This week everyone has:

* potatoes (1kg) (St Kew Harvest)
* spring onions (Camel CSA)
* peas (Camel CSA)
* purple/curly kale (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* coriander (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes will also have an extra kilogram of potatoes plus:
* calabrese (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

A great way of using the cucumbers that are growing so well in the CSA’s polytunnel. I halved the quantities of this recipe (from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook) for three of the cucumbers we had in this week’s boxes. It made three mustard-size jars. It should store for up to a year, but keep in the fridge once opened.

Ingredients for 5 small jars

3 large cucumbers
2 onions
50g salt
600ml white wine or distilled white vinegar
450g granulated sugar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp celery seeds
5 cloves
½ tsp ground turmeric

Method
Peel the cucumbers and cut lengthways into thinnish sticks about 6-7cm long. Thinly slice the onions into half moons. Put the cucumber and onions and salt into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle with salt. Cover with a weighted plate and leave for 2-3 hours.

Rinse the cucumber and onion in cold water and then let stand to drain. While they are draining, put all the remaining ingredients into a pan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cucumber and onion, bring to the boil and simmer for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat and lift the cucumber and onion out of the liquid. Put into warm sterilised jars. Return the liquid to the heat and boil rapidly for at least 10 minutes to reduce it. Pour the liquid over the cucumber in the jars and cover.

UPDATE: The next bed of peas weren’t quite ready yet but the pickers pulled up the older bed to harvest what remained on the plants – help yourselves to them! Equally, some of the broad beans will be quite small but you can cook these in the pod … And if you’re cooking very large ones, it’s worth shelling the beans once they’re cooked.

Expert grower Jane Mellowship apologises for the slightly low quality of last week’s peas. She explains that, as we only pick once a week, it’s a bit tricky to get them into the boxes at the ideal size. But this week’s should be better – being picked from the next bed of peas. The pickers will also be using up the broad beans so some of these might be quite large.

Everyone will have:
* potatoes (Mark Norman)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* lettuce (Camel CSA)
* radish (Camel CSA)
* perpetual spinach (Camel CSA)
* broad beans

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes plus:
* round cabbage (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

A Sarah Raven recipe – she uses tagliolini, but fine spaghetti or linguine would do just as well.

Preparation and cooking: about 20 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
250g broad beans, shelled weight
350g tagliolini or fine spaghetti
75g fried pancetta or prosciutto
2 tbsp finely chopped summer savory or thyme, to serve
grated parmesan, to serve

For the beurre blanc:
4 tbsp white wine
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 heaped tbsp finely chopped shallots
salt and black pepper
175g unsalted butter, cold and diced

Method
To make the beurre blanc, reduce the wine, vinegar, shallots, salt and pepper in a small saucepan until you have only a tablespoon of liquid left. Whisk in the butter bit by bit over a very low heat, until thick and creamy. Season. Keep it warm in a vacuum flask or bain-marie.

Bring a pan of water to the boil. Cook the beans in it for 4 minutes. Remove them, saving some of the cooking liquid, and cool them quickly in a sieve under cold running water. Pop some of the bright green beans out of their skin by pinching with thumb and forefinger – this adds a wonderful colour. Discard the skins and puree half the beans with a tablespoon of the cooking water.

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until just al dente, leaving a tablespoon or two of the cooking liquid in the pan. Add the bean puree, pancetta or prosciutto and the beurre blanc and stir. Season carefully.

Lastly, throw in the remaining beans and stir. Serve with summer savory or thyme and grated parmesan.

