There’s another chance to win one of Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s weekly vegetable boxes – this time at the Valentine Brunch in St Mabyn.

This social event is being held by St Mabyn Pre-School on Sunday 14 February from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm in the village hall.

There will be traditional English breakfast food plus heart-shaped waffles and hot drinks.  Also live music, a raffle, love quiz (!) and children’s craft activities.

Come and join us for a fun morning whether single, a pair or a family.  It’s all in aid of pre-school funds.

Entry money taken on Snowdrop Sunday at Pencarrow House near St Mabyn in North Cornwall is to go to the ShelterBox Haiti disaster appeal.

All admission proceeds from the annual event this Sunday 7 February will go to the Cornish charity instead of the house and garden restoration project, the Friends of Pencarrow have decided.

There will be a children’s treasure trail around the grounds, with hot drinks and soups to follow in the cafe.  Plus free parking, shop, raffle, snowdrop sales and homemade cakes and jams.

Sally, chairman of the Friends of Pencarrow and Jo, Pencarrow’s administrator, say:

“Each Shelterbox costs £490 and we’re aiming for two!  Please mention our appeal to anyone who may enjoy a good brisk walk through 50 fabulous acres flanked by snowdrops,catkins and the very first camellias.  After a miniature Ice Age, the first green shoots of recovery are definitely out there.”

As always, dogs will be welcome off-lead in the informal woodland with a treat waiting for them if they call in at the Pencarrow shop.

So much for the first signs of spring.  When the north wind blows in North Cornwall it strikes with a vengeance.

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s picking and packing team discovered this today as they battled against the elements to get this week’s veg boxes ready for our members.

First the root vegetables – the parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots – had to be dug up in the teeth of the gale. 

Then they had to be washed clean of the mud that enveloped them.  By hand. Outdoors. At the edge of the field. 

Try that in freezing conditions!

The adverse weather meant yet again the eagerly-anticipated purple sprouting broccoli wasn’t available from our suppliers. 

Mushrooms were also a little short, so we had to raid our own patch for cabbages. Jeremy Brown provided mustard greens.

In spite of these setbacks, the volunteer team remained very upbeat.  Special thanks to picking and packing supremo Trish and to Robert, Penny, Jennifer, Henrietta, Mike S, Gillian and Charlotte.

Members – please don’t forget Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s annual general meeting tonight in Egloshayle Pavilion, Wadebridge at 7.30 pm.  There’s ample parking behind the bowling club.

It’s your opportunity to remember our achievements and minor setbacks in 2009 and to hear about the funding applications that will have a bearing on the direction of our project in 2010.  You’ll also take part in the election of members prepared to work on our general committee.

You’ll be able to meet fellow members, ask questions, exchange views and share recollections of the journey we’ve made so far.  An image slide show will reflect the story of our first year.

We hope to keep the formal part of the meeting as brief as possible so we can concentrate on the social side of the evening. Tea, coffee and homemade cake will be provided.

Camel Community Supported Agriculture has received a warm thank you from St Mabyn Village Hall committee, which made a best-ever final total of £649.25 for hall funds at the Mistletoe Fair just before Christmas.

Our raffle stall contributed a modest £26 towards the total sum raised. The sole prize was a Camel CSA weekly vegetable box (what else!) full of fresh, seasonal produce. At the same time we took the opportunity to raise our public profile locally and chat with people about our pioneering growing-our-own-food project.

Our next fund-raising raffle will be at the Valentine’s Day Brunch being organised by St Mabyn Pre-School.  It’s on Sunday February 14 in St Mabyn Village Hall. Everyone is welcome and all proceeds will go to the pre-school.

What a relief to see snowdrops emerging in the woods between St Mabyn and St Kew Highway.

The ground is far too cold and saturated with melted ice and snow for us to start work yet on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s vegetable plot.

Once the earth warms up in late February / early March our volunteer growing team can begin preparing the ground, spreading compost and planting seed into cells to go in the polytunnel. 

