All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E01.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

A year's passed on my East Sussex
smallholding...

..and I've been spending
more and more time here.

You can't not love this.
Come on!

But with the help of my
friends and neighbours...

..I'm going to bring in more produce

and more livestock...

Here we go. First Wareing potato.

..that will lead to some
incredible new recipes

as I discover the secrets
of a kitchen garden.

It's early summer and my farm
in East Sussex is providing

even more challenges and pleasure
than ever before.

It has been a busy year.

There's been a lot going on.

A year ago, it felt like
I was sort of slowing down.

A year later, I'm busier,
I'm more active,

and I'm learning a huge amount
and it's incredibly exciting.

This whole new array

of wonderful stuff.

So many new things.

Just look at that in there.

Of course, since last year, bringing
all the new things to the farm

and to the kitchen garden,
it just gets your mind

really motivated to think,
"What else can I do?

"What can I do and
what can I take away?

"What can I move around? What
failed? What was successful?"

The fig tree's just
popping up everywhere.

Look at that baby there.

Beautiful little cauliflower,
untouched.

Growing and rearing produce is
fast becoming a real passion,

but it's all underpinned
by my life's work.

The question was for me -
can I improve my cookery?

Well, when you're planting
all these fabulous ingredients,

then the answer to that question
is, "Yeah, I am, absolutely."

It's making me look at food
in a completely different way.

I didn't think of wasabi down here.

New ingredient, new place,
new ideas.

But I can't wait to get some
into the kitchen, though.

This year, I'm keen to grow
with greater variety

to inspire more dishes.

We used to have, like,
a six-foot bank of one thing.

Now, we've just got one or maybe
two rows, so I've really pulled back

on the volume and started
focusing on the quality.

It's making me sort of rethink
the way I cook as a chef,

but also how I want to cook and eat
at home.

Whilst I certainly feel like I've
learnt an incredible amount,

I feel like I'm still only
scratching the surface

of what's possible.

But one thing I do know
is that the best way to learn

is to get your hands dirty.

There's never a day in the last year
that's gone by

where there's been nothing to do.

There's no off day,
there's no rota.

It's 24/7, 365 days a year.
That I have learned.

It's hard work and it's
backbreaking, but it's worth it.

The garden's already
a riot of fresh produce.

So I've come to the greenhouse
to harvest tomatoes

with my cocker spaniel, Esme.

A lot of great memories
of tomatoes

right from being a child to picking
them up, working with my dad,

going into kitchens.

The tomatoes we've got in here
are just your traditional tomatoes,

nothing unusual at all. I know what
they're going to taste like.

In my career as a chef, there's so
many different types of tomatoes

I've tasted from all over the world,
and they've all got their different

flavours, their distinctive shape,
colour, size.

You've got heritage tomatoes, you've
got your traditional tomatoes,

you've got your big beef tomatoes,
which are fantastic.

And I want to bring a little bit of
that into my growing for next year.

But I need to get out there and go
and find someone who can help me.

All right. Let's get...
Let's put those down there.

Hey, what do you think? Try one?
I can see you licking your lips.

What do you reckon?

Right. Let's go.

Oh! Come on.

In search of inspiration,
I am travelling to a unique farm

on the Knepp Estate in East Sussex,

an area dedicated to rewilding
and organic horticulture.

I've come to meet heritage tomato
growers and newly established market

gardeners, Rosanna and Signe.

You two are pretty hard to find.
WOMAN LAUGHS

Wow, look at this!

This is beautiful, but this is
so much more than I expected.

So what are you... What is it?
What are you up to?

So it's a horse paddock,
or it was in March. Sorry?

A horse paddock. This March?
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

It's taken us five months
to establish the site.

It's really, what's incredible
if you look at it,

it's what the plants can do
in such a short time.

Listen, guys, I've come
to talk to you about tomatoes

because I believe you're
the experts of variety.

How many varieties are you growing,
roughly?

Five different kinds
of beef tomatoes

and then five different kinds
of cherry tomatoes. Nice.

The mix of flavours and the variety,
that's really what we're going for.

So I want to see what you're doing.
I want to know all the stories,

I want to know all the tips and then
have a little taste test, I think.

