Christmas shop opening times

The farm shop will be open 11am to 6pm every day over the festive period, except for Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, and January 2nd. We have a great range of fresh vegetables, plus plenty of gift ideas - Christmas cards, honey, honeycomb, beeswax candles, leather dog collars, herbal tonics, lip balms, jams, preserves, chutneys, dried chillies, sauces, relishes, soaps, seaweed, gingerbread etc..etc...

There will be no bread in the shop from December 25th to January 3rd (Vicky's are having a holiday), but we will have fresh bread again from Monday 4th January. Local organic milk will be available throughout.

Veg boxes 11th December

Small £6 veg box - cabbage, cauliflower (organic, grown near Penzance), potatoes, pumpkin portion, carrots, and jerusalem artichokes.

Standard £10 veg box - cabbage, onions, potatoes, jerusalem artichokes, carrots, pumpkin portion, cauliflower (organic, grown near Penzance), jalapeno peppers, and mixed salad leaves.

Elise

Elise, from France, spent 6 weeks wwoofing on the community farm, and was an invaluable help, but left last Friday to head home for Christmas. Many thanks Elise!

Veg boxes over the festive period

This season both Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall on Fridays, so we have moved our veg box day to Wednesdays 23rd and 30th December instead. Can all our veg box customers please let us know if they want a veg box on those days or not, and if there is any change in their order.
Many thanks!
And a very happy festive period to you all.

Cornwall Sustainability Awards

On the evening of Friday 4^th December representatives from the farm attended the ‘Cornwall Sustainability Awards’ ceremony.

The wonderful ceremony, whose keynote speaker was Jonathon Porritt CBE, is held every year to celebrate and acknowledge those in Cornwall who are aiming to conduct their business in the most sustainable way they can.

Bosavern Community farm was announced joint winners of the category ‘Best contribution to a sustainable food economy – From nature to plate’. This was the most hotly contested of all the categories, with the most applicants and longest shortlist. The judges could not separate us from the ‘Devon & Cornwall food association’ who do fantastic work collecting food bound for landfill and redistributing it to housing shelters and the homeless. So we both were victorious in our category, overcoming very stiff competition.

Upon winning the award, the judges told the assembled attendees that Bosavern Community Farm is

‘A shining light; and an example of how we should all aim to adopt a more sustainable and community led approach to food production. Their tireless work should be a lesson to us all.’

We would like to say a huge thank you to YOU the community, our volunteers, staff, friends and customers for your continued support, and to also congratulate you on this award as it belongs to all involved (both past & present) with Bosavern Community Farm.

Georg

Georg, from Germany/Tajikistan, left the community farm yesterday after one week wwoofing with us. Thank you Georg for your help during your stay, and we wish you the best with your next wwoofing assignment.

Advent Fair

Our final event of a very busy weekend was our own Advent Fair down on the farm. The weather forecast had waxed and waned all week, and on the day the weather turned out to be grey and damp, so thanks to everyone who braved it and came along, we hope you enjoyed it!

We had Christmas decoration and beeswax candle-rolling workshops in the Hive, where you could also pin festive messages on the wish-globe; in the packing shed we ran our ever popular cafe, with hot soup and mince pies and other treats; the farm shop looked very festive, and we were taking orders for our Christmas hampers; there was a campfire in the farmyard for those wishing to brave the damp; and entertainment in the packing shed began with the Land And Sea singers, followed by Pendeen Silver Band in their first ever performance at the farm.

Christmas decorations created in the craft workshops.

Craft workshops under way in the Hive.

Doves of peace on our wish-globe.

Mince pies in the Cow Shed Cafe.

Our farm shop, full of farm produce and gift ideas (mostly edible!).

Gathering around the foggy campfire.

Land And Sea treating us to a sing-along performance in the packing shed.

Pendeen Silver Band playing carols to round off the afternoon.

We'd like to thank the singers and musicians for providing entertainment, our volunteers for setting up / packing away / running the craft workshops / cooking and baking for the cafe / running the shop and cafe / building the campfire / helping to organise another successful event - and big thanks to everyone who came!

St Just Christmas Fair

On Saturday 5th December we had a stall at the Christmas Fair in the Old Town Hall, which Steve, one of our wwoofers, ran for us.

Veg box 4th December

This is the small £6 veg box from last Friday - a portion of pumpkin, a bunch of carrots, potatoes, onions, parsnips, and a celeriac (local and organic, grown near Penzance). Also shown are optional extras - half a dozen of our own eggs (£1.50), a large organic sourdough loaf (£2.90), and a litre of local organic milk (£1.20).

The standard £10 box also included a head of celery, some fresh sage, and a red cabbage (local and organic, grown near Penzance).

