July 16, 2009
We can expect some baby carrots in this week’s share of the harvest at Camel CSA. Try them for our Big Lunch!
Expert grower Jane Mellowship says:
“Here is the list of veg expected to go in the boxes on Friday.
Small box (£5): potatoes, carrots, onions, peas, spring onions, Swiss chard, broad beans, small salad bag
Standard box (£8): potatoes, carrots, onions, peas, spring onions, Swiss chard, broad beans, large salad bag plus cabbage, cucumber, chives
Of course this could be subject to change!”
Please remember to return your empty vegetable box when you collect your fresh one on Friday.
July 15, 2009
Camel Community Supported Agriculture is hosting its own Big Lunch for members, their families and friends this Sunday 19 July.
Just turn up at 1 p.m. on our site behind St Kew Harvest Farm Shop at St Kew Highway near Wadebridge. Please bring a plate or bowl of seasonal food to share (preferably using veg box contents), a chair, a plate, cutlery, a glass and a drink.
Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s latest video celebrates our first harvest. It marks the red letter day when members received their first vegetable box shares.
This video features our volunteer picking and packing team at work, while two of our three expert growers reflect on what we’ve achieved so far.
Click here to watch our two earlier videos: Camel CSA – Why we got involved and Camel CSA – First volunteer day.
July 14, 2009
Cornwall’s two community supported agriculture projects are in the news again.
Both Camel CSA and West Penwith CSA featured in the Western Morning News on Monday in the green communities section. We’re also in this week’s Cornish Guardian.
Growers pool skills to produce veg boxes – Western Morning News 13-07-09
Camel growers reap the fruits – and veg – of their labours – Cornish Guardian 15-07-09
July 13, 2009
An amazing amount of volunteer effort has gone into producing Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s bountiful harvest over the past fortnight. Some fresh faces have joined the teams which have been busy tackling the weeds, cultivating the vegetables and packing the weekly boxes.
Our volunteer task force sowed more lettuces and spring onions at the weekend. We weeded the brassicas, potatoes and celeriac and planted out courgettes. More dock leaves were cut down to prevent the seed spreading.
Many thanks to expert growers Jane and Jeremy and to members Carolyn, Charlotte, Danny, six-year-old Haydn, John, Kayleigh, Kitty, Mark, Mike H, Mike S and guest Pat.
We’ve decided to move the weekday volunteer growers’ slot to Friday mornings to coincide with the picking and packing team, who arrive at 10 a.m. Just turn up between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m if you’d like to help out preparing vegetable beds, sowing, planting and weeding.
The Sunday growers’ slot will continue as usual, between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The picking and packing team last Friday comprised expert grower Mark plus Cath, Mike H, Penny, Robert, Yvonne and her visiting parents. As there seem to be so many willing volunteers to help share out the harvest we have decided to organise a rota in future weeks. As Mark explains:
“We had a great turnout of volunteers for picking and making up the boxes which meant we were able to be finished in little over an hour and a half !”
What’s in the boxes?
The standard boxes (£8) contained: –
- 1 kg potatoes (Arran Pilot)
- 1 kg broad beans (Super Aquadulce or Bunyard’s Exhibition)
- peas (Rondo)
- beetroot
- 3 onions
- courgettes
- salad bag
- cucumber
- parsley (flat-leaved)
- turnip or extra courgette
The small boxes (£5) contained: –
- 600g potatoes (Arran Pilot)
- 750g broad beans (Super Aquadulce or Bunyard’s Exhibition)
- peas (Progress)
- beetroot
- 1 medium onion
- parsley (flat-leaved)
- lettuce (red oakleaf)
Some items were provided by our team of expert growers from their own plots. The salad bags and cucumber came from Jane and Gav Mellowship at New Polzeath; the courgettes from Mark Norman at Bodmin; the lettuces from Jeremy and Antonina Brown at St Kew Highway.
If you’d like to give some feedback on box content, click on the comments link at the top of this post.
July 12, 2009
Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s second recipe is recommended by volunteer Penny Manders.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
2 large raw beetroot, grated
I large onion, chopped
110g (4 oz) sultanas
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
chopped basil
salt and freshly ground pepper
juice of 1 lemon
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
Method
Mix all the ingredients together in a salad bowl. Sprinkle the spring onions over the top and serve.
Notes
This recipe comes from Sarah Brown’s Vegetarian Kitchen. You can cook the beetroot first if you prefer. Try using some fresh raw beetroot with one of the newly-harvested onions from our vegetable box and garnishing the salad with parsley, again from the box, rather than spring onions. If you dislike the taste of strong raw onion you could use a red onion, which has a milder flavour, or some chives instead.
There are some interesting recipes for beetroot on the Riverford Organics website, including this one for Chocolate beetroot cake.
For tips on how to prepare, cook and store beetroot have a look at the useful eat the seasons website.
If you have any beetroot recipes you would like to share, please let us have them. Click on the comments link at the top of this post.
