Kathy’s radishes - the book
Rough Patch - How a year in the garden brought me back to life is a new book by Kathy Slack. Regular listeners may remember Kathy Slack from an episode in Series 2 called Kathy’s Radishes. In her new book which also contains recipes (of course it contains recipes!) she shares all the lessons she learned from her own story of recovery from depression. The book was published on the 6 Feb 2025.
Kathy Slack at her recent book launch in Daunts bookshop in London
What to listen for in this episode
I remember sitting beside Kathy in her garden last year, looking at the raised veg beds, recording her story for the podcast. I had come across her substack account and loved the recipes and the warm and friendly tone of her newsletters. I had been looking for someone who might give me my first vegetable plant story. Those tiny radish seeds led to a much bigger story about the power of nature to heal us.
At the time, Kathy said she was working on a book to tell that story and this is it. I was lucky enough to go to her book launch, there was food - of course there was food! I wanted to have a conversation with her about the book to understand why she had written it and what she hoped listeners would take away for it.
It’s a very honest account of what happened and as Kathy herself says:
I'm quite a private person generally. And then to be this honest and this open about everything that went wrong, and a lot of it is really not edifying at all. It's a huge release, particularly when you've been the sort of person who spent so much time thinking about how you come across to other people and worrying whether people like you or not, and then suddenly to just put all the worst stuff down on paper and go, yeah, all right, read it, is really, it's a bit frightening, but at the same time it's mostly just such a release to have it all out there. And you kind of go, right, well, if you know that, then that's all I've got. There's nothing else, it doesn't get worse than that.
I love the book. There are insights in here for all of us, and humour and recipes. And do listen out for her story about the cow - and how it can perhaps teach all of us something about just being present.
What to Grow this Spring
We don’t normally have a ‘how to grow’ in an Offshoot episode but I couldn’t let Kathy go without asking for some advice on what vegetables we should consider planting this year.
I would give the advice that I always give to myself at the beginning of every year, no matter how many years I grow vegetables for, which is don't try to grow as much as you think you can.
Because I always, particularly at this time of year when there's nothing in the ground and I get so over excited and I think I'm going to grow melons and I'm going to grow these really difficult aubergines. I'm sure it'll be fine. And I'm also going to grow this really unusual heritage variety of kale that requires X, Y, Z.
Because it's so exciting this time of year, isn't it?
It's just promise and then, and then I'm just disappointed because I do too many experimental things and it doesn't work and I run out of time and then I just berate myself. So I would say pick at most, particularly if you've never grown anything before, pick maximum five things that you really love and start there.
Or if it's the first time you've ever grown anything ever in the history of ever. Just pick one thing. Just grow a lettuce. Enjoy growing a lettuce. Nice and easy. Or a pea shoot. Pea shoots are excellent because they grow so quickly. They're really tasty. They're cut and come again. You can grow them on a windowsill. Enjoy that. See how that goes until July.
And then plant some other stuff if you feel like it. Don't go too far.
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Episode Transcript
Click the button below if you wish to read a transcript of the conversation with Kathy.