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Farming Today: 29/12/22 - Vital Roots Garden

29/12/22 - Vital Roots Garden

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 29/12/22 - Vital Roots Garden

How a Dorset couple is using climate change to grow subtropical foods.

Climate change could bring opportunities, as well as the well-documented downsides. One couple in Dorset have been looking at pushing the boundaries of what it's possible to grow organically in the UK, using the warmer weather to cultivate plants that would be familiar to people living in the Caribbean.  

Katkin Tremayne and Ipar Davis-Hughes run Vital Roots Garden in Netherbury. It's a smallholding where aside from the classic British kitchen garden staples, the couple grow and sell subtropical vegetables including callaloo, chow chow and yams.  All this is done outdoors, as they have no polytunnels.  They put their success down to a combination of climate change, and giving the plants time to adapt to their new surroundings.

Presented and produced by Fiona Clampin

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