All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E03.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

A year has passed on my
East Sussex smallholding.

I've been spending more time out of
the kitchen and in the garden.

This helps me get away
from absolutely everything.

You can't not love this.

Come on.

I've had plenty of successes...

I've got a glut of ingredients
that I'm going to be sharing.

And that's a lovely thing.

..and a few failures, too.

I've just been to feed the pigs
and they're not there.

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

Come on, Stu. Get your back into it.

I thought farming was
just about animals.

No-one talks about fencing.

..I'm going to bring in
more produce...

I'm going to see if I can get
some wheat in the ground.

..more livestock...

I've never seen so much poo
in a field in my life.

HE LAUGHS

..and use every inch of my land
and garden...

Here we go. First Wareing potato.

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

..all year round...

You know autumn's just around
the corner

when the sun goes behind the clouds.

..because I know a better
understanding of ingredients...

So much more to learn,
so many new dishes to cook.

..will lead to some incredible
new recipes...

This place is on fire.

It just gets better and better
and better.

..as I discover the secrets
of a kitchen garden.

It's a beautiful morning
on the farm,

and breakfast time for the animals.

I often go round and think,
"Which are my favourites?

"Is it the pigs, is it the chickens?

"Is it the ducks, the sheep,
the cows?"

They're all different.

They all bring something different
to the farm.

Come on. Come on.

Come on.

Out of all the animals,

sometimes I look at the chickens
out here in the pouring rain

and you think, "Wow."

Sometimes it can be
pretty miserable.

But they've been in here.

They've been all right, and
they've been laying eggs nonstop.

What you don't realise
is there's very little work goes

into looking after chickens. They
pretty much take care of themselves.

Make sure they've got water,
a bit of grain, let them out.

And look at this. You get loads
and loads of quality eggs.

All the different things
that we're doing on the farm,

all the new things
that we're planting and trying

to stretch our imagination -

more vegetables, more salads,
more variety, more everything -

but there's nothing,
nothing more humble than an egg.

I love getting stuck
into the kitchen garden.

And there's this one crop
I'm particularly enjoying growing.

What I've got here is something
that I've never grown before,

which is potatoes.

Quite embarrassed to say that
I'm the son of a potato merchant

and I forgot to plant some spuds.

Well, I've done it now,
and I'm excited.

It's now just a waiting game
for my two varieties,

Pentland Javelin and Pink Fir Apple,
to mature.

Got some channels running through.

They've been fed some good compost.

But I have to say, though,
when I think of potatoes,

I've got some fabulous memories
of potatoes,

really, really cool memories -

memories of working with my dad
and my uncle,

all the workmen at the warehouse,
my nan.

My father's business
was all about these things,

spuds, and lots of them.

One of my first jobs as
an 11-year-old,

I used to have to go
to the warehouse

to pre-pack potatoes.

I used to go on a Wednesday,
a Thursday and a Friday,

straight after school, from the age
of 11, all the way to 16.

No matter what the weather,
I was there.

First job was with spuds,
and here I am now,

some years later,
growing my first crop.

I can't wait for these
to come out of the ground.

If these are successful,
I plan to expand my potato crop

and even experiment with
some different varieties,

but I'll need some expert advice.

And that means taking a trip
down memory lane.

I've come to a 2,000 acre farm
at Tenterden in Kent

to meet up with Steve.

So, Steve, how long
have you been a potato man?

I've been a potato man,

Potato King Steve, for 15,
17 years now.

Steve grows varieties with
unusual names like Mayan Twilight

and Pink Fir Apple,
which is the one I have.

And like my dad, he's lived
and breathed spuds all his life.

Agricultural college,
when I left school.

So, farming's in my blood. Yes.

Potatoes are as well. Yeah.

My grandfather used to grow enough
in his garden

to keep three families going.

Desiree, probably Maris Piper
as well.

I recognise those names. Yeah. Yeah.
Good old-fashioned ones.

Steve's in the middle
of the harvest.

But, to be honest, it doesn't look
much like a field of potatoes.

So what has happened out here?
Why is it not green?

Potatoes are planted in the spring,
as you know, and then they're grown.

They just grow throughout
the late spring and summer.

And then when we decide that
the potatoes are ready,

they're big enough,

the green tops are cut off
and then the plants are desiccated

and then they stay in the ground
then for two or three weeks

until the skin of each potato
is set.

So the cutting of the top
is to create a firmer skin?

