Our double-value Christmas boxes will all have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
sprout stalk (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* salad bag (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* squash (Camel CSA)
* savoy cabbage (Camel CSA)
* swede (Camel CSA)
* chilli string (Camel CSA)
green tomato and apple chutney (Camel CSA)
tomato marmalade (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will have additional potatoes plus
* leeks (Camel CSA)
* red cabbage (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
jar of St Mabyn honey

NB next veg box day is Friday 6 January 2012

* = grown to organic principles

Camel CSA members got together as planned to create around 40 decorative chilli strings for our Christmas vegetable boxes.

At a ready guess we used up more than 4,000 surplus chillies harvested from the magnificent crop in our second polytunnel.

The garlands make beautiful swags for the mantelpiece, table centrepieces or runners, or Christmas tree decorations.

And, of course, they can be eaten!

Festive greetings to the chilli stringing team – Anne, Caroline, Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Evie, Jenny, Kitty, Mark, Penny, Robert, Tess and Trish F.

Everyone will be having:

potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* celeriac (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* savoy cabbage (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* turnip (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* leeks (Camel CSA)
* squash (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

A recipe from Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace, shown in the BBC’s recent Great British Food Revival series.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients
For the gnocchi:
300g floury potatoes
50g plain flour, plus extra for dusting

For tomato sauce:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped1 tbsp tomato purée
1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes
pinch of sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepperbasil leaves, to garnish

Method
For the gnocchi, cook the potatoes in their skins in a pan of boiling water for 10-15 minutes, or until tender (a knife should slide in without much resistance). Drain the potatoes and set aside until cool enough to handle. Peel the potatoes and pass through a potato ricer into a bowl, then measure out 250g for the gnocchi.

For the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil in a small pan and gently fry the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes, or until softened but not coloured. Add the tomato purée and chopped tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat slightly and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with a pinch of sugar and some salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Meanwhile, tip the potato onto a floured work surface and knead in the flour until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Divide into four equal pieces and roll out into thick sausage shapes. Cut each sausage into 2cm/1in pieces and press with the tines of a fork to create a pattern.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and add the gnocchi. Cook the gnocchi for 1-2 minutes, or until they float to the top. Remove with a slotted spoon and divide among serving bowls.

Spoon over the tomato sauce and garnish with fresh basil to serve.

This week everyone will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* salad bag (Camel CSA)
* sprout stalk (Camel CSA) – do use the tasty top too!
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* leeks (Camel CSA)
* turnip bunch (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus
* parsley (Camel CSA)
* purple sprouting broccoli/swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* beetroot bunch (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Camel CSA’s vegetable boxes have been overflowing with a surplus of produce for months now.

All kinds of chutneys and preserves have been made from the veg gluts, but we’ve been almost defeated by the enormous surplus of chillies cultivated in our second polytunnel.

The problem with chillies is that a little goes a very long way.

They feature regularly in our weekly vegetable boxes. Volunteer veg packer Henrietta has made some into chilli jam. Volunteer grower Mark M (who loves to crunch them up raw) pickled some chillies in vinegar. Membership secretary Cath experimented with chilli oil.

All these culinary enterprises proved extremely expensive and time-consuming. I still have hundreds – no thousands – of chillies drying out slowly on the laundry rack above my boiler at home.

Enter now the artistic wing of our food-growing social enterprise.

The latest plan is to turn the chilli surplus into natural edible garlands to go in our Christmas veg boxes. After the festivities are over, the chillies can be plucked from the decorative string and used in cooking.

We’re holding a chilli stringing evening this coming week, when the hundreds of chillis will be threaded on to fishing line. We’re supplying the wine, the chillies, the materials and the surgical gloves(!) Camel CSA members are providing the labour.

I’m amazed at what people charge for hot chilli garlands, centrepieces and edible chilli and herb garlands, so I’ll be interested to see how many we can string together in just one evening!

With a selection of roots in our boxes this week – and with the weather getting colder – it seems a good idea to try this ‘comfort food’ recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day. He says that while it’s not exactly ‘light’, it’s certainly less rich than a creamy dauphinoise-style gratin.

