Irish fruit and vegetable growers have teamed up with Bord Bia to create a video series for the ‘Life is Better with Fruit and Vegetables’ campaign.

The campaign involving 18 Bord Bia Quality Assured growers encourages Irish millennials to boost their intake of fresh, locally-grown fruit and vegetables.

The video series titled ‘Out of the Ground’ includes growers of the following fruit and vegetables: Turnips, tomatoes, strawberries, parsnips, leeks, carrots, lettuce, Bramley apples, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, raspberries, cucumbers, red eating apples, brussels sprouts, herbs, and mushrooms.

A total of 13 videos currently feature on the Bord Bia website and five more are in production.

The series aims to highlight the "great care and attention" that goes into producing a crop of the highest quality fresh produce.

The videos form part of the three-year EU co-funded, multi-country campaign, 'Life is Better with Fruit and Vegetables’, which was launched in May 2022.

The series showcases fruit and veg growers around the country and shows the production processes necessary to produce a quality crop.

A ‘Local Growers and Suppliers Map’ profiling many of the key growers within the industry is available on the campaign website.

The growers profiled include:

John, Simon, and Ronan Gormley, a family of swede growers from Garristown, Co. Dublin;
Matt Foley and his brother, John, who are the owners of Kilbush Nurseries, a family-run business with a 40-year history of tomato growing in Rush, Co. Dublin;
Joe, John, and Billy McGuinness, as three brothers running Sunglow Nurseries, a family-owned business in Rush with an 80-year history of farming that now specialises in strawberries;
Jamie Farrell, a grower at Brookridge Farms in Rush. The family-run business specialises in growing parsnips, leeks, and bunch carrots;
Alan McCann, a third-generation grower in Rush, who runs Morning Fresh Farms with his father Mark, a farm which specialises in glasshouse lettuce production;
Colm Grimes is a leek grower from Skerries, Co. Dublin carrying on a family tradition that spans over two decades;
Robert Bradshaw is an apple grower managing Keelings orchards in St. Margarets;
Lorcan, Ger, and Dennis Harford, are three brothers who inherited a deep knowledge of growing leafy green brassica crops and other vegetables in Lusk;
Leo Murphy, a fourth-generation vegetable grower in Malahide, has been growing cabbages for over 30 years;
John and Karen Kerrigan, father and daughter mushroom growers from Kells, Co. Meath;
John Dockrell, a carrot grower from Monroe, Co. Wexford.

Sector manager for fresh produce and potatoes at Bord Bia, Lorcan Bourke said: “Bord Bia have been aware that many people may not appreciate fully where their fruit and vegetables come from and particularly the level of work and preparation that goes into growing crops.

"The campaign has provided an opportunity to profile some of the top grower professionals of crops in the country."

"By buying locally grown produce, the public is sustaining our grower network and farming communities for future generations,” Bourke added.

The series is available online, along with recipes and an e-cook book which is available to download.