Escape to River Cottage | Episode 1
– Like many city dwellers, it’s long been my dream to escape the urban sprawl, find a little place in the country, and live off the fat of the land. Thriving on whatever I can grow, gather, or catch. It’s a dream no longer, because I’ve found River Cottage.
The perfect place to create a miniature small holding and put my fantasy to the test. Only one thing stands in my way, a charming and well-kept flower garden. Now, I like flowers as much as the next man but there’s no room for passengers in this garden.
The rule is, if it doesn’t put something on my plate, I’m afraid it’s gotta go. The former flower beds are all going to be turned over to edible crops. And to maximize my growing space in the steeply sloping garden, I’m building terraces with railway sleepers. Well, it may just be a pile of virgin soil, but I’m pretty excited about my vegetable garden. I’m not a vegetarian, though. And the other thing I want to do is lay down some meat futures. That means getting some livestock on the place. One vestige of the urban life is my 1965 Ford Corsair. Maybe not the perfect downsizer’s car, but with a trustee trailer tacked on, I feel ready for anything thing. – [Peggy] Come on Sammy. Come on Sammy. – [Hugh] Just a few miles from River Cottage is Peggy Davils’s Rare Breed Pig Farm. Her prize-winning porker’s are some of the finest in Dorset. – Hello, Ginger love. Here you go. Hello Ginger love. Here you go.
– So, is it really sensible for me to take a pig home, fatten it up at home and slaughter it? Is that something that anyone could do if they got the space? – Yes. There’s no problem there. As long as you know you, it’s common sense a lot of it.
But you must feed it properly. You can’t just put it on an open field and let it just have grass. It has to have a proper compound with its minerals to keep it healthy. – [Hugh] Is it alright to have one pig on its own? – No, not really. No.
Animal welfare, really, you are not allowed to. They need a pair, ’cause they’re a very social animals. – So, you’re gonna try and sell me two pigs? – Yes, certainly. (laughs) – [Hugh] So, that’s good for business. – Yes. Very good, isn’t it?
– [Hugh] Not only am I getting twice as many pigs as I’d bargained for, Peggy’s eight week old wieners are rather larger than I’d expected. – Woo. They’re like a dog. You let them get friendly with you. Let them come to you. – Right. – Naturally.
– He’s got his nose in my pocket. – [Peggy] That’s their way of saying, I’m not sure about you. You’re gonna have your shoe off in a minute or your trousers. (laughs) That is typical of a Gloucestershire Old Spot. – I think it’s these two here, isn’t it? – [Peggy] These two? – [Hugh] Yes, please. My multipurpose trailer’s been deemed unsuitable for pig carriage.
So, Peggy lends me hers and gives me a much needed lesson in pig persuasion. – [Peggy] You’re getting out. That’s it. – The deal’s done, and with a bag of feed thrown in, the three of us head back to our new home. From my previous experience of having sole responsibility for the welfare of livestock, was two sticklebacks that I kept in a glass jar. I changed the water and I gave them fresh crumbled corn flakes every day, but they both died within a week. So, I think we could be on quite
A steep learning curve here. Come on. Come on. Peggy compared pigs to dogs, but I’m already beginning to sense that obedience classes with my Old Spots could be a long haul. If only they knew just what luxury awaits them. A straw laden pig ark and a shady little copse
Beside the cottage to root and romp in. Come on. (claps) Come on. That’s a good chap. Vocal persuasion has proved quite ineffective, and a more hands-on approach is clearly called for, which gives the piglets a chance to demonstrate their impressive vocal range. Till you see what I’ve got for you. Look. Look.
Look at that. (pig squealing) There you go. Look at that. Now that’s not so bad, is it? That’s not such a bad place to be. I’ll go and get you something to eat. With the Old Spots fed and watered, I’m feeling a bit peckish myself,
But somehow it feels like a fish day, not a meat day. Downsizer’s will take anything they can get. Especially when it’s free. River Cottage is only a couple of miles from the coast which means, in theory, the whole of the West Dorset marine larder is up for grabs.
