Nature conservation works

With the generous support of the Penwith Landscape Project, and thanks to Gryff on his digger, last week we carried out some more nature conservation projects on the farm.

Using half an old telegraph pole, we've erected a support for a barn-owl box, on the edge of our young woodland. Two barn owls have been seen over the farm several times this winter. The box is to follow.

Also in the woodland field, we have created a series of shallow scrapes and ponds for wildlife, as a wetland habitat.

New scrapes in the woodland.

Again as a wetland habitat, we have re-instated an historic drainage ditch at the bottom of Hotel Field, part of the southern boundary of the farm.

This is the small wetland area that we created earlier this year in a bottom corner of the allotment field, which we are peased to see is already full of water, and hopefully the associated wildlife will follow.

Veg boxes 30/12/21

This week we have again delivered on a Thursday, like last week, to give our staff and volunteers more of a rest over the New Year's weekend. Many thanks to Joe and Chris our two volunteer delivery drivers today, who have delivered all the boxes and gone home already. Also many thanks to the small team yesterday (Polly, Ophelia, Juan and Hugh) who worked their Christmas-socks off to pack 85 boxes ready for today, finishing as it went dark. We are back to our normal routine of picking and packing on Thursdays for a Friday delivery from next week onwards.

Ophelia picking salad leaves at dawn this morning.

Today's veg boxes contain:-

Small box (£7) - potatoes, black Tuscan kale, onions, salad leaves, rainbow chard, and leeks.

Standard box (£11) - potatoes, black Tuscan kale, onions, watercress, rainbow chard, leeks, Chinese cabbage, a pumpkin portion, and beetroot.

Rob

Rob volunteered with us as a WWOOFer for two months, and left just before Christmas, so we'd like to thank him for his help and wish him all the best in his onward endeavours.

Christmas shop display

Our farm shop is looking beautiful at the moment, bursting with festive veg - Brussels sprouts, kale, squash, parsnips, carrots, savoys, red cabbages, leeks, potatoes, russet apples, celeriacs, salad, rainbow chard, spinach, watercress, onions, swede, dried chillies, cauliflowers, dried lemon verbena for tea, beetroot, and fresh herbs. We are open 10am till 5pm until the end of trading on Christmas Eve, then re-opening at 10am on Tuesday 28th. We also have plenty of eggs at the moment, because we bought some organic free-range eggs from another farm to make sure that there is enough to go around.

Coppicing

Several years ago we created a willow copse in the corner of what is now our allotment field (Pepper Field), and this year it was time to coppice the willow for the first time. We produced three different products from the willow - whips for planting in other fields, firewood to dry out for the farmhouse, and a brash-pile as wildlife habitat in the field corner.

Warren and Joe coppicing lines of willow in the copse. The outer lines were left standing as shelter belts for our bee hives.

Polly snedding the willow to produce whips, firewood, and brash.

Robert building the brash pile in a nearby field corner, as a big bug hotel and hedgehog hibernation place etc...

Joe planting the willow whips around the upper crop/chicken field.

 

Some of the willow we planted down the middle of the Market Garden as a windbreak 3 or 4 winters ago, now functional and attractive too.

Latest art work

Following on from Warren's amazingly artistic pop-hole door, he has created a new parking sign for our car-park!! Many thanks Warren.

Farm volunteers thank you tea

We recently held a thank you tea for our farm volunteers, with 30 people in attendance, each of whom volunteer or work on the farm in some capacity. To be "Covid-secure" this was held in a polytunnel, with front and back doors wide open, and socially-distanced, with masks being worn around the buffet table. There were scones with jam and cream, cakes, biscuits, mulled wine, tea, coffee, mulled apple juice, stollen etc... all of which was lovely, but the best part was when we all went outside to admire the sunset across Home Field. Many many thanks to all our wonderful volunteers!

Veg boxes 23/12/21

This year's Christmas veg boxes are going out on Thursday 23rd December so that members can prepare their veg on Christmas Eve ready for Christmas Day. We've just finished packing and checking them and they contain:-

Small £7 box - a stalk of Brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, a portion of Crown Prince squash, and a sprig of rosemary.

Standard £11 box - all the above plus leeks, salad leaves, and swede.

We have had to buy some of this week's veg in from local and UK organic farms, in order for our boxes to be what is expected for a Christmas dinner; but the squash, leeks, salad and rosemary have been grown here on the Community Farm.

New members for the veg box scheme are welcome, starting Friday 7th January 2022, please email vegbox.bcf@bcents.org before Wednesday 5th, many thanks.

Veg boxes 10th December

 

This winter's first harvesting of polytunnel watercress.

Small £7 box - potatoes, onions, kale or chard or cabbage, salad leaves, dried lemon verbena for tea, and a pumpkin portion.