Brilliant. All right?
You up for that? Great.

I'm hoping that Rosanna and Signe
can introduce me to some new tomato

varieties that I can bring
back to my greenhouse.

We've grown all of them from seed,
so actually we were still sort of

setting up in the
polytunnel here.

So they ended up
germinating in our bathtub...

HE LAUGHS

..because that was where they were
sort of easy to keep moist, right?

Did you try the orange one? No.

I really like the orange one.
It's called Goldiana.

That's exploded in my mouth. Yeah.

Wow.

Absolutely. That explosion of
flavour and sort of water inside

that freshens your palate.
Yeah. They're really nice.

So the best way to pick them
is just to kind of push against

this little knuckle here. So that'll
just come off really easily

if you push in the right place.

One-handed. Yeah.

If it's forcing itself or it's
biting back, leave it. Exactly.

I have to say, I've not seen a
tomato that looks

like a heart before. Yeah.

This is called Sonnenherz,
which means sun heart in German.

Oh, right. That's the ripest...
That's the colour it goes?

That's it? Yeah, exactly.
This kind of orangey fade.

That's lovely.
Quite a fleshy tomato.

Is it? You'll see when we
cut it open,

there's not that much sort of seed,
that gelatinous thing in it.

One of the most unusual-looking
of Rosanna and Signe's tomatoes

is the calabash.

They're real divas, these ones.
They require a lot... I like that!

A tomato that's a diva! Yeah.

They do look good, though,
don't they? Yes.

There's no serious uniformity
at all.

That's quite hard, coming from me,
because I am all about

everything should always
be the same.

But then as you get into the world
of food and growing, you start

to realise that you're breaking
into completely different

new boundaries because there's
a complexity with growing

that's quite extraordinary.

So is there anything that
you can tell me, or advice?

It's not a high water-need crop,
really.

And it has such a strong
relationship to flavour.

You know, if you overwater tomatoes,
you can really taste that

because they just kind
of swell with the water

rather than all the compounds
in the soil that are giving that

really diverse, strong flavour.

There's only one more thing
I want to do, and that's try some.

I've got to taste them.

I'm not going anywhere until at
least I've eaten some tomatoes.

Can we go and do that? Can I go and
try some of those? Let's do that.

You need to try all of them.
Hey, I'm up for it. Cool.

Let's do it. I'll follow you.

It's this kind of expert knowledge
that's invaluable to me in bringing

not just new plants to my garden
but exciting new flavours.

So the Sonnenherz...we'll try first?
Yeah, yeah. Let's try those.

Looks like a pear.
Yeah, yeah, really is.

It's not your conventional
tomato flavour. No.

It's meatier.

There's a texture to it that's
really nice.

Firmness to it, as well.

Yeah. It's really good.

Maybe we should try Brandywine next,

because that's kind of
really classic.

It's from the 1800s, actually.

Yeah, it's an American heirloom.

Oh, wow.

Oh, wow.

Wow, wow, wow.
That is absolutely delicious.

It's good, isn't it?
Really, really good.

And that's the other thing
with tomatoes,

it's actually really easy
to save the seeds.

As I'm talking, I'm always
thinking about,

what am I going to do with this?
What can we add in to that?

And that's my job.
You've done your job. Yeah.

I'd love to take these and
move on to the next stage. Mm.

So I've learned a lot today
and I've got to up my game, I think.

THEY CHUCKLE

As always!

I actually cannot believe
how much they've achieved

in such a short period of time.

But I have to say, the flavour
of these tomatoes

straight from the vine, sliced,
tasting them right here

under the sun is incredible.

And that's the flavour I want
back at my farm.

I've brought some of Rosanna
and Signe's tomatoes back home.

But if I want to grow these
new varieties next year,

I need to extract the seeds first.

What Rosanna's tip was
was to basically cut them open,

take the seeds out.
Phwoar! Look at that.

Wow.

How beautiful is that? Doesn't
take much to get them out, look.

This big one,
this is the Brandywine.

This is my favourite.

Look at that.
This is just juicy, great flavour.

Sweet, as well.

I just think of just slicing this -
large, big round slices

on a beautiful platter.

