January 17, 2011
A solar panel on every suitable roof – that’s the dream of a new community-wide initiative in the nearby town of Wadebridge in north Cornwall.
Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network (WREN) wants to harness the sun and wind to generate 30% of the town’s electricity consumption by 2015.
It intends to offer householders and businesses the opportunity to host photovoltaic solar panels on their roofs. This will help reduce their own electricity bills, provide local employment and build up a substantial community fund for investment in community projects.
The project has the support of North Cornwall MP Dan Rogerson, town councillors, Cornwall councillors, and Wadebridge Chamber of Commerce.
The launch event is this Saturday 22 January in Wadebridge Town Hall between 10am and 4pm when there will be a public exhibition and displays. Local MP Dan Rogerson, renewable energy experts, local councillors and business leaders will be giving talks and answering residents’ questions from 2pm onwards.
WREN is a not-for-profit cooperative. It intends the financial gains to stay in Wadebridge so jobs and other benefits are brought to every section of the immediate community.
Cornwall has experienced a rush in recent months from developers and landowners wanting to set up solar energy farms and take advantage of the Government’s generous solar electricity feed-in tariff.
Camel CSA’s landowners – Benbole Farm, St Kew Highway – are due to start work any day on the county’s first solar farm beside the A39 near Wadebridge just across the road from our veg plot.
January 11, 2011
Our volunteer growers have completed the first task of the year. They’ve laid weed-suppressing plastic and compost around the newly-planted native hedge that’ll shelter our crops from the worst of the Cornish weather.
Many thanks to expert grower Jane Mellowship and her team – Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Finn (7), Keira (5), Mark M, Mike S.
January 8, 2011
Our pickers and packers dodged torrential showers and slithery mud to fill our first seasonal weekly veg boxes of 2011.
Many thanks to team members Anne, Charlotte, Jenny, Kim, Mike S and Trish F, aided by Arwyn (3) and Seren (1)
January 1, 2011
We wish a happy and bountiful New Year to all our friends and fellow vegetable growers.
December 24, 2010
Camel CSA members are enjoying an awesome selection of fresh, seasonal produce from north Cornwall in their Christmas veg boxes.
Our commitment to eating local food and reducing food miles has paid off. We can blissfully ignore rumours of a national Brussels sprouts shortage and avoid supermarket mayhem.
Happy Christmas everyone!
December 19, 2010
Our picking and packing team harvested the remainder of the celeriac this week. In spite of the freezing conditions in Cornwall – so unusual for this part of the UK – we managed to dig it up.
The celeriac came up with great chunks of frozen earth attached to it. Once the heavy clods were removed, the roots had to be trimmed. Not a pleasant job in a cold Cornish nor’easter.
We’re fortunate we can source so much local food, including what we grow ourselves. Nearly every week we’re able to fill the weekly veg boxes from within an eight-mile radius.
It means our food miles are low and our supply chain is short. And, unlike the big supermarkets, we’re less likely to get caught out by a shortage of fresh, seasonal produce when the weather turns against us.
December 10, 2010
Who we are, what we do and why we’re doing it. That’s the subject of a short film being made by Making Local Food Work about Camel Community Supported Agriculture.
Making Local Food Work is the umbrella organisation that gives advice and support to community food enterprises like ours.
The aim of the video is to raise the profile of community supported agriculture projects. The idea is to interview people involved and to film us in action.
The film-makers have been recording the picking and packing team’s activities – digging up leeks and Jerusalem artichokes, weighing out the potatoes and onions and preparing the rest of this week’s Cornish veg boxes.
They’ve also been filming our growing team who have lots of winter chores to complete. These include finishing construction of the all-important rabbit-proof fence and putting down a weed-suppressing mulch to protect the native windbreak hedge.
December 5, 2010
It’s been invigorating work keeping the voracious Cornish rabbits out of our veg patch.
Our volunteers have almost finished constructing a rabbit-proof fence all round our two-acre plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.
The area at the back of the plot has proved the most challenging, as we’ve had to erect a double fence. This is to protect the native windbreak hedge that’s going to provide a valuable haven for wildlife.
So today’s jobs included hammering in fence posts and laying down a weed-suppressing membrane.
Video
We’ll finish these tasks later in the week when we take part in a video commissioned by Making Local Food Work, the umbrella organisation that supports community food enterprises.
The aim of the short film is to raise the profile of community supported agriculture projects among communities that haven’t yet got to grips with this collaborative concept.
It’ll show Camel CSA members at work – the picking and packing team preparing our weekly veg boxes, the growing team led by our three professional growers, and the families who support us.
Will our efforts inspire others to join the growing CSA movement in the UK, I wonder?
November 26, 2010
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.
November 21, 2010
Camel CSA is strong on community spirit according to the Cornish Guardian, our local weekly newspaper.
It reports that our vegetable-growing co-operative is going from strength to strength now we’ve won Lottery and ECLAG funding.
We’re seeking to increase our membership and welcome new members living within a 10-mile radius of St Kew Highway to join our weekly veg box scheme.
Camel CSA secretary Mike Sadler told the paper: “Over the past two years we’ve learned a lot. The first growing season was a hard lesson; we had problems with the quality of the soil and predators such as birds and rabbits.
“The second growing year has been much more successful and we’re looking forward to inviting local schools and organisations to come to the site and learn the importance of growing produce and introducing them to healthy living.”
