‘MAKE’

The ‘MAKE’ part of the series is overseen by Jonathan Moseley.

‘MAKE’ involves us growing specific flowers that Jonathan has asked us to produce. However, unlike ‘GROW’, there are no backup crops.
You still have to grow a minimum of two different varieties of the required flower, plus any other flowers you want.

When you are choosing what to grow in addition to the specified flowers, you really have to think ‘will it go with what I’m already growing?’ Is the colour right? Is the size to big? What texture does it have? Will it blend with other flowers to form a great display?

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‘GROW’

Each week we had to grow a certain crop that Jim Burtess had chosen for us. What you may not be aware of, is that we also have to grow ‘back up’ crops. This was in case our main crops failed. I’ll talk about these in each ‘GROW’ episode.

Not only was the ‘GROW’ stage of the competition the longest, it was also the most unforgiving.

If you are supposed to grow something for a specific date and it’s not ready, you literally have to show whatever you have. There’s no starting again, or covering it up.

It took us weeks, if not months to grow most of our crops. Even if we see that there’s something wrong with what we’ve grown, there isn’t usually time to replant or re-sow.

You have to make the right choices to start with, or live with the outcome.

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‘EAT’

The EAT stage of the competition is overseen by Thane Prince.

Thane is our ‘Queen of preserves’, our ‘Mistress of marmalade’, what she doesn’t know about pickling, jamming and preserving isn’t worth knowing!

In the EAT stage, we had to use the produce we grew for Jim in GROW, to make something for Thane. Thane had set the tasks to showcase what we could make out of delicious home grown veg. The aim was to use as much as we could off our allotments, without relying on shop bought produce. Sometimes we came unstuck, or simply used the wrong ingredients for what we had to make.

Thane is well-known as the food columnist for The Daily Telegraph and The Weekend Telegraph for a staggering twelve years until 1999. Since then she has written many food books, articles and presented several of her own TV food series.

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