Clare, Stella, and Jeremy

Three of our WWOOF volunteers left us on Saturday morning, to move on to new farms or to return home. Clare, from London, was with us for 5 weeks; Stella, from Austria, for 3 weeks; and Jeremy, from South Africa, for 2 weeks.

Claire, on the right, painting the farmhouse kitchen, with Andy.

Stella picking chervil in the Mothership polytunnel, for a local cafe.

Jeremy, planting the first of this season's runner beans.

We would like to thank them all for their hard work whilst with us, and wish them the best in the onward endeavours.

Planting broad beans

For the past few years we have had problems with mice or rats digging up and eating the broad beans that we have direct sowed into the market garden, so this year for the first time we are raising our plants in the propagation polytunnel before transplanting them into the field when they are ready. This also gives them a head start against weeds.

Some of our broad bean plants hardening off outside in December.

Jeremy planting the first of the beans on Tuesday17th January.

Maria and Andy getting the last of about 500 plants into the ground on Friday 20th.

We have planted our broad beans into ground from which we've laready harvested leeks this winter. After the leeks we covered the ground with mipex membrane for 2 months, which killed most of the weeds, just needing a few hours top remove the surviving plantain, before planting the beans straight in without any further working of the soil. The leeks had had a top dressing of municipal compost as a mulch, which will also feed the beans. We aim to repeat this process a further two times this spring.

Today's veg boxes

Standard £10 veg box (£11 delivered to your door) - swede, kale, potatoes, leeks, beetroot, parsnips, rainbow chard (all grown on the farm), with cauliflower and savoy cabbage (from Cargease Organics farm near Penzance).

Small £6 veg box (£7 delivered to your door) - swede, potatoes, leeks, parsnip, dried "ring of fire" chillies, Vietnamese coriander (all grown on the farm), with savoy cabbage (from Cargease Organics farm near Penzance).

New herb garden

Our new herb garden, created behind the Mothership polytunnel in the market garden, was completed yesterday, all except for the planting of herbs which will take place later in the year. If anybody has got any herb plants that they would like to donate to the community farm please drop us an email, we would particularly like sage, purple sage, any thymes, chives, and various mints. Thank you!

The garden yesterday afternoon.

Many thanks to everybody who helped with the garden - Ian, Charlie, Ben, Joan, Mia, Bethany, Lin, Yuki, Helen, and Clare (probably more too, so apologies if I have missed you out).

The garden area before starting work last month.

St. Ives CafeArt

CafeArt is a lovely community-centric cafe in the Drill Hall in St. Ives, and they are now a hub for the distribution of our not-for-profit veg boxes in the town. We deliver our veg boxes to the cafe on a Friday afternoon, and they can be collected then or on Saturdays. Our veg boxes contain fresh veg grown mostly on the community farm, with some veg brought in from an organic farm near Penzance. They are priced at £10 for a standard box or £6 for a small box, and have options of our own free-range eggs, local organic milk and bread too, at extra cost. CafeArt doesn't have its own website, but can be found on Facebook or Trip Advisor, or phoned on 799450, although we recommend popping in for a coffee - and while you're there don't forget to fill in a form to order one of our veg boxes (ask at the counter)!

Latest avian flu situation

On 7th December 2016 the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) ordered all poultry keepers in England to keep their birds indoors for 30 days, or secure from contact with wild birds, after the spread of H5N8 strain avian flu across Europe. Infected birds have since had to be culled in Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire, and Carmarthenshire in Wales. This housing order has since been extended until February 28th. Flouting of this order can result in a £5000 fine.

Poultry kept indoors due to this DEFRA order can still be referred to as "free-range" and their eggs still sold as such.

At Bosavern Community Farm we have kept all our 300 hens locked in their sheds since 7th December. We have constructed small secure runs on 2 of our 3 chicken sheds to allow most of our hens access to the open air. All the pop-holes on the sheds have been covered over with wire mesh, so we can open them for improved ventilation, without the risk of chickens escaping or of wild birds entering the sheds. We continue to clean the sheds weekly, but now also add a layer of fresh bedding halfway through the week for improved hygeine. Our hens continue to lay on average 120 eggs per day, which is normal for the depths of winter, most of which are sold through our farm shop. Although our eggs have retained their good quality despite the housing order, you may notice that the yolks have lost a little of their characteristic deep golden colour - this is due to reduced greenery in the birds' diet (although we feed them as much cabbage and leek trimmings as we can) and reduced exposure to sunshine.

Sennen Farmer's Market

Bosavern Community Farm has been invited to have a stall at Sennen market every Tuesday, 9am till noon, selling a range of wholefood produce from our farm shop, plus our eggs and salad bags.

Last Tuesday 10th was our first time there, and our stall was well received, selling our own free-range eggs, Cornish Black Bee honey, dried chillies, breakfast cereals, lentils, dried fruits, savoury biscuits, flapjack bars, peanut butter, yeast extract, mayonnaise, pasta, Bombay mix and other snacks etc.. all sourced either locally or from a worker's cooperative based in Bristol.

Please support your community farm and local farmer's markets by doing your shopping at Sennen market (every Tuesday 9 am till noon), St Just market (every Saturday 9:30 am till 12:30 pm), and Pendeen market (the first and third Saturdays of the month, 10 am till 1 pm).