All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E06.1080p.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.

I mean, 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, Stuart.
Get your back into it! Ugh!

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 all my life.

THEY LAUGH

..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...

There's 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.

Life on the smallholding isn't
just about growing fruit and veg.

It's also about keeping
my own livestock...

Come on, pigs.

PIGS GRUNT

..with their feeding and watering
part of my daily routine.

But recently, my wife, Jane,
and I have noticed something

has been getting into our feed store
and helping itself.

Oh, what's happened here?

Ah.

Look, you've got holes here.

It's either mice, a massive rat -
which I hope we haven't...

Can't see rabbits getting in.
No, it's not rabbits.

What might be a good idea,

you've got a dash cam down
by the pond, haven't you?

Yeah, I have, yeah.
Shall we put it up here?

Yeah, why not? See what we can see.

Yeah. If we can find out how
they're getting in and out...

Come on, Es!
JANE CLICKS HER TONGUE

I started putting the camera here
when we had the ducks last time

and I wanted to get
the ducklings and things,

but what I found is foxes, herons.

It's brilliant and I love this.

I actually bought it for Marcus's
Christmas present a few years ago,

knowing he wouldn't use it,
so I could use it.

Let's see what's under this carpet.

The floor seems solid,

so I have a suspicion there
might be a weak spot in the roof.

Here we go. Got a camera.
What do you suggest? You need a tree.

And a bit higher. It's all right.
You don't need to help.

I'm sorry! There's a word for this.
JANE LAUGHS

It's called tree-hugging.

There we go.

It's going to take a picture
of me now, cos I'm moving? Yes.

There's nothing worse than having
a present you know nothing about.

The same old stuff.
Anything technical.

Exactly. Cup of tea?

Perfect. Job done.

Tea breaks on the farm
don't last for long, though,

as my list of jobs
never seems to shrink.

Today, I've also got to clear up
some recent storm debris.

We've got a lot of trees down
in the woods

and there's so much wood
out there.

And I'm realising I could use
this outdoor space

for something
that diversifies my cooking.

I'm thinking about
building a smoker.

I've smoked food all the time
in my professional job,

but it was always in a kitchen,
in a professional environment.

Now I want to do it outside.

I want to do it in an environment
that's rough and ready,

and I can get as smoky as I like.
It doesn't matter.

There'll be no fire alarm
going off out here.

Last year, I visited
a traditional smokehouse

that uses techniques
unaltered for generations.

Wow.

The smell is just so powerful.
Yeah, yeah.

Can I have a little taste?

The resulting flavours were sublime.

Wow. It is really good.

And I want some of that
here on the smallholding.

I've smoked a lot of stuff
in my career.

The first thing
that I ever smoked was trout,

and I think I'm going to go back
and do a little bit of that.

There's a place nearby that farms
trout to the same size as salmon,

which I'm quite curious,
cos I think of trout,

I think of
the little...the little fish.

So I'm going to go and see them,
see what they're all about,

see what their fish is like,
see what it tastes like,

and I'm going to bring some back
and then that'll be...

I think that's going to be
the first thing

I'm going to smoke in my smoker,

but I've got to build it first,
so that should be fun.

I can't wait to smoke some trout.

But, like so many of the ingredients
I've used over the years,

I don't know much
about how it's produced,

so I've come to a sustainable
trout farm in Hampshire

to discover what it takes to produce
this delicately-flavoured fish

from co-founder Arthur Voelcker.

I know a lot about the fish
when they're in the kitchen,

but I know there's a whole new story
that comes before that.

Tell me how it all works.

On our right here,
we've got the River Test.

This is one of the most famous
chalk streams in the world.

We're on chalk downlands.
That acts like a massive filter.

So your drop of rainwater filters
through, it picks up minerals,

and that is the lifeblood
of the chalk stream.

It's what we call gin clear.
I quite like that, gin clear?

Gin clear.
Mine has ice and lemon in mine.

I don't see any of that in there.
Yeah.

You can just see
all the wonderful weed, the gravel.

We harness that water,
we borrow it for about two hours.

This natural chalk stream
is the source of all the water

for Arthur's trout farm...

..as it branches off into a complex
layout of artificial waterways.

