local, seasonal food for Chagford

On Friday we took the regrettable and last minute decision to postpone our planned spring open day. Unfortunately we had 35mm of rain over 48 hours from Wednesday evening and the forecast for Saturday was just as bad (see the photo). Although we know many of you would have braved the elements just to show your support for our wonderful community market garden – we thought it would be much better to postpone the event until we can actually enjoy some spring weather at the field.

The new date for your diaries is Saturday 13th April from noon until late – when there will be tea, cake, children’s activities, working horse demonstration & bountiful sunshine! Not to mention our free prize draw giving you a chance to win a “Tea for Two” at Gidleigh Park Hotel – just by turning up! We’ll be publicising the event nearer the time but in the meantime please pass on the word and help us to make it a real springtime celebration to be remembered!

Chagfood community market garden is now taking on new members for the 2013-14 growing season. We are holding our annual spring open day on Saturday 23rd March from mid-day until late. Come along to see the fields and working horse demonstrations, bring a picnic, meet the growers and find out more about the scheme, children’s activities, tea & cake and a free prize draw; first prize Tea for Two at Gidleigh Park Hotel. There will also be a fire and BBQ in the evening – bring a bottle and something to roast!

Chagfood is a community supported market garden which supplies ecologically-produced veg-shares to Chagford and neighbouring parishes. It is a subscription farming scheme meaning that customers become members and commit to support the garden from April to April each year, in return they receive an equal share of what is harvested from the gardens each week. Chagfood members tend to feel a lot more connected to where their food is coming from, they are actively involved in the risks as well as the rewards of the farming year meaning that if there is a bumper crop everyone gets a bit more, but if there is a crop loss everyone gets a bit less.

Chagfood shares are available in two sizes, a small share costs £440 for the year or £36.66 each month, a large share costs £600 for the year or £50 each month. Everything Chagfood produces is grown within one-mile of Chagford meaning that our supply is entirely seasonal, we aim to supply a full box from July through to Christmas with smaller seasonal shares each week from January to June. It is therefore recommended to sign-up on or before 1st April to receive the best value from a Chagfood share.

For more information click “how to subscribe” or get in touch.

Chagfood’s annual Harvest Festival took place on Saturday 20th October in a blaze of autumnal sunshine. The event was particularly well timed to coincide with one of the only clear days in the past month giving us an opportunity to harvest our plot of heritage wheat. The spring-sown wheat seed was donated to Chagfood from the Oxford Bread Group and is a variety specific to mid Devon which has been bred from seed found under a medieval thatched roof – it has the wonderfully charasmatic name of “Devon Orange-Blue Rough Chaff”. The harvest was helepd along by several willing helpers who brought along their own sickles and helped to bind the stooks before they were loaded onto the Landy to be take to a dry barn ready for threshing. We hope to complete the process of threshing and milling over the coming weeks so please get in touch if you would like to get involved.

The day also included an apple-pressing session using a mobile press provided by Grow Chagford. In total around a tonne of apples were pressed with the majority of juice being taken away by members and visitors – we did however keep a bit of juice back for ourselves for a little’bit’o'Cider. In the evening a bring & share buffet was enjoyed by all before a marathon storytelling session around the fire provided by Tom Hirons & Rima Staines. Judging by the scores of faces in the firelight the adults were just as enthralled as the children. The evening was rounded off by some music around the fire under a clear sky and a cresent Harvest Moon. Proper.

Chagfood is pleased to announce we will be holding our first composting workshop with the Reverend Nicky Scott on Saturday 14th July from 11am-2pm. Nicky, arguably the country’s leading compost guru, will be demonstrating how to achieve the perfect mix of “greens” and “browns” to give you the ideal compost material. As well as a practical demonstration you will be able to take part in building your very own compost mound picking up tips every step of the way. The event is free to Chagfood Members, non-Members are asked to make a donation. Please bring food to share for lunch and share transport if you can. Also please call Yssy on 07852 280469 if you would like to attend so we can get an idea of numbers.

Things are starting to take off down at Longfield and Meadow field. This week we managed to plant out nearly 800 courgettes, squashes and pumpkins along with a few hundred sweetcorn seedlings in between the deluges. As you can see from the picture, along with the broad beans, peas and salads which are well away, Longfield has once more started to resemble a splendid market garden. Next door in Meadow field we have our full 2-acres well and truly under cultivation with the leaf beets, spinach and chard growing merrily in the humid weather, the onions looking particularly healthy after a good weeding and 1.5 kilometers of spuds bursting through their ridges. We’ve even found time to plant up a small patch of heritage wheat which we are hoping to mill later in the season for a combination of bread and beer! Chagfood Members are already enjoying the first outdoor salads of the season with a few exotically named varieties making an appearance for the first time including “Flashy Butter Oak” and “Bridgemere”.