Heaven. Absolutely heaven.

There we have it. Leave the seeds in
the water for two or three days.

Let them have a little
fermentation, take them out,

dry them out.
And as soon as they're dry,

make sure they're labelled properly

so we know what we're
planting next spring.

At this time of year,
there's always jobs to do.

And with sustainability
on my mind, I don't want to waste

any of my bumper rhubarb crop.

So what I'm doing at the minute,
I've already harvested this

probably about twice already, and
I've got more than I need now,

so I'm just thinning it out.

Get the leaves -
once we've cut them off -

separate them, and then put
them back onto the soil

to mulch back in.

So it's this constant recycle,
putting the leaves back in

to break down, feeding the soil,
which feeds the rhubarb,

which keeps them growing.

A year ago, this bit here, that used
to bug me because I always

like to see the soil
beautifully turned over.

But now it's looking a bit rustic
and a bit rough and a bit wrinkled.

I'm getting used to it,
slowly, slowly.

And the better I care for my crop,
the more it gives me.

Been here for quite a while,
but a year of real change.

You start to look at the, sort of,

the landscape a little
bit differently.

And waste has always been
a big thing of mine.

And so, how much do you grow?
What are you growing it for?

Are you going to get
more than you need?

I think preservation is the most
important and the variety of things

that I can do with rhubarb.

When you think of rhubarb,
I just used to think, "Crumble."

Well, I mean, look at the weather.
Who wants a crumble right now?

It's pretty...pretty hot.

But wouldn't a lovely
cold glass of rhubarb cordial

be absolutely delicious?

Maybe just a little drop
of gin in there. A sneaky gin.

BEE BUZZES

And on a glorious day like today,
there's no time like the present.

So with Esme me here
to keep me in check...

It's like having a head chef
just standing on your shoulders,

watching what you're doing.

CHUCKLES

..I'm going to make
a simple cordial.

First up, add sugar and water
into the pan.

It may look like a lot of sugar, but
rhubarb is very tart, very acidic,

so a lot of sugar does help.
And it's a cordial,

so you are going to have a huge
amount of sweetness in the cordial.

But once that's diluted
in the drink, perfect.

Bring the solution to the boil
until the sugar dissolves.

In with the rhubarb.

What I like about the kitchen garden
is, even though when you've got

a glut of stuff, it gives you the
opportunity to try new things,

try things you've not done before.

But you've got to keep thinking
of what we're going to do next,

how we're going to preserve
all the extra stuff that we've got

in the kitchen garden.

And a squeeze of lemon.

Ginger is a really great
complement for rhubarb.

It's got a little bit
of heat behind it.

When you cut a slice of rhubarb
and you cut a piece of ginger,

the similarities are quite uncanny.

And what I love about cooking
rhubarb, especially when it's got

the skin on, is all that lovely
colour comes out.

So the cordial should have a little
pink tinge of the rhubarb.

What you're looking for is just
making sure that you can just...

Just waiting for the rhubarb
to cook down.

What I've got here is a bowl,

sieve, some muslin cloth.

What we've got now is a really good,
concentrated flavour.

Yeah, so it's all cooked through.

It's all nice and soft.

Don't worry if you think,
"Oh, that's a bit too sweet,"

or, "It's a bit too tart."
It will always be let down

with something else
because it is a cordial.

Look at that. Like magic...

..there's your beautiful
pink cordial.

How good does that look?

And if you leave that overnight,
you come back in the morning

and what you'll have is a
beautiful rhubarb puree

that you can use for something else.

Use in the bottom of a sponge
cake, steamed sponge pudding.

You can use it in your crumble.

You can spread it on your toast
if you wanted to.

But I'm just going to
put that to one side.

What I want to show you is this.

It's a beautiful pink cordial.

It's got everything you need
to be let down in a drink.

So I'm just going to pour that
into this bottle.

There we go. Look at that. Perfect.

And that's pretty much it.

Rhubarb cordial with a little touch
of ginger in the background.

Just put that into the fridge.

Tomorrow, I'll be serving that
over ice and lemon.

Delicious.

BEE BUZZES

Last year, I bought
two Longhorn cattle

and settled them with my neighbour,
Stuart's, herd.

