Lifestyle
Adam Frost on growing, cooking and eating
In this episode of the BBC Gardener's World magazine podcast, Adam Frost shares his journey from growing vegetables in his grandparents' garden to cooking delicious meals with his family. He...
Adam Frost on growing, cooking and eating
Lifestyle •
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Interactive Transcript
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I'm Kevin Smith from BBC Gardner's World magazine.
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There's a brand new event this September.
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In conversation at Q Gardens,
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join me, Adam Frost and Francis Toppill
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for Expert Tips and Great Chat.
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Find out more at inconversationlive.co.uk.
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Hello and welcome to the award-winning BBC Gardner's World
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magazine podcast, brought to you by the team here at The magazine.
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Join us as we chat all things gardening with the nation's favourite experts.
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Hello, I'm Claire Vennis from Gardner's World magazine.
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It's a delight to welcome you here to the autumn fair and it has,
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quite frankly, felt a little bit autumn-ly this morning, hasn't it?
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We're all a bit soggy, but it's brightening up. It's looking lovely. It's going to be a great afternoon.
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It's lovely to see so many people here, so thank you very much for coming.
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We're going to be talking about plot to plate.
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Ah, that's good. We're talking about plot to plate.
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Something that hopefully Adam.
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That's good. That's good.
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You know a little bit about that, so we should be okay.
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You like growing and you like cooking.
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Yeah, I do.
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Which came first?
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Growing because obviously grandparents, she had a tidy and anz,
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gruffie and an allotment, actually to be fair.
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That wasn't even cooking then because, you know,
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my grand ever would create these amazing veggies.
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My name would come and collect them at lunch time when we were up the allotment,
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take a moment, she'd spend the rest of the afternoon boiling onto the death.
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You know, it was like that.
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They didn't have microwave, did you?
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I mean, poor old granddad blessing.
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We'd always have to get back to do the polls.
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So about our past four, we'd come back along the lane.
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And there was quite a big social housing,
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rectangular lawn, that sort of gone.
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But the kitchen window was really big.
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The moment you got to the back gate, the kitchen window was always steamed up.
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Yeah, did you get a thing?
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And his shoulders would just go.
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And then we'd go in like, you know, and he would never win the polls.
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So he couldn't leave me, man.
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And then he would have to have like,
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have this dinner, the all-taste is the same.
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She might as well have made smoothies to be fair.
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Oh, bless her.
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Yeah, all afternoon it would be, you'd hear the plates rattling.
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You know, on top where they keep in it warm.
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Yeah, I just, not blessed.
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I've got five memories of that as well.
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Maybe many of us do, you know, growing up with that.
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What about going in the back door though?
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Do you remember those strips are plastic and you used to keep your flies out?
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Yeah, and you'd push them back like, I mean,
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Namb would be in the mist.
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They'd be like, yeah, bless her.
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So you didn't learn your cooking for the new year now?
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They'd learn me cooking for me now, no.
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My cooking, bless him to be fair, came from my uncle Greg.
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And there was a couple of people here I was talking about him earlier.
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And they came back to me and they live in the same village as him.
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Bless him, he's having a rough time at the moment.
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He's just having no relation and to be fair, he's more like me old man.
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So that's been a bit sort of tough.
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But he had a pub in Hunston.
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So the years as we were growing up, they have my mum pubs.
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And he was a chef in London early days.
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And then he had a pub in Hunston.
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And he used to cook and then my childhood wasn't really.
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I'd either be a grandparents or I'd be with me on to an uncle.
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And so it really was him, really, that would sit me on the top.
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Even during service, he would sit me on the top when I would watch him
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prep him and make him sources and whatever.
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And then when I used to work on a farm,
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my cousin was the same age as me.
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It really used to annoy her because he had two girls.
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So I was like, he's boy really, that he never had.
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So whenever I came home from working to the farm,
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you know, I got a choice of like everything.
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Lovely.
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And the girls dinners would dished up.
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So I'm sat in bed, he's in steak and whatever.
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And my cousin, Marcia has never forgiven me.
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She brings it up quite a lot, but she really does.
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But so I think it was him.
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Then I got moved to Devon when I was 15.
