Christmas Hampers

It's that time of year again, when we start taking orders for our popular Christmas Hampers. We are again offering three sizes, priced at £25, £50, and £75 (small, standard, and bumper). They will be harvested fresh (the veg and eggs anyway....) and ready to go on Friday December 21st. Each will contain a selection of seasonal veg and herbs from the farm, plus our own eggs, Vicky's mince pies and Christmas bread, our own honey, plus a selection of local produce ideal for the Christmas period (contents depend on size of hamper). Brussels sprouts guaranteed! We can deliver anywhere in West Penwith for £1, or you can collect from the farm. To order yours please phone 788454, or email info@bosaverncommunityfarm.org.uk. A £10 deposit is payable.

Last year's small hamper (£25).

Last year's medium hamper (£50).

Yuletide Fair

Sunday 25th November saw the annual Yuletide Fair in the sports hall at St. Just Leisure Centre, with 60 stalls, hundreds of visitors, a cafe, Santa's grotto, and school choirs, with all the proceeds going to St. Just, Pendeen and Sennen schools, Pendeen Ark, and Brambles Nursery.

Our stall at the fair.

A view of other stalls in the hall.

Many thanks to everbody who came along to enjoy and support the fair - and to Andy, Emma, and Fran for setting up and running our stall.

Winter Feast

Our next community celebration and open day will be at the farm on Sunday 9th December, from midday till 3pm. For the first hour or so we will have members of Pendeen Silver Band playing carols around the campfire. At 1pm there will be a community feast in the packing shed, to which everyone is invited to bring food to share (and/or make a donation). And to round things up from 2 till 3pm we will welcome back the Blazing Hearts Chorus to entertain us in the farmyard (weather permitting - in the open barn if not). Everybody is welcome, so please come along and bring family and friends.

Moving the chicken sheds

We have two fields fenced for chickens and we plan for them to have two years in each, interspersed with field-scale crops. In May we moved them to the top of the top field, and since then we have ploughed and planted the lower field with squash (all now harvested), leeks, kales, cabbages, beetroot, chard, and carrots (which are small but good).

Leeks and other crops planted and sown into the old chicken field.

On Tuesday last week we went up with our tractor and dragged the sheds twenty metres down their current field onto fresher pasture. We'll move them twice again next year before changing fields again in 2020. Our little Ford tractor will only drag them downhill!

Early morning, and the first shed has moved downhill.

Mid afternoon, all three sheds have moved, and the chickens released.

Late afternoon, all the fences and water butts have been re-erected, and that's the job done for another six months.

Veg boxes 23rd November

Friday's standard veg box

Black Friday = black radishes in every veg box!

We sent out thirty lovely veg boxes on Friday - Crown Prince squash (or similar), black winter radishes, spring greens, salad potatoes, mixed salad leaves, komatsuna (Chinese spinach), leeks, purple-top turnips, rocket, and/or red Russian kale. Please contact us to join our not-for-profit veg box scheme on 788454.

New members sought

We have re-opened our community share offer and are inviting new members to join us - please follow this link for details http://www.bosaverncommunityfarm.org.uk/membership/. New members receive regular updates from the farm, a vote at our AGM (either in person or by proxy), and the opporunity to help our outstanding project acheive further successes. Many thanks for joining us!

Nerida

Nerida, from Australia, left the farm this morning after wwoofing with us for one month, to continue her travels around the UK. We'd like to thank her for her help during her time with us, and wish her well in the future - we hope to see you back at the farm someday too!

Nerida, on the left, with Andy and Lorenz planting winter crops in Nigel polytunnel last month.

Dates for your diary

Wednesday November 21st is the AGM of Bosavern Community Enterprises, at 19:15 in the W.I. Hall in St. Just. You don't have to be a member to come along, though only members can vote (see our website to find out how you can become a member).

Sunday November 25th is the Yuletide Fair in the sport hall of St. Just Leisure Centre, 11:00 till 15:00, where the farm will have a stall alongisde 60 other stalls (plus choirs and a visit from Santa).

