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00:04For over a decade, G.I.Y. and its founder Mick Kelly has helped thousands of people connect with where
00:09their food comes from.
00:11Through their TV series Grow Cook Eat.
00:14So the spacing is about 40 centimetres.
00:17And Food Matters.
00:18This episode of Food Matters, we are all about following the seasons.
00:23And from their base in Waterford, they've inspired a movement showing that growing your own food is not just possible,
00:30but powerful.
00:31But now, they're taking it a step further.
00:36The goal? To prove that local food can be grown at scale and that a real community-based food system
00:42is still possible in Ireland today.
00:45The problem? They'd run out of land at G.I.Y. HQ to grow it.
00:50So they went in search of new land and they found a new site.
00:53A derelict, overgrown walled garden on the historic Corrimore Estate, just 25 minutes from Waterford City.
01:00But it's seen decades of neglect and it's not in very good condition.
01:06But for G.I.Y. that's not a reason to walk away, it's a reason to start.
01:11Their mission is simple. Turn this forgotten garden into a viable working farm, animals included.
01:17And not only produce on scale, but also produce a weekly veg box scheme for the people of Waterford.
01:25They've got a growing season to prove it can work.
01:28So here's the team who are taking on the challenge.
01:32Richard, the dry-witted grower who's allergic to nonsense.
01:35What's it a grower to be? Have things lying around with no purpose?
01:39No, look, but it's not sellable.
01:42Then we have Ali, the logistical wizard, doing ten jobs at once.
01:46It's a big, big jump.
01:49I'm going to come up with ways to sell it. I'm going to find ways. I know that I can.
01:53Very 20% centric.
01:55And there's Jen, who works magic with words promoting G.I.Y.
01:58Let's think outside the veg box.
02:02We've got to stop doing this.
02:04I'm worried.
02:05Seriously?
02:05Yeah.
02:07We're knackered, but we're happy.
02:11We've Gary and Anya.
02:12I just love my job.
02:15Who do the real work in the garden?
02:17And then there's Mick Kelly.
02:18This is serious pressure for the team.
02:20The ever-optimistic CEO.
02:22I think it's time to call it. I'm worried about the numbers.
02:24You just have to dig deep and keep going.
02:26Who kicked this whole thing off with a smile and a half-baked idea.
02:29I'm feeling really positive, you know?
02:31Then it's the queen of the G.I.Y. shop, Clodagh.
02:35I don't know what we're going to end up doing.
02:37She's constantly charming customers and somehow keeping Richard in line.
02:40Richard!
02:41Which is no mean feat.
02:42I can't think.
02:44Oh, and she's also growing something herself this year.
02:47A baby.
02:48We have Katie, the marketing guru, who can go from a festival stage.
02:53So proud of her. She's incredible.
02:55To a veg box spreadsheet in a day.
02:58Oh, it stinks Richard.
03:00You may not see them in every scene.
03:02Oh my God, that is actually gorgeous.
03:04But without them, the whole thing would fall apart.
03:08It's the G.I.Y. team.
03:10So staff are hugely important.
03:13Okay, here we go.
03:14The team are also filming every step of the journey in this six-part series.
03:18Rolling.
03:19So I'm sort of rubbing it again, aren't we?
03:21Yeah, so just a little dig around.
03:23Just be patient, you're saying?
03:25Yes.
03:26Okay.
03:32So we were looking for land for a farm for, I would say, three years.
03:38We probably tried six or seven different places.
03:41Myself and Richard going around, Richard digging holes to check for soil fertility.
03:47All over Waterford and Wexford.
03:49And just for loads of reasons, things didn't work out.
03:52And so this was, it's been a long journey even just to get to this point.
03:58The estate manager, Alan, introduced us to Lord and Lady Waterford.
04:02And we just asked the question, was there any land available?
04:04Thinking we'd be thinking a field, you know?
04:07And I remember Lady Waterford saying, we should go down and check out the wall garden.
04:13It just had that well-worked feel of a soil that's been minded carefully for generations.
04:21Do you remember the first day we came in here?
04:23I certainly do.
04:24I was clearing the way for you with a slash hook.
04:28That's right.
04:28You're following behind.
04:29Yeah.
04:30I didn't have a slash hook.
04:32You wouldn't give me one.
04:33No.
04:33If I wanted one.
04:34You weren't too sure which end to you.
