Squash harvest 2020

On Saturday 17th October we harvested all our squash patch for the year, and laid them out to cure in the Propagation Station polytunnel, so they will be ready for Halloween. We harvested 450kg this year, about the same as last year, so a little disappointing but still good. There are several different types of squash as usual - crown prince, jack o' lantern, jack be little, turk's turban, butternut, blue ballet, green hokkaido, cheyenne bush, and Sue's bug pumpkin (grown from seed saved from a local grower - Sue Pentreath at Carallack - who passed away recently). 

The first pumpkin portions went into the standard veg boxes on Friday 23rd, and the rest will be available in the shop at £2 per kilo during the coming week and from then on. Next Friday's veg boxes will each get a lovely jack-be-little squash, perfect for eating (like all our squash), but also for carving and putting a tea-light in.

Giulia

Another one of our WWOOF team left us this week, on Wednesday morning, upon coming to the end of her stay - Giulia, from Italy but currently living in Scotland.

Giulia is on the right in this photo, dibbing holes to plant overwintering onion sets (Troy instead of our usual Radar, because they were the only ones I could buy/find at the time, and only 2.5kg instead of 5kg because even they had run out and I bought the last few) - many thanks Giulia!

Today's veg boxes

We are in the process of delivering 85 veg boxes around Penwith, containing:-

£7 box = beetroot, rainbow chard, kale, onions, a big leek, and potatoes.

£11 box = beetroot, kale, onions, a big leek, potatoes, spring greens, mixed salad leaves, a pepper, a portion of pumpkin, and green tomatoes for chutney.

Please email us at vegbox.bcf@bcents.org to find out more or to join our not-for-profit scheme.

Jasmine

Jasmine, on the right in this photo (alongside Phoebe, her cousin, who has taken Jasmine's place on the farm) volunteered with us for four weeks, and left on Sunday to head back home to Devon.

Many many thanks to Jasmine, and to all who help on the farm, and we wish her well with her future.

New chickens

On Wednesday 14th October we drove up to Launceston and brought back another 75 point-of-lay Colombian Blacktail laying hens to add to our flock. We buy them now to try and ensure egg supplies over the Christmas period. They have moved in to shed 2 alongside our 50 oldest birds.

Steam rollers

 

Saturday 10th October saw some interesting vehicles catching their breath in the layby opposite the farm....

Kati

Kati left us today after volunteering for three weeks as part of her annual trip to Cornwall (she was camping near Newquay for 2 weeks before joining us) from Germany. Many thanks Kati for all your help, and enjoy Falmouth!

Picking and packing Thursdays

Most of the harvesting and packing for our weekly veg boxes gets done on a Thursday, mostly by volunteers between 9am and 5pm (a few minutes later today...). This is the busiest day on the farm, and one of the most fun to be involved in, so new volunteers are always welcome (strict Covid rules are adhered to).

Ben and Danny picking kale.

Giulia and Maria picking purple-top turnips.

veg boxes Friday 16th October 2020

I've just been planning this weeks' veg boxes, which reflect the weather in having a more autumnal feel about them. They have the first purple-top turnips of the year in them, so I've posted my favourite recipe on this blog too (I'll have to wait till the weekend, but my mouth is watering already!) - red kidney beans cooked with turnips Kashmiri-style.

This is what we are planning to pick and pack this week:-

Small £7 box - chard, kale, leeks, onions, potatoes, and turnips.

Standard £11 box - kale, leeks, onions, potatoes, turnips, peppers, jalapenos, salad leaves, mixed herbs, and beetroot.

Red kidney beans cooked with turnips

 

Fareeda Kaul’s red kidney beans cooked with turnips.

This is a Kashmiri recipe adapted slightly from the book “A Taste Of India” by Madhur Jaffrey.

Ingredients

1 tin kidney beans, washed

500g turnips

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon chilli powder (or a few slices fresh or dried chilli)

4 tablespoons (60ml) sunflower oil

1 medium onion, peeled, cut in half, and sliced thinly

3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

Method

Peel the turnips and cut into big chunks (quarters or eighths depending on size of turnip). Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, and fry the turnip pieces, turning them until they are browned on every side. Take out the turnip pieces. Set them aside, and fry the onion until golden brown.

Meanwhile, put the ginger, turmeric, salt and chilli into a small bowl, add 1 tablespoon (15ml) of water, and mix to a smooth paste.