Everyone will have:
* onions (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Camel CSA)
* broad beans or peas (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)
* lettuce/rocket (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (St Kew Harvest)

Medium boxes will also have:
* extra potatoes
* radishes (Camel CSA)
* chard (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)

Large boxes will have:
an extra kilo of potatoes
extra onions, broad beans, kale, calabrese, radishes, chard, cucumber, rocket
* a large bunch of beetroot (Mark)

* = grown to organic principles

This week’s offering from Angela Hartnett’s ‘Midweek Suppers’ in the Guardian is ‘the ideal quick meal’. The other main ingredient is calabrese/broccoli.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking: 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 cucumber
25ml soy sauce
75ml sesame oil
10ml white wine vinegar
2 heads of broccoli cut into florets
2 tbsp olive oil
4 salmon fillets, skin removed, 120g each
½ bunch of dill, chopped
salt and pepper
horseradish cream, to serve

Method
Leaving the skin on, cut the cucumber into 8cm long strips, discarding any seeds. Place in a bowl and add the soy sauce, sesame oil and white wine vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper and allow to marinate.

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the broccoli and cook for five minutes until just cooked. Drain and allow to cool.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and cook the salmon for two minutes on each side, depending on the thickness (up to a maximum of five minutes in total). Remove from the pan and allow to cool until it is cold enough to handle. Then break it into flakes.

In a large bowl, mix the salmon, broccoli and marinated cucumber, tipping in as much of the marinade as you like. Finish with the chopped dill, mix well and check the seasoning.

Serve on a large plate with spoons of horseradish cream or grated fresh horseradish. Serve immediately.

A quick note from Mark Norman: the green onions need to be used reasonably quickly – unlike the ones that have been harvested and dried, they won’t keep.

This week everyone will have:

* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* green onion (Camel CSA)
* lettuce (Camel CSA)
* cabbage (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (Mark Norman)
calabrese (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

Standard boxes will also have:
* peas (Camel CSA)
* broad beans (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

A green and herby treat from Yotam Ottolenghi to celebrate the first of the season’s swiss chard.

Serves 4 as a starter
Preparation and cooking About 20 minutes

Ingredients
400g swiss chard, leaves only (or 600g spinach)
30g fresh parsley
20g fresh coriander
20g fresh dill
1½ tsp grated nutmeg
½ tsp sugar
3 tbsp plain flour
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 free-range eggs
salt and freshly ground black pepper
80g feta, broken into small pieces
60ml olive oil
1 lemon, cut into 4 wedges

Method
Bring a pan of salted water to a boil, and simmer the chard for five minutes. Drain, squeeze dry, then whizz in a food processor with the herbs, nutmeg, sugar, flour, garlic, eggs, a third of a teaspoon of salt and some pepper. Fold in the feta by hand.

Pour a tablespoon of oil into a frying pan over medium-high heat and spoon in three heaped tablespoons of the mix, one per fritter. Press down gently to shape into 7cm wide, 1cm thick fritters, and cook for three to four minutes, turning once, until they take on some colour. Transfer to kitchen paper and repeat with the remaining fritter mix and oil. Serve hot with a wedge of lemon.

This week sees the first courgettes from expert grower Mark Norman and the last of the french beans from the CSA’s polytunnel. Also potatoes from Jeremy Brown at St Kew Harvest. Everyone will have:

* courgettes (Mark)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* french beans (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* turnips (Camel CSA)
* cucumber (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (St Kew Harvest)

Standard boxes will also have:
* red kale (Camel CSA)
* peas (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

UPDATE: The peas aren’t quite ready despite the recent heavy rain. So, instead, all the boxes have a bunch of freshly-picked radishes and extra kale (lots of it!)

From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. It makes a good pudding, she says, served warm with cream, crème fraîche or Greek yoghurt. You can make it in advance and reheat it gently, covered with a piece of foil.

Preparation and cooking: about 45 minutes

Serves 6-8

Ingredients
200g butter, plus a little more for the flan tin
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
200g ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g blackcurrants, topped and tailed
icing sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Butter a 25cm loose-bottomed flan tin and line the base with a circle of baking parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar in a food processor or with a hand beater until the mixture is pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and, after each addition, fold in some of the ground almonds and a few drops of vanilla extract. Put the mixture in the flan tin and scatter over the blackcurrants. Their flavour is intense, so don’t be tempted to use more fruit.

Cook for 30 minutes until golden and just firm and, before serving, sieve over some icing sugar.

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