Yes. It's all part of
creating the firmer skin.

I never knew that. Yep.

What are you actually doing on here?

Why does someone need to be
on the back?

Take big lumps of soil off
and any hay that comes up.

You don't want it to go up the top,
it's just a waste.

This is definitely potato growing
on an industrial scale.

Even so, it still needs
a human touch

and Steve's colleague Nikki
is on hand to help.

I'd say it's surprisingly
quite quick when you get up here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, you don't realise.

Your eyes can't keep up.
Look at you!

Oh, good luck with that!

Wow.

That's got a bit wet here.

What's that about, then?

It's just... It gets a bit wetter
up this side of the field.

I think that's like a completely
different level of speed.

STEVE CHUCKLES

I could not keep up with that.
I feel dizzy.

Welcome to the quiet countryside!
MARCUS SNORTS

It's an impressive operation

but not really suited
to my smallholding.

What does interest me, though, are
the types of potatoes farmed here.

So how many varieties are you
growing at any given time?

It varies year on year.
This year, we've grown 33 varieties.

33? 33. Wow.

Normally... I didn't think
you'd have that many. Yeah, yeah.

The... I mean, there are
over 5,000... Wow! ..potatoes known.

99% of the potatoes
grown in this country

are limited to about ten varieties.

When I was growing up,

it was kept incredibly
straightforward and simple.

There were the Maris Pipers,
the Desiree.

The King Edward... Yeah.

..was the potato that my dad ate
and loved the most.

I, too, love a King Edward,

but Steve wants to show me
some of his more unusual varieties,

like the Blue Anneliese.

Oh, get away!

Oh, stop it!
That's not a potato!

That looks more like a beetroot.

It's not been injected with
anything. It's all natural.

Why? Why?!

It's not in our DNA here
in Great Britain.

It's... It's a shock to the system.
It is a little bit.

I grant you, it is a shock
to the system. It is.

So why? Why do you grow them?

People like them. People eat them.

These are full of health benefits.

More than the normal? Absolutely.
I didn't know that. Yeah.

But when I think of a potato
of this colour,

it doesn't sit on the dishes of
what we eat in this country,

and that's where
we have the problem.

I want to give that
back to you until...

We'll try some later.
I've got to try some.

I've got one roast potato
I'll show you... OK.

..that you should definitely try.
Got it.

So what have we got? We've got
Shetland Blacks here, Marcus.

Oh, wow.

That's very different, isn't it?
Very.

That's quite unique, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah.

It's great when it's peeled
and cut up to be roasted.

That is quite unusual.

So these are good for roasting?
Brilliant for roasting.

Floury.

Proper old-fashioned
earthy flavour. Yeah.

Really good. That's definitely
worth a try. Yeah, yeah.

Which do you fancy first?

So, the Shetland Black is the one
we just looked at? It is.

The colour has changed, hasn't it?
Yeah.

Very floury texture.
They are, aren't they? Yeah.

Now for the Blue Anneliese.

Right. Here goes.

I was going to say I'm doing this
for my dad, but he wouldn't...

He wouldn't advise me to.
He wouldn't let you do it!

He wouldn't let me do it, no.
"Stupid boy!" "Idiot."

It's not offensive on the palate
at all.

It's a potato. Yeah.
It's a potato, yeah. It's a potato.

But it's a potato you've got
to have your eyes closed

as you're eating it.

If you insist.

Have it in the dark corner
of the restaurant. Wow!

These are almost like rare breed
animals, rare breed produce. Yeah.

You don't have fields and fields of
these. You've just got rows. Yeah.

Because they're still...

You're still introducing them
to the community.

Are you a little more convinced
than when you first arrived? I am.

The health aspects of them
is the bit that intrigues me.

My job here is done.

Thank you.

I don't think purple potato will be
something that I'll be growing,

but I have learnt about
the health of them,

the nutrients, the goodness
that they can bring to your diet.

But it has given me the inspiration

to maybe try some other varieties
of potatoes back at the farm.

Inspired by potato man Steve,
I'm already thinking about

how I can develop
my own crop further.

This is my first time
growing potatoes,

and it's a small patch
and it's more of a

"I'm having a go at a little bit
of everything" at the moment.

And I've got a funny feeling that,
you know, come next year,

I think I'll be planting more
potatoes if these are successful,

especially little new potatoes
which I do like.

But before that,
I want a good first crop,

and that means following
Steve's advice.

