The growing team have started spreading our own compost on the potato beds. We make vast quantities of this rich crumbly concoction every year.

A small number of volunteers work throughout the seasons to ensure enough is available. Green vegetable waste, chopped stalks, annual weeds, leafy debris, and grass clippings are mixed with brown layers of shredded cardboard, untreated wood shavings and woodchip.

Regular turning by hand introduces air, helps the raw materials to heat up, and encourages microorganisms and bacteria to complete the breakdown process.

Once it’s matured after several months, we use the fragrant dark compost to mulch and improve soil composition on the no-dig vegetable beds. It helps feed the crops, conserves moisture, deters weeds, and boosts biodiversity. The worms love it!

In a few weeks time we’ll be using even more to plant out tomatoes, aubergines, peppers and chillies in the polytunnels, and hundreds of pumpkins and squashes outdoors.

In all this week’s veg boxes:-
*rhubarb
*mixed salad leaves
*purple sprouting broccoli or red Russian kale
*dried olive green lentils (Hodmedod’s)
cauliflower (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

Standard boxes also have:
*leafy oriental stirfry mix
*radishes
leeks (Trerair)

* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless indicated otherwise 

Want to find out about growing vegetables in a climate-friendly way? Come to our FREE event on Thursday 15 September at 17.30.

Join us for a tour of our no-dig growing site at Treraven Farm and learn how to make compost extracts to promote plant and soil health.

Please get your free ticket here.

Can’t make this date? You can sign up for a similar workshop we’re hosting for the Westcountry Rivers Trust on Thursday 22 September. Same place, same time. Details here.

Aren’t they doing well? The first of this year’s spring onions are in this week’s veg shares alongside last season’s Crown Prince squashes.

The spring onions are thriving in the polytunnels beside the overwintered mixed oriental leaves, rocket and lettuce which have put on a growth spurt.

We store the autumn squashes on slatted shelves in our frost and predator-proof cool store. They’ve done remarkably well to last till the beginning of March.

The recent spring sunshine has also enabled our growers and volunteers to press ahead with weeding the no-dig beds, spreading compost and preparing them for planting on our site at Treraven Farm, Wadebridge.

And not forgetting to finish replanting the Jerusalem artichoke bed!

If you’d like to take part in our veg growing activities, please get in touch. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please share these details with them.

In this week’s veg shares:
*spring onions
*wedge of Crown Prince squash
*mixed salad leaves (mizuna, rocket, lettuce)
Romanesco cauliflower (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
carrots (Trerair)
parsnips (Trerair)
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless otherwise indicated

We’re having the soil tested on our nature-friendly vegetable growing site at Treraven Farm, Wadebridge.

Jake Corin of the Symbiosis Soil Lab in Cornwall has been taking soil samples from the veg beds, the orchard and meadow, and our compost making area.

We’re already growing our veg crops using no-dig methods and no harmful chemicals. We don’t plough, till or rotavate and we use our own compost and natural fertilisers to enrich the soil.

We’re one of 15 community growing schemes chosen to take part in Sustainable Food Cornwall‘s Joining the Dots for Nature initiative, which includes soil testing. Sophie Bailey, its community growing development worker, is leading the project.

As we’re so often told, a teaspoon of soil contains more living organisms than there are people on this planet.

These tests will help us find out how healthy our own soil is and how we can improve it.

Warm sun, more daylight, loud birdsong – it must be spring!

Our growers and volunteers are making the most of the dry days to prepare for the new veg growing season. It’s all systems go on our community growing site at Treraven Farm.

This week’s tasks included:-

• transplanting and mulching the blackcurrants
  
• sowing tomato, aubergine and pepper seeds
  
• weeding and composting the outside beds
  
• harvesting lots of oriental salad leaves and the first of the indoor radishes for the veg boxes.

If you’re interested in volunteering on our friendly team, please get in touch. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please share these details with them.

In this week’s veg shares:
*radishes
*purple sprouting broccoli or curly kale
*oriental salad leaves (mizuna, frilly mustard)
celeriac (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
cauliflower (Trerair)
onions (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless otherwise indicated

Have you ever wanted to learn more about growing healthy, nutritious vegetables? Spring is only just round the corner and you’re welcome to join our volunteer team at Camel CSA.

This week we’ve been busy weeding and preparing no-dig veg beds, stripping out spent crops in the polytunnels and harvesting the last of the leeks on our nature-friendly site at Treraven Farm, Wadebridge.

Join us and you’ll learn from Melanie Broomhead, our skilled community grower. She’ll help you find out more about soil care, natural mulches and fertilisers, seed sowing and planting, compost making, crop maintenance, and harvesting techniques, from our skilled community grower.

