We’ve another excellent selection of veg in this week’s boxes, including leeks from Jeremy Brown at St Kew Harvest Farm Shop and first of the rhubarb from our expert grower Mark Norman’s plot in Bodmin.

All small and standard veg boxes have: –
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* leeks (St Kew Harvest)
* onions (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)
* Swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)

Standard boxes also have: –
extra potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)
* rhubarb (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
* radishes (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

We’ve been enjoying some ideal growing weather in Cornwall. We had south-west gales and torrential rain on Easter Monday (which sent the tourists scurrying home early) followed by several days of spring showers and warm sunshine.

So we’ve been hard at work planting hundreds more onion sets and sowing radishes.

We’ve also planted out bunched spring onions and shallots, spring cabbage and some colourful ruby red and canary yellow leaf beet (perpetual spinach).

A quick and easy dish that can be made totally with the contents of Camel CSA’s veg boxes over the past fortnight – bar the spices, of course.

This version’s from Riverford Organic Veg but originally came from the Schumacher College at Dartington. They say: “Nice with rice, yoghurt raita and Indian pickles as a vegetarian meal or as part of a bigger Indian meal.”

If anything, the stronger-tasting Swiss chard is better than spinach on this occasion.

Serves: 4
Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
1 large onion chopped
2 large potatoes cut into 1/2 inch cubes or smaller
400g spinach or chard, stalks removed, coarsely chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1/2 tsp clove garlic coarsely chopped
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
olive oil and butter

Method
Fry the cumin seeds in a heavy bottomed pan in the oil and butter until just starting to brown. Add the onion and fry until starting to brown. Add the potato, garlic, turmeric, ginger and garam masala, then fry until starting to soften. Add the chard or spinach and cook until it collapses over the potato. Salt to taste.

All the boxes have some fresh bean sprouts – grown in expert grower Mark Norman’s linen cupboard! Everyone will also have:
* spring onions (Camel CSA)
 *onions (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* beetroot (Camel CSA)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes and onions plus:
* red cabbage (Camel CSA)
* radishes (Camel CSA)
* parsnips (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles

We’ve been busy sowing, growing and hoeing on our community veg patch over the past week.

We’ve weeded the polytunnels, planted out mixed lettuce to replace the pak choi, and sown an indoor crop of French beans.

More mange tout and carrot seeds have been put in to mitigate the mouse damage. Fortunately the field mice left the indoor broad beans alone for some reason, but the recent warm, dry spell in Cornwall has delayed germination of the outdoor crop.

The fine, sunny weather has enabled us to get more growing beds ready with our Big Lottery-funded  tractor and to plant hundreds more onion sets.

It’ll soon be time to plant out the spring onions, cabbages, sweet peas, shallots and leaf beet sown earlier in modules. We’ve also sowed more cabbage, calabrese, spring onions, rocket and kohl rabi.

Thanks to expert growers Bridget, Jane, Mark N and to Bob, Cath, Charlotte, Mark M, Mike and Tom.

This week’s recipe is in honour of the Pastygate scandal that rocked Westminster this week. (The humble swede is a vital ingredient in a traditional Cornish pasty).

It’s another Nigel Slater special from his book Tender. Also a good way to use some of the Camel CSA garlic in our standard veg boxes this week.

He says: “The swede’s ability to sponge up liquid is shown to good effect when it is baked with butter and vegetable stock. When it is teamed up with potato and seasoned with garlic and a spot of mustard, it is as near to a main course as I feel you can safely get with this particular root.”

Serves: four

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: One hour 30 minutes

potatoes – 500g
swede – 500g
garlic – 4 cloves
butter – 85g
Dijon mustard – 2 heaped teaspoons
thyme leaves – a level teaspoon
vegetable stock – 55ml

Peel the potatoes, then cut them into very fine slices. A sharp knife is fine,but if you have a mandoline (the vegetable slicer, that is, not the lute-like stringed instrument), use that. Whatever, your slices should be almost thin enough to see through. Do the same with the swede, keeping the slices in cold water to prevent them browning.

Set the oven to 190°C/Gas 5. Peel and thinly slice the garlic. Over a moderate heat, melt the butter in a flameproof dish or sauté pan about 25cm in diameter. When it starts to bubble, turn down the heat and add the garlic. It needs to soften slightly without colouring – a matter of five minutes or so. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the mustard. Tip about two-thirds of the mustard and butter out of the pan and into a jug.

