RTE Series ‘Grow Cook Eat’ To Visit Tipperary For Next Show

The new TV series ‘GROW COOK EAT’ presented by founder of GIY Michael Kelly and the GIY Head of Community Development Karen O’Donohoe is heading towards its’ fourth episode airing next Wednesday evening, April 3rd, when the team will focus on beetroot growing skills plus a visit to Tipperary is set to feature where viewers will learn of orchard development skills.

GrowCookEat presenters Karen O’Donohoe and Michael Kelly of GIY

During the programme which will air on RTE 1 on Wednesday, April 3rd at 7.30pm, Michael Kelly details the insights to growing beetroot in your garden successfully plus the delicious vegetable will be used by Chef Jack Kirwan of Sprout and Co. food chain to make a delicious dish of Crispy Fried Mackerel: with trio of Beetroot and Tzatziki pickled beet cubes, with sauté mini beets.

During the show, Michael Kelly makes a trip to Tipperary and is shown around the Apple Farm by Con Traas, where since 1968 apples have been grown for juices, lemonades, sparkling juices, jams and cider vinegar.

Following the apple farm visit, Karen and head grower at GIY Richard Mee show everyone how to plant an ‘orchard in an hour’in your own garden.

‘GROW COOK EAT’ is a very practical series, aimed at helping people with little or no knowledge of growing their own food. As well as the step-by-step guides to growing vegetables, the series showcases features on building raised beds 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 Jessica Murphy of Kai Restaurant in Galway and Jack Kirwan owner of the Sprout and Co. food chain in Dublin.

GROW COOK EAT airs each Wednesday evening at 7.30pm on RTE until April 25th; the show is sponsored by Bord Bia and StopFoodWaste.ie. 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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About GIY

Michael Kelly founded the social enterprise GIY in 2008. Having grown his own fruits and vegetables for several years, Michael discovered there was no local food growers group in Waterford, so he set one up himself. GIY inspires and supports people to grow their own food at home, in school, in workplaces and in the community.

During 2018 GIY will support over 850,000 people and 8,000 community food-growing groups and projects in Ireland and the UK. The ethos behind GIY is that when people grow food on any level they gain an understanding for food called ‘food empathy’, which has a significant impact on their well-being and the health of the planet.

In October 2016 GIY opened the award-winning GROW HQ, the home of the GIY movement and its National Food Education Centre in Waterford City.

GROW HQ will within the next 5 years attract 250,000 visitors, re-skill 17,000 people to learn how to grow and cook their own food. The GROW HQ bistro is rated as one of Ireland’s Top 100 Restaurants by The Sunday Times. It also won the Plot to Plate award at the Food & Wine Awards in 2017.

About the 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 returned to rural Ireland after pursuing a successful career in the UK and completing her MSc in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Public Health. A native of East Cork, her passion for social enterprise, health and sustainability saw her start a GIY Group in her home village of Ladysbridge and then join GIY as a fundraiser for GROW HQ, GIY’s €1.4million national food education centre. Now, as Head of Community Development and member of the Leadership Team, Karen works with a number of GIY’s stakeholders to develop long-term partnerships for maximum impact. Her skills as a presenter and entertaining educator were honed during a successful career in health promotion and community development with the University of Bristol where she represented the University on a number of high profile programmes including Inspire 2012 and Healthy Universities. Founder of The Cottage Market, a community-led market initiative that has been rolled out on a national scale, Karen is passionate about rural regeneration, empowering micro enterprises and working with communities to create social, environmental and economic success stories.