Old tricks… Our growers hang seed trays in mid-air to deter the long-tailed fieldmouse.

The beautiful weather in Cornwall is bringing on the summer crops fast. As well as peas, we all have more strawberries and asparagus in the boxes this week.

In all the boxes:-
*mangetout OR podded peas
*beetroot
*herb bag – rosemary, parsley and chives
Cornish asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)
strawberries (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
new potatoes (Growfair, Cornwall)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra new potatoes
*Swiss chard
*mixed salad leaves – assorted lettuce, baby chard
cauliflower (Growfair)

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated

Try these mangetout and pea dishes on Camel CSA’s recipes page: –
Frank’s mangetout and shitake mushroom stir-fry    
Hugh’s risoni with baby peas (or broad beans), bacon and garlic

I might have been tempted to make this recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Veg Every Day! for lunch today had we not already eaten the broad beans out of this week’s box!

Serves 4

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
12-15 asparagus spears, trimmed
200 g baby broad beans (podded weight)
A bunch spring onions, trimmed
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 large slices sourdough bread (or other robust bread)
1 garlic clove, halved (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil, to trickle
50 g mild, crumbly goat’s cheese
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the asparagus spears and blanch for two minutes.  Scoop them out and drain.  Let the water come back to the boil.  Now add the baby broad beans and blanch for 30-60 seconds until tender, then drain.

Slice the spring onions on the diagonal into 1-2 cm pieces.  Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, add the spring onions and fry fairly gently for 2-3 minutes, until just beginning to soften.  Cut the asparagus spears into 2-3 cm pieces and add, along with the broad beans, to the spring onions in the pan.  Add salt and pepper and toss the whole lot together over the heat, for just a minute, then take off the heat.

Meanwhile, toast the bread.  Rub very lightly with the cut garlic clove, if you like.  Trickle the toast with a little olive oil.  Crumble the goat’s cheese over the veg in the pan and stir very lightly again.  Pile this veg mixture on to the toast, trickle with a touch more olive oil and serve.

Our early summer crops are starting to come on nicely. We have the last of the polytunnel-grown broad beans in the boxes this week along with the first of the podded peas for a lucky few.

In all the boxes this week:-
*broad beans
*turnips
Cornish asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)
rhubarb (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
cauliflower (Growfair, Cornwall)
potatoes (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)

Standard boxes also have:-
new potatoes (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
*mangetout OR podded peas
*mixed salad leaves – assorted lettuce, rocket, baby chard
*radishes

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated

Try these cauliflower dishes-with-a-difference on Camel CSA’s recipes page: –
Cauliflower with saffron, pinenuts and raisins
Roasted cauliflower gigli with pine nuts and currants

This is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Light and Easy. It takes the classic seasonings of chorizo sausage and mingles them with fresh fish to create a gloriously red, richly-flavoured dish.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 7-8 minutes

Ingredients
700 g white fish fillets, such as pollack, coley, whiting or haddock skinned and boned
1 Tbsp unsmoked paprika
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
a small pinch of cayenne papper
2 tsps fennel seeds
2 garlic cloves, sliced
2 tbsps rapeseed or sunflower oil, plus a little extra for cooking
150 g cooked broad beans, skinned if they are large
Juice of 1/2 lemon
sea salt
a little roughly shredded mint (optional)

Method
Check the fish for pin bones, prising out any you find with tweezers, then cut into roughly 2 cm chunks.  Put into a bowl with the spices, garlic and oil.  Add a pinch of salt.  Turn together and leave for half an hour in the fridge.

Heat a large frying pan or wok over a medium-high heat.  Add a trickle more oil, then the fish, and cook, tossing often, for 4-5 minutes, until cooked through.  Stir in the broad beans and cook for another minute.  Squeeze over the lemon juice and remove from the heat.  Taste and add more salt if needed.

Divide between bowls and serve, with some fresh mint sprinkled over if you like.  Serve with rice, flatbreads or potatoes if you want a heartier supper.

In all the boxes this week:-
*broad beans
*sprouted mung beans
*mixed salad leaves – assorted lettuce, rocket, baby chard
Cornish asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)
Cornish strawberries (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
potatoes (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*chives/parsley bag
*Swiss/rainbow chard
*mangetout peas OR purple sprouting broccoli OR turnip bunch

* = grown to organic principles

Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated

Try these broad bean dishes on Camel CSA’s recipes page: –
Simple ways with broad beans
Broad bean and feta frittata

This easy to make cheesecake is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Fruit Every Day.