04:36But it was like briars up to this height.
04:39And then we went round the back of the old head gardener's house into what is now a market garden,
04:46into the paddock there grazed by a few horses.
04:49And I took out my spade and dug a hole and it was beautiful black market garden soil.
04:56I turned to Mick and said, I can grow anything you want here.
05:00This is where we should make a market garden.
05:04A couple of times in my career I've been involved in developing wall gardens or redeveloping them.
05:10And it's just a fabulous role to have to follow in the footsteps of generations of hard-working gardeners, really.
05:22As we cleared more and more out, things started to reveal themselves.
05:25Like we found an old pear tree up against the wall that was literally called the Tsar, the variety that
05:31was linked back to the Russian Tsar in the late 1800s.
05:35There was like old buildings.
05:37We found the pineapple house.
05:38We found this finery.
05:40It was a gradual reveal over time, both of the beauty of the place and the potential of the place,
05:47but also the mammoth task of work that was going to come.
05:50More use of this.
05:51Yeah.
05:51Remember going in here the first time?
05:53I really do.
05:55This was probably the clincher for us, wasn't it?
05:57And the bunch of grapes on that one.
05:58Yeah.
05:59Well, I remember seeing a bunch of grapes hanging up there.
06:02Yes.
06:03So we kind of knew that the vine was alive at least, or some of them are alive.
06:10Yeah.
06:12My own vision is to create a garden which is interesting and critically productive.
06:19With our box scheme and so on, we're going to be feeding many families in Woodward with our veg boxes,
06:25these eggs going to go off and pork meat.
06:28So it's going to be productive and attractive, but 21st century, not 19th century early.
06:36Feels like we're only kind of getting started.
06:38It's the kind of reset moment where we've got now a full year to really get stuck in and make
06:44a success of this with the clock ticking all the time.
06:52The scale of the task is only starting to sink in with the team, and a meeting has been called
06:57back in Waterford at HQ.
06:59Nick, Jen and Ali must start planning how to get fresh food onto tables in Waterford by selling these veg
07:04boxes weekly, out of the shop here in GIY.
07:11Always good to have the ideas, how can we actually action and deliver is the important and key thing here.
07:16We're at a kind of a level where we've got maybe 20, 30 customers a week, which is great, but
07:22need to get to like 150 for this to work.
07:26But like, I suppose, looking in the whites of your eyes, is this achievable? Like, do you think we can
07:31do this?
07:32It comes with lots of challenges around kind of the fact that you can't choose, the seasonality of things, the
07:40fact that you actually have to come and collect.
07:42So I think if we can try and overcome some of those challenges, we'll get there. But we need to
07:48broaden.
07:49I think our catchment area, we're dealing with the kind of how people coming to us. I think we do
07:55need to start thinking about how we go.
07:57Yeah, like it is a big ask.
07:59I just think we need to get across that urgency to the team that everyone gets how big a risk
08:04this is for the business.
08:05Like, it's not that it could sink us as an organization, but it could it could certainly put a serious
08:11damage to our reputation and our finances if we got it all wrong.
08:14You know, my sense is next step, we need to you need to get with your teams and set some
08:18really clear kind of goals and timelines.
08:20Yeah.
08:20Is that all right? Yep. Cool.
08:23Exciting stuff.
08:24Right.
08:25Yeah.
08:26Then what do we do?
08:29We've kind of set out all our kind of big objectives and really now we're trying to get down into
08:35the planning and trying to get actually into the nitty gritty of actually what are the jobs that we need
08:40to do.
08:41It's just sort of mapping that out and how can we do it. I think that's the sort of key
08:45point here.
08:47So we need a grower. The hunger gap, production. We're going to need more chickens.
08:52Look at supply, distribution. There was a lot of asks there and now it's looking and seeing how we're going
08:59to deliver it.
09:00Selling the story, so that moves on to you.
09:02Well, yeah, and I think, to be honest, targeting is going to play. And then the catchment area, right?
09:09Yeah.
09:12I think it's achievable, but I guess what is always a challenge for us is capacity, resource, the ability to
09:20actually get it done with the team that we have.
09:23150. It's a big, big jump.
09:26Will we get the 150? I don't know. The question is when.
09:32We need to go and talk to the teams. We need to get the buy-in here.
09:35Do you know, we need everybody's full commitment into driving this forward.
09:39Yeah.