Drain the potato and swede slices and pat them dry with kitchen paper or a clean tea towel. Put a third of the vegetables into the pan, layering them neatly or just chucking them in as the mood takes you, then drizzle them with some of the mustard butter in the jug. Season with the thyme leaves, pepper and salt. Be quite generous with the salt. Repeat this twice, so that all the slices of vegetable are layered with the thyme and the mustard and garlic butter. Now pour the stock over the top.

Cover with a circle of greaseproof paper or kitchen foil, pressing it down well on top of the cake. Bake for about an hour and ten minutes, until tender to the point of a knife. Remove the foil, turn the heat up to 220°C/Gas 7 and bake for a further ten minutes until the top has coloured and crisped a little.

Everyone will have:
* onions (Camel CSA)
* swiss chard (Camel CSA)
* salad leaves (Camel CSA)
* swede (Camel CSA)
* kale (Camel CSA)
* leeks (St Kew Harvest)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes will have extra potatoes and onions plus:
* red cabbage (Camel CSA)
* garlic (Camel CSA)
sprouting broccoli (Restharrow Farm, Trebetherick)

* = grown to organic principles

Wee, sleekit, cow’ring, tim’rous beasties? Or nasty little pests that dig up our seeds and pee all over our polytunnels?

Sharing a vegetable-growing site with Cornish wildlife can have its drawbacks. We’ve been overrun by a plague of long-tailed field mice.

They’ve taken up residence in our potting shed amid the piles of cardboard that we’re using for our lasagne gardening. They’ve run riot all over the polytunnels and eaten everything from beetroot to onion seeds.

So it’s time to hang the seed trays from the rafters of the polytunnels. And we’ve decided to resort to more drastic action.

Camel CSA 1: Meeces 0

But as the war against pesky predators continues, so much for the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Now we’ve discovered an entire newly-sown bed of broad beans have gone missing…

The unseasonably warm weather in north Cornwall at the moment is putting us under a lot of pressure.

Our many and varied jobs this weekend include: –
• Planting out the broad beans from the cold frame
• Sowing clusters of beetroot Boltardy outside
• Planting more onion sets
• Sowing a bed of French beans in the polytunnel
• Sowing tomatoes in modules
• Sowing half a tray of summer cabbages

We need to set up the cold frames, cut the grass and thoroughly water the early crops in the polytunnels. We also have to complete a couple of other important jobs we didn’t have time to get done last weekend.

We’re continuing with the roasted cauliflower theme this week, this time with pasta. It’s another delicious vegetarian dish from restauranteur/chef Yotam Ottolenghi. He says: “The sweet and salty combination of currants and capers is a Sicilian mix that’s both interesting and scrumptious. I love it.”

Gigli are fluted, flower-shaped pasta (gigli is Italian for lilies). They’re good with a hearty, chunky sauce like this one.  

Serves: four

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 medium cauliflower (around 480g)
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
65g currants
2½ tbsp white-wine vinegar
½ tsp caster sugar
¼ tsp saffron strands
2 red onions, peeled and cut into large dice
4 stalks celery, the stems cut on an angle into 1cm slices, the leaves picked and torn
3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
250g gigli (or campanelle, or other short pasta)
50g pine nuts, toasted
20g salted capers, rinsed
20g parsley leaves, roughly chopped
10g celery leaves

Method
Heat the oven to 240C/465F/gas mark 9. Break the cauliflower into bite-sized florets. Toss with a tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt, spread on an oven tray and bake until golden and semi-cooked, about 15 minutes.

In a small saucepan, gently warm the currants, vinegar, sugar and saffron, then set aside to infuse.

Pour the remaining oil into a very large sauté pan. Add the onion and celery stems, fry on medium-high heat until they begin to colour and soften – about eight minutes – then add the roasted cauliflower and garlic, and sauté for three minutes.

Meanwhile, boil the pasta in plenty of salted water until al dente. Drain and add to the cauliflower pan. Stir in the pine nuts, capers, currant mix, half a teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper, taste and adjust the seasoning. Stir in the parsley and celery leaves, and serve immediately.

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