Are you ready?

A little bit nervous, actually!
So am I.

I wouldn't stand there.

Whoa. Oh.

I hope they stop.

Where are they going? Oh, they've
gone through the electric fence.

This is not what's meant to happen.

I hope they closed the gate
at the other end.

I hope you closed the gate
at the other end.

I wasn't the last one
through the gate!

I thought you were a farmer now!

They've been thriving ever since

and providing us with
plenty of new jobs.

Stuart! What are you doing?

Something a little different today.

I spend a lot of effort trying
to keep everything healthy. Right?

But at the same time, I don't want
to be just giving everything

medicine all the time
if it doesn't need it.

It's quite important that we keep
an eye on what's going on

because in the digestive system are
some really nasty microscopic worms,

I guess you'd call them.
You're looking at cow dung.

You know if a farmer gets some
latex gloves out,

that's a sign it's a mucky job. OK.

I'm trying to breed an animal
that can resist these parasites

naturally, rather than giving
them medicine. Naturally? Really?

So the idea of what you're doing
is that you're in front of the curve

before the problem happens. Exactly.
So what do we have to do?

You've got weighing scales. Yeah.

If you see my wife,
don't mention the kitchen scales.

MARCUS LAUGHS

You might want a couple of these.

Nice, fresh samples.
If it's still warm, even better.

Now what?

Off you go. What?

Go and collect some dung. With what?

Literally, pick it up? Yeah.

FLIES BUZZ

Seriously? Get stuck in.

Not on the bonnet! Oh.

We're going to mix it all up,
make a nice solution.

We'll use my mum's tea strainer.

You don't want to get that mixed up
in the house, do you?

And then we've got
these very special slides.

If there are any eggs -
parasite eggs - in there,

they will float to the top of this
liquid and we'll be able to see them

under the microscope.

Just to the right of the green line,
there's like an oval.

And that's an egg.

The eggs that are here,
they will hatch

and they will crawl up and down
the blades of grass.

And then another animal
will then come along and eat them.

And then, of course, that completes
the reproductive cycle.

But that's a hard thing to stop.
Exactly.

So that's one of the reasons, if you
remember, we move the animals

very regularly in small areas.

If there's no animals in that block,
then they can't ingest them

so we're breaking
the parasite cycle.

Science is in everything, isn't it?
It is. There's a lot to it.

It's not just animals
out here grazing.

Adding livestock to the farm
has become a huge passion of mine.

And whilst most of the animals
have flourished,

sadly, I've had one big failure

and that's been with predators
around the pond.

The ducks have been probably
the ones that have been,

had a harder time than most.

We had seven or eight chicks and
it was beautiful to see on the pond.

But one by one they got picked off,
and we lost them.

With only two ducks now surviving,
I've decided to add another pair.

I'm determined to make this work,
get a few more chicks next spring.

I want the duck family to grow.

Come on, let's get amongst it.
Who's first?

HIGH-PITCHED QUACK

There we go.

They're just finding each other out
a little bit,

which is really quite cool.

I really don't want
to lose these guys.

There's still predators here,
and I need to make sure

that this time I get it right.

I need a little bit more help,
I think.

I'm calling in a favour from a man
in the know - local breeder, Tom.

That's my attempt at a scarecrow.

We might need to look at
something else, eh?

You know, what are the predators?

What are the things that
have been making my life

a little bit difficult? Foxes would
be your main one, really.

With the ducklings, you probably
lost those to aerial predators

like the crows, magpies,
maybe buzzards.

I'm looking for sustainable
and eco-friendly ways

of deterring these predators.

What are we going to do with that?

We're going to put some of that
around the eaves of your duck house

to stop the crows dropping in.
I mean, the ducks can still

obviously get in underneath it,
carry on doing what they're doing,

but it should stop the crows
being able to land on it, go in

and get the eggs and what have you.

Give them more of a chance
to keep breeding.

But there's still those foxes
to think about.

You've had me carrying this
spray thing across. Yeah.

So what's the plan? It's a chilli
concoction, like a chilli spray.

Peppers, chillies, garlic,
all of that sort of stuff.

They don't like the smell of it.
What else can I use?

