It feels strange each year when it’s time to harvest summer fruit and plant out winter brassicas.

There are lots of cucumbers in the polytunnel, so we’re on the lookout for different ways to prepare them.

Nigel Slater says: “I know this sounds extraordinary, but [this] is the crispest, most refreshing fruit salad imaginable… summer in a bowl. And if you really can’t handle the idea of cucumber, then it is jolly good with strawberries and banana.” (via The Observer)

Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes + 30 minutes in fridge

Ingredients
For the syrup:
3 tbsp honey
10 mint leaves
5 tbsp elderflower cordial

2 cucumbers
450g medium strawberries

Method
Put the honey, mint and elderflower syrup into a blender and blitz to a thick, fragrant syrup. If you don’t have a blender, chop the mint very, very finely, mix it with the honey and cordial, then leave it for an hour. Strain through a fine sieve or muslin to remove the mint.

Peel the cucumbers, slice them in half down their length, then scrape the seeds out with a teaspoon. Dice the flesh finely and put it in a large bowl. Remove the leaves from the strawberries, slice the fruit in half and toss gently with the cucumber.

Pour the mint and elderflower syrup into the fruit, stir very gently, then leave for about 30 minutes, in the fridge and covered, before serving.

Thank goodness it’s rained in Cornwall at long last! The outdoor crops have been gasping for water.

Every box has: –
* basil (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* onions (Camel CSA / Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* carrots or French beans (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)
* strawberries (Mitchell Fruit Garden)

Standard boxes also have extra potatoes plus:
* mixed lettuce / rocket (Camel CSA)
* coriander (Camel CSA)
* Swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Camel CSA’s eye-catching new flyers are an original creation by talented Cornish graphic designer Emma Julian of Pickle Design in Wadebridge. The leaflets are designed to promote the new home and workplace delivery service for our veg box scheme members. Doorstep deliveries are every Friday afternoon within a 10-mile radius of our vegetable-growing plot at St Kew Highway near Wadebridge.

It’s almost time to start picking tomatoes. They share a polytunnel with aubergines, sweet peppers and chillies. We’re already harvesting cucumbers, which are growing happily next to coriander, mixed lettuce and rocket. We picked more than 80 cucumbers for last week’s veg boxes, with hundreds more to come.

Camel CSA’s growers leave long-tailed field mice well alone, provided they stay away from our polytunnels. 

The problem is that mice love the warmth in the tunnels and like certain types of vegetable seed – especially peas – even better.

As we cleared away this year’s mangetout pea bed we disturbed no fewer than THREE mouse nests. Suddenly there were adult, teen and baby mice running everywhere!

• Enterprisingly, the mice bit back in verse last year in response to anti-mouse measures we took then.

Another quick, easy vegetarian dish for those of us who don’t feel much like cooking on a hot day. It comes from a delightful Rome-based food blog – Rachel Eats. Make it with some Cornish free-range eggs and the courgettes and basil in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.

Rachel says this is “a quiet and familiar lunch” which she makes a lot. If the courgettes have flowers attached, they should be washed, patted dry and torn into strips before cooking.

Serves 2
Preparation/cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
200g good dried spaghetti, linguine or fettucine
2 tbsp olive oil
(optional – 60g pancetta or guanciale, diced)
a small red onion peeled and cut in thin half moons
2 medium courgettes, julienned (cut into matchsticks)
2 large fresh eggs
20g freshly grated parmesan
20g freshly grated pecorino
freshly ground black pepper
a handful of fresh basil leaves
good extra virgin olive oil and more grated parmesan for on top

Method
“While your pasta is cooking you fry your onion until golden brown (if you are using guanciale you fry that first and then add the onion and fry for a couple more minutes.) Then you add the fine strips of courgette (and courgette flowers), stir and allow them to wilt. While the wilting is happening you beat 2 whole eggs with some finely grated parmasan and pecorino and plenty of freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl.

“Now, drain the pasta but save a little of the cooking water, then tip the hot pasta and a small ladleful of the reserved water into the pan with the onion and courgette – toss everything together. Next add the egg mixure to the pan along with the ripped basil leaves, remove the pan from the heat and stir everything together firmly but gently so the sauce thickens.”

This week’s veg boxes have a stunning variety of summer vegetables: –
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* new potatoes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* blackcurrants/gooseberries (Camel CSA/Mark Norman)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* flat-leaved parsley (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)
* Swiss chard (Mark Norman) 

Standard boxes also have extra new potatoes plus:
* salad (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Camel CSA)
* peas/broad beans (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Another easy 10-minute meal – vital in the present heatwave – this time from Allegra McEvedy (via Guardian Cook). Try it with with the peas, broad beans and basil in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.

She says: This has long been my top fall-back supper: warming, nutritious, quick and indisputably yum-a-licious. Without meaning to sound like a smartypants… a decent [homemade] stock is both the vital background and making of this dish – cube or concentrate just won’t do on this occasion.”

Serves 2
Preparation / cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
500ml chicken stock
150g ready-made tortellini
A few slices of red chilli (optional)
2 handfuls of seasonal veg such as mange tout or sugar snaps, roughly sliced; courgette, diced; peas or broad beans; french beans cut into batons; or broccoli cut into tiny florettes
A large handful of summer herbs, such as basil, mint and parsley
Lemon juice, to taste

To finish
Parmesan, grated
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Method
Warm up the stock and, once steaming, drop in the tortellini and pop a lid on the pan. After 3-4 minutes, and when just cooked, add the veg of your choice. When the stock has come back to a simmer, turn the heat off and stir in most of the herbs, some seasoning and a little lemon juice to taste.

Ladle into warm, wide bowls and finish with a flourish of grated parmesan, a drizzle of olive oil and the last of the herbs.

What a treat! Mark Norman, one of Camel CSA’s professional growers, is supplying each of this week’s boxes with a punnet of gooseberries grown on his smallholding just outside Bodmin.

Many apologies to those who got a dodgy cauliflower in their veg box last week. Unfortunately our quality control system went awry. We all have an extra item in the boxes this week to make up for it.

UPDATE: We’ve all got a big bunch of basil, and both box sizes now have courgettes. Only standard boxes have calabrese, as there’s not quite enough yet for all of us.

This week everyone has: –
* gooseberries (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* new potatoes (Mark Norman)
* peas (Camel CSA)
* broad beans (Camel CSA/Mark Norman)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA/Mark Norman)
* mixed lettuce bag (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)

Standard boxes have extra new potatoes plus:
* baby carrots (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA/Mark Norman)
* calabrese (Camel CSA) – just a small head, more next week

* = grown to organic principles

• Make this delectable gooseberry crumble cake
  

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