His message was
when they start to flower -

which is what they have done
in the last few days -

chop them back, take the tops off
and let the plant die back.

But I think the process is that
by lopping the top off,

it just puts more energy back
into the root, which is the potato,

and then just give them
a final burst of hopefully growth.

And that just hardens the potato

so the skin on the outside,
it just hardens it up

so that it can be... Well,
basically, it'll last longer.

And then, whenever I'm ready,
I think I can just come out

and just take them as I need them.

But what if all my efforts
have been for nothing?

I have to say, I'm a little bit
curious as to what's under here.

I've got to have a look at one.

A sneaky peek,
see what's underground,

and then just gently put it back and
hopefully the plant will carry on.

Here we go.

I'm going to be ultra gentle.

I'm actually hoping
there's potatoes in here.

That'd be the worst thing -

that, actually, there's nothing
under this.

Ah! There we go.

We have a potato!

That looks pretty good to me.

There we go.
The first Wareing potato.

I feel like a bit of a kid
in a candy store right now.

I just hope they're as good
as they look.

Come on, let's go.

Get a little taste of
these spuds, Esme.

Come on. I know you like them.
I know you like cooked potatoes.

They just need a quick wash.

What's quite interesting,
and I wouldn't doubt Steve ever,

is he said that
when you lift the potatoes

or you take them out of the ground
too soon,

before the plant's
had a chance to die back,

he talked about
hardening of the skin.

And as I'm washing off the soil,
it literally...

It's just taking the skin off, look.
That's what Steve means.

So cutting the tops
off the potatoes,

allowing the plant to die back,

hardens the skin so that
that won't happen.

But I'm still going to taste them.

Moment of truth.

Lovely and creamy...and soft.

A little new potato.

It's not about the colour, it's
not about the variety of potato -

I think it's more a case of the fact
that I've just grown it myself

and that just makes it taste
just that little bit better.

And that's got me thinking about
what I can do with my crop.

I do like potatoes and fish

and I just think a bit of mackerel
and new potatoes,

that lovely oily fish -
delicious.

Now, one thing I love about
where I live

is its proximity to
the beautiful Kentish coastline.

Where better than my local harbour
to get out on to the water

to fish for mackerel?

That tide's coming in quick.

I've come to Chapman's depot in Rye.

The fish caught here by
local independent fishermen

are sold to restaurants...

..as well as supplying a shop
for the local community to enjoy.

I'm used to incredible seafood
turning up at my restaurant,

but now I want to see it
coming out of the water for myself.

I'm actually looking forward to
this. This is... I've not done this.

Fish has played such a big role
in my life. Never gone fishing.

Why not bring some fish
back to the farm?

I've got loads of fish ideas.
I've filleted enough

and I've certainly cooked enough
over the years.

This is just something
a bit different.

Ben, are you there? Yo! Is he there?

There he is! Here I am. Can I
come aboard? Of course you can.

As Ben, the skipper,
takes us out to sea,

I catch up with
Chapman's owner, Dave.

What's your bread and butter
from this boat?

We have a good amount of Dover soles
in the water here,

and off the Kent coast,
we have plenty of plaice.

It's a good skate fishery, sea bass.
Particularly good for wild sea bass.

And then the boats
that can go further afield,

we see plenty of gurnard,
whiting, brill, turbot.

A good mix, then?
It's a good mixed fishery, yeah.

Is the retail something new?

Yes, it just felt necessary.

It brings people
into a working harbour.

And the margin,
the improved margins -

certainly on the lower-value fish,

the gurnards, the whitings,
the dabs. Yeah.

But to have that on your doorstep,
I mean, to be able to come and buy

what I've just seen out of
your shop, that's a real eye-opener,

because I didn't think
that world existed any more.

Now is the moment
I've been waiting for.

The guys are going to school me
in the art of mackerel fishing.

Hold your thumb on that
so when it releases,

you don't get that going too fast.
How far down are you going there?

Oh, we'll hit the bottom,

and just start giving her
a few little jerks.

You've got family? I have, yes.

Do you think
they'll all come into this?

Are you going to encourage them?
We've tried not to,

but one of my sons,
he's got a passion for it,

but it's affording him
at the minute.

So he just comes in when I need him.
Your son? Yeah, my son.

He should be doing it for free
anyway. Well, this is it.

I practically worked for my dad
for free. Yeah.

I still do!

