Grow it and eat it

Having just given a Xmas luncheon for some friends and introduced them to kohlrabi which I had grown myself, and which they liked, I am on a mission to get more programs about growing fruit and veg. and then recipes for eating it includind salad suggestions and tips about ripeness of fruit to eat raw etc.  This will bring in those clamouring for more gardening programmes as well as the multitudes who love the cookery and catering programs.  How about it BBC - a "Grow it and Eat it" pprogram!

You need to contact the BBC-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tv/pitching-ideas/ideas-from-the-public.shtml

or perhaps you local ITV company or Channel 4/5 to suggest this.

But didn't Jamie Oliver do a programme on this already?

I am just trying to gauge opinion ( like the Romans did in their forums!),  as  have read a lot of complaints about the dearth of gardening programs and the surfeit of cookery programs.  I also see lots of unusual fruit and veg. growing at the Bristol Unuv. Botanic garden where I am a volunteer gardener and have to do research to find recipes for them.  I think a program such as I suggest would appeal to a lot of new gardeners and cooks and also could integrate a lot of ethnic groups and their growing and cooking too.  It could be an entertainment with strong factual bias which would fit the BBC and their strong lead on such programs in educating the public.

HFW has done several along these lines too 

I know what you are saying-and opinion will be with you-but it will just be a discussion-ideas for programmes are pitched ever day-very,very few get taken up.

In TV land there are few actual original ideas-it depends what is flavour of the month so to speak

Now if you had a all singing, dancing on ice,spinning round on chairs,eating things grown in a jungle idea for a progamme- you could be onto a winner.

Did either Jamie Oliver or Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall start from scratch with seeds or tree whips  and take the gardener through whay is needed before you have produce you can eat?

As I recall HFW started with a group of local residents, clearing overgrown land, creating veg patches, chicken runs etc, sowing and planting etc - then returning to cook the produce.

And I think he also started from scratch with creating veg plots and keeping hens and pigs etc when filming how he first took up residence at River Cottage.

Golf king, you had me giggling!  I did thin"he lines ofthe Hairy Bikers who combie food and geography, but thought gardening and history with a hint of geography would be better combination,. when I saw the recent one-off on Dorothy Hartley and her book on the ""Food of England."

That is a wonderful book happymarion - one of my all time most favourite books 

Also, have you read Nigel Slater's Tender Vols 1 & 2, huge books about growing, cooking and eating all manner of fruits and vegetables 

Thank you, Dovefromabove.  Must visit the library.

Perhaps Nigel Slater could front the program and then we might see him sit down to eat.  He and his guests seem to always eat standing up!  Weird.

I too love Nigel Slater's books; 'Tender' 1 & 2, but I think there could be a permanent programme; a seasonal one indicating what to grow, when, how. Then what to harvest that month, how to prep, cook, freeze, preserve. For example a friend has for the first time made medlar jelly, but it was a matter of pure guesswork to know when the medlars were 'bletted'(?). I would be very keen on that type of programme, possibly with 2 presenters who are not desparate for us all to love them!

happymarion wrote (see)

Perhaps Nigel Slater could front the program and then we might see him sit down to eat.  He and his guests seem to always eat standing up!  Weird.

 

But we all know that food eaten standing up is calorie-free!  That's how he stays so slim 

Dove... in future I will give standing only dinner parties; my friends will be v. grateful when they lose weight!

Funnee!!!

In my slate scree this morning, 16.12.12,picking up the brown leaves i found this white primrose flower.  

Now how to find out whether it is safe to have the petals on my salad?

How about that - the Jan. edition of the mag. has recipes to use winter veg,!

And the Jan edition told us how to cook kohlrabi...how strange is that  you may get a programme which combines the two sooner than you think happymarion, keep scribing.

I think it's an excellent idea. Some veg's are so under rated. Kohlrabi's nice stuffed with peppers and beetroot delicious hot with a sauce, courgettes sliced length ways with cheese as a filling is also a nice supper. Then there are all the herbs and spices which we grow and add taste to many a bland dish.

The idea deserves at least a one year trial run of programmes.

I'd suggest, with two teams, one male/female to look at whats growing well that week/month, in the allotment/garden and who go out to see real people. That team then choose the vegs/fruit to be cooked. Another team, male/female cooks,  are then challenged to make something from the vegs/fruit chosen, but, instead of producing just two dishes, extra dishes are brought on at the end of the programme, prepared earlier, to say this veg/fruit can also be cooked like this...and then they all sit down together and have a jolly good time tucking in.  

Oh, thank you so much for your support, Zoomer44.  I like your idea very much and so pleased the participants will sit down to eat the fruits of their labours!  Yes, I did notice the piece on Kohlrabi.  I gave a lunch for some of my fellow volunteers from  our Botanic Garden in Bristol to introduce them to kohlrabi that I had grown and it was a great success.  It was a great favourite in Victorian times and still is in many parts of Europe.