All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E07.1080p.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...

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 all my life!

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

There 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.

Nestled amongst the forests
of the High Weald in East Sussex,

my farm
and a new chapter in my life.

Some twigs under there. Do you want
to go and grab some of them?

After working in my dad's fruit
and potato warehouse

from 11 years old,

followed by three decades of
cheffing in hot pressured kitchens,

I thought I knew hard work.

But no - as a smallholder,
I've never been so busy.

Dad? Yeah? Can leaves go on? Yeah.

It never ends.
The jobs just don't end.

But I just love this.

It's late summer and my daughter
Jessie and I are making

the most of the remaining long days
to clear an area of our woodland.

Just pull all these loose bits out
and put them back over the top.

Got lots of plans for the woodland.
There's things I want to plant,

there's food I want to grow in here,
but before I do anything,

all of this needs clearing back.

It's like starting off
with a new menu.

I mean, these woods have been
unmanaged for 30-plus years.

There's some stunning trees in here
that when you raise the canopy

and get rid of all the brambles,
you then start to see the real

beauty of what is... what is
already here.

Cheers.

Thank you for your help.

My smallholding is
all about planting for the future,

but things don't always go
according to plan.

And at the moment,
I've got a problem.

Deer are coming on to my land
and using it as a snack bar.

We're in the old paddock.

The paddock where we planted the new
apple trees, the nut trees.

They've had a bit of a rough time,
I have to say.

They need a bit of security because

the deer has been at a couple
of them.

There used to be deer fences
all inside here

and I felt slightly enclosed,
if I'm being honest with you.

So, I took them down.
Anatoliy wasn't pleased.

He did say that the deer would
come in and they do come in.

We've caught them on camera,
day and night.

And with each visit, they seem to be
getting a little bit more brazen.

This is the deer.

This should all have shoots on
and ends now.

They have done a bit of damage,
that's for sure.

But I just see them like chickens,
fantastic food, pigs, ducks.

We do eat them.
Venison. I eat venison.

I serve it on my menus.

I don't want to lock them out.

I want to know how to live
with them.

How can they help me progress with
what it is we're doing here?

For inspiration on how best to
live in harmony with the deer,

I've come to the
Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

Once a farm, it's now
one of the UK's most successful

rewilding projects
and home to about 550 deer.

It's run by husband
and wife team Charlie and Issy.

Welcome. Marcus. Nice to meet you,
Charlie. Are you well? Issy. Hi.

Very nice to meet you.
Very nice to meet you, too.

Jump in the vehicle and we'll go
and see if we can find something.

I hope the dog doesn't

sit on your lap!

LAUGHTER

There we are. Oh, wow! Their antlers
are just...astonishing.

Two decades ago, the couple stopped
farming on their estate.

After selling their dairy herd
and machinery,

they turned over
an incredible 3,500 acres to nature.

And it now provides
a habitat for many native creatures,

including three species of deer.

Having the deer in here,
what's their role?

They have a completely different
way of moving through the landscape,

the way the stags will turf up
the ground with their antlers,

and that's creating little
bits of open ground for insects to

colonise, for more seed to
come in and colonise.

So, every little disturbance
that they do creates an impact,

a domino effect for wildlife.

Which makes me think that we
shouldn't be sort of blocking

out the wildlife from my farm,
my gardens,

and allowing it just to be...

To do its thing. I think
that's absolutely right.

For us,
rewilding has been astonishing.

We never anticipated it would be
like this. For a start,

the wildlife that has come back has
been beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

And the rarity of the species that
are finding us has been incredible.

The deer have changed the landscape,
creating habitats for species

like the purple emperor butterfly
and the white stork. Thank you.

Oh, my goodness, look! So, this is
a bird that we've reintroduced.

The last time it
nested in Britain was 1416.

And now, these birds... What?! Yeah!
And now, these birds are nesting

in the wild. You know, the deer are
playing a part here because they're

keeping these open areas that these
kind of birds can benefit from.

If the deer and the other animals
weren't here, it would

all turn into thorny scrub
and brambles.

But here, we've got a kind of matrix
of all these different habitats.

So, in the spring, it will all just
look like grass and then,

these flowers have come up,

so you have sort of waves of
different plants that have come in.

This is how nature does it, so we're
just letting nature get on with it.