It's all gravity-fed,

so we don't need any pumps,
we don't need any electricity,

nothing to power that. Nothing.
So it's just flowing the whole time.

Where it all starts, with...

This vast site,
although industrial in appearance,

recreates the perfect conditions

that a lucky trout
would have in the wild.

Hungry little things, aren't they?
They're very hungry.

It's almost piranha-like.
There we are.

There we go.
Having a great time.

It's fantastic the way they just...
Just diving up there, eating it.

We call these little fish
fingerlings,

because they are literally the size
of your finger when they come in,

so about ten grams.

So there you can see
our beautiful fry there. Yeah.

That's them.

So how old are they?

So they're very young.
Probably a couple of months. OK.

And when they get to a slightly
larger size, about 150 grams,

we will vaccinate those fish,

so each one of these fish
is individually vaccinated.

That protects them
against a parasite

that actually causes issues
with their kidneys,

and the importance of that
is to reduce antibiotic use.

What's surprising
about this whole operation

is just how much science
goes into it.

Along with the vaccination,

oxygen levels in the water
are also monitored

to ensure the perfect environment...

So, as you can see,
they're constantly swimming.

..before the fish mature
at around the age of two.

These are fully grown.
These are ready to go.

And this is what
will end up on your plate.

Wow.

And is the biggest they can...?

They can just keep getting
a little bit bigger...

You can, I mean, you can get them
up to five, six kilos.

Can we get one out?

Here we are.

Just have a look at that.

That thickness of its back.
Wow.

The beauty of these larger trout
is you get a wonderful fillet.

You can cold-smoke it,
hot-smoke it, cure it, sashimi.

We'd better get him back.
Put him back? Yeah.

You can feel the power in the fish
just by doing that.

Yeah, and that's two years.

What you see there is two years
of being in a good, solid current.

So this is constantly going in.
Constant, yeah.

It's creating movement
that they swim against.

Where does that water go, then?

So all of the water flows out
into the settling channels,

and we're able to take out
the waste product from the fish,

so when it then returns
to the river,

it's in that same quality
as when it came into the farm.

That's really important,

because the welfare of the farming,
the welfare of the fish,

and, of course,
the natural stream itself.

That's right.
You can't treat a product badly

and expect it to taste good
at the other end. Yeah, 100%.

100% agree. They look great.

I suppose the last thing they want
to see right now is a chef.

Yeah, they don't want to see you.

I'm surprised they put up with you
for such a long time!

I should leave them alone.
Let's leave them be.

I now want to have a little flavour.

I want to taste this trout.

I want to take some of this back.

I'd like to taste it
in its raw state.

I'd like to smoke a little bit of it

and just see
what it really tastes like.

Back in East Sussex,

recent rainfall has left
the kitchen garden looking lush.

The perfect time to collect
some herbs for my trout.

Oh, right. Oh, perfect.

I've been joined by my friend

and fire-cooking expert
Chris Taylor,

who's come to offer me some guidance
in smoking the perfect fish.

Whoa. Personally, I mean,
my time of curing trout

was just very straightforward.

Salt cure, bit of lemon,
bit of orange, maybe,

and that was really it.

Yeah, we've got so many
beautiful herbs in the garden.

So we've got some tarragon,
we've got aniseed here,

we've got a bit of sage,

but we can just use
a big old mix of different herbs.

The key thing is to really
get that flavour into the trout.

So what you recommend
is chopping all this up,

put it in with the salt cure?

Yeah, I think really roughly,
we'll just get it in there.

OK, let's get plenty more, then.
There we are. Let's go.

Get some more.

I'll tell you what, this
lemon verbena will be pretty good.

The most important thing when
you're smoking anything, really,

is to cure the fish or the meat
or what it is you're doing.

And so what happens is you
put a sugar and salt solution,

you cure it
for a minimum of eight hours,

depending on the thickness
of your fish.

That draws out
all of the moisture,

all of the liquid, and it will
make the trout nice and firm,

and then that can go
into the smoker.

Here,
and what we're doing with Chris,

is I want to do something different.

I want to bring the garden into
the fish smell, the fish flavour,

the fish taste, and that's just
gathering as many herbs as I can.

Let's get that into the cure.

Let's see how that works,
see what flavour that imparts.