Well appeal

At the start of the year we fitted a water meter to the tap next to our polytunnels, which has shown us that 52% of the farm's total water use (including the farmhouse) is used for irrigating our polytunnels. In one of our fields we have an historic well, now sealed with a manhole cover, which we have the potential to bring back into use. We have had the water professionally tested and it has proved to be of good enough quality to be used for both irrigation and watering livestock (all our chicken sheds now have guttering and water-butts, so we rarely need to use mains water for our poultry anyway). To re-open the well and install the equipment necessary to allow us to irrigate our polytunnels will cost in the region of £5000. This would cut our water bills by half, and significantly improve the overall sustainability of the farm. On the right hand side of this blog we have installed a button where you can donate money to our Well Appeal, to help us with this latest step towards becoming a sustainable community farm. Many thanks!

Evelin, Daniel, and Elise

Evelin (from Germany), Daniel (from Spain), and Elise (from Canada) have all come to the end of their wwoofing stays with us over the past few days.

Evelin on the left, Daniel centre left, French Elise centre right (who is still at the farm), and Canadian Elise on the right; sorting and packing potatoes in the packing shed.

As always we would like to thank them for their hard work on the farm, and wish them well in their onward travels.

Veg boxes 27th November

This week's small £6 veg boxes contained a bunch of carrots, a kilo of valor potatoes, some small swedes, a head of celery, 2 jalapeno peppers, a bag of kale, and a portion of pumpkin.

The standard £10 veg boxes contained 2kg of valor potatoes, a portion of pumpkin, a bag of kale, some flat-leaved parsley, a bunch of carrots, mixed salad leaves, the last tomatillos of the year, 2 jalapeno peppers, and some bulb fennel.

Cubs visit

On Saturday 21st November the farm played host to 14 cub scouts from the local area. First of all we all mucked in together to pull out and compost our past-it French bean plants in the polytunnel. Then we had a tour of the farm and harvested lots of different vegetables and herbs for lunch, and met the chickens. And finally the cubs and their leaders built a fire in the farmyard, where they cooked and ate vegetable soup using the farm's produce.

Christmas Hamper 2015

We are now taking orders for this year's Christmas hampers, at a cost of £40 each. Each hamper will contain:-
a selection of fresh seasonal vegetables from the farm
half a dozen free-range eggs from the farm
a selection of fresh herbs from the farm
a jar of large honey from our own bees
a beeswax pillar candle
a trio of Cornish cheeses
a jar of Christmas chutney
a block of raw chocolate
a jar of luxury jam
a tub of seaweed salt (perfect for roasting vegetables).
Hampers will be ready for collection on the 22nd and 23rd of December - please contact the farm to order yours.

Black Radish Friday

Tomorrow is "Black Friday", one of the main days of the consumerist calendar. To help celebrate this, we are holding "Black Radish Friday" in our farm shop, where every customer throughout the day gets a free black Spanish radish. These are bigger and spicier than other radishes, and are amazing grated into coleslaw. So come and do your shopping with us tomorrow and try one out for yourself!

Solar panel and farm entrance application.

The farm has applied to install a small 4kW solar panel array primarily to power the farm shop and packing shed, and also to install a new farm entrance in a much safer location. You can find more details, and have your say, on the West Cornwall Community Renewables website;

http://www.wc-cr.co.uk/recent-news/bosavern/

Avent Fair, Sunday 6th December, 12-3pm

Veg boxes 20th November

Small £6 veg box - mixed salad leaves, Valor potatoes, parsnips, black Spanish radishes, cabbage, and a pumpkin portion.

Standard £10 veg box - Valor potatoes, cabbage, rainbow chard, pumpkin portion, celery, black Spanish radishes, red onions, parsnips, and sweet peppers.

CSA Network UK

Bosavern Community Farm has recently joined the Community Supported Agriculture Network UK, and we have leaflets available in our shop with information about the organisation. A CSA is a "partnership between farmers and the community where the responsibilities, risks and rewards of farming are shared. This may be by CSA members paying for their veg boxes in advance, investing in the farm, or by helping out with growing and harvesting". Although our members do not pay for their veg boxes in advance (and neither do they receive a "share" of that week's harvest, but receive veg to the value of their box plus a little extra) some of them have invested in the farm through our Community Share Offer, and/or help as volunteers on the farm regularly or occasionally. Our veg box scheme has now been running since June 2011 and currently has approximately 40 members - please contact us if you would like to join.

www.communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk

Andre

Andre, from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, spent three weeks volunteering on the farm before heading off on Thursday, and we'd like to thank him for his help, especially on Sundays. He's in the previous photo rolling up the mipex, on the far left of the group.

