We’ve a glut of tomatoes in Camel CSA’s polytunnel. This quick and easy way of using up a surplus is rich and full-flavoured. I added a big bunch of our homegrown basil at the whizzing up stage.

It’s a River Cottage Community recipe. Lula, the author, says: “Once you have made this you will never use tinned tomatoes again! Make throughout the tomato season, freeze and defrost in the depths of winter when you need a reminder of summer…”

Serves: 4

Preparation: no more than 10 minutes
Cooking: 45 minutes

Ingredients
1kg ripe, full flavoured tomatoes (perfect for using up a glut)
2-3 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Method
Arrange the tomato halves, tightly packed but not covering each other, in an ovenproof dish. Slice the garlic and place a piece on each tomato half. Drizzle olive oil over the dish evenly and season with salt and pepper. Roast in medium hot oven around 180 degrees until soft, pulpy and slightly charred.River Cottage suggests rubbing through a sieve but for speed and to save waste, whizz in a food processor, skins and all. Perfect as a pasta sauce on its own or as a base for other sauces.

This week, everyone will have:
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* salad (Camel CSA)
* sweetcorn (Camel CSA)
* chard (Camel CSA)
* tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* peppers (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA/Mark Norman)
* courgettes (Mark)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes will also have:
extra potatoes
* aubergine (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
* basil (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

This incredibly simple dish from BBC Good Food comes via the Grow to Love campaign at Horticulture Wales. (Thanks to Tony Little of Canolfan Organig Cymru/Organic Centre Wales for the tip-off.)

You can use any kind of kale to make it. This year at Camel CSA we’re growing two varieties – red Russian and Tuscan (cavalo nero), which are much superior in taste and texture to common curly kale.

Serves: 2-3

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 10 minutes

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large garlic clove, sliced
200g kale,chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce

Method
Heat the oil in a large wok or frying pan, then tip in the garlic and cook for a few secs. Throw in the kale and toss around the pan to coat in the garlicky oil.

Pour over 100ml boiling water and cook for 7 mins more until the kale has wilted and is cooked through. Stir in the soy and oyster sauces and heat through to serve. 

Try with… Grilled chicken, pork or beef and a bowl of aromatic steamed rice.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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