You could also substitute other seasonal roots such as Jerusalem artichokes, carrots or swede which would all work well. Good served with some big flat field mushrooms simply baked with some butter, garlic and cheese, and some good bread.

Serves 4

Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: about an hour

Ingredients
30g butter
2 onions, halved and sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 small celeriac
2 large potatoes
3 large parsnips
a couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves only, chopped
3 sage leaves, finely chopped
about 1.2 litres vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Preheat the oven the 180C/gas 4. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan and use some of it to grease a large gratin dish. Add the onions to the pan and sauté over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until soft, then add the garlic and cook gently for a further minute or two.

Meanwhile, peel the celeriac, potatoes and parsnips and cut into slices the thickness of a 10p piece, slicing the parsnips lengthways. Spread out the celeriac in the gratin dish, season generously with salt and pepper, then sprinkle with half the onions and half the herbs. Layer the parsnips on top, then scatter the remaining onions and herbs on top and finish with a layer of potatoes.

Bring the stock to a simmer and add some salt and pepper, then pour over the vegetables to barely cover them (you may not need all of it). Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and continue to bake for another 30 minutes or so until the vegetables are cooked.

At this point, if there is still liquid covering the potatoes, spoon off a little and return the dish to the oven for 15 minutes or so, to brown the potatoes on the top. Serve piping hot.

This week everyone will have:
potatoes ((Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* salad bag (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* celeriac (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* squash (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* swede (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* purple sprouting broccoli or red cabbage (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Now I know why oriental salad leaves are so expensive in the supermarkets!

We’re cultivating an assortment of indoor-grown oriental and other baby leaves in our first polytunnel.

These “cut and come again” crops should last us until early spring (with a gap when they stop for a rest in the short, dull days of mid-winter).

There’s quite a variety – spicy red mustard, mizuna and mibuna, pak choi, curly endive, baby chard, parsley (“French” flat as well as curly-leaved) and mixed lettuce.

But it takes two or more people around two hours every Friday morning to pick enough leaves for the 35 or more weekly vegetable boxes. It requires nimble fingers and is incredibly labour intensive.

There’s one big mitigating factor about all this for the volunteer pickers. Salad leaf picking is guaranteed warm, dry work which is also out of the wind.

Arguably much more satisfactory than parsnip, leek or carrot lifting which are cold, wet and muddy jobs.

Another British cookery classic – this time from the late Jane Grigson. This was one of her favourite recipes and tastes all the better the day after you make it.

Her daughter Sophie Grigson is carrying on the tradition and makes this soup too. For the carnivores among you – it does bring out the flavour if you use beef stock, rather than chicken or vegetable.

You can substitute the freshly-ground spice mixture with a half tablespoon of curry powder or curry paste, but it’s not nearly as good as the real thing. I use creme fraiche rather than whipping cream.

Serves: 4

Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 medium sized onion
1 large clove of garlic, halved
1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into chunks
45 g butter
1 tbsp plain flour
A pinch of black pepper
1 litre beef stock (or chicken or vegetable stock)
150 ml whipping cream
A handful of chopped chives or parsley

For the spice mixture:
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
0.25 tsp fenugreek seeds
0.5 tsp dried red chilli flakes
1 tsp turmeric

Method
To make the spice mix, dry fry the first three spices in a small, heavy frying pan over a moderate heat until toasted and aromatic. Tip into a bowl and leave to cool, and then grind to a powder with the chilli and turmeric. Store in an airtight jar.

Sweat the onion, garlic and parsnip gently in the butter, with the lid on the pan, for 10 minutes. Stir in the flour and a tablespoon of the spice blend, plus a little salt. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally.

Pour in the stock, gradually. Bring up to the boil and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the parsnip is very tender.

Liquidise the mixture, adding water or more stock if you have any to hand, until he soup has a similar consistency to double cream. Taste and correct the seasoning.

Reheat when needed, stir in the cream and serve scattered with chives or parsley.

• More parsnip recipes from Camel CSA

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