Erm... Well, you can have a
wee round your pond.

Erm... I...?

I can't wee all around all of that!

Just every morning, come down,
have a go.

Do you know what? I think I'll stick
to this. Yeah, fair enough.

What is it? Give it a pump?
Yeah, give it a pump.

And then I reckon we just
have a wander round, spraying.

See how you get on.

If this works, I need to grow
a few more chillies. Yeah, I reckon.

Plenty around the scarecrow.
That's it.

MARCUS CHUCKLES

There we go.

It has got a bit of a kick to it.

I don't know if you've just
breathed some of that in.

MARCUS COUGHS

I'm hoping this natural spray
will keep away the foxes.

But we've also got to
birdproof the duck house.

MARCUS LAUGHS

Need to swing it round.

And with two pairs of hands,

it'll be easy work getting the
protective wire into place.

There we go. Is that what you mean?
Yeah.

Making sure the ducks can get in
and then any predators

that are landing on there,
they can't then go in.

So if they can still get in, then
you might need to pull that wire

down a bit. Obviously,
if the ducks can't get in,

you can go up a bit, find a happy
medium for it to work. Brilliant.

It's definitely changed
the look of it.

It's not, it's not...
It's not pretty any more.

It's not Grand Designs, is it?

THEY LAUGH

That's farming! That is, yeah.

Tom's got one more trick
up his sleeve,

and he's promised me
a bit of a surprise.

You've got a smile on your face

so there's something interesting
in there.

There is something in the van, yeah.

Well, they're not ducks.
Geese, yeah.

Some guard geese for you.

The ganders are obviously quite big,
that's the male. They're massive.

Yeah. You want to see them
when they're stood up.

But, yeah, that should keep any
foxes away, hopefully.

What do I need to do for them?

Absolutely nothing other than you're
already doing for your ducks.

Really? Yeah. There's a technique
to holding them.

So I've got it backwards. Why?

Well, because they do bite and the
sharp end's away from your face!

TOM LAUGHS

When you hold it, right
under your arm, like that,

arms and elbows around their wings.

And if you can see how I'm holding
the feet, just apart like that.

Hold on, hold on.

Got the legs? Got it.

Lovely. Got it. All right.

This is the big fella coming
out now.

What? Bigger than this one?
Yeah. That's the goose.

This is the gander.

Right, shall we take them down?

They certainly mean business, don't
they? They've got a look about them.

How do we let them go?
So I've let go of the legs,

and I hold the wings,
and then let it go...

Oh, let it go that way.

GOOSE SCREECHES

So you've got a new
alarm clock, Marcus.

Please, please tell me it doesn't do
that at five o'clock in the morning.

No! Never!

That's a lot of noise. At the
moment, it's calling its mate,

letting everyone know it's here
and he's the boss.

So, hopefully, if you've got any
foxes or any predators about,

they'll know that's there
and he's making his presence known.

Well, I'll say! I'd better
let this one go, then.

Hopefully she'll play the game.

Yeah. That's what we were hoping
the other one was going to do.

I'm better at this than you.
It definitely looks that way!

I think that's just beginner's luck.
Trust me.

What have I let myself in for?

I'm actually sort of slightly taken
aback by what Tom's just given me,

to take care of the ducks.

So I think it's going to take me
a while to get used to it.

They look amazing.

We've got the wiring up, we've got
the pepper spray around the outside,

and now I've got guard geese.

There's not a lot more I can do
apart from sit out here 24 hours

a day and sleep here,
which I'm not going to do.

I'm really, really chuffed.

We've got two new additions
to the farm,

but they were completely unexpected.

Happy days.

Back in the kitchen garden,

I'm going to use some of those
heritage tomatoes I was given

to make a gazpacho soup.

And with my youngest, Jessie,
collecting edible flowers,

we'll have an al fresco lunch
for two.

So just a lovely tomato
and pepper cold soup,

which I'm going to burn them
on the fire

so I get a lovely sort of
charring flavour running through.

And what we need to do
is get these ingredients -

peppers, the onions - on the grill.
Peppers as they are.

Just put them straight
into the fire, into the coal.

Some red onions.
Leave the skins on.

Just cut them straight in half.

