Meet the Dermot Bannon of broccoli

You probably know Michael Kelly. He’s the guy who presents the show Grow, Cook Eat on RTE….the Dermot Bannon of broccoli.

He’s a man on a mission: to get more of us, in fact everyone in the country if possible, to grow at least some of their own vegetables.

One of the silver linings to the Covid 19 crisis is that so many people are growing their own food - and business is up fourfold at gardening websites, like www.giy.ie.

“There’s a massive surge in interest since the lockdown.  It’s a mix of people trying to stay sane and heathy and wanting to get back to basics,”  says Michael.

So how much can we save by growing our own produce?

Well, how long is a piece of string (bean)?

One green-fingered guy with a tiny garden  told Michael he saved €700 a year.

You can even save as much by investing in a ready-made herb and salad garden - as I can testify.

Two years ago I bought basil, mint, parsley, rosemary, bay, chives, lettuce and thyme all for around €1.49 apiece.  If you leave them in the tiny pots they come in, they will soon die off.

So I  put them in large pots (the ground is even better) they bloom into bushy plants that can be harvested repeatedly and are still providing nice fresh produce.

Chives were a real surprise. They grow like wildfire, spruce up a salad, are a handy onion substitute and are topped edible purple flowers in season. These not only look nice in the garden but really add class and taste to a salad. Parsley is also a sturdy and very much under-rated plant.

So for little in the way of effort, money or gardening skills I had a tasty supply of fresh salads and herbs for three seasons, saving a couple of hundred euros a year.

This summer, like many people, I got the gardening bug and decided to go one better and grow stuff from seeds as well as plants.

I planted spinach, lettuce, Asian greens, courgettes, potatoes, tomatoes, French beans, blackcurrants, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.  

Only the leafy plants have grown to maturity so far (in a matter of weeks) but already we have tasty salads on tap and no longer on our weekly shopping list.

In our table we give a selection of the cost saving of popular fruit and veg plants I planted to get an idea of savings.

A packet of lettuce seeds costing €2.50, for example, would  produce 50-100 heads of lettuce, which grow back when cut.

So let’s say you get 100 heads that would cost around 79c each  in the shops. That alone is a a saving of around €75.

Courgettes are famously prolific and will produce again and again when harvested – up to 80 per plant, which again, gives you a tidy profit.

Spinach costs more than lettuce  and it too will grow back when cut and it can be cooked too and used in curries.

Blueberry plants cost €8.50 and produce an average of 5kg-10kg of fruit when mature.

At €2 per 150g punnet, you will soon get your money back. And that 5kg-10kg of fruit is every year, remember, paying for the cost of the plant several times over annually.   

But it’s not about the money. “If people grow only 5% of that they eat, they become much more conscious of where the other 95% comes from - and its quality ,” says Michael.

This is a huge environmental issue. The latest climate change report concluded that it we must change the way we consume food or our planetary goose is cooked.

Ireland incredibly also imports most of our food. 14% of our veg comes from the UK and will only go up in price after Brexit.

Plant Cost of seeds Yield Cost in shop Annual savings

Lettuce €2.5 100 0.79 ea €76

Courgette €2.5 120 0.49 ea €56

Spinach €2.5 80 €2.49 (200g) €96

Blueberries €8.5 5kg €2.99 (150g) €33.33