The problem, of course, is getting the fish out of the sea and into the kitchen. So, you need some stomach muscles for this? – [Gary] Yeah. A little bit of a six pack might help. Right, breach the rubber. Okay? And then pull it right back till it clicks to the notch.
Go on, a bit further. – Ah, I almost got there. – You’ll be doing that on the surface. – [Hugh] Gary Fooks is a fellow downsizer and a deadly shot with a spear gun. So I’d better do that. I better make sure I can get there.
‘Cause (indistinct) not much point in getting in the water. – Right, you can do it. Well done. Right, one thing you will find is the gun, because of its length, that trying to, at an arm arm’s length, trying to track something like that through the water,
You actually get a lot of water resistance from it. So if, for instance, say a fish is swimming across that way and you want to track it quickly. Two hands, pull it across, get the gun ahead of the fish, by aiming ahead of the fish. Then take the hand away and then shoot.
– [Hugh] Gary’s favorite hunting ground is over the rocky wreaths off the shore of Portland Bill. – [Gary] It’s one of the most amazing places to be. It’s another world. It really is another world. You need to know the environment. You need to know the fish you’re hunting.
You need to have the fitness and the ability to be able to hold your breath, go explosively after something and get yourself back to the surface safely. – [Hugh] We’re diving at high tide, when in theory, bass and mullet should be coming in shore to feed.
The only thing I’ve seen is a tiny wrasse. But Gary’s spotted something that I haven’t, a gray mullet, the perfect size for a barbecue. – [Gary] Gray mullet. – [Hugh] Brilliant shot Gary. Fantastic. I might have had one myself except for some hopeless fumbling with the safety catch.
And after half an hour, I’m knackered. As the inexhaustible Gary hunts on, I finally mastered my spear gun, as a fish scaler. Once shot of me, Gary has a field day. Returning as the sun goes down with two good size bass. Preparation of the mullet falls to me.
– [Gary] How you gonna do the mullet then, Hugh? – [Hugh] I’m gonna treat it very lovingly. You see this bundle of twigs? – [Gary] Yeah. – This is a dried up version of this, which is fresh in the garden now. – Dried fennel. – If you smell that. – Yeah?
– So what I’m gonna do is, I’m gonna put that on my fire that I made here. And the idea is that the burning fennel puts a sort of smokey fennelly flavor into the fish. – Yeah. Yeah. – It is that simple. – That simple. Nothing else just fennel?
– Well, a little bit of fresh fennel. – Right. – And the only other thing is a bay leaf, which I just think almost every fish should just have a bay leaf in its cavity. – My favorite thing to go in fish cavities is that. – Ah, so where I’ve got bay leaf,
You’ve got little slivers of fresh root ginger. – I’ve got slivers of fresh root ginger stuck in there, yeah. – So are you going kind of oriental right through here? – Yeah, it’s totally lovely. It’s just steam fish with ginger and spring onion, oyster sauce and a little twist at the end.
– It’s a bit of a Ponzi dish for a barbecue, isn’t it? – It is, yeah. But it’s my favorite way to eat that. – Nice. I’ll get the fish. With a bay leaf in its belly, the mullet goes on the fire. Gary’s wok fits snugly on his potbelly barbecue.
Perfect for steaming his bass. See if you didn’t shoot such big fish, they’d fit in your pan, really. The fierce heat of the barbecue cooks both fish within minutes. By the time my mullets turned over, Gary’s bass are out of the wok and getting their garnish of spring onions, coriander, and oyster sauce. My mullet just needs salt and pepper. Gary’s final flourish is to crackle the skin of his bass
With a basting of boiling oil. That’s brilliant. So you don’t take the fish to the oil, you take the oil to the fish? – No, you take the oil to the fish. There we go. Steam bass, ginger and spring onion, oyster sauce. – [Hugh] Fresh mullet, roasted over dried fennel,
With fresh fennel and lemon mayonnaise. Just drizzle that over. – [Gary] I think I’m coming in with my sticks. – [Hugh] Got a pair for me? – [Gary] Oh I’ve got a pair for you. – [Gary] Right. I’m into your mullet. – Let me crossover. – That’s good. – That is beautiful.