Shortlisted in Cornwall Sustainability Awards 2015.

Bosavern Community Farm has been shortlisted in both sections of the Cornwall Sustainability Awards that we entered - "Best contribution to creating a sustainable food economy - from nature to plate" and "Best environmental growth". We will find out in December if we have won either of these awards, but just to be shortlisted is a fantastic achievement by everybody involved with the farm.

http://www.cornishman.co.uk/Bosavern-Community-Farm-shortlisted-Cornwall/story-28218007-detail/story.html

Cecile

Cecile, from France, moved on to her next wwoofing assignment last Saturday, after two weeks helping on the farm - thank you Cecile and good luck for the future!

Cecile (on the left in full red waterproofs) helping other volunteers to roll up the mipex from our finished pumpkin patch.

Veg boxes 13th November

Last Friday's small £6 veg box contained - a cabbage (or cauliflower), a kilo of potatoes, a bag of fresh coriander, some peppers, a portion of pumpkin or squash, 2 jalapeno peppers, and a punnet of tomatillos (a Mexican delicacy, like sour green tomatoes, prized for their tangy salsas). The standard £10 veg box also contained tomatoes, a globe artichoke, a bulb fennel, and some mixed salad leaves. Please contact us if you would like to join our veg box scheme!

More YMCA photos.

Here are some shots taken by our guest photographer on the day, Ellie Smart.

Chilli harvest

We have just picked all the red "ring of fire" chillies in our polytunnels, and are drying them for storage and selling. We picked 20kg fresh-weight, a vast quantity, but this weight will reduce once they are dried. We have strung some up on cotton thread, and all are drying in the farmhouse kitchen next to the Rayburn.

Daniel picking chillies in Valentine.

Daniel with a wheelbarrow full of chillies.

Veg boxes 6th November

Last Friday's small veg box (£6) - a bag of mixed salad leaves, a kilo of potatoes, a head of celery (good for making stock), a "gem" squash, parsnip, peppers, and green chillies. The standard veg box (£10) also contained fresh coriander, tomatillos (a Mexican delicacy for making spicy salsa), rainbow chard and beetroot. Please contact the farm if you would like to join our veg box scheme, telephone 788454.

YMCA team-building day

On Thursday 29th October the community farm played host to 25 members of the local YMCA staff and volunteers, and facilitated a day of team-building activities for them (having done the same for them last year too). We split the group into four teams, and led them on four different farming tasks -
1) Harvesting potatoes with Pete and the tractor,
2) Weeding the carrot patch with Ian,
3) Converting a polytunnel from summer tomatoes to winter salads with Jenny, and
4) Spreading and turning compost with Hugh.

One team wheelbarrowing compost to the broad bean patch.

Another team weeding carrots.

Each team spent one hour on each task, rewarded not just with the enjoyment of hard work, and the positives of team building, but with a superb lunch made mostly from farm produce, and a cream tea with a fun quiz to end the day. We harvested over 200kg of potatoes, weeded half the carrot patch, harvested all the remaining tomatoes (both ripe and green) and got the plants onto the compost, spread all the ready compost on the market garden, and turned most of the rest.

Thank you to all the YMCA people who came on the day and made it such a success - we hope to see you again next year!

Also big thanks to everyone who helped the farm hold the event - Nikki, Alice, Jenny, Sonia, Willow, Ian, Mark and Yvonne - and to our four wwoofers for picking lots of veg and eggs whilst we were otherwise occupied - Stuart, Paul, Charlotte and Daniel.

Stuart, Paul and Charlotte.

Stuart (left) with Charlotte and Paul (right) enjoying tea-break in the farmyard.

Stuart (from Blackpool), Charlotte (Germany) and Paul (France) have all left the farm in the past few days after extended stays as wwoof volunteers, and we'd like to thank them all for their help and wish them the best for the future.

Veg boxes 30th October

This week's small £6 veg box -"marvel of four seasons" lettuce, Picasso potatoes, cabbage, onions, peppers, fresh coriander, and "Jack be little" squash.

The standard £10 boxes also included mixed salad leaves, tomatoes, and bulb fennel, plus extra potatoes.

Veg boxes 23rd October

Small £6 veg box with mixed salad leaves, potatoes, kale, coriander, parsnip, peppers, and a rocoto chilli.

Standard £10 veg box with a lettuce, kale, mixed salad leaves, potatoes, carrots, coriander, peppers, parsnip and tomatoes.

Claire

Claire (on the right) bagging chard with Charlotte in the packing shed.

Claire, from Brittany in France, helped as a volunteer on the farm for one month, and left last week to visit friends before heading home. Thank you Claire for being such a good wwoofer, and also for all those cakes! We look forward to seeing you again soon.