I've never done that before,

so I'm looking forward
to seeing how that works.

We've got some good smells here.
Smells amazing.

With the herbs
for the cure collected,

Chris gets to work
assembling the shed I've bought,

which he'll repurpose as a smoker...

..while I get on
with filleting the trout.

I have to say, it's the first time
I've ever done it in a shed before.

This is something new. Isn't it?

And it's about using something
that we just have in our garden.

It doesn't have to be a shed,
it could be a filing cabinet,

it could just be a cardboard box.

But it's just something
to encapsulate the smoke

and then really infuse
into the fish as it...

Did you just say filing cabinet?

Filing cabinet, yeah.
You can use a filing cabinet.

Anything that's a box, really,
cos there's no heat involved.

I've done it on
an old cardboard box a few times.

That's a great idea.

And the wood for smoking,
is it dry wood?

Has it been through...
been through a process?

So that's a really important
question, actually,

cos a lot of people
think that making wood moist

is a great way to make it smoke,

and it does make it smoulder,
but it's not a nice smoke.

It's very acrid
and can be quite poisonous. Mm-hm.

So the actual wood chips
we're going to use

to do the cold smoking,
they are as dry as can be.

We are going to use
this little thing here. Right.

And this is a cold smoke generator.

So, it's just a little maze

and we're going to fill it full
of really, really dry wood dust.

And then that's just
going to burn very slowly

in the process of about 12 hours.

That is it? Yeah.

So I was expecting a whole load
of wood and chips and...

Yeah. Just that small amount? Yeah.

It's a really nice way of doing it
on a small scale at home.

You can just use
really, really fine chips,

but they have to be incredibly dry.
That's really cool.

Yeah, it's a way of doing it
without having any heat,

cos remember, if we have
any heat inside here,

we're no longer smoking it,
we're cooking it. Yeah.

And that's hot smoking. Got it.

Right, what's your cure mix?
Equal quantity sugar to salt?

Exactly.

DRILL WHIRS

It's actually quite nice
not having to do it in the kitchen.

Do you know what
I love about this?

I can be as messy as I like
and it doesn't matter.

Get your hands in.

MARCUS LAUGHS

It always looks like too much.

Yeah. Like, every time you ever show
anyone that's never seen it before,

they're like, really?
Is that really necessary?

Well, it is, because actually
that's just going to draw out

all the moisture,
but you can use it again.

Yeah, absolutely. It's not something
we need to throw away. Yeah.

And as the moisture comes out,
it will start to dissolve the cure,

so you need to have enough
to make sure

that it can keep curing the fish
after a certain amount of time.

That's beautiful. Look at that.
This'll do the job.

Smells good, doesn't it?
Yeah. Perfect.

Straight in the fridge.
Eight hours? Lovely.

Get that flavour
right into the flesh.

Do you think, by the time eight hours
are up, that you'll have finished?

Hopefully.
We can only hope, can't we?

DUCKS QUACK

We still have the mystery to solve

of who, or what,
has been raiding the feed store.

JANE: Marcus?
Yeah?

Guess what I found.

What've you got?
I found a picture.

We've found the culprit?

Yeah. Come and have a look. OK,
one sec. I've got loads of pictures.

And with the help of
Jane's camera trap,

we could be about
to catch our thief.

Look at that.

Squirrel on the top.

Oh, yeah.

Got him.

So, somewhere on the roof,
there is a hole.

It's not obvious, is it?
Can you see anything?

Ah, here we go.
I think what we've got here, Jane,

we've got a bit of felt
that's loosened.

Look, they've been gnawing away,

but if you just push your finger
under there, it just lifts up.

It's like a little trap door, look.

They've got their own little door
in and out. Convenient.

I reckon that's an easy fix.
We'll get that done.

CHICKENS CLUCK

Squirrels will snack on
pretty much anything,

so I've got to seal this hole

to stop them from
treating my animal feed

like it's an all-you-can-eat buffet.

HE WHISTLES

Rotten.

I've never claimed to be a joiner...

..but I know how to hammer a nail in.

If there's one thing I've found
over the past year,

it's that being a smallholder
is about more than planting veg

and feeding chickens.