– [Gary] Yeah. – [Hugh] While our catch is reduced to skeletons, Gary’s friends arrive with fresh supplies for the barbecue and intent on a party. But for you to be down here in Dorset doing this, that is a choice for you, isn’t it? – [Gary] Oh sure. Yeah.
– [Hugh] You’ve tried town as well? – [Gary] Yeah. Yeah. Three years ago, it was a case of all week working in town and then at the weekends packing up the family in the van, rushing down here and then just stood out on the rocks, watching the waves crashing, thinking why?
I don’t wanna be on that tube tomorrow morning. I wanna be here. That’s what we did. We just packed up and left, and came down here. It’s fantastic. – [Hugh] No regrets? – [Gary] Gets better every day. No regrets at all. – [Hugh] It’s beginning to feel like the good life really could be within my grasp. – Its just a lazy way to dress it ’cause I didn’t have enough mayonnaise- – [Joy] ‘Cause you knew it quite well. – [Hugh] Michael and Joy Micho have 15 acres of land on The West Dorset Cliffs.
They farm organically and grow an amazing variety of vegetables. If I’m going to produce anything worthwhile on my humble plot, I could use some advice and inspiration. This is a sort of leguminous rainforest. And vegetables don’t come any more inspiring than the ones in Joy and Michael’s poly tunnel.
– These aren’t normal peas that you, pardon me, just the pea, these are sugar snap peas and you eat the whole pod, like that. But there are some varieties which are sugar snaps. – [Hugh] That is so good. – Oh, they’re very sweet.
– You must feel so good when you just pull something off your own bushes and- – We love it, yes. I mean our children come in and they just sort of graze in the crops. Just eat them all, yes.
– [Hugh] Now this is what I want. This is what I want to do. – We’re basically lazy gardeners. I mean this looks, this is a lot of work. It’s done in the winter when we don’t have much going on anyway, but for the summer,
We tend to do just as little as we possibly can. – Is that an option for me? I mean, can I be a lazy gardener and grow plenty of food to eat? Enough to really cook some exciting stuff? – No problem at all. It’s only May so they’ll come on very fast.
– [Hugh] Yeah, I’m never quite so sure about the slugs though, I think they can’t- – [Michael] No, we don’t eat- – [Hugh] I love the idea of being idle, organic, and productive. Michael’s come back to River Cottage to get me started with some seeds and seedlings.
So tell me honestly how good is this? Can I do stuff with this? – [Michael] No, this is smashing. – Hugh] Really? So you’re telling me, Michael, that you’re actually a little bit envious of my soil? – Yes, I’m gonna take a bucket of this home with me.
– [Hugh] That’s what I like to hear. – [Michael] Now where’s the sun? Where’s south? – South is this way, so this- – Okay, so you’re not gonna get much shading from those trees, we just gotta watch it but in the summer the sun should be quite high
But we just have to watch out. You might want to put, you might wanna see where the shade’s gonna be and put your leafy greens there because they don’t need as much sunlight. And what you want to do is put crops like tomatoes, courgettes, all your fruit stuff,
Put it in as much sun as you can. – Well, this gets a lot of sun. – Okay, then I would put sort of courgettes, tomatoes, those sorts of things. – [Hugh] First in is my favorite vegetable, the broad bean. – [Michael] We’ve got plenty of seed.
Why don’t you put two on each one? I like to put two just in case the slugs get ’em. – [Hugh] Okay. – If you’ve got two, one for you, one for the slug. All the way down. Two of them come up, then we can always thin one down, yeah?
And I think that’ll do just fine. – [Hugh] Next along my top terrace, bulb fennel, also beloved of the slug. – We did a tray of it one time. 150 plants came up. One night, slugs ate 140 of them. We ended up with 10 plants. – [Hugh] No. – Yeah.
– [Hugh] You’re starting to make me nervous now. I got very excited when we started planting and now I’m- – It’s an ugly scene out here. It is like a battlefield. – Beetroot should thrive in my virgin soil, along with two types of potato, the ratte and the pink fur apple.
