Assistant Grower vacancy

A new position has arisen here at the farm, as an assistant grower, for 15 hours per week - please see our website for more details and how to apply - www.bosaverncommunityfarm.org.uk/vacancies/

More outdoor salad beds

On Tuesday a team of volunteers got very busy on the farm, and created two new outdoor salad beds, then planted them out too. This area used to be (semi-)permanent raised beds, until we levelled them again, applied our own compost, and left them covered with black plastic for the winter to kill weeds. The (semi-)permanent raised beds developed issues with weeds, compaction, and lack of fertility (any compost we applied would simply fall or roll off the edges), as well as being a good habitat for rats and rabbits, and they therefore became less and less productive.

We now have 4 salad beds completed, and room for one more - they even have mesh to stop rabbits, pigeons, winds and flea beetles, and irrigation pipes in case of dry weather. As it gets hotter in the polytunnels these outdoor beds will take over our salad production.

Many thanks to Luke, Sim, Felicity, Polly, Shivani, Ben, Jez, Rob, and Mick.

Veg boxes April 15th

Yesterday's not-for-profit veg boxes were harvested and packed in one day by a team of 13 people, and all the produce came from the community farm except the potatoes, which were from an organic farm on the Lizard Peninsula.

Tenderstem broccoli, which was in the standard veg boxes.

Standard boxes, which cost £12, contained tenderstem (a.k.a. green sprouting) broccoli, oriental greens, mixed herbs, kale, potatoes, a bunch of radishes (or a kohl rabi), rocket, salad, and spinach.

Friday was the first pick of our first outdoor salad bed this year.

Small boxes, which cost £7.70, contained rainbow chard, mixed herbs, potatoes, radishes, salad and spinach.

Picking spinach, which went into every box.

Optional extras include our own GM-free eggs (from chickens with outdoor space), milk and yoghurt from Treen organic dairy, our own black bee honey, and a wide range of bread from Vicky's.

Volunteers busy in the packing shed.

We deliver door-to-door in Penzance, St. Ives, St. Just, Carbis Bay, Gulval, Ludgvan, Newlyn, Pendeen, St. Buryan, Mousehole, Sennen, Newbridge, and places in between - delivery is £1.50 extra. Or you can collect from the farm, our St. Ives, hub, or the Redwing Gallery in Penzance.

Please email vegbox.bcf@bcents.org.uk for more details.

CSA Regional Gathering at Soul Farm

On Sunday March 6th a group of us from Bosavern Community Farm made our way over to Soul Farm CSA (www.soulfarm.co.uk) near Flushing for the 2022 CSA regional gathering. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, which is a loose term for farming systems where the consumer shares some of the risks and responsibilites with the producer - for more information see  communitysupportedagriculture.org.uk. The gathering was organised by the CSA Network.

After introductions and coffee we had informal presentations from Camel CSA (http://camel-csa.org.uk/) near Wadebridge, and Goonown Growers (http://goonowngrowers.co.uk/) near St. Agnes. Then came lunch and a tour of the farm, which is a small no-dig site within an historic walled garden, and very productive, mainly of salad leaves for restaurants in the area, but veg boxes too.

These kinds of gatherings tend to happen in the winter months because we're all so busy for the rest of the year that it's impossible to find the time. They are a good chance to meet other people with a passion for local sustainable food systems, to share stories and tips, and to see how another similar farm does things differently - or not - to you. A time to refresh old contacts, make new ones, and be inspired. We brought away some new ideas, but it was also good to see how our ethos and methods are very closely aligned.

Many thanks to Soul Farm for hosting this gathering, and for feeding us; to the CSA Network for organising the event; and to everybody who attended for listening and sharing.

Potato planting 2022

This year we planted all our potatoes on the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th of March. We planted 6 sacks of Casablanca first earlies, 6 sacks of Maris Peer second earlies, 10 sacks of Ambo maincrops, and 10 sacks of Carolus blight-tolerant maincrops, so 32 sacks in total, at 25kg of seed potatoes per sack.All the seed potatoes came from Skea Organics in Scotland.

Bea and Heather.

Luke and Warren.

We ploughed the ground in January, rolled it in February, rotovated it in March, and then planted - into probably the best-prepared ground we've had for many years... Many thanks to everybody who sat on the planter and dropped potatoes down tubes!

Arnie

One of our WWOOF volunteers, Arnie, pedalled away last month to continue his farming experiences around the rest of the UK. We'd like to thank Arnie for his help whilst volunteering with us for one month and wish him well in his farming and land-trust future.

Arnie bagging up spring greens for veg boxes.