With most British cooped up indoors for over a year, it seems many have shaken off the tedium brought on by lockdown by taking up new interests and hobbies. And judging by Eventbrite data, growing your own fruit and veg was a particularly popular one.

During the pandemic year, from April 2020 to April 2021, the number of tickets issued by Eventbrite to (mostly virtual) ‘grow your own’ events skyrocketed by 600% – eventually reaching a larger audience than even before the pandemic.

Over half of the Eventbrite audience for these types of events attended classes and workshops covering how to grow your own vegetables, how to grow a lot of food on little land, indoor herb growing for beginners, seasonal seeding and planting, and urban gardening.

A recent survey by Linda McCartney Foods (LMF) confirms that home grown fruit and vegetables have taken off taken off, noting that more than half of adults had cultivated their own products in the last twelve months and that the trend was particularly common in younger adults between 18-34.

Eventbrite spokesperson Sebastian Boppert comments: “It’s fair to say that most people did not enjoy having to stay at home for a year. At all. But it seems that at least some good has come out of it. Growing your own fruit and veg is a great way to contribute to a healthier diet, it saves you some money, it connects us closer to nature, and growing at home arguably generates less CO2 emissions than the produce from supermarkets. We love that Eventbrite has helped thousands discover and get into this healthy and sustainable hobby through the events we power with our platform.”