Scenic delivery round

We rely on local volunteers to deliver the veg boxes all over Penwith every Friday, but Joe, who normally covers Penzance, had to work last Friday, so Chris and I split the round between us. I drove up the coast to St. Ives, dropped at Cafe Art community hub in the centre of town, then made all the deliveries back along the coast road to St Just (St. Ives, Treen, Pendeen, Botallack and St. Just). Chris, who is the main volunteer when it comes to deliveries, putting in at least 7 hours every Friday, did all the rest (Tremmithick Cross, Ludgvan, Gulval, Penzance, Drift, Sancreed, Nrwlyn, Mousehole, St. Buryan, Sennen, Cot Valley etc...). We are very lucky to live, work, and deliver veg boxes in such a beautiful area, as these photos taken on my delivery round testify.

Clara and Yasmin

Clara and Yasmin, from London, have also volunteered on the farm for one month, and left this morning to return home for December. Many thanks Clara and Yasmin for all your help on the farm, and have a great Christmas!

Clara (left) and Yasmin (right) packing turnips into Friday's veg boxes.

Sonya

Sonya, from Buckinghamshire, left us on Saturday morning having volunteered on the farm for one month. Many thanks Sonya for all your help, and we all hope you have a good Christmas!

Sonya picking rocket for salad in the standard veg boxes last Friday morning.

Tomorrow's veg boxes

To "celebrate" black Friday all tomorrow's veg boxes will have half a kilo of black winter radish in them...

Packing tomorrow's veg boxes

Plus:-

In the small boxes - a cauliflower, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and spring greens.

In the standard boxs - all the above, plus salad leaves, mixed herbs, and onions.

Art on the farm

Some of our volunteers gave themselves an farm-based art project, and here are some of the results (including a bulb fennel carved out of soap!).

Veg boxes Friday 20th November

Another week, another 100 veg boxes delivered throughout Penwith....

£7 veg box = leeks, potatoes, kale, spring greens, a squash portion, and beetroot.

£11 veg box = leeks, potatoes, kale, a squash portion, beetroot, chard, pak choi (see above photo), ring of fire chillies, and salad leaves.

Please email us on vegbox.bcf@bcents.org for more information or to request a joining form.

With many thanks to all our volunteers who helped to pick, pack, organise, and deliver the boxes this week - and to all the others who have gone before to sow, plant, weed, compost etc... over the past decade!

Planting garlic

On Saturday 14th November we planted four beds of garlic in our polytunnels, where they will grow all winter and spring, to be harvested next June. 2020's garlic harvest was the best we've ever achieved, at almost 1000 big bulbs, and we're hoping to replicate that in 2021. We also planted a lot of elephant garlic - a closer relative of the leek than garlic - outside to overwinter and harvest on the same timescale. All the elephant garlic is from our own saved cloves, which we have been propagating and growing for the past decade.

Sonya and Phoebe planting the first of four garlic beds in Imogen polytunnel.

Leek croustade recipe

 

Leek croustade

 

Wash, trim and chop 3 to 6 leeks. Soften them in

a saucepan with butter or oil.

 

Stir in a tablespoon or two of flour and heat for a

few minutes.

 

Pour in some milk or a mixture of milk and stock,

stirring continuously.

 

Make breadcrumbs out of 2 slices of wholemeal

bread. Add a cup of chopped nuts, a handful of

oats and any sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds

sesame seeds that you have. Add mixed herbs

and rub in about 100g margarine or butter.

 

Press the breadcrumb mix into the base of an

ovenproof dish. Bake in a hot oven for 10 -15

minutes.

 

Add the leek mixture and sprinkle grated cheese

on the top. Bake in the oven until the top is

golden brown and bubbling.

 

Serve with green salad and potatoes.

 

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.