November 5, 2010
Nigel Slater describes celeriac in his Tender cookbook: ‘Knobbly, whiskery and impenetrable, its roots curled round its feet like a viper’s nest, it poses something of a problem for the newcomer’. Thankfully he also gives this good recipe for a variation on the classic French remoulade. First off, though, you’ll have to ‘Brush off the encrusted soil, hack away at the thick, warty skin …’
Radish sprouts are sprouted seeds with a spicy heat. If you can’t get hold of them, you could sprout your own in a salad sprouter. Equally, you could use any sprouted seed.
Preparation/cooking: half an hour
Serves 2 as a light main course
Ingredients
for the dressing:
250ml crème fraîche
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp grain mustard
for the salad:
large handful parsley leaves
about 500g celeriac
8 rashers smoked bacon
50g radish sprouts or mung bean sprouts
Method
Mix the crème fraîche, lemon juice and mustard together and stir in a little salt and black pepper.
Roughly chop the parsley. Peel the celeriac and shred it coarsely. This is probably easiest with a food processor and coarse grater attachment. Grill the bacon until it is starting to crisp and the fat has turned gold, then cut it into pieces the size of a postage stamp. Stir the celeriac, radish sprouts, parsley, bacon and dressing together. Serve while the bacon is still hot.
We will be having:
Small boxes:
* celeriac (Camel CSA)
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Benbole Farm)
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
mixed bag of kale (Restharrow Farm)
onions (Restharrow Farm)
Standard boxes will have extra potatoes and celeriac plus:
* calabrese (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)
* leeks (Jeremy)
* = grown to organic principles
November 2, 2010
The sun shone on the launch of Camel CSA’s £60,000 Local Food and ECLAG grants.
Children carved pumpkin lanterns for Halloween while work continued on our first big polytunnel. Linda Emmett, manager of the East Cornwall Local Action Group, presented us with our funding plaque. The Soil Association’s Traci Lewis, who has given us valuable support, was also a guest at the event.
Pictures: Shayne House
October 29, 2010
There’s been lots of media coverage about our Lottery and ECLAG grants over the past few days.
Camel residents grow their own – BBC News video
Green-fingered enthusiasts in north Cornwall are celebrating – James Churchfield Show 28-10-10 – BBC Radio Cornwall
Cornish vegetable home-growing scheme awarded £60,000 in grants – Western Morning News
Vegetable group wins grants – Cornish Guardian
Community Supported Agriculture near Wadebridge awarded £60,000 in funding – Wadebridge People
Community Supported Agriculture – words & pictures and that… blog
Watch all Camel CSA’s videos
A recipe from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook in which you can use butternut or any winter squash.
Serves 2
Preparation/cooking: about 1½ hours
Ingredients
1 medium-sized squash
generous drizzle of olive oil
salt and black pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds, freshly ground
3 tbsp crème fraîche
3 tbsp chopped sage or chives
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/gas 6. Cut the squash in half. Drizzle the cut flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and cumin. Bake, cut side upwards and covered with foil, on a baking tray in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Prick it with a fork to check that the flesh is soft. If not, give it a few minutes more.
Take the squash out of the oven, lower the setting to 180C/gas 4 and leave squash until cool enough for you to handle.
Scoop out the seeds and stringy bits, and discard, then scoop out most of the flesh with a tablespoon into a bowl and mix this with the crème fraîche and 2½ tbsp of the sage (chives are good in summer). Best to do this with a fork, or give the mixture a quick zap in a processor to get rid of any lumps of squash. Check the seasoning. Spoon the squash back into the empty skins.
Scatter the parmesan and remaining herbs over the top and then bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the top starts to look brown and crunchy.
A special treat this week of shiitake mushrooms from Camel CSA member Mark Malcolmson.
Small boxes will have:
* shiitake mushrooms (Mark)
potatoes (Benbole Farm)
* mixed squash – two of Dumpling/Celebration/Harlequin (Jeremy Brown, St Kew Harvest)
* leeks (Jeremy)
* mixed bag of kale (Jeremy)
Standard boxes will have the same with extra potatoes plus:
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
NOTE: the carrots are damaged by carrot root fly but there should still be enough undamaged carrot to use
* = grown to organic principles
October 27, 2010
These videos are about what we do and how we make local food work within our north Cornwall community. They were filmed at the Lottery and EU funding launch on our site behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.
David Wilcock of FoodiesSW recorded the first two videos on his smart phone. He also did own audio report of the event. Camel CSA member Shayne House videoed BBC Spotlight reporter John Danks as he was filming us.
Watch all Camel CSA’s videos
We celebrated our £60,000 Lottery and EU funding success today on our plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.
Camel Community Supported Agriculture members are celebrating success! Our growing-own-food scheme has won £60,000 funding.
We’ve been granted £47,984 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Local Food Programme and £12,484 from the East Cornwall Local Action Group (ECLAG) to help us expand.
The Growing Food, Growing People project will reflect our main aims: to provide fresh, seasonal local food, reduce food miles and to reconnect people with the land where their food is grown.
We’ll be offering social, learning and volunteering opportunities for disadvantaged and unemployed people in north Cornwall. They’ll find out how to sow, grow, harvest and prepare their own vegetables. This will happen during educational sessions and site visits that we’re organising in partnership with schools, charities and other local organisations.
The grant funding will enable us to employ professional growers to cultivate the site and to provide advice and assistance to our volunteers. We’ll also be investing in three poly tunnels, a bore hole and water tank, irrigation system, sheds, a small tractor, rabbit-proof fencing and a variety of horticultural tools.
We’re launching our expansion today on our plot behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway.
October 22, 2010
It’s been a productive end to the week on Camel CSA’s site at St Kew Highway in north Cornwall.
While the new polytunnel framework was being painstakingly put together, the volunteer picking and packing team were harvesting our own homegrown carrots, sweetcorn and beetroot from the veg plot.
As the freshly-dug carrots are so muddy they all need to be washed before they can be weighed and placed in the veg boxes. This Friday the job fell to Penny and Anne, who tackled it with characteristic goodwill and enthusiasm.
The eagerly-awaited polytunnel will house all the winter salad crops we’ve been sowing – corn salad and rocket, as well as two varieties of both mustard and mizuna. It’s the first of three big polytunnel constructions that our expert growers Jeremy and Mark N are overseeing at the far end of our two-acre site over the next 18 months.
Also on our shopping list are a small seeding tunnel, cold frames, a borehole, water tank, pump, irrigation, rabbit fencing, tractor, plough, cultivator, rotovator, storage sheds and other vital horticultural equipment.