09:39Yeah.
09:40It's not going to fail. It can't fail.
09:42The big target, yes.
09:45All right.
09:45Okay.
09:46All right.
09:47Let's go and do it.
09:52Before we dive head first into the chaos of this project, we're hitting pause.
09:57Because to really understand what's happening here, we need to go back, way back.
10:01Very Downton Abbey-esque, isn't it? You get that sense of this pyramid.
10:05Time for a history lesson with local historian Julian Walton and the fascinating story of Caramore Estate.
10:13Here, you've got about six centuries at least of history. A huge estate in the same family for all that
10:21time.
10:22300 years of the powers. And then they marry into the Beresfords. So you get another 300 years of the
10:27Beresfords.
10:28The domain itself, that's to say the land that they looked after themselves, 2,500 acres, absolutely beautiful, unspoiled to
10:37this very day, rolling hills, woodlands,
10:41the little river Clodagh, and forestry, farming and so on. That was only the core of the estate because they
10:47had about 65,000 acres in eastern Waterford,
10:53centred on three manors, that's to say administrative centres, of Caramore, Clonet, which is to the west of Caramore, and
11:01a lot of land in the east, around Dunmore East and so on.
11:04And through marriage then, through the Beresfords, they inherited lands. Earlier on, they'd inherited lands in Wicklow, which they still
11:12own to this day.
11:13So Caramore is not just the home of a family, but it's also the centre of a huge estate of
11:20great political importance and a place of great prestige.
11:27One of, I suppose, one of the most remarkable things is the way it has survived politically, apart from anything
11:33else.
11:34You have the Catholic family in the 17th century, but they survived Cromwell.
11:42They were Jacobites, and yet they survived the victory of William III at the Battle of the Boyne.
11:47They become Protestant. Caramore deserves to be preserved because it's part of our heritage,
11:53but also because it has a lot to offer to the present generations and the house, of course.
12:00So it's a great amenity for the community as well.
12:05Next up in our history lesson, we're narrowing the focus, from the estate to the wall garden.
12:11I want to show you the vinery as it is now, because we still have some vines in here.
12:17Historian William Fraher joins us to explore the forgotten past of the garden.
12:22A wall garden was essential for every big estate because that was the main source of food, vegetables, food.
12:29And there's a reference in the 18th century, which I found, saying they needed seven acres of vegetables for a
12:38household of 40 people.
12:40So you're talking about 40 people in the main house, family, servants, whoever else.
12:48So quite a big production going on here in the wall garden.
12:53The whole estate, it's like a sort of village in itself.
12:57And you had a blacksmith's forge, you had a carpenter's shed and painters.
13:03You know, there's a whole lot of people employed, an army of people.
13:07But the one that stands out is the great gardener William Robinson, who started his career as a boy at
13:16Curramoore.
13:17When he died, his obituary was written and it said he had sent copies of his books to the head
13:24gardener at Curramoore,
13:26which was Mr. Arrowsmith, as a memento for his time at Curramoore when he was based in the Bothy at
13:33Curramoore.
13:34So it's got, you know, a nice link into a famous gardener.
13:40This is where he started off his career.
13:43The garden, to me, is a tribute to those probably hundreds of gardeners who worked and worked for centuries on
13:52creating and maintaining this garden, often in all weathers.
13:57So to me, it's a monument to them rather than all the marquises.
14:04It's people who worked the garden to me. It's a great memorial to them.
14:13With the history lesson behind us, it's time to roll up the sleeves.
14:16It's April 2025.
14:18And while a few early crops have made it into the ground, the real growing starts now.
14:23And at the centre of it all, Richard, GIY's head grower, and he has a very particular way of doing
14:29things and a long list of vegetables to get in the ground.
14:32We're now in late April in the garden. Peak time, really, to get moving. And you move with the weather.
14:40We got the ground prepared in the dry spell last week. And now we're transplanting.
14:46All of this stuff has been propagated, ready to go out. And we've sowed a load of crops, different ones.
14:53We have beet, we have turnips, we have radish, we have salads, we have some carrots, and here we're transplanting
15:01lettuce.
15:02And everything tends to come together by mid-late June, and suddenly you've got veg coming off everywhere.
15:10But it's quite lean until then. We're very busy growing, but there's nothing much to harvest till then.
15:17As if having all that to contend with wasn't hard enough, Richard also has to contend with some very unwelcome
15:24pests.
