Has the EDP Bidwells Norfolk Food Festival inspired you to eat more local food? Why not consider growing some of your own next year? Organic gardening guru and Norfolk resident Bob Flowerdew tells Rachel Banham it can be easy.

If you wanted advice from anyone on how to 'grow your own' Bob Flowerdew would be at, or at least very near, the top of your list.

Bob's family has been tilling the land in Norfolk and Suffolk since Tudor times, and the author and Gardeners' Question Time panellist has his own organic garden at Dickleburgh, near Diss.

As more people take on allotments and pledge to grow their own, Bob recommends growing more fruit. He believes this is particularly useful for people who may have limited time, as a vegetable garden can be 'a lot of annual workload'.

While he acknowledges the importance of vegetables, he also advises us to consider an alternative – and put up a fruit cage. Bob explained that fruit can be planted through ground-cover mulches like woven fabrics, which keep weeds down. Then nothing needs to be done until the fruit is picked.

Fruits are also good for juicing and the juice can be frozen. And if you need any more encouragement, Bob has written the Complete Fruit Book, which includes recipes.

'Something I realised early on was that it's no good just growing it if you don't know what to do with it,' he said.

'Fruit is one of those things where jam or boiling it down to a pulp come to mind, but there are other options.'

'It's very easy to produce a lot of food, but it's extending that over a longer period.'

He explains how to store and preserve your produce in his book Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own.

Bob describes the increased popularity of grow your own as 'a steam train flattening everything before it' and 'an unbelievable turnaround'.

'It's not just people being greener. It's the food programmes giving people an awareness of taste and flavour and seasonality,' he said.

As the EDP Bidwells Norfolk Food Festival draws to a close tomorrow, Bob's advice can help us all bring a taste of next summer into our gardens this autumn.

Interested in finding out more? See the Weekend magazine in this Saturday's EDP.

Bob Flowerdew's Complete Fruit Book and his book Grow Your Own, Eat Your Own – in which he explains how to store and preserve your produce – are published by Kyle Books (formerly Kyle Cathie). Visit www.kylecathie.co.uk to find out more.

Visit Bob Flowerdew's website at www.bobflowerdew.co.uk