My smallholding is nowhere
near 3,500 acres, but I want to know

if I can learn lessons from what
Charlie and Issy have done here.

What does someone like myself
need to do? What's your advice?

If you're, for example,
putting in a pond,

you might puddle the areas around
your pond, so that creates all

these little dishes
and niches for aquatic plants

and for invertebrates to colonise

and you might start putting woody
debris in, branches,

to rot down, and that allows algae
to grow and then,

aquatic insects will feed on that
algae and then you've got

food for fish that
come in on a duck's webbed feet.

That's really interesting, cos I did
put a pond... OK. ..into my area.

And I've been forever keeping it
tidy and pulling things out

because I want it to look...
Oh, Marcus! I know!

I knew, as I was saying it,
you were going to tell me off!

What these animals are doing,
they're taking from all these

plants and they're balancing
this landscape.

Once we understand that,
everyone can do their bit.

We need to get wild nature back into
every possible space we can find.

The free ranging deer here help
create fantastic

habitats for other species.

But Charlie and Issy do have
to control their numbers

and that means they produce
one of my favourite meats,

venison,
and I can't wait to try it.

This looks like my territory.

This looks like you knew
I was coming, didn't you?

But this is what I'm drawn to.

What you do notice is there's no
marbling, there's no fat, it's

just incredibly pure, lean meat,
which is down to the lifestyle.

They're just really active
and strong. I'd better get cooking.

A little bit of oil.

There we go.

Deer meat has a bit of a snobby
reputation,

but British venison is
becoming more popular.

And you can now pick it
up in good butchers

and supermarkets for not much more
than beef or lamb.

LOUD SIZZLE

What I'm doing is I'm caramelising

the meat, I'm colouring it,

I'm getting it seared.

And how important is
the resting of a loin?

We're not going to
rest for too long,

cos I don't know about you,
but I want to taste!

But if you were going to serve
this in the restaurant term, that's

happy to sit there on the side over
here for ten, 15, 20 minutes.

I've cooked loins from two different
species. One, a large red deer.

The other, a small fallow.
First of all, let's try the fallow.

Mm. It is SO tender.

It almost doesn't
come across as venison,

cos it is incredibly tender,
with a great flavour.

Try the red.

This is slightly larger.

The difference in tenderness is
quite extraordinary. Mm!

And the taste, the flavour?
Equally great flavour,

but I do think there's a little bit
more bite to it. Really good.

You know, your deer here is
so incredible.

I think it's the happy life these
things are living, let's be honest.

They're living in a little

paradise here, aren't they?

LAUGHTER

Charlie and Issy are truly inspiring
and I'm going back home,

determined to rewild
parts of my smallholding.

But we're not giving up on the
young apple trees the deer have

been snacking on,

so my gardener Anatoliy is down at
the paddock to assess the damage.

So, that's dry.

Dry.

It's... It's dead, I think.
That's it.

Fortunately,
there are some trees worth saving.

So, this tree has got
a bit of leaves on it,

so the good sign, it's still alive.

OK, so I'll bring them over,
cut the grass around,

and start the protection.

As I took down all the deer fencing
surrounding the farm,

each of these trees now
needs its own barrier.

Break up the soil a bit.

I move the weeds.

What I hate in the soil is stones.

It also makes your tools blunt.

It's hard work to do,
every other tree.

Hopefully, the netting won't look
appetising to deer.

I've learned so much from my
smallholding and last year, I

really enjoyed passing my knowledge
on to the next generation of chefs.

On this side here, we've got
hard herbs, our rosemarys,

our thymes, we've got lavender.

Is this lovage or parsley?
A bit of both.

I challenged three trainee cooks
to create omelettes

inspired by my kitchen garden.

What have we got here, then?
So, you've got beetroot... Lovely.

..tomatoes, lovage...

And the results were extraordinary.
Mm.

Sort of wrong, in a way, but right
because it tastes good. Yeah.

I think the garden's pushed you
and tested you

and I think that's really nice.

This year, apprentice chefs Milly
and Lucy-May are visiting.

They're already
working in high-end restaurants,

as part of their training.
But we're not cooking today.

Instead,
we're exploring the flavours growing

wild on my smallholding with expert
forager Colin Wheeler.

