September 23, 2012
Camel CSA’s expert growers have been responding in lots of innovative ways to the difficult vegetable growing conditions this year in Cornwall.
When the ground in May proved too wet and soggy to prepare any growing beds let alone plant anything, Bridget had a brainwave. Why not put some sweetcorn in the polytunnel?
And you can see the results for yourselves – what a success! The only drawback has been the blackfly, which means messy hands for the pickers.
All Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week have: –
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* aubergines (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* red Russian kale (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
Standard boxes will also have: –
extra potatoes
* salad bag – lettuce, mustard, rocket, pak choi (Camel CSA)
* chard / spinach (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* = grown to organic principles
September 12, 2012
Our growing team had to take emergency measures to prop up our tomato canes last weekend. The plants are growing so luxuriantly they’re proving hard to keep upright. The aubergines, peppers and chillies are also looking very lush. And as for the sweetcorn…
All Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week will have: –
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* sweet peppers (Camel CSA)
* aubergines (Camel CSA)
* salad bag – lettuce, mustard, rocket, pak choi (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* cabbage (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
Standard boxes will also have: –
extra potatoes
* French beans (St Kew Harvest)
* celery (St Kew Harvest)
* courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* parsley (Camel CSA)
* = grown to organic principles
September 7, 2012
Our veg boxes are bursting with beautiful tomatoes cultivated on our plot in north Cornwall. Their flavour is particularly good this year. We cultivate them in our polytunnels alongside aubergines, sweet peppers, cucumbers, basil and chillies.
All Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week will have: –
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* sweet peppers (Camel CSA)
* aubergines (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA /Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* runner beans (Mark Norman)
* mixed salad bag – lettuce, mustard, rocket, pak choi (Camel CSA)
* onions / shallots (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
Standard boxes will also have: –
extra potatoes
* chard (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)
* cauliflower (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)
* = grown to organic principles
August 31, 2012
This richly-flavoured Italian dish of layered cheese and vegetables is traditionally made with aubergines, but you can use the courgettes in this week’s veg boxes as well or instead. It’s delicious with a green salad and crusty bread. This version is from BBC olive magazine.
Serves: 4
Preparation / cooking time: 75 minutes
Ingredients
olive oil
2 garlic cloves , thinly sliced
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
1 small bunch basil, shredded
3 medium aubergines
2 balls mozzarella, sliced
a handful grated Parmesan (or vegetarian alternative)
Method
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan, add the garlic and sizzle for 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cinnamon and simmer for 15 minutes until thickened. Stir in the basil and season.
Slice the aubergines lengthways about 1/2cm thick. Brush both sides with oil, season and griddle (chargrill), turning a few times until completely tender (you could also do this in a non-stick frying pan). It’s important to get the aubergine as tender as possible, so give it time.
Remove the cinnamon stick and put a few spoonfuls of the sauce in the bottom of an ovenproof dish. Cover with the aubergine and mozzarella then repeat, ending with a thin layer of sauce (you’ll have roughly 3-4 layers). Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 30-40 minutes until bubbling and golden.
August 30, 2012
All Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week will have: –
* mixed salad bag – oak leaf lettuce, red mustard, rocket, pak choi (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* sweet peppers (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* celery (St Kew Harvest)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* Swiss chard / spinach (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
Standard boxes will also have: –
extra potatoes
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* runner beans (Mark Norman)
* aubergines (Camel CSA)
* basil / parsley (Camel CSA)
* = grown to organic principles
August 29, 2012
One vegetable that thrives during a wet English summer is Swiss chard. Camel CSA has a huge bed of it in rainbow colours and the picking usually involves us in a big team effort.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall says: “This hearty dish gives chard the cauliflower cheese treatment. It makes a side dish to chops or sausages, but I’d happily eat it as a main course with a hunk of bread.”
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Ingredients
About 750g chard
Small knob of butter
About 50g breadcrumbs
A little rapeseed or olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
For the sauce:
300ml whole milk
½ onion, peeled and cut in two
1 bay leaf
A few black peppercorns
20g unsalted butter
20g plain flour
75g strong, mature cheddar, grated
25g parmesan or vegetarian alternative
(or mature hard goat’s cheese, grated)
¼ tsp English mustard
Method
Heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5 and lightly grease a shallow, ovenproof dish.
For the sauce, put the milk into a saucepan with the onion, bay and peppercorns. Bring to just below simmering point, turn off the heat and leave to infuse for at least 30 minutes, and an hour or two, ideally.
Meanwhile, separate the chard leaves from the stalks, and cut the stalks into 1.5cm slices. Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil, drop in the leaves and blanch for a minute or two, until just wilted. Remove the leaves with tongs, drain and, when cool enough to handle, squeeze out excess water with your hands, then roughly chop. Meanwhile, drop the chopped stalks into the boiling water and blanch for three to four minutes, until just tender. Drain, toss with a knob of butter, season and spread over the base of the oven dish.