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I went from Harlow to Devon.
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Didn't really go well, didn't really go to school.
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But started working kitchen,
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partnering after time when I was meant to be at school,
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to be fair, I was 15 years old.
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And I would work, you know, services weekends,
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just washing up the start, we've done a bit of waiting,
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then a bit of prepping.
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And I said say, well, when I left, it was ultimately,
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you know, the only other thing I would have been,
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would have been a chef.
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But I think I look back as to the person that sort of influenced
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that really would be Uncle Greg, bless him.
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And actually one of my most joyful things in the moment
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when we are together,
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family and half is, and they all laugh.
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My lot laugh is where I'm actually,
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my older boys now get involved.
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Him and I always cook together.
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So we always cook, you know, and when he's cooking,
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he is wonderful, it goes into this lovely world.
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So yeah, so for me, that social side is brilliant.
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Yeah, and it all comes together, doesn't it?
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With the cooking and what you grow in Lagarde,
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and bringing it in and cooking it,
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enjoying it with your family as well.
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Yeah, yeah.
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You know, inspiring your children in next generation.
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Yeah, with the freshness.
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They do to be fair.
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My oldest boy is architects.
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So he loves his own side.
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But actually in reality, not necessarily gardening gardening.
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But if I say to him, we're growing food,
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he'll come and get involved and he'll play his part.
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And I think he's on about, he's going traveling now.
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He's just qualified and then he's going to come back.
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And he's going to move to London with his girlfriend
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and get a job in London.
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And he's already talking about an allotment.
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So he'll do that.
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And he, you know, he loves his herbs.
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He loves his cooking.
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Well, it's a good time of year to get an allotment, isn't it?
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Where should you begin?
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Where do you start if you have a plot now?
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Where should you start?
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So, you know what, I would do.
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And a lot of people wouldn't do it now.
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I would get myself a load of manure.
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I would still single dig.
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Do the trenching thing.
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I would get them mucking.
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I would turn it.
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That's how I would approach it.
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Because I think by doing that, you're going to get a goodness in.
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But also, this sounds quite sad.
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Because I still do the re-border.
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But you get to spend some time with the soil, you know?
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And you'll start to see if there's an extra clay here.
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Or if there's a stony patch there.
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So, I would always do that.
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And then I would ultimately each year, you know,
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I would mulch after that.
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But again, I would just go the basics going.
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I wouldn't try and get too carried away to start with.
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If you're going to put in anything wood,
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it's like some fruit under a cage.
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So, anything that's going to take the time,
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you know, then I'd get all of that stuff in.
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And what I would do is I'd work out how wet the area is,
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how cold it's going to get.
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You know, what sort of weeds were in it when you cleared it?
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Was there anything really pernicious?
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You know, at the moment, with the rain we've just added,
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you might get some more weed come up.
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And then maybe start to look over the winter.
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Maybe start to put out fruit in.
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Because if you start to buy, you know, things like carrots and bits and pieces,
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there's bare roots.
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You're always going to get more for more for your money.
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So, that would be probably the good thing.
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If you want to put in a little apple tree or a patch,
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anything like that, then buy in those bare root from suppliers.
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You're going to get a load more plant for your buck.
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Do you add in then? Do you look after your plot over the winter?
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And how do you do that?
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Literally just mulching, really.
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I don't go in really in interfero, great deal.
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And as things go sort of mushy, you know, I clear it away.
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But I don't really do a huge amount.
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Just leave it, prep it, and yeah,
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I mean, now mine's all set up, you know,
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the fruit trees are in the currents are in and all that.
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So it's got that structure all the way through it.
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So, yeah, just really making sure the soil's in good heart, ready for next season.
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Yeah, great time.
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But anybody can feel so going into the back end of the year,
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it's still, you know, things like the rocket, things like that.
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I'm sort of still selling because they don't bolts so quickly.
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So bits and pieces like that.
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My sort of youngest daughter, really weirdly,
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I only root in in the last, I would say six months.
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For some reason, she's been horse, horse, horse.
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She's been working with autistic children.
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And somehow in the last six months, she's just getting into gardening.
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Lovely. Yeah.
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How does that make you feel?
