Today's blizzard

We didn't believe the weather forecast today, not after 4 or 5 years with no snow and hardly even a frost. The ground was frozen too hard this morning to dig out potatoes, so we harvested greens from the polytunnels instead (where our French beans, rocoto chillies, and basil have all been killed by this weeks cold), and the first few snowflakes began to flutter down around 11am.

Market garden - that could be the end of our chard this winter.

Thick snow in the farmyard.

Heading off to feed the chickens mid-morning.

Powder snow billowing into the packing shed.

Shutting the chickens in their sheds, having gathered them in from around the field, and wheelbarrowing fresh water across from the kitchen sink.

Blizzard starting in the farmyard.

Snow billowing into one of the chicken sheds.

Gaspard, Mika and Victor

Gaspard (from Paris, France), Mika (from Hokkaido, Japan), and Victor (from Normandy, France), have all left the community farm this week after their two-week stays volunteering with us. We'd like to thank them all for their hard work, and for their help in keeping things going whilst Andy had a well deserved break.

Gaspard and Mika planting French beans on Saturday (all of which were killed by the frost on Monday).

Veg box hubs

As well as being able to collect your veg box from the farm itself, or having it delivered to your door for a £1 delivery charge, you can collect from one of our three hubs around Penwith:-
The North Inn in Pendeen - http://www.thenorthinnpendeen.co.uk (we have usually delivered there by 1pm on Fridays);
CafeArt in St Ives - www.facebook.com/cafeart.stives (we have usually delivered there by 2pm on Fridays);
and the Redwing Gallery in Penzance -www.redwinggallery.co.uk (we have usually delivered there by 3pm Fridays).
To order a box from any of these hubs please contact us at the farm on vegbox.bcf@bcents.org or 788454 and we can organise that for you.

Winter

This season the worst winter weather has come in February, bringing hail, sleet, snow, gales, and plenty of rain, but no negative temperatures and no frost.

We haven't felt able to open both doors to our packing shed and shop yet this month.

Hail in drifts across the black plastic mulch on the market garden, where we are killing off weeds prior to creating permanent beds.

Outdoor brassica salads and parsley just about surviving.

We'd not have much to harvest at the moment if it weren't for our polytunnels.

David

We have had another David to wwoof with is, this time from Segovia in Spain. David volunteered with us for 2 weeks before heading off to his next wwoof adventure on the Lizard Peninsula. Muchas gracias a David para ayudanos!

David sowing some of our 3250 onions in the propagation tunnel (Bedfordshire Champions in this instance).

Veg boxes 9th February

Last Friday's £6 veg box - mixed salad leaves, oriental greens, black winter radish, swede, pumpkin, and potatoes.

The £10 box contained potatoes, pumpkin, parsley, red cabbage, Chinese leaves, little gem lettuces, purple sprouting broccoli, French breakfast radish, and jerusalem artichokes.

Polytunnel name plaques

It's taken us a long time to get round to it (mainly because of trying to figure out how to go about it) but we've eventually fixed some name plaques onto three of our polytunnels. They were made for us by Sonja, out of clay, and add a lovely personal rustic touch to the tunnels.

The propagation station, where we produce all the plants for the farm.

Valentine (named after the Valentine's Day storms).

The Sausage, the longest and thinnest of our 6 tunnels.

Some day we hope to be able to extend this art-project to the other three tunnels - the Mothership, Nigel, and Imogen.

Many thanks to Sonja for creating and gifting these lovely pieces (and also for facilitating the art and poetry workshops on the farm, and running Pendeen Farmer's Market twice a month).

Vincent

Vincent, on the left, harvesting salad leaves in Nigel with Nico and Charlie.

Vincent, also from France, will be leaving us tomorrow morning to head back home to continue his engineering studies, having arrived at the community farm on New Years' Day. Many many thanks to Vincent for his month with us, and good luck with your studies.

Coraline

Coraline, on the left, weeding in the Mothership with David.

Our French wwoof volunteer Coraline left the farm on Saturday, having helped us for the previous two weeks. Everyone at the farm would like to thank Coraline for her assistance during her time with us, and wish her all the best for the future.

Veg boxes 2nd February

Our van loaded for Friday's delivery round.

This Friday's veg fresh seasonal veg boxes contained:-
Small £6 box - 1kg Sarpo Mira potatoes, parsley, vivid choi, a pumpkin portion, a celeriac, and kale.
Standard £10 box - 2kg Sarpo Mira potatoes, vivid choi, a pumpkin portion, kale, a swede, Swiss chard, purple sprouting broccoli, Vietnamese coriander, French breakfast radishes, and a bag of mixed salad leaves.

For £1 extra we will deliver to St. Just, Botallack, Carnyorth, Pendeen, Morvah, Zennor, Penzance, Wherrytown, Newlyn, Mousehole, Paul, Lamorna, Porthcurno, St. Buryan, Land's End, Sennen, Crows-an-Wra, Newbridge, and anywhere in between.

Veg boxes 26th January

Harvesting "giant red mustard" as oriental greens for the standard boxes.

On 26th January our not-for-profit veg boxes contained:-
Small £6 box - Valor potatoes, a pumpkin portion, Chinese leaves, watercress, French breakfast radishes, and leeks.
Standard £10 box - Valor potatoes, a pumpkin portion, Chinese leaves, leeks, mooli radishes, a lettuce, oriental greens, Jerusalem artichokes, beetroot, and a selection of greens (and reds!) from the field.

Veg boxes can be delivered to your door in West Penwith for only £1 extra, or you can collect for free from CafeArt in St. Ives, Bosavern Community Farm near St. Just, the North Inn in Pendeen, and Redwing Gallery in Penzance.