If the infused milk has cooled completely, warm it gently, then strain into a jug. Melt the butter for the sauce in a medium saucepan over a fairly low heat, then stir in the flour to form a smooth paste (a roux). Cook gently, stirring frequently, for a minute or two. Remove from the heat and add a third of the milk. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or whisk until you have a thick, smooth paste. Add the rest of the milk in one or two lots, stirring it in until smooth.
Return the sauce to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring. Let it bubble for two minutes, stirring every now and then, to “cook out” any taste of raw flour, then turn the heat right down. Add the cheeses and mustard, stir gently until they melt into the sauce – don’t let the sauce boil, or it may curdle – and season.
Stir the chopped chard leaves into the hot cheese sauce and pour over the stalks in the dish. Scatter with the breadcrumbs and a trickle of oil, and bake for 20 minutes, until golden and bubbling.
- This recipe from is similar to one of my favourite comfort dishes – Swiss chard and potato gratin.
August 24, 2012
Our tomato pickers basked in the warmth of the polytunnel this morning as rain poured down. The outdoor members of our picking and packing team weren’t so lucky. They got a thorough old-fashioned Cornish soaking.
All the boxes this week will have: –
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* French beans / peas (Camel CSA)
* Swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* courgettes (Mark Norman)
* calabrese (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* mixed salad bag – oak leaf lettuce, red mustard, rocket, pak choi, baby spinach beet (Camel CSA)
Standard boxes will also have: –
extra potatoes
* beetroot / turnips (Camel CSA)
* runner beans (Mark Norman)
* peppers / aubergines (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* = grown to organic principles
August 20, 2012
This simple dish is from TV presenter Dick Strawbridge, who lives in Cornwall. He cooked it with his son James on ITV’s The Hungry Sailors.
We’ll be using our homegrown basil in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week to make it along with the potatoes supplied by James Mutton at Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn.
We have a strongly-growing crop of basil in the polytunnel and can look forward to plenty more in the weeks to come.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
For the gnocchi:
750g potatoes
300g plain flour
1 egg yolk, beaten
Pinch of salt
For the pesto:
2 garlic cloves
12 basil leaves
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tsp sea salt
50 g parmesan cheese, grated
(use a vegetarian version to keep it a veggie dish)
4 tbsp olive oil
Method
Peel and roughly chop the potatoes and boil for 15-20 minutes until soft.
Push the potatoes through a metal sieve, or a potato ricer, to make a smooth purée. Allow to cool and mix in the flour. Beat in egg yolk and a pinch of salt until it forms a dough. Knead to ensure it is smooth.
Roll the dough into a long thin sausage then cut into 1 inch pieces to form the gnocchi. Using the prongs of a fork, make an indentation into the top of each gnocchi.
For the pesto, grind the garlic, basil leaves, pine nuts and salt together in a mortar and pestle to form a paste. Stir in the parmesan and olive oil.
Drop the gnocchi into boiling, salted water and cook for a couple of minutes. The gnocchi are ready when they rise to the surface of the water. Remove, drain and coat in the pesto.
August 15, 2012
All Camel CSA’s veg boxes have basil this week – grown in the safety of the polytunnel. Our standard boxes also have indoor tomatoes and aubergines as well as a selection of other seasonal vegetables.
All the boxes this week will have: –
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* French beans / peas (Camel CSA)
* cabbage (Camel CSA)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* calabrese (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
Standard boxes will also have: –
extra potatoes
* beetroot / turnips (Camel CSA)
* salad bag (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes / aubergines (Camel CSA)
* = grown to organic principles
August 11, 2012
As cucumbers are so plentiful at the moment, here’s another idea for using them – it’s from Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Ottolenghi.
With large cucumbers (as opposed to the mini ones found in the Middle East), he advises halving the cucumber along its centre and scooping out the watery seedy core with a teaspoon.
Serves 4
Preparation: 10 minutes
Ingredients
6 small cucumbers (about 500g) – or 1-2 of the CSA ones
2 mild red chillies, thinly sliced
3 tbsp roughly chopped coriander
60ml white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
125ml sunflower oil
2 tbsp poppy seeds
2 tbsp caster sugar
salt and black pepper
Method
Chop off and discard the end of the cucumbers. Slice them at an angle, so you end up with pieces 1cm thick and 3-4cm long.
Mix together all the ingredients in a large bowl. Use your hands to massage the flavours gently into the cucumbers. Taste and adjust the amount of sugar and salt according to the quality of the cucumbers. The salad should be sharp and sweet, almost like a pickle.
If not serving immediately, you might need to drain some liquid off later. Adjust the seasoning again afterwards.
