All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E08.1080p.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.

Oh, 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 all my life!

..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.

The more time I spend
on my smallholding, I'm realising

it's full of opportunities
to grow delicious food.

But with 65 acres to look after
it's becoming a family affair,

so I've roped in my son Archie
to mow the lawn...

Even though we're having a bit
of fun and it's a big space,

I still want it done properly.

..and my daughter Jessie
to help collect the apples.

Really big storm the other day

which has knocked the apples off
the trees.

Rather than let the apples
just rot on the grass,

I always try and come out
and save them.

With the grass cut, I have the
perfect place for the cuttings.

Let's drop it outside
the chicken coop,

and we'll shovel it
into the chicken coop

and they can scrat through it.

Jess, you go in there and mix it up.

Just break it up like that.

So, I always try to make this area
as comfortable as possible,

so I always try and put
some grass cuttings in.

I sometimes go to the compost heap
and get a load of compost

and throw that in.
They love their digging for worms.

So when they're laying lots of eggs,

that says to me that
they're incredibly happy.

And they are. And every now
and again, on the weekend

and when the dog's not around,
I let them out.

I let them roam into the garden.

They do love looking for the slugs,
and why not?

If we need slugs removing,
these are the best candidates

to go and get them.

Before I started growing veg,
I just saw them as ingredients,

and didn't think about how they
arrived in the kitchen.

I've got some beautiful...
First time growing aubergine.

I've not done that before,
and they're just great.

Little baby aubergines,
just absolutely delicious.

I sort of prefer these to the larger
aubergines - great flavour,

quite sharp, great for slicing
and deep frying,

so they make great little snacks
if you want to introduce kids

into tasting something they wouldn't
normally eat.

I came in just for aubergines,
but I couldn't help myself.

There's some beautiful, beautiful
tomatoes that needed picking.

They're ready to go,
beautiful and soft.

And of course,
I've got tons of basil.

No matter how delicious
these ingredients are,

there's always one thing
that's missing for a chef.

Salt for me is something that's
always at the end of my fingertips.

Now, I know that this tomato
and basil tastes delicious,

but it tastes just a little bit
better with a touch of salt.

Mm-hm!

Can't help myself.

Chef's best friend.

Salt is my number one ingredient

and now a permanent fixture
in my greenhouse.

But until recently,
I hadn't even considered

how it ended up at my kitchen table.

So it's about time I find out more

about one of the oldest
forms of seasoning.

I'm heading to the town
of Maldon in Essex,

which is renowned for its sea salt.

Here, the Osborne family have been
master salt makers for 100 years,

and I'm meeting with Steve, who is
the fourth generation to produce it.

Why have you brought me out here?

I brought you here to show you
where it basically all began.

Like any industry that's grown
over the British Isles,

it's all to do with the landscape
and the geology,

and Essex is a very dry county.
Right.

Very low rainfalls.

And it also has the east coast
estuaries.

And around those estuaries
is all the famous salt marshes.

And this is where the Romans
and the Saxons effectively

crafted their trade, going back
for almost 1,000 years.

Is this the water you use?
Correct.

This is the River Blackwater,
based on the Essex coast,

and we extract the water on
a spring tide,

which occurs on a new moon and
a full moon, so, every two weeks,

because that's when the water is
its most saline.

But in about another week
or so time, on the new moon,

this rise and fall of this tide
could be over nearly six metres.

Yeah. You're kidding. No.
Six metres.

What, so all that will just
disappear? Yeah. Gone.

Yeah. We'd be way under water now.
Wow.

I couldn't imagine that. I can't...
I actually can't imagine that. Yeah.

Silly question, but do you just
stick a hosepipe in there

and just sort of draw it out?
Do you just pump it out?

Could I do that?

Well, we don't just stick a hose
pipe in because you...

Or a bigger pipe. Well, a slightly
bigger pipe than a hose pipe.

But you also have to take
the water at the middle layer,

because like any estuary,
at the bottom,

you have effectively
what's any sediment. Yes.