You can forage anywhere
and it's free. More or less.

Am I correct in saying that?
For sure, yeah.

And I think from a chef perspective,
I think

what foraging does for me
is you have a spice rack

and a store cupboard like this and
you add foraging into it, you add

another 25% on, cos there's flavours
and textures out there

which are just not available
in commercially grown products.

So, we've got
some lovely sorrel over here.

So, this grows wild,
all in the longer grassland,

down on the right-hand
side of the paddock.

It's quite a fleshy leaf.
And one of the key ID features

are these two little swallow
tails at the back of the leaf.

So, there's some that Marcus grew.

Take one of those and go and find
some out in the pasture land.

Foraging for new flavours is
exciting, but it can be dangerous,

so only do it with someone who
knows what's safe to eat.

Keep your eyes open, girls.

That said, I can't wait to see

if Colin's right about the wild
sorrel in the paddock.

It's everywhere. It IS everywhere.

I think I see it on the dog
walks at home. Do you? Yeah.

You just see it... I've definitely
seen it in my garden back home.

You see it and you just
think it's a natural weed. Yeah.

You just walk past it,
don't think anything of it.

You don't think it's got any
flavour...

..until you actually try it.

It's so good, isn't it? So acidic.

So, this is your first time
foraging, then? Yeah.

Never done it before.

I've always wanted to do it,
but I've been too scared.

I don't want to pick up the wrong
things by accident.

But just look at that. Fresh sorrel
out of a garden. Crazy.

Really is crazy.

So, what we've got to do now, girls,
is forage all of this field

and we've got to...
No, I'm only joking!

While we've been
bust in the paddock,

Colin's managed to find an un-weeded
patch of the kitchen garden.

And I'm excited to see what
he's discovered.

We're back. Mission accomplished.
Ah, well done! I think we've done

a good job. Fantastic, you have.
So, while you were away,

I found a couple of little edibles,

just growing as would be termed
weeds, normally. This is chickweed.

So, great little garnish for...
Great. For salads.

Really quite fresh.
Got a lovely crunch to it.

And then, a kind of polar opposite.
We have yarrow.

So, for me, this pairs beautifully
with Asian flavours.

Soy sauce, ginger,
it's really aromatic.

You're just looking around, you're
just seeing what we see as weeds.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just leave a little
corner of your garden a bit wilder,

where things like that can grow,

because they add so much
to your basket of ingredients.

I want to know what,
besides sorrel,

I might find on the rest of my land,

so Colin's taking us
on a guided forage.

This is a well managed
piece of land, so the grass is mown,

so it reduces the number of species
that you might find, but when I see

a piece of disturbed soil like this,
this always catches my interest.

So, I look down here
and I see dandelion.

But it's a member of the same
family as chicory,

so it's got that same sort of bitter
note, but a really good edible.

I've actually heard you can turn
the heads into cordial.

Yeah, you can and they make a really
good vegan honey as well,

so if you get 100 dandelion heads,
two green apples, chop them up, boil

them together for 20 minutes,
strain it out, put the liquid

back in the pan and add sugar
and then reduce to setting point,

you get a honey-type liquid,
which tastes so much like honey,

it's virtually indistinguishable.

When I come out into a new space
and I'm foraging,

the first thing I look for are areas
that we would call an ecotope,

where two different habitats meet.

I know what these are. Yeah.
Everyone knows what these are.
We all know what these are.

And that's what makes them
such a great edible because it's
so easy to recognise.

This is a stinging nettle,
packed full of nutrients.

Potassium, zinc and Vitamin C.
So, when you're harvesting nettles,

you want to be picking about three
leaf branches from the top.

Am I getting stung? Yes, I am,
but I'm getting used to it now,

so I find that it doesn't affect me
too much.

But you have to cook the nettle.
We can't eat that.

You can, but I would generally
put them in a jug

and just pour some boiling water
over them, take them straight out,

into some iced water,
pat them dry and then just chop them

and use like spinach.
Would you like to try one?

Cos I think they have a rather
unique flavour.

They taste a little bit furry,
texture wise.

It doesn't taste like what I thought
it was going to taste like.

You'd think that something that was
so aggressive in the touch
would have an aggressive flavour.

