Dawn at our chicken sheds

 

Letting our chickens out at 8am sometimes seems like a chore, but often it can be a beautiful experience, and well worth getting up early for!!!

New products in the farm shop

We are extremely happy to have found local supplies of both organic apples (Shirley Jelbert near Crowlas) and organic apple juice (Chyan Community near Penryn)! Add to these our own parsnips, pumpkins, and squash (all priced at £2.50 per kg), and our farm shop has taken on an autumnal feel.

Our community farm shop is mostly run by volunteers, and is open Monday to Saturday from 10am till 5pm.

Veg boxes 27/10/23

Please support Bosavern Community Farm by joining our not-for-profit "sustainable" veg box scheme! Email us on vegbox.bcf@bcents.org to join our community.

Standard veg box (£13.50) - beetroot, 2 rocoto chillies, spring greens, kale, leeks, parsnips, Ambo potatoes, black winter radishes, mixed salad leaves, Jack-be-little squash.

Small veg box (£8.50) - beetroot, 2 rocoto chillies, mixed herbs, kale, leeks, Ambo potatoes, Jack-be-little squash.

All grown here on Bosavern Community Farm. All picked by hand on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and delivered on Friday to St. Ives, Penzance, St. Just, Sennen, Newbridge, Newlyn, Gulval, Ludgvan, Pendeen, Mousehole, and places in between.

Flints

A couple of years ago we erected a series of windbreaks across our market garden, which involved digging in fence-posts, before attaching rabbit-fence and windbreak mesh. Then in August this year, at the foot of one of these fence-posts, so probably dug out whilst digging in the post, our assistant grower Ross discovered a little collection of flints. We have had these looked at by a local archaeologist, who says that they are "worked", and in keeping with prehistoric human activity here on the farm. How exciting to know that we are working a patch of land that has been worked for many thousands of years! I hope that we are doing our ancestors proud whilst building a fair food system for future generations.

South West Farmer of the Year Awards

Bosavern Community Farm's Head Grower, Hugh, who has worked with us for 13 years, was nominated for and is now a finalist in this year's awards, as a "Sustainability Champion". To be a finalist is a great achievement, and is thanks to the many hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers and staff who have helped on the farm since 2010. The awards ceremony is in Taunton on November 9th, which is when we will find out if he has won or not (there are three finalists). Follow the link to find out more, although the section about Bosavern is pasted below.

  www.southwestfarmer.co.uk/news/23796146.south-west-farmer-awards-2023-finalists-announced/

Squash harvest 2023

Yesterday was windy but not too wet, so we brought all our squash in off the field, to cure their skins in a polytunnel, and lay them out for winter storage. We harvested 667kg yesterday, which very almost fills the wooden staging along the southern edge of our propagation polytunnel. There are several different varieties - crown prince, jack-be-little, jack-o-lantern, uchiki kuri, sweet dumpling, butternut, turk's turban, and green hokkaido. The first few will be in veg boxes this Friday, and there will be plenty in the shop from next Monday (in time for Halloween) through the winter.

Many thanks to everybody who helped on the day - Ross, Ben, Tricia, Scott, Ailsa, and Warren. We had a really good, efficient, and happy system going!

Lola, Aseem, Emma, Sam, and Wan Lin

Many thanks to our small group of WWOOF volunteers who left over the past few days.

Lola weighing rainbow chard into veg boxes in our packing shed.

Aseem serving in our farm shop.

Emma in our farmyard with her carved "chicken" pumpkin.

Plus Sam and Wan Lin neither of whom I managed to grab a photo of before they left - many thanks!!

Market Gardening camp-out with Jean-Martin Fortier

Last week, three of the Bosavern Community Farm team attended a two-day market gardening course at Soul Farm CSA in Flushing, hosted by Laurence and the Soul Farm crew, with special guest Jean-Martin Fortier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Schedule for the two days.

Jean-Martin Fortier demonstrating the use of a broadfork on a veg bed before sowing with a five-row seeder.

A top-wire and holding clips on Soul Farm tomatoes.

Two-wheel tractor demonstration to create raised beds.

Investigating the raised beds after the tractor pass.

Over the two days we met many other people who are working on similar projects to ours, we learnt lots of good things from each other and from master market gardener Jean-Martin Fortier, and spent time in the incredibly productive and well-organised market garden at Soul Farm. Now we have to try and find the time and equipment to put our new knowledge into practice...

With many thanks to Jean-Martin, Laurence, and the Soul Farm team for putting on such a good event.

Sophie, Karo, Thomas and Jess.

 

Wwoofers come and wwoofers go. We love meeting them all! It's a great way to travel around engaging with worthwhile projects, and for us it's a way of travelling without leaving home, plus our local community gets to meet people from all over the world.

Four more of our wwoof volunteers have moved on recently - Sophie, Karo, Thomas, and Jess - and we'd like to thank them for their hard work whilst with us, and wish them well in their futures.

Tomorrow's veg boxes

 

Emma and Lola preparing onions for the veg boxes.

We are just putting the finishing touches to 63 veg boxes (all apart from the salad leaves which will be picked first thing tomorrow morning). Tomorrow's veg boxes will contain (all grown and harvested here on the community farm, except the coriander, which is from a friendly neighbour):-

standard boxes (£13.50) - a bunch of mixed beetroot, rainbow chard, fresh coriander, black Tuscan kale, brown onions, green peppers, Maris Peer (or Ambo) potatoes, a mooli radish, and a bag of salad leaves.

small boxes (£8.50) - a bunch of mixed beetroot, rainbow chard, black Tuscan kale, brown onions, Maris Peer (or Ambo) potatoes, and mooli and/or black winter radish.

Please contact us on vegbox.bcf@bcents.org to join our not-for-profit community veg box scheme, or to try a one-off box and see how you like it.

Harvest celebration photos

 

Our farmyard full of people watching Shindig Cloggers and the Blazing Hearts Chorus.

Vicky and the amazing Blazing Hearts Chorus - a big thank you to all!

The wonderful Shindig Cloggers plus musicians performing in front of our hay barn - another big thank you!

Sheltering from the mizzle in our activity marquee.

Fresh produce for sale in the farm shop.

Our pop-up cafe in the farmyard.

Bill carving spoons and willow wands in the activity marquee.

Local apples and juice in the packing shed market.

Autumn crowns in the activity marquee.

A typically damp West Cornwall day didn't dampen the enthusiasm and support of the many people who came to help and attend our celebration.

Joe green-wood-turning on his foot-powered lathe.

Paper lanterns for sale in the packing shed market.

Pumpkin kindly donated by one of our allotmenteers!

Plants for sale.