Recent improvements on the farm

 

Our new portacabin kitchen-cum-classroom has arrived and been sited in Home Field, as part of the Growth and Empowerment Project.

We've bought a second van to make delivering so many veg boxes a bit easier.

Simon Matthews donated us a set of shelving which we've erected in the packing shed (replacing some tables balanced on top of each other).

We've installed hot and cold running water both inside and outside the egg-packing room, so that shop customers (and staff/volunteers/visitors) can wash their hands in more comfort.

Today's veg boxes

Today we delivered (or had collected from the farm) almost 100 veg boxes, all of it grown on the community farm except the cauliflowers (local and organic), and now in people's homes throughout Penwith.

Packing 97 veg boxes in the packing shed.

Sorting and bagging potatoes, with Phoebe, Clara, Sonya and Yasmin.

Mel and Shaun picking the season's first komatsuna (Chinese spinach) in the Sausage.

Today's veg boxes contained -

£7 box = Cara potatoes, onions, kale, a cauliflower, mixed herbs (parsley, rosemary and sage), purple-top turnips, and 2 ring-of-fire chillies.

£11 box = Cara potatoes, onions, kale, a cauliflower, 2 ring-of-fire chillies, peppers, spring greens, komatsuna, purple-top-turnips, and beetroot.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who have harvested and packed the boxes over the past three days, and delivered them today.

Moving chicken sheds

Yesterday morning (having postponed for the previous two Saturdays due to bad weather) we moved our three chicken sheds a little bit down the slope of their field, to give them fresh pasture, and to stop their manure from building up all in one spot. We drag them with our tractor, using a special chain and yoke made out of old polytunnel pieces, with all the chickens inside, then let them all out in their new spot.

Our chickens are laying less eggs now that the weather has turned cold and daylight hours are much reduced, this is the natural rhythm of laying hens. We have about 20 boxes per day, half of which are for the farm shop, and the rest are for veg box deliveries. Please be understanding if you come to our shop and we've already sold out - there will be more on the following day.

Veg boxes November 6th

We produced 94 veg boxes last Friday, all grown here on the community farm except the leeks, which were from Cargease Organics near Penzance.

£7 veg box = rainbow chard, Cara potatoes, red onions, beetroot, spring greens, and leeks.

£11 veg box = all the above, plus a green Hokkaido squash, a rocoto chilli, and mixed herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary).

This was all harvested by a team of volunteers on Thursday, and delivered/collected on Friday.

Picking almost the final few peppers from our polytunnels, to use as substitutes for member's dislikes in their veg boxes.

Daisy Chain

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2020/nov/02/daisy-chain-can-a-cornish-town-adapt-to-survive-another-lockdown

Bosavern Community Farm is featured in a new documentary on The Guardian website, please click on the link above. This was filmed during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and was released just prior to the current second lock-down. The documentary is 17 minutes long, focussing on Councillor Daisy Gibbs and her Daisy Chain of volunteers, and also the farm's response to unprecedented demand for veg boxes.

Halloween veg boxes

As is now tradition (for the past decade) each veg box for Halloween week contained a jack-be-little pumpkin grown on the farm - some had two small ones. We've carved ours and put a tea-light inside on the living room windowsill...

Friday's veg boxes contained:-

£7 box = jack-be-little squash, onions, potatoes, kale, chard, a jalapeno pepper, and purple-top turnips.

£11 box = all the above plus salad leaves, beetroot, and a local organic cauliflower.

Maria, and Beth again

Maria, who is Russian but lives in London, volunteered on the farm for 5 weeks and moved on to her next farm last Wednesday; then Beth came back over from Falmouth for a week and helped us out again! Many thanks to both.

Maria sowing mooli radish in a polytunnel.