It's completely the opposite. Yeah.
It's actually quite mild.
Yeah, it is. Surprisingly mild.

I make pesto with it.
That would be nice. Ooh!

It's really nice in pesto, with just
a little touch of basil in it,

just to give it a lift.

And I use either hazelnuts,
toasted hazelnuts,

or toasted sunflower seeds.

Nettle pesto's a great idea.
Yeah, it's lovely. Yeah.

Foraging is really firing
up my imagination,

but I think we've found something
that can't possibly be made tasty.

This is a sloe.

Really sharp and really quite
bitter. A bitter aftertaste.

So, I decided last year I was going
to treat these like olives,

so I put them
into a really strong salty brine.

It draws out all
the bitterness and the tannins

and I just happen to have
some for you to try.

Fantastically vibrant
and common wild fruit.

It is salty, but what you get is
real plumminess at the end.

And because you said "olive"...
Yeah. ..it passes, don't you think?

Mm. I call these sloe olives.

Yeah,
the raw one was pretty inedible.

I would never have thought that you
could make an "olive"

out of that, but I really like that.

This, for me,
is what foraging is all about.

It's about picking something
which is abundant, treating it in a

way which you end up with an end
product which makes people go "wow".

I hope today has inspired
young Lucy-May

and Milly to try new
flavours in their cooking,

because it's certainly made me

see my smallholding in a whole
new light.

Foraging always puts
a smile on my face.

Not just because I've learned
something new, I think

it's because everything's under
your nose and you can't see it.

If you can identify the good bits,
the things you can eat,

how that can improve your cooking
with just a little

bit of imagination is brilliant!

Right now, my kitchen garden
is bursting at the seams.

We've always had a big
bed of one thing,

which then sort of is quite
limiting as to what you can grow

and what you can use it for,

so what I've done this year is I've
done less of more varieties.

There's a saying in the kitchen
that when you're making sauces

and stocks, it's about the quality,
not the quantity.

For me, it's exactly the same
in the kitchen garden and so,

I am going to be planting
more every year.

This garden is going to be a pick
and mix of everything.

There's enough here for me to enjoy,
but there's also extra.

What I'm doing right now is putting
some boxes together to share

with the Community Fridge.

The Community Fridge takes
food donations

and redistributes them
amongst the local people.

Beautiful! I'm even going to leave
the roots on, so they know

it's just been pulled out
this morning.

And any time I've got something to
spare, I like to take it there.

Morning, ladies. How are you? Yeah,
good, thank you. How have you been?

I'm good. I'm good. I've actually
got some produce for you.
That's amazing.

I am offloading all the surplus
that I'm not going to use

and there's no better place.

The community here have helped me
so much.

I've got two lots of different
apples.

We've got some cookers there.

Oh, wow! Excellent.
Nice bit of crumble.

And some eaters, a box of those.

Excellent, thank you. For the kids.

So, it always feels good to give
something back.

Tomatoes and salad and some garlic.
That's amazing.

Thanks ever so, Marcus.
Take care. Bye.

Since I saw how Charlie
and Issy have rewilded their land

so successfully, I've wanted to give
it a go on my smallholding.

So I've come down to the pond to put
some of their tips into practice.

I thought what was a lovely
bit of advice from Issy was

if you haven't got enough
wildlife... Got a little bit.

If you haven't got enough,
you do your bit.

So, what I'm doing is this
edging here,

I'm just doing what animals would
do, what deer would come

and do, and I'm just walking
along the inner side or inner part,

where the water would normally be,
of the pond,

and just trampling it in and just
trampling back the grass and the

bullrushes
and that's going to die back

and put some fabulous nutrients
back into the system.

And also, all the little pockets I'm
creating, the little footprints

I'm putting in there, they create
habitats for wildlife and insects.

And that's just adding
back into the pond itself and food

and nutrients for everybody.

Plants, ducks, geese... Happy days.

The farm's constantly evolving

and it feels great to be
working with nature.

But never achieve anything here
without the hard

work of my gardener, Anatoliy.

And my livestock wouldn't be
thriving without the help

and expertise of my neighbour,
Stuart.

Come on, they're hungry.

So, to say thanks, I'm making them
and Stuart's son, Fred, a hearty

supper, inspired by my kitchen
garden and my rewilding journey.