On Saturday 19th May Chagfood will be joinging thousands of farms, gardens, schools, cafes and restuarants up and down the country to celebrate the start of the growing season in a day of celebration of Real Food. Food Revolution Day has been organised by the Jamie Oliver Foundation to inspire change in people’s food habits and to promote the mission for better food and education for everyone.

As your local community market garden we think its our responsibility to put on a good show for  the day – so that’s exactly what we’re doing. From 12.00pm we’re throwing open our beautiful gates to invite Members, local residents and visitors to see what Real Food looks like in action. We’ll also be putting on vegetable-themed activities for children, tours of the gardens, working horse demonstrations and, of course plenty of tea and cake for your refreshment.

Bring a picnic to enjoy in the sunshine, bring friends and family and a shared interest in what Real Food is about. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Chagfood is hosting a Springtime celebration at our beautiful market garden near Chagford. We are currently taking on new members so if you are interested in finding out more about Chagfood then its a great opportunity to meet the growers and working horses, and see a community market garden in action.

Lots to do for kids – sow a sunflower seed, Easter egg hunt, egg & spoon races, face painting and more.
Tea and cake galore! Drop in at any point throughout the day and bring a picnic to enjoy in the garden.

If the weather is fine we’ll also be having a fire, music and local ale in the evening so feel free to drop by any time that takes your fancy.
Plenty of parking but please try and share lifts if you can.

tidy.

Chagfood is now taking on new Members for the 2012-2013 season. Chagfood is a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) scheme which was launched in March 2010 and has since been providing 50 local households with a weekly supply of ecologically-produced, seasonal vegetables.

This year we are expanding and have a limited number of large shares available. Large shares are suitable for those who love a good supply of fresh seasonal veg, either a couple or a family,and are priced at £600 per year, or £50 per month. All shares are based on an estimate of 40-weeks supply throughout the growing season, beginning in June and ending in February.

Chagfood is not simply a veg-box scheme, its a new approach to buying fresh food which involves consumers in the risks and rewards of farming. Members are buying a “share” of what is ready to harvest on the field each week and and take an active interest in where their food is grown and how it is produced. As a result you will quickly become aware of what is in season in each particular week, how the weather affects your crops and what it is like to taste truly local, fresh produce. Chagfood hosts an open day on the field on the last Saturday of each month where Members are encouraged to come along and meet each other, see how their vegetables are growing and help out with seasonal tasks, this is also an opportunity to share in the rewards of the farm.

As well as the rewards that come from being part of a local food scheme members are also sharing in the risks of the farming year. If it is a good season for a particular crop, you can enjoy a bumper harvest, if however crops are lost due to pests or we are unable to harvest due to the weather, members share this loss between them.

Although CSA is a new approach to buying fresh produce for most people, existing Members have found the first year of the scheme surprisingly rewarding. Here are some of their comments:

- “Chagfood has completely refreshed my understanding of what local food is about” -

- “Its so much more than just going to the supermarket” -

- “We have extended our cooking repertoire though being shareholders” -

- “People of all ages can have fun and find useful things to do on open days – even oldies like us!” -

- “Throughout the season it has been incredibly good value for money” -

Chagfood shares are still available but are selling fast. If you would like to subscribe, or find out more about the scheme, please drop us an email; chagfood@gmail.com or give us a call on 07858 381539, or 07908 683401.

The Soil Association have kindly made a video of Chagfood community market garden in order to promote Community Supported Agriculture in the UK. They also have a fantastic set of resources on their website for anyone wanting to set-up a CSA in their own community

www.soilassociation.org/csa

Luckily for us the short film also does a fantastic job of showcasing our luscious vegetables and bountiful fields at their best! Enjoy.

Ooooarrrr!

This week down at Longfield Jude Alfie has been getting in some tractor driving practice – allowing his Pop some time to update the website. We’ve made the best of the dry spell to turn-in a lot of the old crops left over from the summer; leaf beets, beans & peas and a few brassicas along the way. We’ve since ridged-up nearly an acre of this ground with Samson and the Kassine and have sown a mixture of white clover and yellow trefoil as nitrogen fixing cover crop for winter. Proper.