Sunday December 9th is our next open day on the farm, from 12:00 till 15:00, with live music and a communal feast. Please see our posters for more details.

Veg boxes 16th November

This is one of today's "small" veg boxes (priced at £6), and contained 200g kale, 200g chard, 500g carrots, 500g beetroot, 1kg potatoes, and 400g leeks.
Today's "standard" veg boxes (£10) also included a cabbage, a swede, extra carrots, extra leeks, and mixed salad leaves.
We deliver anywhere in West Penwith (as far as St. Ives and Penzance) for only £1 extra, with optional extras of eggs, bread and milk.

Morgan

Many congratulations to Morgan, who has been awarded "St. Just Young Citizen of the Year 2018" at the recent Feast Civic Parade. Morgan volunteered once a week on the community for six months this year, just one of many community endeavours that helped her to win the award. Well done Morgan!

Lorenz, Caroline, Rob and Abigail

Another four WWOOF volunteers have reached the ends of their stays with us this week - Lorenz from Germany stayed for 6 weeks, Caroline from France for 8 days, Rob from Cumbria for 8 days, and Abigail from Bermuda also for 8 days. Many thanks for helping us during your stays, and good luck with your next steps.

Caroline and Rob weeding overwintering onions, before laying sheeps fleece as a mulch.

Preparing a raised bed for spring greens, with Lorenz on the right.

Lenka

Lenka, a WWOOF volunteer from Montana, USA, left the farm yesterday morning after helping out for 3 weeks.

Lenka weeding our purple sprouting broccoli in the permanent raised beds (with Lorenz on the left).

It was a joy to have Lenka volunteer with us and we already miss her - many thanks for your hard calm work!

Harvesting squash and pumpkins.

Squash laid out to cure in the polytunnel.

 We've not had a very good year for squash, certainly not compared to 2017. In 2016 we harvested 300kg, which we tried to double in 2017 and ended up with 1200kg! So this year we tried to halve that and have got only 200kg, mostly crown prince (which is the best, so that's something!).

Mostly Crown Prince squash.

 We got off to a bad start with a nutrient-poor batch of potting compost. Because the plants looked so bad we prioritised transplanting leeks instead, so the squash were planted out towards the end of July, a bit too late. It was then so dry that they struggled.

Pumpkins in the shop ready for Hallowe'en.

But we did get some! And they are now all harvested and curing in the polytunnel ready to go on sale. Except for some large (Jack-o-lantern and Sue's Giant) and tiny (Jack-be-little) pumpkins which were in the shop and at farmers' markets before Hallowe'en, and some big ones that have been portioned up and sent out in standard veg boxes for the past two weeks.

Today's veg boxes

Today's small veg box (£6) plus half a dozen eggs (£1.60) = £7.60.

Be a part of the local food revolution here in West Penwith! Join the not-for-profit veg box scheme here at Bosavern Community Farm. In today's veg boxes you could have enjoyed (or have enjoyed?) Charlotte salad potatoes, perpetual spinach, red Russian kale, carrots, purple-top turnips, beetroot, mixed salad leaves, Vietnamese coriander, a pumpkin portion, leeks, cucumbers, and/or oriental stir-fry greens. Plus we can add our own free-range eggs, Vicky's organic bread, and Treen organic milk.

Email vegbox.bcf@bcents.org to find out more, or to order your box for next week.

Coline and Marine

Coline and Marine sowing trays of seeds with Lenka in the propagation station.

Coline and Marine sorting potatoes in the packing shed.

Coline and Marine, from France, also left today, having stayed with us for eight days - special thanks to them for working so well over the last weekend to allow me to have two days off with my family.

John the third

John dismantling the windbreak after harvesting this year's squash.

John picking perpetual spinach for veg boxes.

John came to wwoof with us for the third time, but left this morning to make his way home to Brisbane, Australia. Thanks John for all your help and craziness!