15:24By far the worst problem is pheasants. Without the gnats that we have on the crops, then they would eat
15:32virtually everything.
15:36And in case you're wondering why there are so many pheasants, well, they actually breed them here on the estate
15:41for the shooting season.
15:42So there are thousands. And unfortunately for the growing team, they've developed quite a taste for freshly planted vegetables.
15:52The worst pests I've ever come across, apart of vervet monkeys in East Africa when I worked there, they were
15:57equally destructive.
15:58But we don't get those in Woodford. But the pheasants are very destructive.
16:04Well, at least it's only one pest to deal with.
16:06Colum, you've had a rabbit in here. They love onions. I don't think we've ever seen rabbit nibbling as systematic
16:13as that.
16:13Getting it from all angles is what I've seen.
16:16You're fighting, in a way, a permanent sort of low-intensity guerrilla war with the pests and diseases.
16:22You'll never win, but the objective is that they don't win either. It's a stalemate.
16:31Richard and the team get the last of the vegetables planted and crop protection in place.
16:36But no proper farm would be complete without a few animals. And a big part of this farm is going
16:41to be hens.
16:43One of the great joys for us is the fact that we're able to have hens here.
16:47Because obviously, in Grow HQ, we're in the city. We've got neighbours. It's a very small site.
16:51We weren't able to keep hens for eggs. So, you know, pretty much straight away last year when we got
16:58in situ here, we got batches of hens.
17:03Brilliant fertilisers of soil. They're scratching around in the soil. They're kind of clearing land as well.
17:09Fertilising with their poop and producing all these amazing eggs.
17:12So, we've got like eggs for sale in the shop in Grow HQ, for the kitchen and obviously going into
17:17the veg box.
17:18So, it's an absolute joy. And the fact that they're out and about and they're free-ranging and they're organic
17:22and all that.
17:23It's just, it's been absolutely magic.
17:31Back at HQ in Waterford, Jen and the marketing team are meeting for the very first time to come up
17:36with ideas on how they can sell weekly boxes of vegetables.
17:40It may be their first meeting, but they've got to get it right.
17:43It's definitely not as simple as just creating a marketing plan. I mean, you know, we can't do it without
17:48a good marketing plan.
17:50But actually, it's going to be about how we activate it. It's going to be actually getting all the ducks
17:56in a row and selling it.
17:58And it's kind of really leaning into what makes it amazing, what makes it great.
18:03We've come in now to the beginning of 2025 with a big job to do. We're in and around 25
18:09on average every week from a customer perspective.
18:12So, our job now is how do we get it to 150 as quickly as possible, because that's that number.
18:18It's that golden number that will begin to make it, you know, kind of profitable.
18:22Really, we need to start to find more people and to get more people signed up. We're going to have
18:26to go wider.
18:28From our perspective in the marketing team, our job is recruitment at this stage.
18:33We don't have a huge team. It's always been a bit of a small team here at DIY.
18:37So, I suppose it's just trying to figure out what we'll be able to manage as well.
18:41And sometimes the kind of goals that want to be achieved mightn't be, you know, very achievable with the team
18:47we have.
18:47But I think if we work really hard and we have a lot of planning, I think it'll be amazing.
18:52I think it'd be extremely important to like try and show people using the box, like how they can use
18:56it.
18:56Like why are they going to get it in the first place and like using an influencer would be amazing.
19:01But even just like local names trying to send the box out to them and showing what they do with
19:05it for a week.
19:05And recipes, I think.
19:07Recipes would be huge.
19:08Yeah.
19:08And it all comes in seasonality then as well. So, it'd be really great to show that, I think.
19:12At the moment we have that kind of catchment area issue where it's just around who lives within driving distance
19:18of HQ for collection.
19:20And we really need, and I need help from Ali's team to be able to support on that.
19:27So, we're currently limited pretty much to the city.
19:29Yeah.
19:30Like, but we have like a massive county, Dungarvan, Kilkenny, Wexford, Carlow, Debrary.
19:38Yeah.
19:38It's a big region.
19:40Social, maybe we'll get Charles to create some, a bit, kind of that nice content for us.
19:44I think the more people know about it, the more people are going to buy into it.
19:48Yeah.
19:48A lot of it will come down to our team.
19:50A lot of it will come down to how we bring in kind of new customers and recruit.
