Grow Cook Eat is the FIRST SERIES ON RTE to respond to the burgeoning interest in growing your own food: you can grow vegetables and fruit in a very small garden, or even in containers on an apartment balcony. You don’t need half an acre or a polytunnel to do it.
Presented by Michael Kelly and Karen O’Donohoe of Grow it Yourself (GIY), each programme focuses on a particular vegetable and takes you through the entire process, from sowing the seed, to harvesting and to cooking.
This is a very practical series, aimed at people with little or no knowledge, but who like the idea of being able to grow at least something themselves. As well as the step-by-step guides to growing vegetables, there are features on building raised beds, making a compost heap and improving soil fertility.
We find out what happens to the rubbish that is put into brown bins and visit inspiring community, school and workplace gardens to see how popular growing is becoming all over the country – even with people who don’t have their own gardens.
Each programme ends with a recipe using the featured vegetable and made by one of two chefs featured in the series: Jessica Murphy, from Kai Restaurant in Galway, and Jack Kirwan, owner of the Sprout chain of restaurants in Dublin.
GIY (Grow It Yourself) is a powerful and growing movement that is definitely ‘on trend’ as people become more aware of food miles and the impact they are having on the environment. Vegetables you grow yourself don’t come smothered in plastic, or sitting in a non-recyclable plastic tray.
Programme one shows viewers how to grow Ireland’s most popular vegetable, the potato, from start to finish.
Far from humble, the potato is a great source of nutrition, and surely the most versatile vegetable in terms of how it can be cooked. Presenter Karen O’Donohoe joins the crew of a Thornton’s Recycling bin lorry as it collects brown bins from an estate in Dublin and finds out exactly what happens to the vegetable peelings and grass cuttings we throw into the bins.
The process, and the final destination, are surprising and encouraging: rubbish is turned into compost which is given to farmers to spread on their land, free of charge.
Karen also visits the Mud Island Community Garden in the shadow of Croke Park – originally a derelict site full of rubbish and discarded drugs paraphernalia.
Now it’s a thriving community garden which has brought the community together – people come to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers; or to socialise, or eat pizza – or all three. In the words of one of the organisers:
“The community hasn’t made the garden, the garden has made the community”.
This first programme ends with chef Jessica Murphy, owner of Kai Restaurant in Galway, making a Norwegian potato cake with the potatoes that have come from the Grow Cook Eat Garden in the GIY HQ in Waterford.
GROW COOK EAT is produced by David Hare of InproductionTV for RTÉ and is sponsored by BORD BIA and StopFoodWaste.ie
Bord Bia are delighted to be associated with the programme Grow Cook Eat which will demonstrate gardening as an activity that anyone can do and how its healthy produce can be used in many tasty and convenient ways. The programme will also help to build awareness of the Horticulture Industry in Ireland. Bord Bia promote gardening as a healthy and enjoyable activity which contributes to a person’s wellbeing as well as enhancing the environment we live in. Bord Bia also promote the consumption of fresh produce as part of a healthy balanced diet.
The Environmental Protection Agency established the Stop Food Waste programme in 2009 and has been working since with businesses and consumers to reduce food waste – which delivers a win-win on cost savings and environmental benefits. The programme website is www.stopfoodwaste.ie which includes an A-Z of foods with tips and advice on avoiding wastage.
SERIES Presenters
Michael Kelly
Michael Kelly is a writer, founder of GIY and grower. He has written three books on food and self-sufficiency – his latest book GROW COOK EAT (2014) was a winner in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Michael is an Ashoka Fellow, a Social Entrepreneurs Ireland awardee and a recipient of the inaugural 2010 Arthur Guinness Fund. He is a member of the TASTE Council of Ireland. He has written columns on food and health for The Irish Times, The Irish Independent and Food & Wine Magazine. Michael is a passionate speaker on food issues, self-sufficiency, sustainability and growing your own food. He worked for ten years in the IT industry in Dublin but now lives the good life in Dunmore East, Co. Waterford with his wife and two little GIYers.
Karen O’Donohoe
Karen O’Donohoe has an academic background in health promotion and vast experience in developing and delivering a wide range of healthy lifestyle and community development activities. During her time at the University of Bristol Karen raised over half a million pounds for community sport development initiatives. Karen’s style of work is high energy, pro- active and solution orientated. Together with her children Dylan and Saoirse and their dog Sam, Karen can usually be found in the polytunnel learning how to grow it herself or playing on the beach at Garryvoe.
Press enquiries:
TVPR
Ann Coughlan 00 353 87 6778045
Pauline Cronin 00 353 87 2629967