When cook, food writer and TV presenter Donal Skehan (26) started growing his own vegetables about five years ago, he had "absolutely no knowledge" about what he was doing.
"The first year I did it I grew 25 cabbages all at once. What can you do with 25 cabbages, except kick them?" he laughs. But, like all budding gardeners, he learned by trial and error. He is fond of Asian cooking and has been amazed that one of the best things he grows at his home in Howth, Co Dublin, is bok choy – "a completely foreign ingredient that grows perfectly in the Irish climate".
He is planning to experiment with a few more, such as chillies, although his girlfriend is giving out, he says, about all the seeds growing around the house. “It is like the Little Shop of Horrors.”
Presenter of the RTÉ series Kitchen Hero and a judge on the BBC's Junior Master Chef, Skehan has been cooking since the age of four. But he wasn't into gardening as a child, even though his father was in the fruit and vegetable wholesale business. However, he thinks it is really important for children to learn where their food is coming from.
Back to basics
"The process of growing their own really brings it back to basics, from the seed to the plate," says Skehan, who is spearheading a "Sow and Grow" campaign, sponsored by Innocent drinks and GIY Ireland, aimed at getting 25,000 children involved.
Teachers and youth-group leaders can apply for one of 850 free sow and grow packs, which include 30 growing pots, seeds, compost and growing guides; prizes will go to those who do the most with them.
See innocentdrinks.ie/sowandgrow.
