Our veg box delivery round, as well as the population centres of St. Just, Penzance, St. Ives, Newlyn, and others, takes us around some very rural locations in the far west of Cornwall - Treen, St. Buryan, Heamoor, Ludgvan, Newbridge, Porthcurno, Gulval, Pendeen, Morvah, Zennor, Madron, Crean - and places in between.
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| Our new certificate on display in the farm shop. |
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| Tamsin conducting the awards ceremony on Saturday evening. |
file:///C:/Users/Bosavern%20Farm/Downloads/South%20West%20in%20Bloom%20Award%20Winners%202023.pdf
"Gordon Ford Trophy - The
Gordon Ford Trophy is a Discretionary Regional Award which South West
In Bloom present each year to the best RHS It's Your Neighbourhood entry
in our region. It can be assessed as part of a main judging tour or as
a individual assessment. The IYN should encompass all three core
pillars, Horticultural, Community and Environmental responsibility, as
well as reaching mark Level 5 'Outstanding'."
There are two special markets coming up at both of which we will have a stall selling fresh veg and a wide range of other produce.
Saturday 25th November is St. Just Farmers' Market Christmas special, opening from 09:30 till 15:30, in the W.I. Hall in St. Just, with a cafe serving mulled wine, tea, coffee, and cakes, in aid of The Lafrowda Club.
Saturday 2nd December is the Winter Market in the Old Coastguard in Mousehole, opening from 11:00 till 15:00, where we will be joined by several local producers and artists, including our friends from Newlyn Fermentary - and the bar will be open for mulled wine and mince pies.
Further details are on their relevant facebook pages - www.facebook.com/groups/583484560231962/ and www.facebook.com/oldcoastguardhotel/?locale=en_GB
Please come and support us and your local economy!
Just out of interest here are the veg boxes ordered from us on this week (or thereabouts) for the past five years, showing how demand surged during Covid, and has slowly declined since the first lock-downs, but not back to pre-Covid levels.
29/11/19 - 48 veg boxes
20/11/20 - 100 veg boxes
19/11/21 - 89 veg boxes
18/11/22 - 84 veg boxes
17/11/23 - 66 veg boxes.
Over the past few years we have allowed our chicken flock numbers to reduce due to the ongoing risks of avian influenza. As a result the demand for our eggs has far outstripped supply, and we have had to buy eggs from Cornhill Farm to supplement our own, particularly for our weekly veg boxes. But this year, having consulted with our volunteers, customers, and members, we have decided to boost our flock again. So on 16th May we brought another 150 chickens to the farm, and on 7th November we introduced 100 more. Avian influenza does not seem to be as prevelant this winter, so far, as in recent years, and we hope that this situation continues.
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| Our new chickens on their first day in their new home. |
We also dragged each of the three sheds twenty metres down the field to give them all fresh pasture. And we mended all the holes and snapped posts in the fence, cut the grass around the electrical fox-proofing, and tested the electrics in preparation.
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| Some of our older flock on their fresh green pasture. |
We are still busy harvesting for tomorrow's veg boxes, but by the middle of tomorrow morning they will contain:-
Standard veg box (£13.50) - rainbow chard, 2 rocoto chillies, oriental greens, mixed herbs, kale, leeks, Ambo potatoes, mixed salad leaves, and Jack-be-little squashes.
Small veg box (£8.50) - 2 rocoto chillies, spring greens, kale, leeks, Ambo potatoes, and Jack-be-little squashes.
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| Ben picking spring greens for the small veg boxes. |
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| A beautiful morning out on the Market Garden. |
Extras available in veg boxes - Vicky's bread, free-range eggs, Treen organic milk and yoghurt, our own Cornish black bee honey, local organic apples, apple juice, Sarah & Fin's chilli relishes etc...
vegbox.bcf@bcents.org.uk
Storm Ciaran hit west Cornwall on the night of Wednesday 1st November, and continued into Thursday, which is always our picking and packing day, although the strongest winds and rain had come and gone before we set out into the fields and polytunnels. Thankfully we sustained only superficial damage, and through our wonderful team of volunteers, we still managed to pick and pack everything and on time! (Well, almost, two of us were still out picking nettle-tips when it went dark and we were still a little shy of our target, but we finished those off on Friday morning).
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| My barometer reading well below stormy on the Saturday after the storm. |
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| Jos and Sue outside preparing leeks for veg boxes. |
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| Hardcore storm picking and packing team taking a well-earned morning coffee break! |
With many thanks for everybody who helped on Thursday 2nd - Ben, Quentin, Sue, Freddie, Jos, Ted, Ailsa, Paul, Katie, Warren, and Miranda.
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| Rainbow over the market garden on Friday 3rd November. |
On Thursday 9th November our Head Grower, Hugh, attended the awards ceremony at Somerset Cricket Ground in Taunton, as a finalist in the Sustainability Champion section. This award was won by Bill and Suzanne Harper of Trepoyle Farm, for their work in fermenting cattle dung using Bokashi, and managing their meadows to reduce run-off into the river. Sadly, this meant that Hugh came away from the night empty handed, but had represented Bosavern Community Farm and healped spread the message of community agriculture to a wider audience.
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| Hugh Taylor at the awards ceremony. |
