The final episode in this series of ‘GROW COOK EAT’ is set to air on Wednesday, April 29th and presenter duo founder of GIY Michael Kelly and the GIY Head of Community Development Karen O’Donohoe offer an insight into Strawberry farming and how we can all get on board with zero-waste gardening.

The final crop of Season three is a doubleheader. Karen agrees to grow celery against her will and deems celeriac the pug of the vegetable world: so ugly it’s cute. The related plants love the wet ground and grow happily under Irish rain and Mick’s watchful eye. Katie Sanderson cooks a celery and lentil stew served up with celeriac remoulade, which Karen mops up to her own surprise.

The show also pays a visit to Pat Clarke at his strawberry farm in Stamullen in County Meath, a hugely successful family business he began as a schoolboy over 50 years ago. He is the man who introduced the popular Elsanta variety of strawberries to Ireland in 1983 and the highly sought after berries were first auctioned in the Dublin Market on July 25th of that year, at record prices. Pat Clarke also stem picks each strawberry which means they are most delicious.

Karen also pays a visit to the Zero Waste Community Garden in Kildare, where Rathcoffey man Pat Pender turned unused land behind a residential estate into a thriving community of food growers and an inspirational example of the sustainability solutions available on our doorstep.

Commenting on this episode Michael Kelly says, “This is our final episode of season three, and this series has had the most incredible feedback. It has aired entirely throughout lockdown and the feedback and response we are receiving online and on our social channels from people all across Ireland has been overwhelmingly huge in numbers and wholly positive. We are delighted to be able to share our knowledge and help people to grow food at home during this time and now following this final episode we plan to continue to do this via a web series on GIY.ie.”

‘GROW COOK EAT’ is a practical series, aimed at helping people with little or no knowledge of growing their own food and encouraging people to engage more with their food choices and the food that they eat. As well as the step-by-step guides to growing vegetables, the series showcases features on water harvesting and improving soil fertility.

The show is anchored at the home of GIY, at Grow HQ in Waterford City and each week the TV show also sees presenters Michael Kelly and Karen O’Donohoe travel to meet and visit expert food producers, chefs, and community food growing projects all across the country, plus delicious menu ideas will be shared weekly by Chef Katie Sanderson.

GROW COOK EAT airs each Wednesday evening at 7.30 pm on RTE until April 29th; the show is sponsored by Bord Bia. For further details, the veg growing guides, lots of extra recipes and more info on each episode visit http://growcookeat.ie/

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