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.
Unfortunately, most of the imported supermarket tomatoes we buy taste of absolutely nothing at all. It is not until you grow your own that you realize this. The homegrown tomato is a delectable treat, and while a little TLC is required to grow them, it's worth the effort.
This week's episode is all about the highs and lows of growing a more ambitious vegetable - in Michael and Karen's case, sweetcorn, and all they can say is third time lucky!
Many people have an aversion to beetroot because the only way they have ever tasted it is boiled and drowned in vinegar! If this is your experience, it deserves a second chance as it is a fine root crop. Beetroot is easy to grow, can be eaten all year round as it stores well, is incredibly good for you, and has multiple uses. You can boil it, bake it, grate it into salads, chutneys, wine, cakes.
This programme demonstrates how to grow sweet, crunchy and flavoursome carrots, and the many ways you can cook and eat them. Plus, Karen O'Donohoe investigates 'Food Cloud'.
Who knew French Beans were so easy to grow? Michael Kelly says French Beans are one of the most straightforward vegetables to grow - both the climbing green, and dwarf purple varieties, do really well in the glasshouse, raised bed and container.
Learn to grow your own peas.
Michael and Karen focus on a household staple – the onion. Easy to grow and very low maintenance, both red and white varieties are sown in the raised bed with Karen holding back some of the sets for container growing.
Michael and Karen take a fresh look at the pumpkin and why it’s a fantastic vegetable to grow, cook and eat during the year, rather than just buy, carve and dump at Halloween.
All about the highs and lows of growing a more ambitious vegetable – in Michael and Karen’s case, sweetcorn, and all they can say is third time lucky!
Halfway through the series and it’s time to introduce the courgette or as Michael Kelly calls it, ‘The Vegetable of Mass Production’! Easy to grow in beds and containers so long as it is given plenty of milk (you read that right!), one plant can produce up to 40 courgettes. No wonder growers love to give them as presents at harvest time!
Once a vegetable grown to feed cattle, but now a staple ingredient for juicers everywhere, Kale is the fifth vegetable to feature in this series. This highly nutritious vegetable thrives in both the raised bed and container – despite a pigeon attack that prompts Michael Kelly to cover each of the three varieties sown.
Who knew French Beans were so easy to grow? Michael Kelly says French Beans are one of the most straightforward vegetables to grow – both the climbing green, and dwarf purple varieties, do really well in the glasshouse, raised bed and container.
In this final programme of the second season, it’s all about the chili pepper, which is very hot, but also very easy to grow. Chef Katie Sanderson puts the presenters’ taste buds to the test with an Indian chilli pickle, tamarind sauce with yoghurt and poppadoms, and Karen O’Donohoe and Michael Kelly can just about stand the heat.
Broad beans are this year’s first crop to find a home in Grow HQ soil. This is an easy vegetable to grow, as long as you have a resident ladybird, a hose to keep the blackfly at bay, and a beer trap to distract any slugs for good measure.
Trusty heads of iceberg lettuce are set aside to make room for their exotic cousins – mizuna, rocket and mustard greens. Easy to grow in beds and perfect for containers, these cut-and-come-again greens can be harvested multiple times, making them the ideal beginners’ crop.
Mick is feeling cool as a cucumber with his well-rehearsed veg trivia, new polytunnels and boy scout knowledge of cucumber growing. While there’s more to it than the veg grown in earlier episodes, Karen shows how this prolific plant can also be grown outdoors in Container Corner, alongside some miniature cucumelons.
Karen attempts a world first by growing purple sprouting broccoli in a container. Michael puts her initial success down to good fortune and sure enough, trouble awaits.
Michael Kelly and Karen O’Donohoe have an easy run with this week’s star veg – robust and easy to grow, the colourful rainbow chard brings a prolific harvest. Katie Sanderson shows how equally simple it is to cook, wilting it on eggs for a quick and delicious breakfast.
The first fruit to receive the Grow Cook Eat treatment in this third series is everyone’s favourite Summer treat – the strawberry.
The final crop of series three is a double header. Karen agrees to grow celery despite her dislike of it, and also celeriac which she considers the ‘pug’ of the vegetable world – so ugly that it’s cute!
