The power of growing your own

Growing veg offers more than sustenance for some, be it a means to connect with their country of birth, or a way to recreate flavours enjoyed overseas. Here I speak to growers - for businesses and at home - about why they got into it and what it means to grow your own

1 THE ALLOTMENT HOLDER

Balbir Currie is a vegetable grower living in Budleigh, Worcestershire, where she has an allotment. Originally from East Africa, she is a retired teacher and manager.

"I was born in East Africa; my father was a farmer and came from India. There were 10 of us-four brothers and six sisters. My dad always grew things and I was the only one in the family interested in what he was growing and how he did it.

"I came to the UK when I was 15, 58 years ago. I've grown all sorts of vegetables. Things like courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chillies, coriander, lablab beans (or hyacinth beans) - they taste so different to what you can buy. Friends gave me seeds of things that weren't growing here. I've grown methi fenugreek - too, though I tend not to grow it often because it's hard work picking it. But, parathas taste lovely with it."

One project Balbir and her husband Malcolm were involved in through their allotment was Local Food Global Recipes that sought to build community connections through growing and cooking food. "It involved refugees and asylum seekers, and we would grow all different sorts of produce, then people from all over the world would cook them. We had sweet potatoes, yams, ladies fingers (okra), all cooked by Albanians, Nigerians, South Africans, Iranians, Iraqis, Vietnamese. It was really lovely seeing everybody from all over come together."

2 THE THAI RESTAURANT OWNER

Luke Farrell is the chef-owner of Thai restaurants Speedboat Bar and Plaza Khao Gaeng in London. He sources specialist Thai herbs and vegetables from his dad's tropical greenhouses in Dorset, orginally built to house exotic butterflies.