In the meantime we’re continuing to harvest our own parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes and carrots as well as the remaining onions and shallots in store.  The rest of the weekly veg box contents are being sourced locally from growers in the immediate area.

Congratulations to our intrepid picking and packing team who braved the wintry conditions to prepare Camel CSA’s first vegetable boxes of 2010.

Only the onions in the boxes came from Camel CSA’s own share of the harvest.  Our dwindling crops of parsnips, carrots, Jerusalem artichokes and last of the beetroot are well and truly frozen into the ground.

We’re grateful to local supplier Richard Hore of Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick for providing such a variety of green vegetables – leeks, curly kale and savoy cabbage as well as carrots.  And to our expert grower Jeremy Brown who collected the potatoes from Burlerrow Farm in icebound St Mabyn.

We put together a total of 23 boxes for our members to pick up. Fortunately our site is next to the A39 “Atlantic Highway” which has been kept relatively clear from ice and snow.

Local food

The fact that we could provide fresh vegetables this week goes to show how important it is to be able to source food locally. 

Supply chains across the country may be interrupted by the big freeze, but we’ve been able to keep our veg box scheme going – with just a little help from our friends in north Cornwall.

As Making Local Food Work said this week in its response to the Government’s widely-reported new national food strategy: “Communities must be engaged in the future of food.”

Many thanks to picking & packing supremo Trish, who fetched the veg from Trebetherick, and to the team – Cathy, Charlotte, Mike H, Mike S, Penny and Robert.

And enjoy our heartwarming seasonal soup! Recipe No 26 – Leek soup with parmesan

Hoping you all have a very peaceful and enjoyable break over Christmas and the New Year.

Thanks to all the volunteers in 2009 – weeders and sowers, pickers and packers. Veg boxes start again on 8 January but no Sunday volunteering for the time being.

As Jane said:

“There are always fewer jobs during the winter months even when there is more in the ground than we currently have. The recent weather has left the ground so saturated that to work it in any way will only result in damaging the soil structure and getting everyone very muddy!”

And lastly, a date for your new 2010 diary: the Camel CSA Annual General Meeting is on Wednesday 27 January at Egloshayle Pavilions, Wadebridge, at 7.30 pm. The meeting will include a review of the year, election of officers, a slide show, and homemade refreshments.

As you might have noticed from the rather random selection of cardboard boxes we had to use, we were struggling to find standard-size boxes last Friday. If anyone has a secret stash of them, could you please pop them in to St Kew Harvest before this Friday? Many thanks.

Camel Community Supported Agriculture is holding a raffle at the St Mabyn Mistletoe Fair on Saturday.  And – no surprises – the prize is one of our medium-sized vegetable boxes!

We’re putting the £8 veg box on display to encourage new people to join our community food growing project.   As usual, the box is packed with fresh, seasonal produce. 

Some of this week’s box contents – the onions, shallots, cabbage, carrots and parsnips – are organically produced on our own plot at St Kew Highway. The salad bag, also grown to organic principles, comes from Jane Mellowship in New Polzeath, who is one of our expert growers.

The rest of the veg in the boxes were grown by two of Camel CSA’s local suppliers in north Cornwall.  Richard Hore at Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick, grew the broccoli, leeks, swede and romanesco cauliflower.  James Mutton at Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn supplied the potatoes.

Proceeds

The Mistletoe Fair is being held from 12 noon till 4 p.m. in St Mabyn Village Hall, St Mabyn, near Wadebridge.  Entry is free and all proceeds are going to village hall funds.

You’ll be able to pick up lots of ideas and buy Christmas presents and stocking fillers at the event, which is being opened by St Mabyn village crier Tony Dickinson. Apart from mistletoe and holly for sale there will be books, crafts, games, prizes, cards, jewellery, food, preserves, cakes and plants on display.

There will also be a tombola, children’s workshop and bran tub, and seasonal refreshments.

See you there!

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