And then the middle layer
would be the most saline.

And then the fresher water,
because it's less dense,

floats on the top.

I want to see how it all comes
together,

because that's the bit I don't know.

Well, effectively, I suppose
we'll take you to our kitchen,

where the recipe's created.
Lead the way. OK.

Sounds like heaven to me.

And it's inside these salt works
where they hand-harvest the flakes.

It's like a sauna in here.
I know, it's warm, isn't it?

So in here you can see crystals
forming on the surface of the water.

And as they grow in size and weight,
they form the unique pyramid shape.

Effectively, what we're doing here
is making a brine solution

by process of evaporation.

So as you evaporate the water,

the salt crystals
form on the surface of the water

as they dissipate out because the
water cannot hold any more salt.

And as they grow in size and weight,
they form the pyramid-shaped

crystals, and then the crystals fall
to the bottom and sink.

Fast forward and you can now
see here a pan

that's been produced from yesterday.

You can see that the water
has not completely evaporated

because effectively that is
a saturated brine solution.

I see. It's gone down. Yeah,
I see what you're saying.

Now it's ready to be raked or what's
called drawing the salt pan.

This process has been happening
since Saxon times, effectively.

So show me how it works, then.

OK, so, we take the rake...

First of all, we start with it
this way up.

Break the surface, effectively.

You can that the salt
is effectively like snowflakes.

Can I have a go?
Of course you can.

Draw it, stick it into the product.
That's it.

Some weight behind it, isn't there?
It is, yeah.

I cannot believe how much salt
is in this.

Can I have a taste?
You can. Because I can't help it.

By all means, yeah. I mean...

I'm just going to grab a crystal.
Yeah.

This isn't the finished product
because it still needs to be dried.

So at the moment we still have
what's called

either the mother liquor
or the brine solution

on some of the crystals,

which can sometimes
create a bitter taste.

It's almost more of an intense
flavour than when it's drier.

It is. It is VERY strong.
It is.

Once you've removed all the salt,
what's that do?

Goes in the oven
at high temperature.

It bakes off any of the residual
moisture or brine,

and then that product is
then conveyered out,

ready to go to our packing hall,
which is the finished product.

I think a lot of people think salt
is just salt, but it's not.

It is an ingredient and it's as
special as any other ingredient.

It's the process
that it's gone through.

There's so much history, so much
knowledge, so much information,

so important that you follow
the history

that you have been carrying
on for so, so many years.

Thank you very much. No, thank you.
I appreciate that.

Right, can I get out of here
because I am getting hot?

Yeah, no problem. Let's go.

I know the kitchen's a hot place,
but this is on another level.

Go on, after you. There we go.
Ah, yeah!

Back at the farm,
inspired by my trip,

I've decided to make up some jars
of flavoured sea salt.

And as I have an abundance of fennel
pollen, what better place to start?

Just a couple of pieces like that.

You break in your hand.

Can you smell it?

That's incredible.
That reminds me of liquorice.

Fennel picked, I'm also going
to add some thyme,

and, of course, some sea salt.

I'm using the salt...

..in the pestle and mortar
as an abrasive

to start to break those minute
little flowers down.

And of course you can flavour
your sea salt

with whatever herbs you like.

It's a little bit of pepper.

Lemon.

At the end of the day, the salt will
always be the main flavour.

Just imagine a nice little piece
of fish en papillote

with some beautiful lemon thyme
and pollen salt

just seasoned on top. Fantastic.

HE SNIFFS

Wow!

And there we have it.
Beautiful little seasoning.

One for the greenhouse,
one for the kitchen.

Last year, I met other local
smallholders at a sharing event,

including Sinead and Adam,
who grow edible flowers.

Beautiful colours. You can eat
every single thing there.

Really? Absolutely everything.

Ever since I met them

I've been thinking about growing
edible flowers myself.

As I have a patch of land
that is looking neglected,

I'm going to give it a go.

First job - clear all of this.

A little doghouse.