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
July 9, 2009
The harvest from Camel Community Supported Agriculture includes some beautiful plump peas in this week’s share. Otherwise we are providing a similar selection of vegetables to last week.
The broad bean glut continues so please think of different ways to use these versatile vegetables. Please pick up your box from St Kew Harvest, as detailed in the e-mail to members.
Subscribers can expect all or some of of the following: –
- potatoes (Arran Pilot)
- onions
- broad beans
- beetroot
- peas
- salad pack / lettuce
- cucumber
- courgettes
- turnips
A definitive list and recipe ideas for beetroot will be posted once the boxes have been packed on Friday.
Camel Community Supported Agriculture was featured on BBC Radio Cornwall’s Breakfast programme on Monday 6 July.
The item about our first vegetable boxes being prepared featured one of our expert growers Mark Norman, our secretary Mike Sadler and volunteer picker/packer Robert Manders.
The radio slot included a phone interview with Sally Peterson of West Penwith Community Supported Agriculture. They started handing out veg boxes last week as well!
July 5, 2009
Above is our first standard veg box.
We’ve had an enthusiastic response from our members to Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s first vegetable boxes. This is despite some teething problems with distribution.
Tony says:
“The box looks fantastic! We’re looking forward to next week’s already.”
John and Cathy are delighted with the quality:
“The cucumber which was sweet and fresh and the lettuce and onion we used in a salad.”
They like the wide and interesting variety of vegetables and have found new ways of using them:
“The beet greens we cooked almost like a spinach or spring greens and had with fish – better than spinach – along with broad beans and potatoes.
The beets will be roasted and eaten with a lamb casserole with the rest of the onion, turnips and courgettes and we will try your broad bean soup. Nothing wasted.”
In the end, both small and standard boxes contained potatoes, broad beans, beetroot, turnip, cucumber and onions. Standard boxes had a salad pack and small boxes a lollo rosso lettuce. In addition, standard boxes contained Swiss chard and courgettes. There wasn’t enough time to pick parsley.
We have a glut of broad beans, so each box was given an extra £4-worth at shop prices! We don’t yet have our own poly tunnel, so our three expert growers – Jane, Jeremy and Mark – supplied the salad bags, lettuce, courgettes and cucumber.
New team
Grateful thanks to our volunteer picking and packing team of expert grower Mark Norman, Mike H, Penny, Robert and Trish. Mark says:
” It’s great to see some new faces. I hope the boxes going out means that we’ll see even more volunteers next week.
As first boxes they are excellent. I hope we can keep the variety going.”
If you would like to volunteer, either picking and packing or planting and cultivating, just turn up on a Friday or Sunday between 10 a.m. and 12 noon.
Compost bin
This Sunday we constructed a compost bin from wooden pallets lashed together with binder twine. At long last we have somewhere to dump the annual weeds, unwanted plant tops and thinnings.
A great deal of effort was devoted to the backbreaking job of cutting down the remaining dock leaves to stop them going to seed and spreading all over the site. We were grateful there were so many of us to share this potentially soul-destroying task!
We weeded the Swiss chard, carrots and brussels sprouts. We planted more radishes to replace the ones which had gone to seed in the hot weather.
A big thank you to expert growers Jane and Mark N and Charlotte, Danny, Ian, Mark M, Mike H, Mike S.
July 3, 2009
The first of Camel Community Agriculture’s weekly recipes celebrates our first-ever veg boxes.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
125 g (4 oz) chopped onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
60 g (2 oz) butter
0.5 kg (1 lb) shelled broad beans
2-3 good quality bean pods
chopped fresh sage or parsley
salt, pepper, sugar
6 tablespoons double cream
lemon juice, chopped green onion stalk or chives
Method
Soften the onion and garlic in butter without letting them colour. Add the beans, a litre (1.75 pints) water, the pods and a few sprigs of the herb you choose. When the beans are cooked (approx 10 mins), sieve or blend the soup. Reheat, adding more liquid if necessary to dilute. Season to taste, with a pinch of sugar. Add a little more chopped herb, the cream, the onion stalks and a few drops of lemon juice to bring out the flavour.
Notes
This soup recipe taken from Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book is simple, quick and good. Jane Baxter, the resident chef at Riverford Organic Vegetables’ Field Kitchen, has adapted it into Broad bean soup for children who hate broad beans! She discards the pods before blending the soup. I agree with her that it is essential not to skimp on the cream.
If you don’t like to use cream and butter for economic or health reasons, try this Vegetarian Society “cordon vert” recipe for Fresh broad bean and mint soup. There’s also a delicious-sounding recipe for Broad bean pate.
Danny, one of our core group members, recommends Chorizo and broad bean salad. Danny says:
“I tried this absolutely delicious broad bean salad. My kids loved it as well!!!
Simply fry an onion, add the sliced chorizo and put the podded broad beans in at the end. I topped it with fresh parsley and some parmesan. YUM!
I did it again with bacon instead of chorizo…..equally yummy!!”
For tips on how to cook, store and freeze broad beans have a look at the useful eat the seasons website.
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
