It's the first day of Root Camp. By five o'clock everybody has arrived. "I came by myself, but it was very easy to make friends, especially while cooking, because that is so much about teamwork" says Hannah

It is a beautiful warm day and so we decide to have lunch outside. The cooking group has prepared a colourful Middle Eastern Mezze, and we eat on the grass, overlooking the luminous-green Dart Valley.

After lunch, Farmer Ed drove us to an orchard, where we were each entrusted with a barrel to fill with apples, destined for juicing. Papa Watson oversaw the pulping and juicing, explaining the function of the unfamiliar equipment and showing us how to avoid contaminating the juice with severed digits.The freshly pressed apple juice was poured into bottles, ready for sale.

A hush descends on the kitchen whenever Sylvain begins explaining a new technique. "Cooking isn't just about following a recipe: it's about trying out new things and being bold," he says...

'These sausages do make a bloody mess', says Ben Watson of Riverford, as we mix the meat mass with garlic purée and paprika (the pungent aromas are a little overwhelming at this hour). When Ben was happy with the mixture, we began to stuff it into pigs' bladders to make sausages. One hour later, we'd produced 27kg of chorizo, and considerable quantities of apple pork sausages and chipolatas.

How to plant garlic: Put on protective gloves (note it is important to dry hands first or this procedure can take hours); Get a bowl of dried garlic; Choose a row (the muddiest are to be preferred - the softer the ground the longer your knees will cooperate); Dig a thumb-deep hole and deposit the garlic; Cover the garlic with soil; Wait until spring.

William Lana, from Greenfibres, visits this evening to talk about the textiles industry. He brought several fabrics produced with different organic materials, including hemp clothes and a rug made of banana skin (somehow everyone took this quite seriously).

A few people are a little slow to rise this morning. We give them an extra prodding and a fast breakfast...

This morning we are picking radicchio - 43 carefully packed into each box. "It was great! Though I looked like a mad woman with a knife...", says Blaze.

"I've never seen radicchio before in my life, but now that I know it exists, I will search all the fields in Lancashire in order to find it".

The atmosphere in the kitchen is always relaxed and full of laughter. The nearest we get to disaster is when Bel sets fire to a tea towel and (remarkably) attempts to extinguish it by stamping on it with her woollen socks.

Sanjay: "I liked learning about the polytunnels. How you can roll out seeds impregnated in cloth and then it all grows." Freddie: "Ed encouraged us to taste the salad leaves, right before we planted them - that really brought home the connection".

There were countless suggestions for avoiding onion-tears. This one (among the tamer methods) seemed to work alright.

The denouement: over forty campers, parents and siblings around the table for The Big Lunch.

"The only problem with Root Camp was that it wasn't quite long enough".