July 8, 2010
and peas and cucumber too.
Contents of our vegetable boxes this week are provided by Mark Norman, Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest and Camel CSA’s own plot, all of it grown to organic principles.
Small vegetable boxes will have:
potatoes – Pentland Javelin (Mark)
carrots (Mark)
blackcurrants (Mark)
peas (Jeremy)
cucumber (Jeremy)
broad beans (Camel CSA)
salad bags (Camel CSA)
Standard veg boxes will also have:
extra potatoes
mixed courgettes (Jeremy)
marrow (Jeremy)
swiss chard/perpetual spinach (Camel CSA)
July 7, 2010
Camel CSA members are hosting our own Big Lunch again this year on Sunday 18 July.
It’s a wonderful opportunity for us to get together in a social setting. Join us on our site at St Kew Highway from 12.30pm onwards.
Please do come along to the Big Lunch and feel welcome to invite friends and family. All you need to do is bring some seasonal food and drink and something to sit on. Be prepared to share your lunch with the rest of us!
Last year in spite of the terrible weather we had a fantastic time at South Penquite Farm, Blisland at the kind invitation of our treasurer Cathy Fairman. We even managed some musical entertainment.
This year, fingers crossed, we can have this Eden Project-inspired event outdoors beside our vegetable-growing plot, next to St Kew Harvest Farm Shop. We’ll provide a very simple activity for the children (maybe some more straw bales…) And if anyone would like to bring a musical instrument or two, that would be great.
July 3, 2010
After a welcome day of rain, we won’t need to do any hand watering in the near future. However, as usual there are plenty of things for our volunteer growing team to do on our site at St Kew Highway this Sunday.
Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:
Jobs for Sunday include sowing salad for our own mixed salad bags, coriander and bulb fennel. None of which particularly thrive in hot, dry conditions, which is exactly what it has been of late. So when germinated the crops are going to need some extra care to ensure they don’t get tempted to bolt!
And of course there is always a little weeding to be done. See you Sunday.
July 2, 2010
Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first veg boxes were distributed exactly a year ago today.
Over the last 12 months our volunteer picking and packing team have braved extreme conditions – frost, snow, hail, gales, mud, rain and shine – to prepare the weekly vegetable boxes for our members.
Together with our growers and local suppliers in north Cornwall they ensure that the quality of the veg box contents remains of a consistently high standard.
Between us we’re growing a fantastic variety of fresh seasonal vegetables.
Our veg box scheme has vacancies for new members. So if you’re interested in a regular weekly supply of locally-grown food, please contact us.
We’ll make sure you feel very welcome.
A recipe from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook which she says came from Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. A good way of using those beetroot leaves and a nice change from chard or spinach.
Serves 4
Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes
Ingredients
450g beetroot greens
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 fresh green chilli, cut into long thin slivers
3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into long slivers
½ tsp salt
Method
Strip the beetroot greens from the stalks and cut them into fine ribbons.
Put the oil in a large pan and warm over a high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the chilli and ginger. Stir them around for a minute and then add the greens.
Cover the pan, turn the heat to low and cook until the leaves have wilted. Add the salt and stir, then add 4 tbsp water and bring to a simmer.
Cover again and cook on a low heat, stirring occasionally, until the greens are tender.
July 1, 2010
Yes, it’s a whole year since we packed our very first vegetable boxes …
Treats in store this week come from our professional growers Mark Norman of Bodmin, Jane Mellowship of Polzeath and Jeremy Brown of St Kew Harvest as well as some of Camel CSA’s own produce, all of it grown to organic principles.
In the small birthday veg boxes:
potatoes ‘Pentland Javelin’ (Mark)
garlic (Mark)
lettuce (Jeremy)
spring greens (Jeremy)
broad beans (Jeremy)
spring onions (Jane)
swiss chard (Camel CSA)
The standard birthday vegetable boxes will have:
extra potatoes (Mark)
courgettes (Mark)
beetroot (Mark)
salad bags (CSA)
Update: Please make sure you wash the leaves in the salad bags, as some are a little muddy after yesterday’s very welcome burst of rain.
