Monty Don has taken a U-turn on his belief that homegrown vegetables are better – admitting that sometimes shop-bought veg is just as tasty.
The gardener said he has grown vegetables since he was a child and admitted that throughout his life he has ‘steadfastly adhered’ to the view that homegrown food is ‘always better’ than shop-purchased.
The 69-year old-said the pleasure of growing his own produce, and eating it in season, will always remain ‘paramount’ – but admitted that sometimes, other people do just grow finer food.
The presenter admitted that a quarter of the produce he grows in his allotment is disposed of and questioned how often allotment-grown veg is eaten ‘with real enjoyment’ in the UK.
Writing in Gardeners’ World, Don said over the past few years his homegrown asparagus has ‘declined’ and ‘we found the locally grown asparagus to be just as good as our own’.
He said: ‘I stress that this goes against all my opinions that I have steadfastly adhered to for all my life.
‘I have blindly held to the belief that homegrown is always better than bought.’
But he clarified: ‘I am not abandoning that but modifying it a little.’
Don has grown vegetables since he was a small child and has previously spoken about the ‘luxury’ of strolling into the garden to handpick homegrown produce.
‘The pleasure of growing your own food, eating it in season fresh and ripe, remains paramount,’ he continued.
‘But sometimes I have to admit that others are doing it better than I am.’
The Gardeners’ World star said his biggest advice to first-time veg growers is ‘grow what you like to eat’.
‘Yet, if I am honest, I grow a wide range of vegetables that include quite a few I don’t like much and would never buy or eat in a restaurant,’ he said.
‘Why do I do this? Because that is what I have always done.’
Don admitted that while his ‘horticultural head is open and inquisitive’, his ‘secret horticultural heart clings to a very old-fashioned take on growing veg’.
He continued: ‘My guess is that a lot of people follow the same horticultural selection without really connecting the produce to their plates.
‘How much of Britain’s garden and allotment vegetables actually get eaten, let alone with real enjoyment? Does that matter?
‘I know that I probably consign as much as a quarter of everything I grow to the compost heap or recycle via the chickens.’
He said: ‘I claim some exoneration on account of having to make the vegetable garden look good for the TV cameras and thus probably grow more of everything than I need, but there is certainly wastage, albeit all recycled.
‘But the best advice remains to grow what you like to eat.
‘See the vegetable plot as a place for raising ingredients rather than an end in itself.’