August 7, 2009
You’ve guessed it! We can expect more chard in the boxes this week plus a selection from potatoes, onions, spinach, white cabbage, courgettes, cucumber, salad leaves, parsley and spring onions.
The late start to Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first planting season, the challenging growing conditions and the rising total of veg boxes are all taking their toll on the crops cultivated by our volunteers. We are gradually buying in more vegetables from our own expert growing team.
Mark Norman, one of our expert growers, reflects the observations of his vegetable growing colleagues:
“All vegetable growers have experienced three bad years in a row. The weather has been atrocious across Britain. All over the country, growers are complaining. For instance, the beans are not pollinating properly. The supermarkets are coping as they are importing from abroad.”
In spite of this, Camel CSA’s volunteers continue to turn out in all weathers. Thanks to last week’s picking team of Cath, Charlotte, Fiona, Mike H and Robert. Trish did the maths and masterminded the packing of the vegetable boxes.
The growing team took advantage of a dry morning on Sunday to plant out the remaining 10 rows of brassicas and cover them with fleece. We put in more than 750 plants, including Savoy cabbage (Vertus variety), cauliflower (Thalassa), Brussels sprouts (Igor and Darkmar) and red cabbage (Red Rum).
Thank you to expert growers Jane and Jeremy and to Carolyn, Cath, Charlotte, Danny, Kayleigh, Kitty, Mike H, Mike S. and six-year-old Haydn.
Now the planting’s over, it’s time to start lifting and storing our bumper crop of onions. And we need to make a concerted attack on the even larger crop of annual and perennial weeds…
July 31, 2009
A quick and easy recipe from Patience Gray’s Honey from a Weed. Tasty too!
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes
Serves 2
Ingredients
3 or 4 courgettes
1 small onion
olive oil
4 eggs
parsley
1 dessertspoon pane grattugiato (crushed crumbs from oven-dried bread)
1 dessertspoon grated parmesan
salt, pepper
Method
Wash, dry and dice the courgettes and chop the onion. Pour a little olive oil into an omelette pan, and fry the courgettes and onion on a quick fire until they brown, tossing them often, adding a minimum of salt.
Beat the eggs in a bowl with a little salt, pepper, some finely chopped parsley, and add the pane grattugiato and the grated parmesan. Pour the egg mixture over the browned contents of the pan and reduce the heat.
When the frittata is almost set, take a large plate, lid or board, cover the pan with it and reverse the frittata on to it. Then slide it back into the pan. Both sides should be brown. Serve at once, or let it cool and eat it on a picnic.
Notes
You can make a quantity of pane grattugiato (a good way of using up odd bits of bread) and it will keep well in a jam jar.
Have a look at these recipe suggestions on the eat the seasons website.
July 30, 2009
Members of Camel Community Supported Agriculture can expect to find up to a dozen freshly-harvested vegetables in their boxes this week.
The beetroot, onions, radishes, turnips and Swiss chard have been cultivated on our own site at St Kew Highway.
Camel CSA’s expert growing team are providing the remainder of the box contents from their own plots.
Mark Norman has grown the courgettes, which feature in Camel CSA’s Recipe No 5 – Courgette frittata, at his site on the outskirts of Bodmin. He has also supplied the new potatoes, which are Marfona variety. The British Potato Council says these have an almost “buttery” flavour and a smooth waxy texture.
Jane and Gav Mellowship are supplying large and small mixed salad bags from their plot on the coast at New Polzeath.
Jeremy Brown has produced the parsley, spinach and cucumbers on his land behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop.
July 29, 2009
The volunteer growing team braved monsoon conditions on Sunday to plant nearly 1,000 brassica seedlings donated by Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s latest sponsors – Fentongollan Farm at Tresillian.
The rain ran down inside our collars, our trowels got clogged with wet earth and our boots became totally caked in mud, but we all remained remarkably cheerful.
In all, we planted 10 long rows – five of purple sprouting broccoli (two varieties) and five of winter cabbage (Dutch white and primo).
The generous donation of over 1,500 plants means that we can look forward to plenty of green vegetables in the early part of next year.
By then we hope we’ll have been successful in our bid for outside funding from the Lottery’s Local Food programme to enable us to buy a polytunnel to raise our own seedlings and salad crops.
Jeremy Hosking of Fentongollan explained why he offered us his surplus brassica plants:
“We do raise millions of plants every year – 80 million in fact. We have certain lines that don’t always sell out so rather than throw them away we like to give them away.”
And for this we’re extremely grateful!
Intrepid
Last Friday Camel CSA expert grower Jeremy Brown and our secretary Mike Sadler singlehandedly planted 450 donated kale seedlings – both red and green varieties.
Later this week we will plant the cauliflower and leeks that make up the remainder of the gift from Fentongollan. Weather permitting, we’ll also start preparing another planting area.
The torrential rain is helping the seedlings to put out new shoots. At least they won’t need watering in. Lengths of fleece are protecting them from a long list of hungry predators – from rabbits to badgers to pheasants to pigeons to slugs to snails.
A big thank you to the intrepid growing team – expert growers Mark Norman and Jeremy Brown plus Charlotte, Gillian, Kitty, Mike H, Mike S, six-year-old Sophie and Freddie, aged four.