Just going to put those
straight into the fire too.

So you want all that
lovely charred flavour

when they cook through
inside their skins.

We've got our peppers on.
We've got our onions on.

I'm just going to put one of these
lovely tomatoes on there, too.

What this does, this brings out
a lovely grilled effect,

a lovely grilled flavour that goes
into the soup that I actually think

is quite delicious.

The nice thing about putting
the tomatoes onto the coal,

it just helps the tomato
just blister up a little bit too.

We can peel any dark bits
that can be slightly bitter.

But the most important thing of what
we are doing is we're actually

cooking the ingredients, sort or
softening the vegetables as well,

at the same time.
And that's what we want.

So just keep moving the tomatoes.
Don't worry if they get

a little bit black,
it doesn't matter.

It's also a great way
of peeling tomatoes.

You can see the skin
just gently comes off. So simple.

As your onions start to get nice and
charred, what we're going to do is

just going to pick those up,
put them on here,

and they can just gently cook away.

So I'm using the red onions
because they're a little bit softer

and slightly sweeter and not
as harsh as your normal onion,

as your white onion.

So onions on there.

Check your tomatoes, lift those off.

You can see what you get is

that lovely peppers just
start to blister.

Then we'll just gently
peel those off.

Start all the sort of process
of all the flavours coming together.

I'm just going to put some basil
on top of that, too.

So, remember, everything on
this tray

is all going to go into our soup

apart from the skin itself.

I'm making a simple salad,
starting with elephant garlic.

It's the mildest of the garlics
and I think that what it does,

it just brings a little bit
of sweetness into a garnish.

So you can eat it raw.
It's absolutely fantastic.

Cherry tomatoes, we're just
going to quarter those up.

You don't want them in the fridge.

That's when you start
to lose the flavour.

A little blast of sherry vinegar.

Add some cucumber, celery,

and a generous glug of olive oil.

So this is going to sit in the
bottom of the bowl.

It's just going to garnish it on top
so every mouthful

you've got this lovely fresh salad
with your soup.

As the salad marinades,

I'll prepare the ingredients
from the coals.

And now I'm going to bring...

..our delicious

tomatoes and onions over.

So we just remove any dark skins

or any little bits of coal
that you don't want,

and the skin
that's a little bit burnt.

Just take those off.

This can be a little bit fiddly,
but it's absolutely worth it.

You've got a little bit of charring
on the...on where it's been cut,

and then you just lift off
the outside layer.

So when that goes into the blender,
it will just break down nicely.

And here's our lovely peppers.
Beautiful and soft.

Just cut them in half,
remove the seeds,

and then just gently
just cut them up.

Throw them into your mix.

All these ingredients
are warm right now,

but this is going to be a cold soup.

So anything that's going to be
served cold, especially a soup,

does need that little bit
of extra seasoning for the flavour

to carry through. So don't be too
shy of your salt and your pepper.

Bit of basil. Just a little bit
of vegetable stock.

I've got some sourdough bread,
which I'm removing the crust from

to help thicken it up.

That's sitting there marinading.

My salad is doing its job
over there.

I'm just going to cut a couple
of slices of bread.

I'm just going to serve these
on the side.

So whilst the bread toasts,
it's time to blend my soup.

I'm adding a splash of olive oil
just to help emulsify the soup

and bring it all together.

And that's the consistency
that you're looking for.

There's no need to pass that.

It's delicious. Right...

Better go and find Jessie.

Ah, there you are. Hi.

Lunch! Fancy a bit soup? Yeah.
Come on.

And what have you got there?
Edible flowers.

I might use some of those.

Oh, that's nice. These ones?
Yeah. Nasturtium. Let's do that.

The excitement at the Knepp
of the varieties of tomatoes

that they're growing,
and the love and the energy

and the inspiration
that they give out,

it was fantastic.
It was something really nice to see.

That's actually really good! I know
what you like. I know what you like.

It's not just what I'm going
to do with the tomatoes,

it's the whole growing process
which I've got to look forward to.

And now I've got the
seeds of tomatoes,

they're a little bit different,
I can now start thinking about

what I'm going to do with them
when they've grown,

because they're
absolutely sensational.