I'll tell you what,

that squirrel is going to need
a tool box

if he's going to get in here.

You've got to be
a jack of all trades in this game.

Job done.

I'm pretty proud of that.

Oh, dear me.

The trout has finished curing,

so it's time to get it into
the smoker that Chris built.

Nice.

You can smell the garden, literally.
It's beautiful.

So the salt and the sugar
has drawn out all of the moisture.

Well, there it is.
That's a gentle smoulder.

The smoke is all about the flavour
that I want to achieve

and what I'm looking for.

I quite like smoky flavour,

and so I'm going to look at it
after 8 hours, after 12 hours,

and then maybe just take
a little slice

just to get a little sense
of how smoky it is.

Let's get it in the smoker.

Local trout.

Herbs from the garden.

Smouldering woodchips down there.

But I'd better leave them alone.
I've got jobs to do.

Agh!

Since I've moved to the smallholding,

I've learnt there's plenty
of give and take

between people who share
a passion for growing food.

So my youngest, Jessie, and I

are bagging up compost
to share amongst the community.

And it's funny how
she's nowhere to be seen

as soon as I'm knee-deep in muck.

That's the latest cuttings
over the last year or so.

Right here that we're working into

is maybe two, three,
three and a half years old.

Now, this was here before I arrived,

and all I've done
is just keep adding to it.

And I've got more than I need.

And it's actually quite nice
to share some of this out.

Just hold that open.

Jessie's back just in time
to help with the last of the bags.

Come down here.

But what we're giving them here,
Jess,

is we're giving them
some proper feed. Yeah.

So, basically, it's going
to be a little bit of our garden

in East Sussex in theirs. Nice.

Last one.

Right.

In the tractor.

If you get on the lawnmower...

Today, I'm delivering some
of this compost to Black Rootz,

an Afro-Caribbean community group

aiming to engage and train
the next generation of black growers.

Operating from a quarter-of-an-acre
corner of this North London site,

co-founder Paulette Henry is on hand

to receive my boot full
of home-made fertiliser

in an area currently
under development.

So, I've bagged it up. Oh, wow.

That's a nice amount, as well. Yeah.

For us, this is good stuff,
because we use, like... Lots of it.

..tonnes and tonnes
and tonnes of it to feed our plants.

Well, this is where it begins,
isn't it?

This is the food
that feeds the plants.

Yeah, we can... I mean,
we can really do with this.

OK, I'll unload this later.

When did you start this project?

This project started in 2019. OK.

It's quite young, yeah.

However, the people
that started the project

have up to kind of, like, 500 years
of growing knowledge and experience,

and that was only 15 black growers
coming together that had, like...

Coming together where? Here?
Coming together here.

Located only a few miles
from central London,

the group's rising to the challenges
of urban horticulture.

Beautiful.

It's an incredible amount of variety
you've got in here. Yeah.

It's like its own little ecosystem.

When you come through the door,
you just see this green.

It's green like a big greenhouse,
and it is,

but when you actually walk through
and go through,

there's more in this small area
than meets the eye.

Yeah, quite a lot more.

We're creating
the growing environment,

but we, because as black growers,
we don't have that much land,

we don't have access
to that much land...

So you're making the most,
aren't you?

So we have to make the most
of the space that we've got.

Well, you're certainly doing that.
Yeah.

One of the core aims of the group
here is intergenerational learning.

What we're doing is that
we're going to run a workshop soon

teaching people about how to
work with the sweet potato slips,

because from this here...
Propagation of them.

Yeah, you can propagate
and make yourself a whole load.

That's where the information all is.

That's where the knowledge is,
that expertise in being able

to take the leaves
and do something with them. Yeah.

And then the whole... Yeah.
The journey continues again.

That's right. And one of
the projects that we did,

our youngest person was probably
about 7, and the eldest was 87.

And it's just about kind of, like,
sharing that knowledge. Yeah.

Sharing the knowledge and skills.

And is the name Black Rootz

about the black culture
never being lost

and the roots are the most
important part?

It's not losing,
it is about not losing the roots.

It's about also being able
to demonstrate the skill

and knowledge that black
and minoritised people have

and that people can see
and recognise

and appreciate the contributions
that have been made.

And it builds community cohesion.
And it's fascinating.

