Young and old alike – great fun was had by all at Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first apple juicing fest on Sunday.

We managed to produce more than 20 litres of delicious juice.  It was shared out among our volunteer team, who diligently washed, cut up, crushed and pressed a harvest of local apples.

Grateful thanks to Camel CSA members Peter and Jane, and to the National Trust, for loaning their traditional wooden Vigo apple crushers and presses. CSA core (!) group member Ian remarked later:

“It was a great morning and the fruits (or should that be juices?) of our labour have certainly gone down well with my family – so much so that our bottles are already nearly empty!” 

Antonina, Claire, Charlotte, Danny,     Ian,     Jane I,   Jane M, Jeremy B, Mark N, Mike H, Mike S, Paul
& Peter
were the volunteers.  We were aided and abetted by our young press gang – Carla, Charlie, Clementine, Finn, Keira and Seth.

Some CSAs in the US grow their own pomegranates.  Even with global warming, I don’t think it’ll ever come to that here in Cornwall. 

Compare Camel CSA’s share this week with the harvest from Beneficial Farms CSA in New Mexico: – Salad Mix, Radishes, Scallions, Turnips, Onions, Acorn Squash, Tomatoes, Red Delicious Apples, Sweet Pomegranates.

Pomegranate recipes from Beneficial Farms CSA include ginger and pomegranate muffins as well as pomegranate guacamole.  (What next, you ask.) 

See Poms for more intriguing recipes and pomegranate health tips.

Sweden turning stray rabbits into biofuel  Could this be the solution to Camel CSA’s rabbit problem?

(Thanks to Mike H for sharing this with us)

The dessert apples in Camel CSA’s vegetable boxes this week are a delicious old English variety called Lord Hindlip.  They were planted in our garden at St Mabyn some 40 or more years ago by Percy Dunstan, a smallholder.  His daughter, who still lives in the village, says they were his favourite.

Pomona Publications, which specialises in fine botanical art prints, describes this attractive-looking apple:

“A seedling from the Worcester estate of Lord Hindlip, introduced by the Watkins nurseries of Hereford in 1896. Lord Hindlip has beautifully coloured skin and a fine physique, broad shoulders tapering to a narrow base, with juicy flesh and a refreshing, tangy aromatic flavour.” 

Rosanne Sanders, in her classic book The English Apple, admires its particular taste:

“The fruit is a very late dessert type, with rich and distinctive vinous flavour.  Picking time is early to mid October and its season is December to March.”

Storage

Lord Hindlip is a late variety that benefits from being kept for a couple of weeks before eating.  (But I suggest you try one and decide for yourself.)

From my own experience, I recommend Rosanne Sanders’ method of storing apples in a clear plastic bag: 

“The material maintains high humidity and so prevents the fruits from shrivelling too quickly.  However, the apple must be allowed to breathe. 

The skin of the bag should be perforated with a hole the diameter of a pencil for every pound of fruit, and the top of the bag folded over rather than sealed.  Use clear polythene so that the apples can be seen and any rots removed if necessary.

The required conditions of coolness, darkness and ventilation still apply.”

We’ll be including the remainder of the Lord Hindlip harvest in the apple juice we’re going to produce on Camel CSA’s site at St Kew Highway on Sunday.  But we could do with some more.  So please –  if you know about any surplus apples going begging, do let us know.

We’ve located not just one but two fruit crushers and presses so we’re looking forward to Camel CSA’s apple juicing event this Sunday.

All members and their families are very welcome – children particularly so.  Just come to our site behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop between 10 a.m and 1 p.m.

Everyone will be able to have a hand in washing, cutting up, crushing and pressing the apples.

Please bring a clean plastic container to put the juice in.  You can either keep it in the fridge and drink it within 48 hours or freeze it in the container.

Wanted – more apples

We picked loads of apples last week in St Mabyn.  Thanks to Anne, Callum, Caroline, Charlotte, Kitty, Mark M, Mark N, Mike H, Mike S, Robert and Tess.   

The best of the fruit is going in this week’s share of the harvest.  The remainder will be turned into juice.

However we could do with some more.  The crushing and pressing process uses up a lot of fruit!  Around 20 lbs (10kg) of apples are needed to produce a gallon (4.5 litres) of juice.

So if if you know of any surplus apples going spare, please get in touch.  Even better, bring them along with you.

Click here to find out more about Vigo’s traditional fruit crushers and presses.

Compare this harvest of local food from Tucson Community Supported Agriculture in Arizona last Friday with the contents of the veg boxes from Camel CSA in Cornwall on the same day.

Tucson CSA’s planned harvest last week – Baby Swiss Chard, Bell Peppers or Cucumbers, Green Chiles (fresh), Green Tomatoes, Jack-O’-Lantern Pumpkin or Cushaw Squash, Radishes, Turnips (Hakurei or Purple Globe), Wheat Berries.

