July 2024 Newsletter
With the hungry gap behind us, our vegs stocks are looking fuller and fuller as the weeks go on! The summer heat hasn’t quite arrived at Bosavern yet, but spirits are still high.
We’re recruiting!
We are currently recruiting for a part-time Cook and voluntary Treasurer-Director. Please see our website for more information. We’re Recruiting! – Bosavern Community Farm
Want to Volunteer with us?
Our volunteer numbers are growing but we are always extremely grateful to see new people and familiar faces alike – many hands make light work! We would welcome you to come and join in. The work is mostly quite simple and full instructions will be given. There are lots of different activities to choose from, some indoors, some outdoors, and you can pop along on a Tuesday or a Thursday at 10am to find out more, or contact Lilith for details.
Visit our website:
Volunteering – Bosavern Community Farm
Twist & Sprout Podcast
Karl Grupe launched a brand new podcast for Bosavern Community Farm earlier this year. Topics include how the farm was formed, scything, wellbeing and soon wildflowers with a featured interview with Ash from the National Trust and our very own Nick Hall. You can stream this from all your usual listening platforms or listen via our website.
Veg-tastic!
Head Grower Hugh, part-time Assistant Grower Ross and all our volunteers have been hard at work growing and learning together. Squash, courgettes, and aubergines have been planted out ready for late summer/autumn harvest. Basil and tomatoes are growing side by side in the polytunnels, making a delicious mix of smells, and our first Bosavern potatoes and cucumbers of the summer season have been harvested. Salad leaves are ginormous and possibly even more delicious than ever! The mothership polytunnel has been cleared out and prepared for salads, herbs and rocoto chillis.
Find our veg at local markets, in our farm shop or through our veg box scheme.
Sign up for a veg box here
Our farm shop is open Mondays – Saturdays from 10am-5pm
Sennen farmers market, Tuesday mornings 9:30-12:30, Sennen Community Centre, TR19 7AW
St Just farmers market, Saturday mornings 9:30-12:30, St Just WI Hall, TR19 7HA
Chickens
We’ve unfortunately had a huge decline in chicken numbers – losing around 100 in the past couple of months. The cause of this is unclear but Hugh and the team have been working tirelessly to prevent any more losses. We haven’t lost any chickens between our most recent head counts on 31st June and 7th July, hoorah! Currently we are collecting and boxing 100 eggs a day, we hope it continues this way and maybe even improves.
Lunches
We provide a free, hearty, vegetarian cooked lunch daily for all our volunteers from 1-2pm, using as much farm produce as possible. Here are some recent highlights! Our Tuesday and Thursday lunchtimes are an important focal point in the week, with much valued multinational, and intergenerational social connection and cultural exchange. We love to see pictures of how you are cooking our veg at home, too. Do share your pictures with us @Bosavernfarm on Instagram, your meals might inspire someone else to use more seasonal produce!
School Visits
Lilith, our events co-ordinator has arranged more successful visits with Kites from Cape Cornwall School, and Wave Penwith Academy with support for sessional tutors Luke New and Nick Taylor. Students from Kites attended for 6 sessions over as many weeks, covering habitats including hedges, ponds, scrapes, compost, trees and wildflowers. Penwith Academy have attended 4 sessions focussed on sustainable agriculture industry, they joined volunteers and staff for tea break, have taste tested many different vegetables, and collected eggs among other activities. We are now in full swing organising more school visits for the Autumn term. These can be tailored to the curriculum needs. If your school is interested, please encourage them to complete our online form or email Lilith.
The Wildflower Group
Nick Hall’s wildflower propagation group finished sowing, and potting-on seedlings into 9cm pots, last month. The polytunnel is too hot for plant growth now, so everything is outside, but it is too cold! We’ve seen a very slow growth rate, but some nice hardy plants, all waiting for new homes! We are also gathering seed, keeping to the ‘rule of thirds’: a third for the plant to self sow, a third for the animals to eat, and a third for us to propagate.
We have: Musk Mallow, Purple Common Mallow, Hedge Cranesbill, Feverfew, Devils Bit Scabious, Foxglove, Vervain, Purple Loosestrife, Betony, Agrimony, Fox and Cubs, etc etc, all for sale at £1 – £1.50 a plant.
We also have big pots of mixed wildflowers, dubbed ‘Bee Oasis’, for sale at £12 a pop.
Watch out for more news about our wildflower work in the next episode of the farm podcast ‘Twist and Sprout’ featuring Nick Hall and Ash from the National Trust.
Trees
The Bosavern Tree Group is on it’s summer break, so no Sunday work parties until September, but there is ongoing brush cutting and mowing to keep paths and trees accessible as a part of tree care as well as watering and potting on of our home grown seedlings. Grant applications are in process for next seasons plantings and nursery supplies. If you are interested in joining the group whatsapp to be kept informed of the activities next season, please contact Terry on 07972901946
Allotments
Rabbits have been quite a nuisance in the Bosavern allotment field this year, plans are underway to reinforce the fence, funds permitting, and a working party is meeting to maintain it carefully in future to prevent further damage or breaches. The plots are all looking amazing with colourful flowers, soft fruits, and peas/beans galore. If you are interested in taking on an allotment either at the farm or at Kenidjack, visit our webpage for details: Allotments – Bosavern Community Farm
Dark Skies
On 7th June, Ecologist Nick Taylor led a group of 20-25 people in an evening of moth identification. We began with a walk of the farm, talking all things nocturnal and generally quizzing Nick on his specialist knowledge. Moth traps were then set up for us to return to the following morning. The group then settled in a clearing in the community woodland with a moth lamp and sheet to patiently wait for moths to emerge. It was a truly magical and relaxing evening. By midnight we had been visited by at least 30 species of moths, including the lovely Elephant Hawk Moth, the Wonderfully coloured Peach Blossom Moth, and the ethereally beautiful White Plume Moth. The following morning 8 keen folks returned, and were rewarded with even more species, 35 in all, in the portable traps. Perhaps the star moth was the incredibly camouflaged Buff Tip, doing a perfect imitation of a broken birch twig. We ran a second event on 12th July, with 7 elephant hawk moth sitings! These events were funded by St. Just Town Council. For more photos and information please visit our website Dark Skies wildlife events – Bosavern Community Farm.
Merchandise
As well as our gorgeous and sturdy tote bags, we now have Bosavern Community Farm mugs for sale in our shop and at our markets. Jos, a volunteer with the Wildflower Project, lovingly painted intricate identification signs for the flowers, which now feature on one of our mug designs!
We have some new products in our shop including but not limited to vegetable ‘Brown Bag Crisps’; ‘Amaizin’ coconut milk; ‘Carley’s’ preserved lemons and apple sauce; ‘Boom kitchen’ curry kits.