Bosavern Community Farm

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

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!!

Friday, October 6, 2023

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.

Thursday, October 5, 2023

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.