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 25-45 minutes
Chilling time: 4 hours

Serves 8

Ingredients
For the rhubarb:
400 g rhubarb, trimmed
75 g caster sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 orange
For the biscuit base:
85 g butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
200 g ginger biscuits
For the filling:
400 g cream cheese
3 balls preserved stem ginger, finely chopped plus 3 Tbsp syrup from the jar
25 g caster sugar
finely grated zest and juice of 1/2 orange
200 ml double cream

Method
For the rhubarb, preheat the oven to 150°C/Gas Mark 2.  Cut the rhubarb into 4 cm lengths and place in a wide oven dish, ideally in one layer.  Sprinkle with the sugar, orange zest and juice.

Cover the dish with foil and bake for 25-45 minutes (stirring carefully to turn the pieces over after the first 10 minutes), until tender and juicy (check the rhubarb after 25 minutes – and regularly thereafter – poking it with the tip of a small knife).

Leave to cool completely, then drain off the juice (it’s delicious, so save to pour over ice cream or use in a drink or smoothie). Lightly butter a 20-23 cm springform cake tin, line the base with baking parchment and lightly butter the paper.

To make the base, blitz the biscuits in a food processor (or bash in a bag with a rolling pin) until fairly fine.  Pour the melted butter through the feed tube, pulsing as you go, until the mix looks like wet sand.  (Or mix the butter with the bashed crumbs in a mixing bowl.)  Tip into the prepared tin and press in firmly with the bottom of a glass so you get an even layer.  Chill the base while you make the filling.

For the filling, beat the cheese, ginger, ginger syrup, sugar, orange zest and juice together until well blended.  Add the cream and beat until the mixture thickens enough to hold its shape.  Spoon on to the biscuit base and spread into an even layer.

Chill for 4 hours or overnight, until firm.  Run a thin knife around the edge of the cheesecake and release the side of the tin.  Serve with the cold baked rhubarb on top or on the side.

At last! Freshly-picked Cornish asparagus from Roger and Gill Derryman and rhubarb from Jeremy and Claudia Best are back in our boxes this week.

In all the veg boxes:-
Cornish asparagus (Lower Croan, Sladesbridge)
rhubarb (Mitchell Fruit Garden)
*broad beans
*turnip bunch
*mixed salad leaves – assorted lettuce, rocket, baby chard
potatoes (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*purple sprouting broccoli
*Swiss/rainbow chard
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

* = grown to organic principles

Please wash all vegetables and fruit. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated

Try these asparagus dishes on Camel CSA’s recipes page: –
Simply delicious Cornish asparagus
Shaved asparagus and goat’s cheese salad

My husband concocted this delicious meal last night from this week’s veg box contents when challenged with what to do with the sea spaghetti from The Cornish Seaweed Company.  He also used the bean sprouts in our boxes. Ingredients can be changed as you see fit!

Serves 2

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
20g sea spaghetti
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
thumb sized knob of ginger, peeled and matchsticked
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 dried shitake mushrooms (or any fresh mushrooms as desired)
bean sprouts
150g buckwheat soba noodles (or any other noodles you fancy)
1 heaped tsp chilli bean paste or sliced fresh chillies to taste
1 Tbsp oil (sunflower or rapeseed)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
a dash of sesame oil
juice of 1 lime

Method
Soak the sea spaghetti in cold water for 30 minutes, then drain.  If using dried mushrooms, soak in boiling water for 30 minutes, then drain and slice thinly.  Cook the noodles as instructed on the packet until al-dente and drain.

Heat a wok or large frying pan, add the oil and stir-fry the onion for 2 minutes.  Add the ginger, garlic and beansprouts and stir-fry until the beansprouts start to soften.  Add the sea spaghetti, mushrooms, chilli paste, soy sauce and half the lime juice and stir-fry for 30 seconds or so. Add the noodles and stir-fry until everything is piping hot.

Divide into two bowls.  Sprinkle some sesame oil and the remaining lime juice over each bowl and serve.

We’ve all got a packet of sea spaghetti from The Cornish Seaweed Company in Falmouth in this week’s veg boxes. It’s organic of course! We like to be adventurous during the “hungry gap”.

Happily last week’s shortage of fresh veg brought on by the sudden cold snap is now a distant memory. We’re enjoying the first of the early summer crops like Swiss and rainbow chard, broad beans and new-season turnips. We can also look forward over the next few weeks to rhubarb, beetroot, mangetout peas and carrots as well as Cornish asparagus.

In all this week’s boxes:-
*sea spaghetti (The Cornish Seaweed Company)
*Swiss and rainbow chard
*bean sprouts
*mixed salad leaves (rocket, baby chard, mizuma, golden mustard, red mustard, lettuce)
cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
potatoes ‘Wilja’ (St Lawrence Farm, Bodmin)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*purple sprouting broccoli OR broad beans
*turnip bunch
*parsley

* = grown to organic principles
Please wash all vegetables and fruit carefully. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.

Try these seaweed dishes on The Cornish Seaweed Company’s recipes page: –
Carrot and seaweed salad
Chicken soup with sea spaghetti, spinach and dill

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