About The Kitchen Garden

It did start with an actual kitchen garden and an urge to connect growing with eating and vice versa. The Kitchen Garden begun as a small scale permaculture*-inspired project on the west coast of Sweden in autumn 2018. Initially, the focus was on above-ground observations and solutions. But before long, soil health became a dominating feature and ambition.

An important aspect we’ve learnt along the way has been the value in getting to know the space we’ve been growing in, and this has involved lots of time and curiosity. We’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way, decisions we thought were right at the time, that we later found had consequences we hadn’t factored in. We’ve had crops decimated by a variety of pests and weather conditions, and beds taken over by weeds. But the more we have been through, the more curious we’ve become about what governs all that happens in a growing space. In 2020, along with lots of reading, we begun studying at the Soil Food Web school, to try to understand more about what was happening in the soil. Meanwhile, our interests in human and planetary health led us to exploring more about how these aspects also relate to soil. And slowly, we began to see things change and our curiosity has just kept expanding.

Over the years, the growing space grew, and we also became involved in other local growing projects. Through our farm stall, our community events and running workshops and courses, we’ve had the privilege of having many conversations about soil, climate, gardening, food and health. Amongst other things, these conversations have urged us to make some of the important concepts we’ve learnt along the way, more accessible.

Meanwhile, in autumn 2022, we relocated to an island off the Swedish coast and have since been growing in different spaces, continuing our own journey of discovery.

*Permaculture – a design framework for using resources efficiently. Coined by Bill Mollison and David Lundgren in the 1970s, it is based on observation of natural systems. Permaculture has often been applied to growing systems, but can also be applied to many other parts of society and daily life. We’ll be coming back to the concept of Permaculture later in the course!

About us

George is a gardener, illustrator and craft cider-maker. With a background working in a wide range of garden environments, his experience has taken him from ornamental gardening to food growing and working with natural ecosystems in focus. Witnessing large volumes of fruit going to waste in many private gardens led him on a journey to become a craft-cider maker, with much respect for the microbial processes involved. Over time, this has spillt over into a whole host of fermenting practices, creating rich additions to many-a-meal and prolonging the seasons in the kitchen. George’s illustration work can be seen in our labels, logos and other materials.

Alice is a medical doctor with a special interest in lifestyle medicine and planetary health and has been working as a general practitioner in the UK and Sweden. Apart from enjoying growing food in itself, she is passionate about the wider aspects of the process, with an interest in how being part of and interacting with natural ecosystems affects our overall sense of wellbeing, purpose and sense of compassion.

Both have grown up with gardening mothers, and a love for being in nature. Both have studied with Patrick Whitefield Associates in the UK, and with Elaine Ingham at the Soil Food Web school.