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.

Young volunteers make local food work

More and more young people are getting involved in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s pioneering efforts to promote local food.

Fourteen-year-old Jenny Simmons, who’s at Wadebridge School, has chosen Camel CSA as the volunteering activity for her Duke of Edinburgh’s bronze award programme.

This gives young people the opportunity to become involved in a project that they really care about.

This week Jenny helped prepare the onions for the boxes.  She worked alongside packing supremo Trish and fellow picking and packing team members Cath, Charlotte, Mark M, Mike H, Penny, Robert and Steve.

Marathon

The volunteer growers have at long last completed the marathon task of removing the black plastic mulch from the overgrown strawberry beds. 

They also weeded the beetroot and removed the vicious thistles growing among the Brussels sprouts.   Mark N strimmed the overgrown edges.

Once all the plastic had been dug up and removed, Jeremy got out the tractor and cut back all the surface weeds. 

Now he can go ahead and plough the ground in preparation for sowing a crop of green manure.

 This Sunday’s team comprised expert growers Jeremy and Mark N plus Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Mark M and Mike H. 

We need you!

A big turnout is requested next Sunday when we’ll peel back the protective fleece and assess the damage to the 1500 brassica plants that were planted out last month. 

These are the plants donated by our newest sponsors, Fentongollan Farm at Tresillian.

We must weed the 20 long rows of red cabbage, green cabbage (two varieties), cauliflower, purple sprouting broccoli and kale (both red and green).

So please make an extra special effort to turn up.  We need all the help we can get!