And whilst I'm waiting for a bite,

Ben's making mackerel fishing
look easy.

Oh, you've got a couple. A couple
there. A couple of little 'uns.

Lovely!

We tend to buy quite a lot of fish
like mackerel and salmon

out of tins. That's correct, yeah.

We seem to think that
that's the only way to do it.

But we need to keep
the carbon print down.

We need to start shopping locally,
fishing sustainably local

and selling it locally.

I think what you've just said there
is very interesting.

And that's where I think
I come into the equation,

is that I want to take away
the stigma of difficulty

of taking a mackerel
and cooking with it.

But before I can do that,
I need to catch a few.

He's only gone and got one!

Not so good at landing it.
The first one! There you go.

I'm quite proud of that.

It's been great, I have to say,
but from a chef's point of view,

I'd actually quite like
to taste a little bit

out here on the water.

This takes me back to my early days
as a chef, filleting loads of fish.

Straight down through there.

But it's a first for me
doing it on board a boat

and with my own catch.

Doesn't get much fresher than that.
There we go.

That looks amazing.

Take out that pin bone there.

Scraps back in the water?
Definitely, yep.

Just give that a little wash.

All this beautiful fish needs
is a sprinkling of salt

and we'll have ourselves
some Kentish mackerel sashimi.

Right, guys, two pieces there,
tuck in. Lovely. Tuck in, tuck in.

Oh. Beautiful, isn't it? Oh.

Better catch some more.

It's funny, isn't it?
It just puts a smile on your face.

I mean, you can't beat
of-the-moment fresh produce.

Not at all. Absolutely delicious.

Who needs a sushi restaurant
when you get fish as good as this?

And it's a lot cheaper.

I'm going to leave that with you.

Can you? Brilliant. Yeah. You stick
that in there... Thank you.

..and then keep that for
a rainy night.

Have that for the first sea bass
that comes up.

The more I meet the community of
farming and fishermen and growers,

the more I want to be part of it.

Now I have found a place where, if
I want some fresh fish of the day,

then I know where to come

and I'm going to be coming here on a
regular basis. It's been brilliant.

And I get the opportunity
to bring home my own mackerel

and I'm going to cook
something delicious with it.

Back at the smallholding,

I'm answering a call from Stuart,
my tenant farmer,

who needs help with the cows.

These fields should be
full of lush green grass,

but a spate of hot weather
has left the ground bone-dry.

That means the cows,
including my two longhorns,

are badly short of food.

You've packed this a bit tight,
Stuart! I can't get it out.

Fred did that.

Come on. They're hungry.

This hay contains extra nutrients

the cows would normally get
from the green grass.

We shouldn't be doing this
in the middle of August.

It's just so incredibly dry

that I don't like the thought
of them just standing out here

eating dead grass.

Desperate times call
for desperate measures.

How many bales
are you giving them a day?

So I'm just giving them
five of these.

There's plenty of grass
in this field -

I mean, they've got all this space -
but the nutrition...

Because it's so horribly dry,
the nutrition is just dreadful.

So is this effectively your winter
feed that you're giving them now?

This is. Yeah, yeah. That's
not good. This is quite worrying.

It's funny. This is the closest
I've been to them for a long time.

Yeah... Because we're bringing food
to them, aren't we?

We're slowly taming them.

And of course,
this was green grass last year.

I remember you used to move
the cows around

and the grass was growing
as they were moving along.

You're not doing that now.

As you say, we used to move
the cattle twice a week,

sometimes even more.

And we'd rest the grass
for something like 60 days.

And after that period,
you'd come back, it'd be waist-high.

Now, this was grazed 60 days ago,

and it looks like we've moved
the cattle out yesterday.

Just nothing has grown. Yeah.
How is that changing farming, then?

What are you doing differently now
to be able to,

well, A, I mean, feed them?
Yeah, exactly.

We'd never feed hay to cattle
in August.

Here we are in August.
It should be lush and green.

Is this a first for you?

This is the first time I've ever
fed animals in August from hay,

yeah, exactly.

It's hard to see how things
are going to pan out in the winter.

If we're feeding this now and
we get a really cold, wet winter,

we're going to be buying feed in,

which is probably a cost
that we can't really afford.

If things carry on as dry as this,
we'll be breaking into the silage.

Really?
And that will be very desperate.

So, five bales a day...

Five bales a day just...
..until we get green grass back.

Just to tickle them up, you know,
just to keep them happy, basically,

and do a rain dance
and cross your fingers. Yeah.

