We LOVE autumn – especially when it’s the right moment to bring in the Halloween pumpkins and winter squashes.

Our growers and Thursday volunteer team had great fun picking them and laying them out to ‘cure’ under cover. The pumpkins will go in the Halloween veg boxes, and the squash will be put in the cool store for winter use.

In all the weekly veg boxes:-
*green chillies
*aubergines or *green peppers
*tenderstem broccoli or *red Russian kale
*tomatoes
*cucumbers
*melon ‘Blenheim Orange’
potatoes ‘Manitou’ (Trerair Farm, St Eval)

Also in the standard boxes:
*beetroot
*French beans or *white turnips
*salad leaf mix

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

Interested in volunteering with us? Want to find out more about no-dig vegetable growing?

Join our team for a tour of Camel CSA’s site at Treraven Farm, Wadebridge on Saturday 2 March 10am-12 noon. Try out some of our volunteering activities with the aid of expert veg growers. Discover what suits you best!

No need to book – simply turn up and we’ll be there to welcome you. Come dressed for the weather and wear stout shoes or boots. If you have your own gardening gloves, please bring them too.

More details about volunteering here. For directions to our growing site click here.

In all this week’s veg boxes:-
*kalettes or *Crown Prince squash
*elephant garlic
*can of fava beans (Hodmedod’s)
swede (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
savoy cabbage (Trerair)
parsnips (Continental Fruits, Pensilva)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ or ‘Manitou’ (Trerair)

Standard boxes also have:
*sprouted alfalfa seeds or *mung bean sprouts
*mixed salad leaves
leeks (Trerair)

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

Our growing community gathered together on Sunday to bless Camel CSA’s young orchard in a traditional Cornish Wassail.

We joined in playing music, singing, dancing, and making a din to wake the trees from their winter slumber, to encourage a bountiful harvest, and to frighten away any bad spirits. 

View the video

Traditional Cornish tunes soon got fingers and toes tapping as families with young children joined in on their percussion instruments.

This is the second year that Camel CSA’s held its Wassail at Treraven Farm. It’s fast become one of our annual community celebrations alongside the autumn Apple Day and summer barbeque.

*Original Wassail song composed by Dee and Dave Brotherton of Tir ha Tavas, accessed from the Cornish National Music Archive

We wish you all a very Happy New Year from Camel CSA.

What an amazing turnout for our annual Apple Day celebrations. It was a great family event with lots of happy, smiling faces.

The sun shone and everyone had such fun joining in apple scratting, juice pressing and a tour of our new orchard. Plus the Treraven Farm pigs enjoyed the leftovers!

There wasn’t much sunshine on Sunday but an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers did manage to get the hay raking done on our meadow at Treraven Farm.

We proved that many hands make light work after topping up people’s energy levels with a delicious barbeque.

We cut the grass at this time of year and rake up all the mowings because we want to encourage lots of wild flowers. More native flowers will thrive and grasses will become less dominant as we manage the meadow in a way that will gradually reduce soil fertility levels.

Camel CSA volunteers planted nearly 40 fruit trees in the more sheltered corner of the meadow in January. Two hives of bees were introduced in early summer and are managed by a member of Wadebridge Beekeeping Group.

A delightful short film about Camel CSA has been produced by Forest for Cornwall. It showcases how they help local organisations like ours to plant trees that will benefit people in the community.

We’re currently nurturing nearly 40 fruit trees that Camel CSA volunteers planted earlier in the year in the new orchard beside our vegetable growing site at Treraven Farm, Wadebridge.

Forest for Cornwall supplied the trees, including many traditional Cornish varieties, with the support of the Woodland Trust‘s Forest for My Place project.

We celebrated planting the orchard in January with a traditional Cornish Wassail and will be holding our annual Apple Day as usual in the autumn when we invite people in our local community to take part in apple pressing.

In the past many farms in the Camel Valley maintained a thriving orchard. Most have been lost over the years and we’re passionate about doing our bit to reverse this decline.

It’s been a thrill for us to establish a lasting resource that’ll bring people together, provide apples for the veg boxes, and become a fantastic habitat for birds, bees, bats, beetles and butterflies.

Our growers and volunteers have been planting out celeriac, fennel and sweetcorn for us to enjoy later in the season. Meanwhile we’re continuing to harvest beautiful fresh spring crops for the veg shares.

In all the weekly veg boxes:
*garlic scapes
*carrots
*broad beans
*lettuce
*peas (Camel CSA) or *mangetout (Ann Smith, Burlawn)
new potatoes ‘Foremost’ (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
strawberries (Mitchell Fruit Garden)

Standard boxes also have:
*calabrese
*beetroot
*radishes

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

More new-season crops are starting to mature. At the same time we’re harvesting the last of the overwintered chard.

In all the weekly veg boxes:
*chard
*mixed salad leaves
*mushrooms ‘Shiitake’ (Forest Fungi, Dawlish)
can of carlin beans (Hodmedod’s)
cauliflower (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
potatoes ‘Sagitta’ (Trerair)

Standard boxes also have:
*broad beans / radishes
*sprouted mung beans
leeks (Trerair)

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

As the ‘hungry gap’ continues it’s all in the timing! Fast-growing crops like radishes, lettuce, spinach, coriander, chives and spring greens help fill the vegetable boxes at this time of year.

In all the weekly veg bags:
*radishes
*mixed lettuce leaves
*spinach
dried olive green lentils (Hodmedod’s)
leeks (Trerair Farm, St Eval)
potatoes ‘Sagitta’ (Trerair)
tub of Cornish seasalt (Cornish Seasalt Company)

Standard boxes also have:
*spring greens
*chives
*sprouted fenugreek seeds

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

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