June 30, 2010
It’s proved an uphill task to cultivate vegetables during this long spell of hot, dry weather. Some very welcome rain is now on the way, but the pace of growing has been very slow.
In the meantime our volunteer growers have been forced to water in the newly-sown seeds and seedlings by hand, which is a thoroughly time-consuming process.
The upside is that the annual weeds have been easier to keep at bay. This hasn’t prevented the growing team from having to take it in turns to handweed endless rows of tiny carrots and parsnips – not the most popular of jobs!
Over the past few weeks we’ve planted carrots, parsnips, sweetcorn, Swiss chard, perpetual spinach, beetroot, celeriac, self-blanching celery, salad leaves and bee borage. We’re about to sow some bulb fennel, parsley and coriander.
The over-wintered broad beans are cropping well and the Jerusalem artichokes are growing strongly. The borage is showing its intense blue blossom and beginning to attract lots of bees.
The remainder of the summer crops for our weekly veg boxes are being cultivated mostly by our three expert growers – Jeremy Brown at St Kew Harvest, Jane Mellowship in New Polzeath and Mark Norman in Bodmin.
We’re also buying in delicious Cornish strawberries from pick-your-own Treworder Fruit at Treworder Barton, Egloshayle, Wadebridge.
June 27, 2010
One of Camel CSA’s expert growers has been showing St Mabyn Toddler Group how to grow their own food.
Jane Mellowship’s been helping out on the Cornwall Pre-School Learning Alliance Healthy Tots project, which has support from the Big Lottery Local Food programme.
The green-fingered toddlers and their mothers are sowing and growing a variety of veg seeds and plants in containers outside St Mabyn Village Hall – including potatoes, spring onions, lettuces, runner beans, radishes, tomatoes and carrots.
Jenny Ahern, the Pre-School Learning Alliance development worker for north Cornwall said:
The purpose of the project is to bring parents and children together to demonstrate how foods can be grown in a variety of ways and how you don’t need a large garden to do that.
Jane’s been brilliant. It’s been so much fun. It’s proved how easy it is to grow your own veg, how simple it is and what a difference it makes.
June 26, 2010
This quick and refreshing salad is ideal for people who don’t like the after-taste of raw onion. It comes from a useful little book called Seasonal Salads by Paddy Byrne and David Scott, founders of the renowned Everyman Bistro in Liverpool. “Raw beetroot and cooked beetroot have very different flavours and texture and this salad cleverly makes use of both,” they say.
Serves 4
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 40-45 minutes
Ingredients
1 large cooked beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large raw beetroot (or several small ones) peeled and grated
1 large eating apple, cored and cut into thin matchsticks
juice of half a lemon
5ml (1 tsp) grated lemon peel
25ml vegetable oil
salt and black pepper to taste
Method
Reserve a little of both types of beetroot and mix the remainder with the apple. Add the lemon juice, oil and salt and pepper to taste and toss the salad. Mix the lemon peel with the reserved beetroot and use it to garnish the salad.
Variation
Those people who don’t care for the taste of raw beetroot could try it with just par-boiled beetroot. Cook raw beetroot in plenty of water until the outer skin will just rub off. Now drain them and cool under running water until they are quite cold. The centres remain bright red and crisp while the outer areas are softer and a darker ruby red. Grate the beetroot and continue as directed in the recipe.
Try these other beetroot dishes from Camel CSA’s recommended recipes.
June 24, 2010
As we complete our first year of veg boxes, we’ll be getting some tasty treats this week – including beetroot and courgettes from Mark Norman in Bodmin and Cornish strawberries from Treworder Fruit at Treworder Barton, Egloshayle, Wadebridge.
Small boxes will have:
* new potatoes (St Kew Harvest)
* lettuce (Camel CSA/St Kew Harvest)
* beetroot (Mark Norman)
* courgettes (Mark)
Cornish strawberries (Treworder Fruit)
* cabbage/spring greens (St Kew Harvest)
Standard boxes will also have:
* extra new potatoes (St Kew Harvest)
* broad beans (Camel CSA)
* cauliflower (Mark)
* turnips (Mark)
* = grown to organic principles
