Whether it's digging up stories for the media or local seasonal vegetables for her Cornish community, journalist Charlotte Barry has made some juicy discoveries.

Since the 1970s, the 56-year-old has written for the local and national press, women's magazines, run a news agency with her partner Graham Smith and worked in television.

Now a senior lecturer on the multi-media broadcast journalism MA course at University College Falmouth, Charlotte is also voluntary chair of a community vegetable growing project in North Cornwall.

Her roles might seem very different but for Charlotte they follow the same principle – to share information.

"I became a journalist because I am interested in communication," said Charlotte, who lives at St Mabyn.

"Through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) we are helping people to understand how vegetables are grown and what it involves."

Camel CSA connects people with the land where their food is grown.

Volunteers work with experienced growers to produce food on a two-acre plot at St Kew Highway, which was offered to the association by a local farming family.

Unlike on an allotment, members work together, sharing the responsibility of planting, growing, digging and packing.

They also share the produce and can buy a box of seasonal vegetables each week.

Charlotte has been involved with Camel CSA since is started just over a year ago.

She regularly tends to the land and packs vegetable boxes, and is responsible for the association's publicity.

"The idea is to do with cutting out the middle man and the supermarket and helping people to understand and appreciate where produce comes from," Charlotte said.

"It is a way of re-engaging members of the community with farming and agriculture."

Fifty members are now involved with the association and all live within 10 miles of the land.

Some simply pay the £24 annual membership, others also volunteer on the land and just over half buy the vegetable boxes.

Every Friday volunteers dig up the produce and pack the boxes, and from spring to December they meet on Sundays to grow vegetables.

Broad beans, peas, onions, shallots, potatoes, parsley, carrots, Brussels sprouts, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips and beetroot are just some of the vegetables they have grown.

But because of the plot size, there are some vegetables that have to be bought in from local growers.

"We are always going to have to buy in some vegetables," Charlotte said.

"It creates a secure market if members of the public agree to buy a certain amount from local farmers."

The scheme has received support from The Soil Association, all the vegetables are grown according to organic principles and members now have enough money to pay an expert grower to work on the land one day a week.

They are also trying for grant funding to buy equipment, increase membership and vegetable box output and involve schools and charities in the association's work.

"Through the association you get a real understanding of what's in season and start preparing and cooking your food accordingly," Charlotte said.

"I'm always interested in the politics of food – politics with a small 'p' – where food comes from, how it gets here and who grows it."

For Charlotte, the non-profit making association is just one of the community initiatives she has been involved in. She is a parish councillor, was a school governor and a former president of the WI.

As a journalist, she was the first chair of the National Union of Journalists' Equality Council and campaigned to eradicate sexist content from newspapers and magazines and improve conditions for women working in the media.

Charlotte, who has two daughters, said: "I'm always prepared to put my head above the parapet."

She added: "It's about caring about the future of the planet and caring about what happens."

For more information on Camel CSA visit www.camel-csa.org.uk.