More tasty veg in this year’s penultimate box.

The small boxes will have:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
black kale (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

The medium boxes will also have:
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* Jerusalem artichokes (Camel CSA)
cabbage (Rest Harrow Farm)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm)

Camel Community Supported Agriculture is holding a raffle at the St Mabyn Mistletoe Fair on Saturday.  And – no surprises – the prize is one of our medium-sized vegetable boxes!

We’re putting the £8 veg box on display to encourage new people to join our community food growing project.   As usual, the box is packed with fresh, seasonal produce. 

Some of this week’s box contents – the onions, shallots, cabbage, carrots and parsnips – are organically produced on our own plot at St Kew Highway. The salad bag, also grown to organic principles, comes from Jane Mellowship in New Polzeath, who is one of our expert growers.

The rest of the veg in the boxes were grown by two of Camel CSA’s local suppliers in north Cornwall.  Richard Hore at Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick, grew the broccoli, leeks, swede and romanesco cauliflower.  James Mutton at Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn supplied the potatoes.

Proceeds

The Mistletoe Fair is being held from 12 noon till 4 p.m. in St Mabyn Village Hall, St Mabyn, near Wadebridge.  Entry is free and all proceeds are going to village hall funds.

You’ll be able to pick up lots of ideas and buy Christmas presents and stocking fillers at the event, which is being opened by St Mabyn village crier Tony Dickinson. Apart from mistletoe and holly for sale there will be books, crafts, games, prizes, cards, jewellery, food, preserves, cakes and plants on display.

There will also be a tombola, children’s workshop and bran tub, and seasonal refreshments.

See you there!

A good way of bringing out the flavour of winter carrots.

Serves 6

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 30 minutes

Ingredients
1kg carrots
50g butter
pinch of salt and black pepper
1 tsp sugar
plenty of chopped parsley
juice of 1 lemon

Method
Peel the carrots and slice them. Put them in a saucepan with the butter, salt, pepper and sugar. Just cover with cold water and let them boil until the water has evaporated and they are tender and glazed.

Stir in masses of chopped parsley and the lemon juice to taste.

Hope you managed to find your veg boxes last week without getting too muddy. We didn’t want the contents to float away outside. They’ll be in the same place tomorrow, in the small polytunnel beyond the geese.

This week the small boxes will have:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* cabbage (Camel CSA)
swede (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
broccoli/purple sprouting broccoli (Rest Harrow Farm)
potatoes – Wilja variety (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)

The medium boxes will also have:
* salad (Jane Mellowship)
romanesco cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)

* = grown to organic principles

They slave away in all weathers on our behalf, battling against the Cornish elements.  Wind, rain or sun, they ensure Camel CSA’s weekly veg boxes are ready by midday every Friday.

I’m referring of course to our intrepid picking and packing team of volunteers.   

The digging squad has had to endure strong winds, driving rain and ferociously muddy conditions in the last month while harvesting parsnips and carrots at St Kew Highway.

The packing squad has also had to overcome some challenges, as their temporary shelter blew away in a gale.  Sorting and weighing is now being done in the shelter of a borrowed polytunnel generously provided by Jeremy Brown, one of our expert growers.

In spite of these setbacks, the team seems to have remained remarkably cheerful.  And it’s not always noses to the grindstone.

Trish says:

“One week we were finished at 11!   At least an hour earlier than ever before.   And the sun shone…”

We owe a grateful thanks to all of them over the past few weeks –  picking and packing supremo Trish  and to Carla, Cathy, Henrietta, Jennie, Mike H, Mike S, Penny, Robert and Steve.

Hands on

Last Friday we were glad for additional help from Rosa, the latest in a series of WWOOFers “lent” to us by Camel CSA members Dominic and Cathy at South Penquite Farm on Bodmin Moor.

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is an exchange network. It encourages farmers and horticulturalists to offer food, accommodation and opportunities in return for volunteer help from people wanting hands-on experience of organic lifestyles.

Rosa’s come from Sweden. She’s here to learn English and wants to stay in England as long as possible.

She was a nurse for many years and has a bit of a reputation as a horse whisperer. She’s helping out at South Penquite for a couple of weeks and will assist us again this Friday.

In September two WWOOFers from London helped Camel CSA’s volunteer growing team plant onion sets at one of our regular Sunday sessions.

It’s a case of first come, first served.  Admission is free when the Regal Cinema in Wadebridge screens The Age of Stupid this Sunday 29 November at 8.15 pm.  

Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055.  He looks at old footage from 2008 and asks a simple question:  Why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? 

Camel Friends of the Earth is bringing the film to Wadebridge as part of the Indie Screenings distribution system which allows anyone anywhere to screen it.

This much talked-about movie was released earlier this year.  It spawned the 10:10 campaign, which aims to cut 10 per cent of our carbon emissions in 2010.

In it, the Archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) says:  “We could have saved ourselves, but we didn’t. It’s amazing. What state of mind were we in, to face extinction and simply shrug it off? 

“We wouldn’t be the first life form to make itself extinct. But what would be unique about us is that we did it knowingly. What does that say about us?”

Another excellent recipe from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery. She says: “I like this bean dish so much, I often find myself eating it up with a spoon, all by itself.”  Serve on its own with naan bread and a salad or as a side dish. It does take a bit of time to make but it re-heats very well.

Serves 6

Preparation time: 1 hour 10 minutes (includes 1 hour soaking time)
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients
225g dried black-eyed beans, washed and drained
1.15 litres water
225g mushrooms
6 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
2.5cm stick of cinnamon
150g onions, peeled and chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
400g tinned tomatoes
2 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
½ tsp ground turmeric
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp chopped coriander or parsley

Method

Put the beans and water into a heavy pot and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer gently for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the  pot sit, covered and undisturbed, for 1 hour.

While the pot is resting, cut the mushrooms through their stems into 3mm thick slices. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium flame. When hot, put in the whole cumin seeds and the cinnamon stick. Let the sizzle for 5-6 seconds. Now put in the onions and garlic. Stir and fry until the onioin pieces turn brown at the edges. Put in the mushrooms. Stir and fry until the mushrooms wilt. Now add the tomatoes and ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric and cayenne. Stir and cook for a minute. Cover, turn heat to low and let the mixture cook in its own juices for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat under the pan.

Bring the beans to the boil again. Cover, turn heat to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes or until the beans are tender. To this bean and water mixture, add the mushroom mixture, salt, black pepper and fresh coriander/parsley. Stir to mix and bring to a simmer. Simmer, uncovered, on medium-low heat for another 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

In this week’s small veg boxes there’ll be:
* onions/shallots (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* white cabbage (Camel CSA)
potatoes – Wilja variety (Burlerrow, St Mabyn)
cauliflower (Rest Harrow Farm, Trebetherick)
leeks (Rest Harrow Farm)
Cornish mushrooms (Tregonning Mushrooms, Stithians)
* curly parsley (Camel CSA)

Medium boxes will also have:
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
calabrese (Rest Harrow Farm)

Members of Camel Community Supported Agriculture will be working with Camel Area Friends of the Earth this Saturday 29 November as they promote thriving, planet-friendly farming.

We’ll be in Molesworth Street, Wadebridge outside Barclays from 9am to 12 noon.  If you’re out and about in the town, please come and speak to us.  You’ll be able to have a look at one of our weekly seasonal veg boxes. 

At the same time we can tell you more about our pioneering community vegetable growing project at St Kew Highway.  This involves building strong, mutual relationships with small-scale farmers and growers in north Cornwall with the aim of reducing supply chains and making local food work.

Friends of the Earth’s Food Chain Campaign aims to change the way factory farm animals are fed.  Factory farming demands massive amounts of soy – a key ingredient in animal feed.  Most of this comes from huge soya bean plantations in Latin America. 

Vast areas of land have to be cleared to grow the soy.  This causes deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of valuable wildlife habitat.

Our volunteer growers will be pruning apple trees for a change this Sunday.

Landscape gardener Jeremy Simmons, a Camel Community Supported Agriculture member, will lead a training session on how to prune fruit trees in an old orchard at West End, St Mabyn.

The CSA has taken over the task of renovating a small farm orchard at this former smallholding.  In return, members will be able to enjoy all the fruits of their labours when the apples are harvested next year. 

The trees are a mixture of culinary and dessert types – including the familiar Bramley, as well as Lord Burghley(?), Gascoyne’s Scarlet, Tom Putt (cider), Emneth Early, Beauty of Bath and Lord Hindlip.  There are also unidentified trees, which may be cider varieties and are probably native to Cornwall.

If you would like to learn more about the finer art of apple tree pruning, please come along.  Sunday’s session lasts from 10am to 1pm.

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