Make sure the two with the horns
are not getting skinny.

Make sure they're getting well fed,
Stu, please.

They eat more than the others,
I'm sure.

Farmers like Stuart face challenges
like this on a daily basis

and work hard to overcome them...

..so I'm going to make him a bite
to eat, to show my appreciation.

Oily fish, mackerel, delicious,
cooked on the bone.

Even better
when it's cooked over fire.

But I'm going to come
to that afterwards

cos this is not going to take long.

So I'm just going to put that
to one side,

put them over there, out of the way.

I've got some beautiful
little new potatoes

and I'm just going to
cook those in tinfoil

and put those on the fire too.
So it's a really quick dish to do.

First, get a couple of sheets
of tinfoil.

We need a slightly larger
surface area

so that we can get a lovely
even cooking,

get them all cooked through.

Make sure all the potatoes
are an even size.

So, just cut the larger ones
in half.

Meeting Steve
at the potato farm was...

..it was incredible.
Just the whole story

and his passion for potatoes
was brilliant.

And it just reminded me,
he reminded me

of all of the characters
and people that I met growing up

and going to the potato farms,

picking up the potatoes
and the deliveries.

And he reminded me of my dad.

That should do. That's enough.

Now for some seasoning, I'm adding
pepper, salt, thyme and rosemary.

What you're doing is just adding
a little bit more flavour.

A glug of oil.

And I'm just going to fold it up.

That's it.

It's really important that
we just keep this nice and flat

so the potatoes have an even cooking
on the bottom and the top.

It's almost like a little parcel.
There we go.

Straight onto the fire.

While they're cooking,

I can prepare the mackerel.

I've got some lemon.

I've got some dill.
I've got some fennel.

Salt and pepper.

A bit of olive oil.

Make sure it's beautifully covered.

Can you see what I've done there?
I've top and tailed them.

So I've put the two together

and I've put the bellies together so
they can hold the herbs in, like so.

Fish - top and tail.

And then we're just going to
drop those onto the grill.

These are going to cook for about
two or three minutes on either side

and they're going to be done.

And the most important thing
about cooking fish, even on a grill,

is you want to get
the charring on the outside.

It smells incredible.

You flip them over,
cos we want to see

what they're doing
on the other side.

That's what you're looking for -
that lovely bar charring.

You can overcook fish.
It's easy to do.

But this is an oily fish,
so don't be afraid.

If you're not sure,
cook it a little bit more.

My potatoes should be ready now.

Oh, look at that.

Perfect.

They're good to go.
A little bit of olive oil.

A bit of salt.

I've also just got
a few of the capers here.

Because I'm going to be
serving these with mackerel,

I think just the caper will just
break the richness of the potato.

And of course, you've also got
the rich flavour of the mackerel

and oily flavour, and I think
the capers with the potatoes

will just give it
that little bit of acidity.

Almost like a squeeze of lemon
on a piece of fish, it just works.

And finally, some fresh dill.

How good does that look?

Smells incredible.

I hope Stuart's hungry.

Hello, Stuart.
Hello. A bit of lunch. Lovely.

So we've got some beautiful grilled
mackerel from the south coast.

We've got some garden herbs,
lemon inside, on the grill.

And then we've got some beautiful
little new potatoes which, again,

we've got some thyme, rosemary,
lots of salt, pepper, olive oil,

and then just baked in the embers.

And in here, we've got some
beautiful pickled gooseberries

as well, so it goes a treat.
Oh, wow.

Tuck in. Off the bone.
Nice and easy. Quick lunch. Lovely.

What I love about this
is that sometimes we forget

just something so simple
as just some mackerel on the bone,

on the coal, with some potatoes -
so simple.

You know, it's a nice, easy lunch.

That gooseberry
goes really well with it.

They're delicious, aren't they?

That's really nice.

I thought it'd be me
using the knife and fork

and you using your hands,
but it's the other way round.

I know where my hands have been!

Good point, actually.

I honestly didn't think that
farming and growing and gardening

would dig up
so many incredible memories.

Discovering potato farming
was an extraordinary feeling

and I didn't expect
all those memories

of the time I spent
with my uncle and my dad,

picking up and
working with potatoes,

I didn't think farming
would bring all that back to me,

and it has done.

But the best of all is
the excitement of what's coming next

and the fabulous food
that I'm starting to cook.

And I'm absolutely loving it.