I'm starting to see how a garden
and growing and food and plants

just brings people together.
Quite definitely.

I'm intrigued about how the group
manages to grow so much

in a relatively small space.

So in this bed we use three sisters.
It's a method of growing... OK.

..that will allow you to grow
a number of different crops

that support each other
in one space. Ah.

So you'd grow corn,
which will act as bamboo, let's say.

Yes. So you get something
to grow up it.

It will be a crop, like in this bed

we've got courgette,
something that covers the soil,

so that will keep the soil cool
and moist. Keep the roots out.

Keeps the weeds away.
And keeps the weeds away.

And then you'll grow...

And this one is beans
that will run...

Wrap around. Run up around.

This clever use of space
is inspiring,

especially considering they've even
squeezed in a banana tree.

What we're intending to do with it
is there's so many people,

they use banana leaves
for wrapping food and so on.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Use them.
We can market the leaves.

Banana leaves are used a lot
in so many different cuisines.

Yeah. But especially in Japanese
cuisine, Chinese cuisine. Yeah.

They put fish inside and steam them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they're great holders. Yeah.

In Jamaica,
we do a thing we call duckanoo

and it's a mixture of sweet potatoes
and different things,

and then we'll wrap them up
and then steam them. Yeah.

As inspiring as it is to see plants
from all around the world,

I'm being reminded that
I brought something with me

from a little closer to home.

I've got a little bit of East Sussex
in the back of my car.

Please show me
where I need to unload it.

I want to leave it with you.

Back at the farm, the trout's
been smoking away to perfection

and the fantastic smell is already
attracting some attention.

Ezzie, are you ready for
the big reveal?

Yeah? You like a bit of trout.

Whoa.

Smells good.

HE COUGHS

Wow.

That's lovely.

It's not too firm.
It's just nice and soft.

It's just got a little hint
of smoke.

Of course, it's the preserving.

The preserve - the salt, the sugar,
and the kitchen garden herbs

is what's preserved
this beautiful trout.

But I just think that...

..has got just the right amount
of smoke on it for me.

And I'm going to turn this
into a delicious dish.

Mmm!

BIRDSONG

I'm going to use
my newly smoked trout

and other produce
from the kitchen garden

to make a simple
but delicious open sandwich.

What I love about this is
I know where the trout's from,

I've grown all the garden herbs

and I've even smoked it
in my own smoker.

That's going to make this dish
all the more special.

But before we get to this...

..my beetroots simply just
go straight into the coal,

as they are, leaves and all.

Bury those in there.

Perfect.

Some nice, big, thick,
chunky pieces of bread.

A little drizzle of olive oil.

Pinch of salt.

I'm toasting the bread nicely
on both sides

before cutting
a generous portion of trout.

I'm just gently warming it up
a little bit,

which is going to soften the fish
and bring out the oil

and the beautiful smokiness.

But, the most important thing for me,

it's going to energise the flavours
in the cure.

So, while the fish is warming up,
we can take out our beetroot.

Beautiful and blackened.

They're incredibly hot,

so they can cool down
while I get on with my dressing.

Just a little glug of oil.

Pinch of salt, pinch of pepper.

Grated lemon zest.

Horseradish from the garden.

I love the horseradish
in the middle of this,

because the horseradish, with
the earthy beetroot, is super.

A squeeze of lemon.

And what you have here is just
a beautiful horseradish vinaigrette.

Now, prep my beetroot.

It's nice and warm.

You can see the skin
just gently peels off, look.

Mmm, beautiful.

Into our bowl.

Look at that.

All the little speckles
of horseradish just coming out.

OK, now let's check our fish.

You can see all the oil
starting to come out.

That's just bringing out the flavour.

Incredible.

A little grating of horseradish.

Smoked trout on toast,

beetroot salad,

finished with horseradish.

Early evening snack.

That is delicious.

The sweet, earthy beetroot...

..sitting on top of the smoked trout.

The horseradish just finishing
on top with a little bit of heat.

And you've got smoky,
you've got heat of horseradish.

That little zing,
sweet and sour notes of the lemon

and the sweetness of the beetroot.

ESME WHINES

Why is it so fantastic?

For me,
it's because it's all done here.