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Yeah, really good.
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Yeah, I'm going to take her to introduce to a friend that's got a flower farm.
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But again, she'll come and she'll pick things in the garden.
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You know, she was out the other day picking beans and then we did a pasta,
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bean with a little bit of spinach and cheese.
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Yeah, so for me, yeah, that idea of just going out,
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growing, picking, we put some courgettes in there.
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And then you just sit as a family.
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You know, everybody gets in bubble.
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And I think that's the magic.
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It's not just the growing, it's the sharing.
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That's, you know, and I think for me at home now,
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I've turned the whole of the front garden into an ornamental kitchen garden.
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So it everything's interplanted.
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And I like the jungle, I like the wildness.
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I like the fact that the scotches have gone walk about.
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The courgettes are off down the paths.
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And I've got a sort of clamber my way through.
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But actually, you know, for a very dry year,
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looks really lush, doesn't it?
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Right?
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I've hardly watered that at all.
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Hardly watered it.
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And I think what it is, when you cover the ground as well as that,
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you had the water early on, you know, so the water was in there.
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But then you covered the ground because you cut down on evaporation.
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You know, so for me, it worked really, really well.
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And I've thrown mulch around a few things as well.
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But yeah, so yeah, it's good.
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Well, you had a massive marrow that you found.
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That was in a week.
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We went to the silly aisles.
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Yeah.
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When we left it, it was at courgettes.
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We come back to a marrow.
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Which I think we've all done.
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That was another nannth thing though.
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That was another she would cut marrow.
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Boil it.
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No.
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And then give you rings of marrow.
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And then she would put mince meat in it.
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But it would like, you know, let's be honest like,
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I thought I'd occasionally do that.
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I'd wrap it in a thing, but I put a bolognese mix in the middle of it.
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You know, finish it all off in the oven.
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Nannth, plain mince.
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And it's cut of marrow.
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He can't.
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Thanks, Nannth.
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I thought you loved me.
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I was going to ask you how you cooked that marrow because that's the best way.
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So Mrs. Frost doesn't like courgettes.
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So they always have a lot of cheese on them.
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A favorite thing is I make a courgette into a boat.
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Yep.
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So I scoop the center of the courgette out, chop all that up.
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Some bread crumbs and then some cheese in there.
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And then back fill it all.
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And then slide it in the oven on a tray.
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And then just let it bake away.
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Cover it to start with then take it off, finish it off.
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She'll eat them like that.
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That's absolutely fantastic.
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Marrow, yes, I do.
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I stuff it so you do do rings, but I modernised and made it a lot better
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with my Nannth used to do.
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So yeah, put bolognese in, but put a tomato sauce mix in.
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You know, with lots of chopped up tomatoes.
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Anything like that, it will soak up flavour.
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So it works really, really well.
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Yeah, so that's the way to sort of do that.
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Marrow rest it for everybody right there.
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Because you can bake with it, can't you?
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You can make cakes and things.
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Do you bake?
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No, really not.
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No, it's not next step.
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Something you're interested in doing.
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No, no, no, no.
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I got no interest in it.
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I was like, yeah, wasn't it?
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Yeah, no, no, not really.
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No, I sort of, no, I'm not really to be fair.
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I'm not really a sweet person.
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Well, someone's just put saying that.
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Someone's just put a Portuguese custard tart.
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I do like those.
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But yeah.
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When you're looking to grow at the beginning of the season,
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do you have that I want to grow this specific vegetable
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because I want to cook with it when it's ready?
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Or do you just want to grow a variety and then grow a variety to be honest?
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I've got some sort of staple bits.
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I've always got, you know, spinach and chard on the go.
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I've grown my sparragas now, which is starting to sort of get away.
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But then I've also got things like seed kale.
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You know, so I've got things that workers,
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pre-nual vegetables.
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There are interesting, they're pre-nual vegetables on there.
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I think there's more talk about growing.
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And there's some good suppliers as well.
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There's some really good suppliers out there.
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In the old place, I grew quite a lot of pre-nual kale.
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But reality is where I am at the moment.
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The pigeons and the butterfly are absolutely now.
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So, so pre-nual veg would normally be if I could.