That is a beautiful
haunch of venison.

I'm going to get this sealed off,

into the pan with some lovely
ingredients,

and I'm going to slow braise
it for about three

and a half to four hours, or
at least until it falls off the bone

and then, we can all eat later,
when all our jobs are done.

I get started by scoring the haunch
with a sharp knife.

There we go.

A little bit of dry rub, which is
paprika, coriander and salt.

I'm also just going to add a little
bit of black pepper to it as well.

That's just been gently
crushed down.

And you just massage
that into the meat.

Because it's not intensively farmed,

venison has a much lower carbon
footprint than beef or lamb,

so it's a sustainable alternative
to our favourite meats.

That's going straight
onto the grill.

And I think the key is - what do you
want the end product to be like?

You want the meat to fall off the
bone, you want it seasoned well,

and you want a great flavoured
sauce that sits around it.

Look how quick that's
changed colour.

What that dry rub does, that creates
a beautiful crust on the outside.

Whilst the joint seals
and colours on the grill,

I can get on with preparing
the veg to go with it.

Celery, carrots, onion.

These are classic
ingredients for a braised dish.

We're going to get those
onto the grill.

And I just want that little

bit of charring flavour
just coming through.

Because I'm outside, and I'm in the
garden, I've lit the fire and that's

just going to bring a different
type of flavour and that's the coal.

While the meat and the veg is
on the grill,

I can heat up a thick-bottomed pan

and then transfer
the cooked ingredients to it.

All right.
Let's get the venison over there.

Goes in there. My garnish is here.

Beautifully cooked off.

These aren't going to be eaten,
they're just in there for flavour.

I'm also adding crushed juniper
berries, dried chillies,

and a whole bulb of garlic.

So, all we're doing is just taking
these flavours and they'll

sit within the gravy and all it'll
do is just baste that meat.

Now, it's dried porcini mushrooms,
rehydrated with Worcestershire

sauce, then a splash of red wine
and herbs from my garden.

Rip them up, pack them in there.

They won't be there later.
They'll have disintegrated.

What you're going to get is
a sauce that is going to be thick

and sticky, but it's going to be
packed full of garden flavour.

And here, we've got
what was call demi-glace.

This is basically a stock that's
been reduced and slightly thickened.

But that's ready to
go in the oven now.

So, around about 160 degrees
to 170 for about three, three

and a half hours.

Now, we can get to our garnish,
which is very simple.

We've got some of the fennel,
a head of fennel,

and some carrots.

I'm simply tossing the veg
with garlic, seasoning,

fresh herbs and olive oil.

And they go straight onto the grill.

So, just getting a lovely
charring on those.

Once charred, the vegetables
go in a pan with a bed of herbs,

where they'll continue to cook.

Just leave that sitting there
to tick away.

So, what we're going to make now
for this little dressing is a

sorrel verde,
basically a green sauce.

So, what we need is just a blender,
just tear up your sorrel leaves.

Some spring onions.

You don't need to just use the white
bits, use all of it.

Get it in there. They go in.

Capers.

A pinch of salt and pepper
and a good glug of oil

and the whole lot is ready
to be blitzed.

There we go. Our sorrel verde.

The venison is now
ready to come out of the oven.

Ooh! That smells amazing!

And I can put the finishing touches
to this rich and filling feast.

Tarragon.

A few little garden flowers.

And just a drizzle of oil

on those vegetables.

There you have it.

Beautiful haunch of venison, slowly
braised, lots of garden herbs,

roasted carrots, fennel,
bit of garlic and a sorrel verde.

That should keep them happy.

I hope so, anyway.
Right, I'd better go and find them.

My visit to the Knepp reminded me
how amazing venison is,

but more than that,
it planted a seed,

which could see this place
grow in a new direction.

For as long as I've had this farm,
the kitchen garden,

I've always wanted to keep things
neat and tidy and in lines,

but there's something
about rewilding that I really like.

There we go. Haunch of venison.
Smells delicious.

It's really changing
the way I think about this farm

and this kitchen garden.

I think it's changing me. Exciting
times. No two ways about it.

It's well worth the effort.
Absolutely delicious.

So much more to do,
so much more to learn,

so many new dishes to cook,
tons of things I want to grow.

This place is on fire.

It just gets better and better.