It’s not long since Orkney could feed itself, with plenty left over to assist a wartime garrison. Today, however, it takes just a day or two of weather to produce gaps on the supermarket shelves.

But, says Dr Henry Creissen, the director of UHI’s Agronomy and Agriculture Institute, the range of crops that can be grown is considerable, and particularly when protection is provided, for instance by a polycrub. He describes the results that are coming from vertical farming trials.

Rebecca Ford of the Islands Community Action Network joins him to give news of community food-growing initiatives in Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. She tells how the polycrub was developed as a community initiative in Northmavine, and speaks of the work going on there with Shetland Kale – Scotland’s oldest known local vegetable variety. She describes Orkney Library’s Seed Library initiative, aimed at enabling everyone to start planting.

Supported by Nord Dallas and Orkney Islands Council’s Crown Estate Community Led Development Fund

Ed started his career studying sustainable horticulture in Somerset and over the years has worked in historic gardens all over Britain. He was for five years senior gardener at Highgrove House, growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and cut flowers for the future King Charles III. On moving to Scotland, he spent ten years building up one of the largest kitchen gardens in Europe at Gordon Castle in Moray, and he now runs a gardening and design business with his wife Anna in Fochabers.