It’s not all hard work. You’ll be rewarded with fresh clean air, an abundance of nature, good company, regular breaks, and delectable treats like homemade vegetable soup and cake!

If you’re interested in volunteering on our friendly team, please get in touch. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please share these details with them.

In this week’s veg shares:
*baby leeks
*red Russian kale
*rhubarb chard
*sprouted fenugreek seeds
*can of fava beans (Hodmedod’s)
swede (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless otherwise indicated

We regularly donate extra produce to the café at Concern Wadebridge – The John Betjeman Centre. Angie, the centre’s cook, was delighted to be handed a box of surplus sprouting broccoli this week. The kitchen also received the contents of two veg bags gifted by Camel CSA members who are on holiday.

All our surplus produce is given away, or made into delicious homemade preserves to go in the veg boxes. Green waste is turned into compost to enrich the soil in the no-dig vegetable beds

In all the weekly veg boxes:-
*tomatoes
*cucumbers
*salad leaf mix
*potatoes
*sprouting broccoli (Camel CSA) or calabrese (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
cauliflower (Trerair)

Also in the standard boxes:
*basil
*green onions
*aubergine (Camel CSA) or *French beans (Mark Norman, Bodmin)


* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless otherwise indicated

We’re seeking a part-time, self-employed lead grower to join our friendly and hard-working team at Camel Community Supported Agriculture in Wadebridge, Cornwall. 

Our community growing scheme at Treraven Farm has been growing vegetables agroecologically for the past 15 years. We supply weekly veg boxes throughout the year to a membership of up to 70 local households. 

The growing team produces indoor and outdoor crops to ensure constant quality and quantity all year round, while providing a weekly veg share that is varied as much as possible throughout the seasons. 

The lead grower is responsible for crop management including seed selection, sowing, propagation, transplanting, crop rotation, composting, weed control, irrigation and pest and disease management on the farm, as well as managing the growing team and supporting volunteers to produce a variety of vegetables. 

We are looking for an experienced commercial grower who understands and is committed to CSA values. There may be days where the work may be done alone, so motivation is vital for this physical job. Much of the work is outdoors in all weathers. 

Working as an effective team, good communication and responsiveness are all important. 

Please apply in writing including a cover letter and CV to secretary@camel-csa.org.uk.

The full job description can be viewed and downloaded below.

It’s hard work doing catch-up but so much easier when the sky’s blue, the air’s warm and the ground’s dry!

Our growers and volunteers are working flat out to get the new season’s crops planted after the unusually wet and windy winter. It’s now the ‘hungry gap’ when there are fewer seasonal vegetables to harvest.

The beautiful spring sunshine has enabled them to push on with preparing beds, weeding, spreading and making compost, sowing seeds and planting out seedlings.

In all this week’s veg boxes:-
*spring onions
*elephant garlic
*oriental stir fry or *salad leaf mix
*Shiitake mushrooms (Forest Fungi, Dawlish)
leeks (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

Standard boxes also have:
*mung bean sprouts
*can of fava beans (Hodmedod’s)
red cabbage (Trerair)

* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless indicated otherwise 

We are facing some unprecedented challenges this spring. And we’re not the only ones.

The home-grown vegetables we love so much are now in the grip of the UK ‘hungry gap’ when overwintered veg are coming to an end and this season’s crops have yet to mature.

In this week’s veg boxes we have an amazing selection of our own salad leaves, stir fry mix, chard, radishes, rhubarb, kale, elephant garlic and beetroot.

Over the next few weeks we’re preparing to buy in an increasing proportion of veg box contents from other growers – sometimes from much further afield than Cornwall.

It won’t be straightforward as all growers are facing enormous challenges, delays and shortages arising from the recent torrential rain.

The upside is that we’ve already prepared lots of growing beds, spread vast quantities of homemade compost and planted all the early potatoes.

The broad beans are flowering and the young pepper, aubergine, chilli and tomato seedlings are growing on strongly. The small propagation polytunnel is full of onion, root veg and brassica plants ready to go out as the ground dries and begins to warm up.

It’s really reassuring to know that it won’t be too long before the weekly veg boxes are almost 100% full of our own homegrown produce again. But as the climate crisis brings more chaos to our weather systems we’re all having to learn to adapt.

In all this week’s veg boxes:-
*oriental stir fry or *salad leaf mix
*radishes or *beetroot
*red Russian kale or *rhubarb chard
purple sprouting broccoli (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
leeks (Trerair)
cauliflower (Gluvian Growers, St Columb)
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

Standard boxes also have:
*rhubarb
*elephant garlic
*can of carlin peas (Hodmedod’s)

* = grown to organic principles.  Please wash all veg thoroughly  
Produce grown by Camel CSA, unless indicated otherwise 

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