Michael’s also given me peas, corn, tomatoes and assorted greens. And before leaving, he casts his eye over his side of the barter deal. One River Cottage ham, payable early autumn. Do you wanna get a permanent marker out and write your name on- – No, that’s okay. – No? – Doesn’t matter.
Do you mind if I stop by periodically though, just to check on their progress? – [Hugh] No, not at all. I think things are starting to sort of look up. I feel with the vegetables, the seeds in the ground, my pigs in their pen. I’m sort more or less starting to feel like
A proper small holder. Albeit a first timer. – [Michael] Yeah, it is coming along. – My nearest neighbors to the cottage are Anthony and Serena Hitchens. – [Anthony] Take off that long branch though- – [Serena] I think it could still go higher, don’t you? – [Anthony] Yes I do. No, I think that’s right. – [Hugh] Despite appearances to the contrary,
The Hitchens have a bit of a problem. I’m hoping I may be able to help them out and acquire something for my pot in return. Their problem is overpopulation. – Well Hugh, this is where we should find the pigeons every morning. They set up on the rooftop of the stables.
– Gosh, they line up- – They line up in a very obliging manner. But this is not, you must clearly understand, a sporting activity. It’s just a cull. We started with four pigeons about seven or eight years ago. We were given by some friends. – [Hugh] Four? – [Anthony] Just four.
– [Hugh] And how many have you got now? – [Anthony] About 80. They’re not all on display, but they’re far too many. – [Hugh] So do you see it as a sort of dual thing? You’ve got the lovely ornamental white doves which as you say, look very beautiful
On the lawn up against the green. But you’ve also got a fairly regular supply of good dove meat. – Well, I don’t think it would keep body and soul together but it’s a nice addition to the diet from time to time. And they are pigeons, not doves. – They’re white, you see,
That’s why I keep thinking of them as doves. – Well they’re white and we have lovely white doves but doves are smaller, and they’re a slightly different shape. – [Hugh] Is there a big sort of interbreeding problem? – Well there’s, I wouldn’t call it a problem, but they do interbreed obviously.
They interbreed with carrier pigeons who come through and they interbreed with the local wood pigeons. And my basis of selection, if I’m coming out to shoot one or two for the pot and to keep the numbers down, is to shoot the ones that are mixed
So that we keep as pure a white collection of pigeons as we can. – Well, do you want to show the way here? – I’ll do my best. – [Hugh] For an efficient and humane cull, the preferred weapon is a .22 rifle. – [Anthony] Seems to have gone. – [Hugh] Yep. That’s one down. – My question is, will they come back? You don’t see it quite as much in England as you do in France, but in France, every decent size house has a pigeonnier, which is a little tower in which the pigeons live.
And they would sally out every day to eat the crop and then come back and get shot by the Lord of the Manner. I take a rather more generous approach by feeding them instead of sending them out to- – [Hugh] Feeding them and then shooting them. Yeah.
– [Anthony] Well your turn now, Hugh. See if you can take one cleanly off the roof ridge of the stables. Yeah. That looks very effective to me. – [Hugh] Are they good eating? – [Anthony] They’re perfectly good eating. They’re very nice pigeons. – And do you have a favorite way of cooking them? – Oh, don’t ask me about cooking. – Well, I’ll try- – I’m totally unreconstructed male.
I don’t do that kind of thing at all. – Not involved in the kitchen at all? – Not involved in the kitchen at all. – [Hugh] The idea is that if I continue to cull throughout the summer, I get to keep whatever I shoot. Sounds good to me. – [Anthony] Steady, steady. Go. Now perhaps we ought to go and pick up what we’ve shot. – [Hugh] Yeah. Well, I’ll try and come up with something a little bit unusual. Perhaps you and Serena would like to come around and sample? – [Anthony] I think that’s a lovely idea. We’ll bring the Claret.
