This week everyone will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* squash (Camel CSA)
* savoy cabbage (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* chillies (Camel CSA)
* apples (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will also have:
* purple sprouting broccoli/calabrese (Camel CSA)
* florence fennel (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Keep an eye out for our stunning new posters designed by Emma Julian of Pickle Design in Wadebridge. 

They’re helping to spread the word about our community grow-your-own project and weekly vegetable box scheme in north Cornwall.

It’s a great way to support local food and save food miles! Anyone living within a 10-mile radius of St Kew Highway is welcome to join us. We grow a range of vegetables to organic principles. The weekly boxes are ready to collect by 12 noon every Friday.

From Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new River Cottage Veg Everyday cookbook. ‘The contrast of sweet, caramelised carrots and zesty gremolata is brilliant – and it looks good too,’ he says. Good with young, small carrots but fine with bigger ones if you cut them into long, thin batons.

Serves 4

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: about an hour

Ingredients
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
30g butter
500g young carrots, larger ones halved lengthways
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the gremolata:
½ garlic clove
small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Put the oil and butter in a large roasting dish and place in the oven until the butter melts. Add the carrots, season generously with salt and pepper and toss well. Cover with foil and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes, until the carrots are tender.

Take the dish out of the oven, remove the foil and give the carrots a stir. Roast, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, until they start to brown and caramelise.

While the carrots are in the oven, make the gremolata. Roughly chop the garlic on a large board, then add the parsley and lemon zest. Use a large, sharp knife to chop and mix the three ingredients together until very fine and well mixed.

As soon as the carrots are ready, toss them with the gremolata and serve straight away.

This week, everyone will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* fennel (Camel CSA)
* calabrese/purple sprouting broccoli (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* dessert apples – ‘Lord Hindlip’ variety (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will also have:
* sweet peppers (Camel CSA)
* aubergines (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* curly parsley (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

If you’ve carved out your pumpkin for Hallowe’en and you want a change from making soup with the flesh, why not try this recipe for Pumpkin pie from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. She claims it’s the best pumpkin pie she’s ever tasted.

Alternatively, try Camel CSA’s Pumpkin and apple curry or some of the other recipes linked to from that page.

Serves 6

Preparation: about an hour
Cooking: 55 minutes

Ingredients
For the pastry:
50g butter
100g plain flour
1 egg yolk, beaten
icing sugar for dusting

For the filling:
450g pumpkin flesh, cut into chunks
100g soft brown sugar
pinch of salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tbsp honey
grated zest of 1 lemon and juice of ½ lemon
grated zest of 1 orange and juice of ½ orange
3 eggs, beaten

Method
To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and just enough very cold water to gather it into a ball. Roll out the pastry and line a 20cm loose-bottomed flan tin. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Prick the bottom of the tart with a fork, cover with greaseproof paper and weigh this down with some rice or baking beans. Bake the pastry case blind for about 20-25 minutes. Take it out of the oven, but leave the oven on, and let it cool slightly, then remove the rice or beans and paper.

Meanwhile make the filling. Having removed its seeds, steam the pumpkin until tender. Put the pumpkin and all the remaining ingredients except the eggs into a food processor and puree until smooth. Add the eggs and blend. Pour into the pastry case and bake for 55 minutes, until a skewer comes out of the centre clean. Allow to cool and dust with icing sugar.

This week everyone will have:
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* pumpkin (Mark Norman)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* chillies (Camel CSA)
* calabrese/purple sprouting broccoli (Camel CSA)
* fennel bulb (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will also have:
* cauliflower (Camel CSA)
* radicchio (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* leeks (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

Another of Angela Hartnett’s mid-week supper suggestions in the Guardian‘s Food & drink section (the Murano chef patron is fast becoming a favourite of ours).

It’s a variation on the classic Italian broccoli al peperoncino or red hot broccoli and pairs up the calabrese/broccoli and fresh red chillies in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week.

Angela advises: “The chicken can be served hot or cold, but you want the cooking juices to soak into the broccoli. It’s spicy, so tone down the chilli if you want.”

Serves four
Preparation and cooking time: 50-60 minutes

Ingredients
1 chicken, jointed, so you’ll have eight pieces – but halve each breast to make 10
2 tsp sweet paprika
5 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
1 small onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
1 sprig of rosemary
1 lemon cut into quarters
300ml white wine
200ml water (chicken stock if you have it)
1 tsp sliced fresh chilli
500g broccoli
Freshly milled salt and pepper

Method
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and a sprinkle of some of the paprika powder.

Heat a pan, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the butter and brown the chicken all over. Remove from the pan, add the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary and sauté for two minutes.

Add the rest of the paprika, then after a minute return the chicken to the pan, along with the lemon. Pour the white wine into the pan, stirring well. Allow the wine to reduce, then add the water or stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken breasts as soon as they’re cooked, to stop them becoming dry, and allow the rest to cook for another five minutes.

When all the chicken is cooked, leave to one side while you prepare the broccoli. Bring some salted water to the boil, and blanch the broccoli in it until just cooked. Drain the broccoli, then heat four tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan. Sauté the sliced chilli for one minute before adding the broccoli and tossing them together.

Season, and serve on a large plate with the chicken on top, pouring over any extra juices.

Once again, apart from the potatoes and bay leaves, all of this week’s contents come from the CSA’s plot. Everyone will have:

1kg potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* sweetcorn
* florence fennel
* swiss chard
* tomatoes
* chillies
* bay leaves (Trish) (part dried but need further drying out in warm airy place before storing in airtight containers)
* aubergine
* onions
* calabrese/purple sprouting broccoli
* carrots
* salad leaves

Standard boxes will also have:
* borlotti beans
* radicchio
* leeks
* parsley

* = grown to organic principles

FRIDAY UPDATE – no borlotti beans afte all, I’m afraid, as there weren’t enough to go round

I love autumn. And there’s no better time of year to be involved in a community agriculture project.

The veg boxes are bursting with our own-grown Cornish produce – including delicacies like raddichio and fresh borlotti beans.

At this moment my kitchen is filling with a tantalising spicy aroma –  a mix of allspice, ginger, pepper, brown sugar, vinegar – coming from a large pan of chutney bubbling on the stove.

The green tomato and apple chutney is being made with our surplus produce – using unripe tomatoes from the polytunnel, apples from our adopted orchard and onions and garlic from our dry store.

Other Camel CSA members are also busy making pickles and preserves from other vegetables. Henrietta has a garage full of runner bean chutney, turnip pickle and tomato marmalade. Cath’s about to start producing chilli oil (oh boy, do we have a glut of chillis!)

We’re not doing anything new, of course. Preserving is a traditional way of using up fruit and veg surpluses that helps provide some variety in the winter months and during the “hungry gap” in spring.

So look out for all these delicious goodies as they start appearing from Christmas onwards in our weekly veg boxes.

Our community supported agriculture project has a guest slot this Wednesday evening at the Eden Project’s Cafe Conversations.

Eden’s new eco cafe is in St Austell town centre. Its free event this Wednesday 19 October from 6.30 – 8.30pm is about the joys of growing, cooking and eating community food. 

I’ll be talking about what we’ve learned at Camel CSA about running a community grow-your-own project – the successes and the setbacks. The other guest is Clive Cobb, creative thinker behind Town Mill Bakery in Dorset and the new Eden Bakery.

In the Eden Project’s words: “Whether you’re a food producer, aspiring grower or just curious to know a bit more, come and join the conversation.”

Why not join us? Find the Eden Project Cafe here.

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