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Vegetables

Our central aim for Canalside is begin to grow a wide range of vegetables throughout the year . The project works in a similar way to that of a vegetable 'box scheme', with members paying a subscription for a weekly assortment of those items in season. Being a CSA however, Canalside is much more than your average box scheme, offering the chance to be part of a community that works to support a local farm whilst enjoying a regular share in the harvest. Members are able to visit the farm and help with the growing, harvesting and weeding(!). With the community supporting the farmers with labour intensive tasks in this way, it makes the process of producing food a more economically reliable and affordable task. As well as these opportunities to help work on the farm with the growing of veg, there are also social gatherings celebrating the different festivals in the year, giving members access to the farm so as to enjoy the space.

What we do not intend to do is buy in out of season veg to bulk out the weekly box, as we believe in producing and supplying only what we are able to at any time of the year. We do not intend to try and compete with supermarkets or even local, ethical food shops (such as Gaia) at the job of sourcing organic out of season fruit and veg. As a result, your potential share in the harvest will be different from week to week. For example, in mid to late summer when the majority of vegetables are ready to harvest, a share will be both bountiful and extremely varied. In contrast, however, it is a hard task to grow vegetables ready to be harvested in late April, May and early June; this period is often dubbed the 'Hungry Gap' and a share will be smaller and less varied (see Shares to have a look at what you might be able to expect to receive as part of your veg share throughout the year). We will however, be working to make a share as interesting as possible throughout the year whilst still only harvesting our own in-season produce.

The same veg area bursting with veg A view of one of the veg fields
late summer 2006 in June 2007

We currently have 6 acres of land in cultivation including five large polytunnels. This has been the result of months of hard work over the past 2 years. These fields have been fenced against rabbits and divided into ten seperate rotational plots. Member's work days have been going since mid February 2007 and with some fantastic help on these days we've managed to get to where we are now - supplying over 90 local households with weekly boxes of fresh veg.