Standard £11 box - potatoes, onions, cabbage, salad leaves, dried lemon verbena for tea, a pumpkin portion, jerusalem artichokes, watercress, and oriental greens.

Festive shop, box and market times

Our farm shop will be open daily as normal (every day 10am till 5pm, except Sundays 10am till 2pm) over the festive period except:-

• Christmas Day = closed
• Boxing Day = closed
• Monday 27th December = closed
• New Year's Day = closed
• Sunday 2nd January = closed
• Monday 3rd January = closed.

There will be a Sennen Market on Tuesday 21st December 09:30 till 12:30, and on 4th January 2022, but not on Tuesday 28th December.

Our veg boxes will be delivered on Thursday 23rd and Thursday 30th December, rather then Friday 24th and Friday 31st.

CSA award

Having been joint winners of our category at the Cornwall Sustainability Awards in 2015, this year we were nominated in the "Growing Greener - Sustainable Food and Farming" category, in which we were Highly Commended.

We have added this to our trophy and certificate display in the farm shop. Many thanks to whoever nominated us, to the CSA for choosing us, and for Yvonne for giving up her free time to go to Truro to recieve the award - plus of course everybody who has helped in all the work that this award is in recognition of.

veg boxes 3rd December

Yesterday's boxes, delivered throughout the area, contained:-

• standard box, £11 - potatoes, onions, parsnips, salad leaves, Chinese cabbage, rainbow chard, leeks, beetroot, and a chunk of pumpkin.
• small box, £7 - potatoes, onions, salad leaves, Chinese cabbage, leeks, and beetroot.

Harvesting rainbow chard and beetroot in the top crop field.

Harvesting Chinese cabbage in the Sausage polytunnel.

We have now dug up the final few lines of our own potatoes, so this week half the potatoes in the boxes were our own, and the other half came from an organic farmer down on the Lizard Peninsula. The onions came from Cargease Organics outside Cockwells near Penzance. All other produce was grown here on the community farm.

vegbox.bcf@bcents.org.uk
 

New chicken lock-down announced

Due to outbreaks of bird flu in the UK, DEFRA have announced that all poultry must be kept indoors, or in enclosed runs, starting on Monday 29th November. Having had no cases of bird flu in the UK previously, there were cases and a subsequent lock-down in winter 2016, then again in winter 2020, and now in winter 2021. Because of this we are no longer allowed to have people visiting our chicken sheds or field, except those of us on official chicken-care duties (feeding, collecting eggs, mucking out etc...). We expect this situation to last for 16 weeks. On Tuesday 30th we will be constructing enclosed runs for each of our three chicken sheds, to allow them access to the outside, but in a safe place where wild birds cannot enter.

More winter skies

These were the skies as we cleaned out the chicken sheds yesterday afternoon, and soon afterwards we saw a barn owl hunting the fields for the third time in the past ten days.

Coppicing the market garden copse

Just inside the gateway of our market garden we have a small copse of about 30 willow, to help prevent westerly winds from whipping across the field, and northerly gales from damaging our polytunnels. The copse had become overgrown with brambles, was harbouring rabbits, and many of the willows had become too large and had fallen over, hampering tractor access into the field. So over the past week we have cleared all the undergrowth, and coppiced all the willow, except for one line at the back, which will continue as a windbreak this winter while the coppiced stumps grow back during next spring and summer. The cleared wood has been sorted into logs for cutting for next winter's firewood, whips for planting as windbreaks around the chicken/maincrop fields, small twigs for composting, and large rotting pieces for leaving in a field corner as wildlife habitat.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with this warming winter project.

Yesterday's sky

As well as seeing a kestrel and a buzzard yesterday (the latter catching a small bird in its talons), the skies over the farm in the late afternoon and early evening were gorgeous:-

Food sovereignty

Heather, who WWOOFed with us for 3 months in the spring, has written an article about Food Sovereignty, which has been published on the WWOOF UK website - https://wwoof.org.uk/news/taste-food-sovereignty - and is well worth a read.

Clara

It is Clara's last day volunteering on the farm tomorrow, then she moves on to her next WWOOF placement, before heading home to Belgium for Christmas. Many thanks Clara!!

Veg boxes 19/11/21

We had 23 people working on the farm yesterday, most of them involved at some point with picking and packing for the veg boxes, so we were all finished by 4pm.

Work Experience and Training participants picking beetroot in the maincrop field.

One of our WWOOF volunteers, Ophelia, picking spring greens in the market garden.

Yesterday's 94 veg boxes contained:-

• small boxes (£7) - potatoes, leeks, red beetroot, salad, rainbow chard, and a rocoto chilli;
• standard boxes (£11) - potatoes, leeks, red beetroot, salad, rainbow chard, a crown prince squash, spring greens, and parsnips.

To request a joining form for our veg box scheme please email vegbox.bcf@bcents.org.uk.