Camel CSA’s boxes last Friday – red onions, baby carrots, parsnips, Swiss chard, potatoes, leeks, cabbage, tenderstem broccoli, green peppers, cauliflower.

We’re devoting this Sunday’s volunteer session to picking apples in St Mabyn.

Camel Community Supported Agriculture members are invited to turn up at  between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Sunday.  Look out for the Camel CSA sign on the gate.  Or contact us.

We’re hoping to harvest enough apples to go in next week’s boxes and to turn into delicious, fresh apple juice the following Sunday.  If you’ve got any surplus apples of your own, we’d like you to bring them along then.

In the meantime we’re busy trying to source an apple crusher and press.  So if anyone out there can help us, please get in touch with one of our core (!) group.

There are quite a few jobs to be done on Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s veg plot this Sunday.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

“Firstly we need a fresh attack on the dock leaves in our legume and sweetcorn / squash sections. If we cultivate with the tractor we can loosen the roots, get them out and really work on eradicating them this winter ready for planting in spring. We also need to bag up the docks we’ve already removed.

“If it’s not too wet we need to strim around the boysenberries and tie up any stems still loose.

“Finally we would like to mark out where we plan to position the polytunnels so it is clear how much room is left for our permaculture triangle.  We aim to start getting under control any of that area not currently planted with brassicas by strimming, weeding and thickly mulching with straw, hay and cardboard.

“So fingers crossed for a beautiful, dry autumn day!”

Onion sets

Last Sunday a small team braved the steady Cornish drizzle to plant out onion sets, put up posts and wire and tie in the remaining boysenberries. 

Luckily we had the help of two “WWOOFers”.  No, not the four-legged variety!  

Helen and Rachel are volunteers from London who’ve signed up for the  World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) exchange network.  Farmers and horticulturalists offer food, accommodation and opportunities in return for volunteer help from people wanting to learn about organic lifestyles.

They were “lent” to us by Cathy and Dominic at South Penquite Farm, where they’d been working over the weekend.  Helen and Rachel are hoping to leave their jobs in London eventually to work on the land. We look forward to seeing them in Cornwall again soon.

Many thanks on Sunday to expert growers Mark N and Jane, as well as Charlotte, Mark M and Mike S.  Another team of stalwarts turned out for picking and packing day last Friday – p & p supremo Trish plus Charlotte, Gillian, Jenny, Leonie and Penny.

Our seasonal veg boxes will continue to be available to members throughout the winter months. 

Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s core group has decided that continuity of supply should be a top priority.  This is despite the fact that we’ve harvested most of the vegetables we’ve grown this year.

By the start of next year, we’ll have eaten all our own remaining parsnips, carrots, onions, celeriac, parsley and beetroot.  By then we will have only cabbages, kale, Brussels sprouts and (hopefully) some sprouting broccoli to fall back on.  That’s provided the rabbits leave some for us.

So the proportion of vegetables we buy in from other local growers will continue to increase significantly over the next few weeks.

Expanding

Our financial applications to the Lottery’s “Changing spaces” Local Food programme and the East Cornwall Local Action Group are about to be submitted.  Core group members have been furiously working out last-minute cash flow projections.  Then we face several nerve-racking weeks while we wait on tenterhooks to discover whether we’ve been successful. 

We need an injection of capital to realise our dream of expanding and consolidating our growing-our-own-food project. 

It will fund the purchase of equipment, materials and resources to set up a self-sustaining growing operation on our existing site.  It’ll also support the start-up costs of providing a training and educational programme for volunteers and local groups.

We want to employ an expert grower to manage cultivation, guide volunteers and oversee group visits to our St Kew Highway plot.

After the three-year funding period elapses, we’re confident we can be totally self-sustaining.  But we need that initial boost to invest in equipment like a small tractor, packing shed, bore hole, poly tunnels, tools and the all-important predator-proof fencing. 

However we’re well aware that there is only a 50% chance (at best) of getting Lottery money.  The competition is stiff: there have been so many applications for a share of the £50m pot of gold.

Committed

We’ve proved as a group that we can get a community agriculture project off the ground and keep the momentum going, come what may.

None of this would have been possible without such committed volunteer input from a large proportion of our members.  Membership now stands at just under 50 households. 

As well as the three expert growers, we reckon that we now have around 25 regular volunteers working at various administrative tasks during the week, tending the plot and cultivating the vegetables in all weathers on a Sunday, or picking and packing the boxes every Friday morning.

Along with the land so generously made available by the Brown family, our dedicated and loyal volunteers are our most valuable asset.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:

“On Sunday we’re planning to plant out onion sets.  It’ll make a change from weeding!  Also putting up posts and wire and tying in the remaining boysenberries.  

“See you there!” 

« Previous Page — Next Page »