploughed one side of our two-acre plot in preparation for the sowing of alliums, roots and legumes. The first seeds in the ground will be broad beans, shallots and onion sets.

The soil in the first polytunnel has finally been dug over. It can now be rotavated before we plant early salad crops, carrots, beetroot and french beans.

Our volunteers are still valiantly trying to dig out all the dock weeds. This is not a popular task.

More jobs

The team’s also been sowing additional seeds in modules – salad rocket, canary yellow and blood red leaf beet, multi-coloured and silver Swiss chard.

Thank you to this Sunday’s volunteers – expert growers Jane M and Jeremy B, plus Charlotte, Danny, Mary and Mike S.

Over the next few weeks there’s plenty more jobs to tackle. The seeding tunnel needs covering, the potting shed is awaiting construction, the second large polytunnel is ready to be erected.

And – sigh - there’s hundreds more of those damned docks to dig up…

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Camel CSA volunteers ready for the veg growing season

Our growing team is preparing for the busiest year we’ve had so far.

Now we’ve got support from the Lottery Food Fund and ECLAG we’re forging ahead and constructing two large polytunnels, a small seeding tunnel, a large tool shed and a potting shed.

Over the next two weeks we’re hoping to plant rhubarb and Jerusalem artichokes in new permanent beds. And we need to get rid of the dock weeds that are springing up everywhere.

The plastic covers will go on the polytunnels by early March, provided we get a calm, warm weather window. Then we’ll sow broad beans, carrots, radish and assorted salad leaves directly inside the tunnels.

We’ll also plant seeds in modules, starting with spring onions, salad, spinach, chard, beetroot, parsley, celeriac and spring cabbage.

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How our volunteers cope with Cornwall’s claggy soil

It’s a good thing I’m very fond of leeks, as I dug up 90 of them this morning for Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s weekly veg boxes. It certainly made me appreciate where my food comes from.

After all the torrential rain in Cornwall lately, the earth was distinctly claggy. My boots got heavier and heavier as the mud stuck to them, and my clothes, hands and face were splattered with streaks of soil.

I wasn’t the only one, of course. This sort of task is routine for members of Camel CSA’s volunteer picking and packing team.

While I tussled with the leeks, Mike was trimming them. He also dug and washed the Jerusalem artichokes. Anne and Cath were pulling up beetroot and fennel. Robert was sorting and labelling the boxes and rinsing the leeks. Meanwhile in the shed Trish and Henrietta were weighing and sharing out the rest of vegetables to go in the boxes.

A total of 30 boxes of fresh, seasonal food achieved in just over an hour’s work… how ever will we cope when we reach our weekly target of 90?!

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Exciting times for Camel CSA’s grow-our-own veg project

Our local food initiative in north Cornwall is entering a very exciting new development phase. So watch this space closely over the next few weeks!

We’ve been busy tidying up the plot at St Kew Highway in anticipation of our big expansion on to the full two acres of land.

All the ragwort’s been pulled up, dock leaves removed and ground levelled to make way for our first very own poly tunnel. 

Much of the rest of the area has been ploughed and sown with green manure to help improve the soil fertility over the winter months.

This Sunday our volunteer growing team will be sowing winter salad crops to go in the new poly tunnel as soon as it’s up.

If you’d like to get involved, please meet outside our packing shed at 10am. We’ll be there until 12 – 12.30pm. Wear stout boots, bring gloves and don’t forget to include a waterproof (just in case).

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