Mayo boy named this year’s National Incredible Edibles champion!

Michael Jolly and his family are celebrating after they won first prize in homeschool category of the Incredible Edibles primary schools’ horticulture and healthy eating programme, run by Agri Aware.

The 10-year-old from Ballina showcased his creative food journey online submitting the best end-of-year project to secure the top homeschool spot in the nationwide schools’ programme.

Michael’s efforts blew the judges away with the scale and quality of his work.

He completed all five tasks; food origin, identifying Irish, planting, cooking and healthy eating, to an impeccable standard.

The Mayo pupil showcased a range of biodiversity measures by protecting bees and composting during the Incredible Edibles programme.

Michael enjoyed the “Meet the Farmer” in-class webinars hosted by Agri Aware and project sponsors.

The Agri Aware Incredible Edibles programme ran from January to June and had its largest ever participation this year.

There were over 76,000 children from 1800 schools across the country that took part.

Michael is now ready to harvest and eat some of the fruit and vegetables he has planted as part of the programme. All schools who participate in the interactive Agri Aware programme get free grow packs so they can plant, grow and harvest their own fruit and vegetables.

At a time when there is a growing disconnect from where our food originates, the Agri Aware Incredible Edibles programme helps children learn all about how food gets to their plates while growing their own fruit, vegetables and herbs too.