Sharing the harvest
There was also a keen turnout last Friday to help with the picking and packing of 24 vegetable boxes for our members. Grateful thanks to expert grower Jeremy Brown and to Callum, Henrietta, Jenny, Mark, Mike H, Penny, Robert, Steve and Trish.
Over the next few weeks we can look forward to more onions, potatoes, Swiss chard, beetroot, turnip, radishes, lettuce and parsley plus runner beans and another crop of peas. Provided we get some warm sunshine and the slugs and snails stay away, we will also have some French beans.
However the non-stop rain is also resulting in a new crop of weeds, so the growing team needs all the help it can get on Friday and Sunday mornings.
We look forward to seeing you. Just make sure you bring waterproofs and wellies!
July 28, 2009
Camel Community Supported Agriculture is making good progress in putting together the information needed to bid for additional funding. The money we get will help us make the St Kew Highway site fully productive over the next three years.
We will be submitting applications to the Lottery’s Local Food programme and East Cornwall Local Action Group (part of the South West Regional Development Agency). A fully-costed business plan is being prepared with the help of our team of expert growers. This will form the basis on which the CSA goes forward.
If our bids are successful we will begin to realise our aims of achieving full sustainability, building partnerships with the local community and creating employment opportunities.
July 27, 2009
Our congratulations go to to proud new parents Dan and Kate Goodwin, whose baby daughter Hollie was born on July 22.
We look forward to seeing some weaning ideas and baby food recipes inspired by the fresh seasonal vegetables in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s weekly veg boxes!
July 25, 2009
Another excellent recipe from the Riverford Organic Vegetables website.
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 55 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
500g Swiss chard
75g butter
2tbsp plain flour
100g cheddar cheese
750g potatoes
4 garlic cloves
600ml (1 pint) milk
salt and pepper
Method
1. Remove and roughly chop the green part of the chard leaves. Cut the stalks into 2cm lengths and steam for 10 mins. Stir in the green leaves and continue to cook for a few minutes.
2. Wash the potatoes and cut into 1cm slices. Boil for 5 mins until just tender. Drain.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish and layer with half the potatoes, the chard, then the remaining potatoes.
To make the sauce:
1. Melt the butter and fry the crushed garlic for 2 mins. Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 1 min.
2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continuously until the sauce thickens.
3. Add half the grated cheese and season with salt and pepper.
4. Pour the sauce over the vegetables and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 180° Mark 4 for 35 mins.
Do you have a recipe for Swiss chard that you would like to share with the rest of us? Just click on Comments at the top of this article and let us have it!
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
July 22, 2009
This Friday’s veg boxes from Camel Community Supported Agriculture will include more of those wonderful baby carrots that went down so well last week.
The small box will contain: –
- potatoes
- onion
- peas
- carrots
- beetroot
- courgettes
- lettuce or 100g salad bag
- 1/2 cucumber
- spring onions
- radishes
The standard box will contain all these vegetables in larger quantities plus Swiss chard, turnips, a whole cucumber and a 140g salad bag rather than a lettuce.
Bad weather meant we had to move Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first Big Lunch event from our site at St Kew Highway to South Penquite Farm on Bodmin Moor, home of Cathy our treasurer.
We sheltered in the farm’s education centre from the strong wind and the rain which was getting even heavier. Our members mixed with campsite guests to enjoy a delightful lunch with a huge variety of delicious dishes.
Everybody made such an effort to create amazing homemade food for all of us to share. Broad bean salad, vegetable stir fry, pea soup, seasonal spelt salad, tortilla, quiche and lots of cakes disappeared quickly.
The children were able to enjoy themselves on a bouncy castle and play football in the barn. Then they disappeared to seek further adventures in the campsite’s three yurts.
Adults enjoyed folk music entertainment on harmonica and guitar. There were smiles, laughter, singing and talking all around the table. Jonny Blenkin, one of the campers, said:
“Thank you so much for inviting us. We had a fantastic time.”
(This post was written by both Danny and Antonina.)
July 17, 2009
Camel Community Supported Agriculture regrets to announce that the broad beans have gone over, so there are none in the latest veg share. You probably have mixed feelings about this. But remember to keep all those recipes for next year!
Some succulent baby carrots are included in the veg boxes this week. We did sort them out, but some of the tops are a little chewed. We think either rabbits or badgers are the culprits.
There are surplus older peas available at the box distribution point for any members who would like to help themselves. They are rather starchy, but can be used in soups and casseroles.
The small £5 box contains: – 700g potatoes, 700g peas, baby carrots, two onions, Swiss chard, spring onion bunch, 100g salad bag, a few chive stems
The standard £8 box contains: – 1kg potatoes, 1kg peas, baby carrots, three onions, Swiss chard, spring onion bunch, 140g salad bag, bunch of chives, cabbage, cucumber
If you’d like to give feedback on box content, please click on the comments link at the top of this post. We really want to know what you think. Also tell us what you’ve done with the vegetables.
More and more Camel CSA members are signing up for a share in the harvest. We filled a total of 22 veg boxes this week, up from just 15 a fortnight ago.
Please remember to return your empty box when you collect your fresh one next Friday.
And don’t forget the Big Lunch on the site at 1 p.m. on Sunday! We look forward to seeing you there.