19:56And so, I really need to, I'll be leaning a lot more on our team this year than last year.
20:02And, you know, it'll play a much bigger role in the work that we're doing.
20:06Should we pick some key events, big events that like, maybe like Bloom or All Together
20:12Now or Harvest Festival, like those big events to be just to even build the profile.
20:19Yeah.
20:19So, I think there's lots we can do.
20:21Yeah.
20:21So, I think we just need to get busy, really.
20:23Everyone feels quite excited about the kind of crazy project that the VegBox seems to be.
20:29I think there is a bit of a, like, it's kind of the beginning of the year.
20:33It's kind of that feeling, it's like a feeling of a Monday, I think, at the moment.
20:37And like, there's just a lot to do.
20:39But I think everyone's really, really excited.
20:40I think that would be the word I'd use to describe it.
20:45Just when things were finally starting to settle on the farm, something had to give.
20:50But no one saw this news coming.
20:52Avian flu has been reported in Ireland.
20:54And a mandatory housing order on all poultry has been put in place.
20:58The team is facing a crisis that could derail everything.
21:02So, the chickens are under a housing order.
21:05And I suppose there's just a bit of a worry at the minute.
21:08It's still early days.
21:09This has really just happened.
21:13Yeah, like, it's, like, disastrous news.
21:16Because for any free-ranging hens, you have to keep them.
21:20There's a mandatory housing order.
21:22That means we've got to keep them in the house.
21:25Over time, it's going to mean very unhappy hens.
21:28Because they're going to be pissed off in the house.
21:32They're kind of at each other.
21:33They're enclosed in a small space.
21:35Like any of us when we're confined to a space not very pleasant.
21:39So, do we know how long this is going to last for?
21:41No, we haven't a clue.
21:42Like, I mean, two days ago they were out running around happy outside.
21:46So, like, I think it could be a couple of weeks.
21:48It could be a couple of months.
21:49It could be indefinite.
21:50Like, they're talking about this is, like, a global problem now with avian flu.
21:54And, like, the only way to keep these commercial flocks safe is to keep them inside.
22:00So, like, hopefully it won't be more than a couple of months.
22:03But we just don't know.
22:04And, like, are you worried about this?
22:05Like, in terms of marketing?
22:07And, like, how are we going to explain this to customers?
22:09Is it a big worry we should have?
22:12Yeah, like, I am worried about it.
22:13Like, because I think if it lasts, if it goes on indefinitely, you'd have to wonder, like, should we have
22:20hens at all?
22:20To have them enclosed like this all the time, it's cruel, like.
22:23It's not, you know.
22:24It's not natural.
22:25What we're about, really.
22:26No, exactly.
22:27And I think the main thing to get across is, like, that we're complying with the housing order because it's
22:32mandatory.
22:33Yeah.
22:33Like, commercial, anyone that has a commercial flock is, like, legally obliged to do this.
22:38So, even though it's awful for the hens, the main thing is that they're safe.
22:42Okay, look, from what you told me, I think our best bet is to try and just put all the
22:46information we have together
22:47and remain open and honest with the customers.
22:50Obviously, if they're going to start noticing of the quality, the eggs are not getting, you know, if it's lessening.
22:56And, like, they're used to, like, gorgeous orange, free-range, fabulous eggs.
22:59Yeah.
22:59And now if they get in any way less quality, the eggs are a bit more yellow and things like
23:03that, we really need to communicate that to customers.
23:06Something as simple as maybe we could do some social posts around it.
23:08All right, so it sounds like we have a plan.
23:10Yeah.
23:10That's good. Let's do it.
23:12Cool. Very good.
23:16The team's up against it now, and this hen situation isn't going away any time soon.
23:22We'll be keeping an eye on it as the series unfolds.
23:28Coming up next week, the pressure ramps up.
23:31The team scrambles to figure out how to sell even more veg boxes with limited veg being produced on the
23:37farm.
23:38Richard is under pressure from the plants, the pests, and Mick's latest bright idea.
23:44Meanwhile, back on the farm, we'll get to meet some of the animals that need attention and feeding.
23:49Katie from marketing scrambles to stop some customer cancellations.
23:52And Ali heads out to land a deal that can help with distribution.
23:56And once again, Mick has another idea all to do with soil.
23:59The adventure continues on our farm.
24:13Have a great day.
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