– [Hugh] That’s a very good idea. – [Anthony] Why not? – [Hugh] You bring the wine. That’s an excellent idea. Having promised Anthony something unusual, I’m looking to North Africa for inspiration and making a rich and exotic layered pie called a pastilla. The plucked pigeons get their wings snipped off,
And then I cut out the plumped breasts, the only really decent bit of meat on these birds. But the carcasses don’t go to waste. Roasted, they make a fantastic stock. After bubbling away on my wood burning stove for three hours, it’s strained and then reduced. These are literally just gonna get very, very lightly brown. ‘Cause the actual cooking’s gonna happen inside the pie. We just want them to take on a little bit of color. A little bit of flavor. My scrambled eggs need to be good and creamy. They’re gonna go in slightly sloppy.
They have to have a pouring consistency., no jelly, just a nice pouring consistency to spread over the pie. This is the stock which has now been reduced, literally, to about three tablespoons. So that’s three of the layers of the pie, and the fourth layer, just kind of unusual thing,
Have toasted almonds, mixed with icing sugar and cinnamon. So it’s a pretty weird dish really. You’ve got meat, you’ve got scrambled eggs and you’ve got almonds flavored with cinnamon and icing sugar. It’s meat and sweet. It’s a very sort of peculiar, spicy, North African thing. But it is wonderful.
My tart dish is covered with three base layers of phyllo pastry, each brushed with melted butter. It does feel very weird, spreading out a layer of meat in a pie and then putting scrambled eggs on top. I can’t think of any other time you’d do anything so bonkers.
Before we do that, a little bit of parsley. A little bit of fresh chopped coriander go in the eggs. Look at that. Have you ever seen anything odder in a pie dish in your whole life? We’re just putting in an extra punch of flavor. This incredibly reduced sauce. Just gonna trickle that over.
I mean that is almost black. It’s practically chocolate sauce. The whole thing’s looking like a sort of pudding really, at the moment. And the last layer, toasted almonds mixed with icing, sugar and cinnamon. Now it’s ready to be wrapped up. The first layer over.
Now my phyllo pastry may look a bit crumpled and torn. I really don’t care. It doesn’t matter. It’s very forgiving stuff. It’s all gonna crinkle and crackle and crisp up beautifully in the oven. The final layers of phyllo are tucked in and the pastilla is cooked in a hot oven
For 25 minutes, turning halfway through. – [Serena] Are you coming to dinner? Are you coming to dinner- – [Anthony] No, they’re coming to breakfast shortly. – [Hugh] My guests, the Hitchens, arrive with neighborly promptness. – [Anthony] Ooh, Hugh. – [Serena] That’s very smart. – Now this is some four and twenty,
Blackbird’s baked in a pie. What is it? – Well, I know it looks a bit like pudding. – Does it taste a bit like pudding? – It might taste a bit like pudding. It’s a Moroccan dish. – Oh gosh. – It’s called pastilla. – We’re ethnic this evening, are we?
– [Hugh] Anthony’s held up his side of the bargain, bringing with him a pretty decent 1981 Claret. – [Anthony] I must say, the smell is all right. The smell is definitely all right. – Oh, lots of cinnamon on it. That’s rather- – [Hugh] Crackling and exploding pastry going-
– I like the cinnamon. – [Anthony] Wonderful. – That’s very good. – [Hugh] Well, you’ve left me a very good sized slice there. – Well, I must say, good old English pigeon, and is dressed up in an amazing way. Really good. – [Hugh] It’s very, very tasty,
But the meat itself is absolutely delicious. – [Serena] And you’ve got it like, we- – [Anthony] Have you had any of our rabbits yet? – [Hugh] You’ve got rabbits as well as pigeons? – We’ve got a vast amount of rabbits. – Yes, We’ve got rabbits. Everyone has got rabbits.
I’m pleased that you cull our pigeons, but I’ll be delighted you could cull our rabbits. – [Hugh] Next week, I’ll be finding out that chickens come before eggs, Latvian ladies know how to party, and the bath is the only place to unwind.
Hugh arrives at River Cottage to begin his dream life away from the city sprawl and immediately sets to work preparing the land for his new vegetable garden and finding livestock. Hugh also attempts spearfishing and meets his new landlord.
Host: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Director: Billy Paulett
Writer: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
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