When the onion is cooked turn the heat down, add the garlic, cook for a minute, then stir in the spice paste and turn off the heat.

Put the kidney beans into a saucepan, add the turnips, add enough boiling water to just about cover the beans and turnips, add the onion and spice mix, then simmer for about ten minutes, or until the turnips are soft.

Serve, accompanied by basmati rice and lime pickle.

Green tomato chutney

It's that time of year again, when we change our polytunnels over from summer to winter crops. This entails taking out tomato vines now that they are past their best, and replacing them with crops such as watercress, which means that we now have green tomatoes for sale in the farm shop, priced at £1.50 per kilo. One of our local volunteers has sent this recipe for green tomato chutney, which we thought you might like to try:-

Green Tomato Chutney

Bosavern Green Tomatoes, Bosavern Red Onions, Bosavern Chillies.

1kg green tomatoes

1kg of red (or brown) onions

150g raisins (I put some dried dates in too as they needed using up)

3 chillies (or to taste)

3 cloves garlic (or to taste - I used 6!)

1 lt vinegar (your choice - I used lots of part bottles up from my shelves, but you could just stick to malt if that suits)

500g sugar (again - I used up some ends in packets - muscovado, demerara, etc)

2 tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp salt.

Chop up the tomatoes and onions - not too small - you want to see the constituent parts! Roughly chop the dried fruit, slice the chillies fairly thin and crush the garlic. Put in a lage pan along with the vinegar and sugar. Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer. Keep simmering, stirring occaisionally until the liquid reduces and you have a nice chutney. Remember it will be thicker once cooled. 

 

Once cool, but not cold, put into sterilised jars and pop the lids on.

 

Store best in a cupboard (out of direct sunlight). Give at least half the jars away to friends!

This recipe is very forgiving to exact amounts and as you can see - you can swap things in and it is great for using up 'ends' be tat different vinegars, sugar or dried fruit. You can always halve the quantities if you don't want to give any away!

 

 

Veg boxes 9th October 2020

We will start harvesting for our veg boxes tomorrow, then will finish and deliver them on Friday. We are planning them to contain:-

• Small £7 box - Cara potatoes, mixed salad leaves, a rocoto chilli, beetroot, tomatoes, kale, and a pepper.
• Standard £11 box - 2 globe artichokes, beetroot, chard, a rocoto chilli, a cucumber, a courgette, onions, Cara potatoes, mixed salad leaves, and tomatoes.

Friday morning salad pick.

Wednesday morning potato digging.

Thursday morning tower of courgettes.

 

Current harvest

Autumn is definitely here (and probably has been since early August) and with it comes the fading of our summer veg, but we still have plenty of tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes and peppers, with a few aubergines and runner beans, and a bit of basil too. Both French beans and bulb fennel are over for another season.

We do have plenty of autumn veg available - spring greens, kale, chard, potatoes, onions, globe artichokes, parsley, beetroot, carrots, cabbages, salad leaves, crooknecked squash, coriander - plus swedes, leeks, cauliflowers, red cabbages, parsnips and romanesco from Cargease Organics nearby. We also hope to have squash and pumpkins and purple-top turnips available by the end of October.

A crate full of globe artichokes.

Lines of beetroot in our maincrop field.

Squash in our patch approaching harvest time.

A bucket full of crooknecked squash - delicious stuffed and baked.

Digging potatoes

We dig all our potatoes by hand (using garden forks), about 120 to 150 kg per week, to go into our veg boxes (currently about 80 per week), farm shop, and Pendeen Farmers' Market (cancelled this week due to strong winds). We have already dug up all our Casablanca earlies, Bambino salad potatoes, and Maris Peer second earlies, and are into the Cara maincrop (with their pink eyes).

Digging potatoes is a Wednesday morning job, and always a team effort, so if anybody would like to come and help please do so. We usually dig from 9 till 11am, then have a coffee break, before weighing, sorting and bagging them for veg boxes. Our potato patch has sea views unless foggy!!!

Beth

 Beth came over from Falmouth to help us out for a few weeks, and has now gone back for her final year of university. It was lovely to host Beth on the farm during her stay, we hope to see her again soon, and we wish her all the best in her final year - thank you!

Beth digging potatoes on a foggy autumn morning.