New pop-hole door

Repairing a pop-hole door on one of our chicken sheds is not usually a newsworthy event, but one of our wwoofers, Warren, has created an incredible work of art on this one, so it is probably the most beautiful chicken pop-hole door in West Cornwall if not beyond...

Thank you Warren!

Community Group Award Cornishman article

Printed in The Cornishman 11/11/21.

Early winter on the farm

Oddly, this is one of my favourite times of year on the farm, as the season starts to wind down and become more mellow, light draws in at both ends of the day, and we can turn our attention to all those jobs that have needed doing all year and we've had to put off till winter.

Dawn seen through the work experience polytunnel, on the way to let our chickens out for the day.

Clearing ivy, weeds and soil, from the packing shed roof to stop it leaking.

Repairing the gateway into our Market Garden.

A view of the coast whilst out delivering veg boxes one afternoon.

Winter skies over our polytunnels.

Sunset seen from the farmyard.

One of our polytunnels bursting with winter crops (mooli radishes, carrots, rocket, and Chinese cabbage).

Veg box harvesting

It's been a much nicer day for harvesting fresh veg from the fields this Thursday than it was last week! We finished earlier, didn't get wet, and the veg is less muddy (except for yesterday's potatoes which we dug up during a heavy shower).

Digging up leeks in the market garden.

Collecting pumpkins from the Propagation Station.

The 85 veg boxes we have put together this week contain:-

small box (£7) - potatoes, kale, pumpkin portion, onions, leeks, and mixed salad leaves;

standard box (£11) - potatoes, kale, pumpkin portion, onions, leeks, mixed salad leaves, cucumber, rainbow chard, and beetroot.

Phone us on 01736 788454 or email vegbox.bcf@bcents.org to enquire or join our scheme.

Squash harvest 2021

Last week, before the weather was forecast to turn (which it has done!), we got out into our squash patch to harvest them all and lay them out in the Propagation Station for their skins to cure ready for storing and selling. This year we grew 900kg, our second-best year ever, and they are now available in the farm shop (and veg boxes and Sennen Market) priced at £2 per kilo, no matter what variety they are. This year we have Crown Prince, Blue Ballet, Jack-Be-Little, Jack-O-Lantern, Turk's Turban, and Uchiki Kuri squash, all of them are good eaters rather than empty carvers.

Thank you to all our harvesters!!

New hens

Yesterday we introduced 100 new point-of-lay Colombian Blacktail hens into our flock, and they are settling in well, even laying a handful of eggs already.

Community Group Award

Bosavern Community Farm is delighted to have been chosen by St. Just Town Council to receive this year's Community Group Award:-

"in recognition of your work in the community, for your achievements in working with local people with health issues, and helping people get into work, and for their [your] stepping up during the early stages of the pandemic to deliver fresh food to local people".

We would like to dedicate this award to all the people who have made positive contributions to the farm over the past twelve years, whose help and support have laid the foundations to make our work possible, and to all the people who are currently helping us to do everything we do for the community.

Many thanks to the council for voting for the farm, and we look forward to receiving this award on Feast Sunday (31st October).

St. Just Ordinalia 2021

Many congratulations to the Ordinalia team this year who put on an extraordinary show for two weeks in September, and performed come rain or shine, mist or fog. Bosavern Community Farm was proud to help by allowing a group of set builders to camp for free in one of the fields, for several weeks, and provide them with power, water, and their own compost toilet. Many thanks for allowing us to come and see the shows, they were unforgettable.

Ten years plus one birthday celebration

Our eagerly anticipated 10th birthday celebration had to be postponed due to Covid, and was eventually held more than one year later, on 10th October 2021. It was the best and busiest open day we've ever had, with hundreds of people enjoying the sunshine and having a magical day out on the farm, whilst showing their support for the project and appreciation for all the vital work we have carried out during the pandemic and subequent lockdowns.

Participants on the Bosavern Training and Work Experience course serving food in the Cow Shed Cafe.

Lawrence the Newmill potter with his wares for sale in the farmyard.

Kate with one of the children's craft projects, a pop-up mini-garden.

Lawrence demonstrating how to throw a pot on his wheel.

Two spoon carvers in the farmyard.

Will and Holly pressing and bobbing apples.

The Shindig Cloggers playing and dancing in the yard, as one of three of the musical performances.

The Raffidy Dumitz band.

And the Penzance Guizers morris-dancing side.

As well as all the above there were trips to collect eggs from the chickens led by Warren, a talk about regenerative agriculture from Holly, the screening our latest film by Florence, two raffles, welly wanging, a tug-of-war, and a tour of the polytunnels and market garden by Hugh - it was a very busy day!

Many many thanks to everybody who put time and effort into organising the day, for performing on the day, bringing their stalls along, providing or serving food, and for coming along to support your farm.