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I would grow kale because I think it's amazing as a pre-nual vegetable.
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And I suppose one you could say is a pre-nual veg is the sea kale,
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which is absolutely fine.
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I cut that as heads, you know, like sort of broccoli.
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So I'm always sort of using that.
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And obviously this varigacy is pre-nual.
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So they're the bits that I mainly, mainly grow.
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Outside of that, we use a lot of herbs.
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So it's the herbs that we're always there there about, yeah.
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Fruits always important.
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So actually, inter-pleanted in that is black currents, red currents, white currents,
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black berries.
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And then the herbs, and then I leave the spaces.
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So this year I've sort of gone with small purple,
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French beans, tall French beans.
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I had a little bit of kale bits early on, but the pigeons are a nightmare.
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And I'm also butterfly around us.
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So you either have to cover everything.
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So I don't grow necessarily that much in aware kale.
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So I've got going on squashes.
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Yeah, me, salads, you know, carrots.
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If I'm really honest, the first show that I go to, I go up to a stand.
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And I have a sit-through.
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And yeah, I'd like to say that I planned it massively, but I don't.
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It's the bit of what you fancy that.
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Yeah, and then occasionally someone will send me a few packets of seed and I'll grow those as well.
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Now, I suppose the advice on that is, well, is that every time I buy a packet of seed,
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I will do, as it said, on the packet.
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But I will also try it in lots of different times.
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We've got this sort of, oh, so from March to June, you know, whatever it is,
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you know, on the back of your packet.
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But sometimes March is more like January.
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Sometimes March has been more like May, you know, and then June's been like April.
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You know, I think as well as gardeners, you know, that we've just got to keep experimenting,
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keep experimenting and keep playing.
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Do you ever grow things that you can't get in supermarkets or a lot of?
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I mean, every year I grow a lot of beans.
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Yeah, I do.
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And we store a lot of beans and things like that.
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But yeah, I think for me, nice about the growing is being seasonal.
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If I haven't got stuff to grow, I still buy seasonally.
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We're still very lucky where we live.
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We've got a Friday market and we've got two great veg stands, you know.
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And both of them have got relationships with a lot of the growers out there.
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So we're still getting our hands on really good veggies.
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But I always want to do it seasonally.
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I can't see the point of having a strawberry that's come from Egypt.
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And it doesn't taste like a strawberry, you know.
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So for me, seasonals really important.
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That's why they're asparagus, that'sparagus for that period of time.
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Special, isn't that?
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Well, magic.
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I think with this garden, we've simplified life in the last few years.
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And this garden has just been about me just gardening, not necessarily experimenting too much.
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The other garden was doing all of that mad stuff and whatever.
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But I think the next garden I might have a chance to get back into,
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which is Mrs. Frost is now talking about moving.
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Well, you had peaches as well, this year.
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Oh, honestly.
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That the first time you've had peaches?
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No, but you know what, the first time I peaches.
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I grew those so planted to trees quite early on.
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And year two, we are quite a warm year.
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And they're on a south facing limestone walls.
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And this one this end got about four or five peaches on it.
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Anyway, I'll pick one on the peaches and I'll go around at a back garden.
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And I'll go to Mrs. Frost like,
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Trotty's join us.
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She said, where'd you get that?
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I said, I'll grow it.
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She said, of course you'll have to sit.
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Seriously, I've grown it, taste it.
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Anyway, she bites it.
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Juices running down her chin.
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After that.
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Hey, I'll tell you what I would say.
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Let's grow peaches.
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Hi, honestly.
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I'm really glad I asked that question.
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Yeah.
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Grow peaches.
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Thank you, Adelaide.
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Well, the weather's warming up.
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We've had a pretty good year for growing peaches.
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I've had a fantastic year.
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There we go.
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Probably one of the best things we were married.
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Yeah, the peaches trees have been covered.
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You know, yes, some bliss.
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Anyway, we'll just know if you think about peaches on your man.
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Well, thank you very much.
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Thank you very much.
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Thanks, everybody.
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Thank you, everybody.
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I'll see you soon.
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Thank you.
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Thanks for listening to the BBC Gardeners World magazine podcast.
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