Whenever I'm doing anything
like this,

always reminds me of when I used
to work with my old man.

Not cooking. I never think of that
when I'm in the kitchen now.

Cooking is different.

It's my job. That's MY world.

My dad didn't teach me how to cook.

He taught me how to work hard.

I've been reading about no-dig
garden beds,

which is a low-maintenance way
of growing

and causes minimum disruption
to soil life.

I'm putting cardboard down on top
of this,

which will help suppress the weeds

by stopping light
from getting through.

And as it decomposes,
the worms will love it, too.

Well, that's the easy bit done.

Now it's time for the real work.

Ah!

HE STRAINS

That makes me look really strong!

Oh, look at this little fella.

New friend.

Moments like this are what it's all
about for me.

With the toad safely
out of the way,

I can finish laying the logs.

It's looking a bit rustic right now,

but it's going to be a buffet
of beautiful ingredients

ready to be eaten.

But before I get ahead of myself,
I've still one more job left to do.

This is grade-A compost.

This...is where the journey
begins, right here.

I would never have said that
three or four years ago.

I'd say the journey of good food
started at my kitchen door.

Look how life's changed.

My foundations are laid.

All I need now are some plants,
and I know just the people to ask.

So I'm heading to Arlington,
where Sinead and Adam

have their own incredible
smallholding full of herbs,

newly-planted woodland and,
of course, edible flowers.

Sinead, Adam. How are you?
We're good. Yeah, we're good.

How are you? Good to see you again.
Nice to see you again.

Of course, you're the only two
people I know

that deals with edible flowers.

Can you show me around?
Yeah, sure. Yeah.

So this is kind of like
edible flowers,

more of like the decorative
side of things.

And then you kind of move
more into flavour that way,

into, like, herbal flowers.

First stop is the polytunnel
filled with flowering herbs.

It's a bit of a mish mash, but we've
got things like rocket flowers.

Grow rocket for, like, its leaves.

We grow it for the flowers.

I mean, they just taste like rocket,

but nice little crunch
to them as well.

It just takes of rocket.
Yeah, yeah.

Which, like, for something so
small... It's got flavour.

..you're like, how is it full of
so much flavour.

This little one down here
is like sorrel,

so it's kind of like Oxalis.

These ones are really good,
if you want to...

There you go, if I give you
those ones. Quite tangy.

Yeah. Yeah, it's related to sorrel.

And the leaves on them are great
as well, so we use... Yeah.

Chefs use the leaves,
they pull them apart,

and they're also, really kind of
like citrus zing to them as well.

They are. Very much so.
Quite punchy. Very nice.

Our experiment from last year.
We'd be like, oh, they're great.

So then we moved them
into the garnishing tunnel.

And these were just ones
that we didn't catch.

I like that - a garnishing tunnel.
That's chef talk.

Yeah, yeah.

LAUGHTER

That's what I should call
my experimental area -

garnishing patch. Yeah.
Because it's not a tunnel.

Garnishing garden.
There we go.

Out here, these are dahlias.

Lots of cake makers will tend
to use these. How?

How do they use them?

Erm, they just, like,
put them on a cake.

Oh, literally! Yeah. Oh, literally.
Just put the flowers on a cake.

Or they kind of like just take
the petals off

and just spread them over.
Crystallise them, probably. Yeah.

Once they've been cut,
do you struggle to keep things

fresh and alive? Obviously,
flowers don't last very long

once they've been picked,
and especially in the summer

that we've just had.
It's been so hot.

Yeah, it's all about temperature.

So in the heat of the summer, we're
up at like four in the morning,

harvesting it
before the sun comes out.

Got a lot of woodchips everywhere.
What is this doing?

Because it looks good.
Two things, really, mainly, for us.

One, it's a good weed suppressant,
so it means that all our pathways

are nice and weed-free and it's also
really good for moisture retention.

There's a lot. Do you buy all this?

No, not at all. We get it all free.
So the good thing is,

is that around the area,
there's lots of tree surgeons

who actually have to pay
to get rid of this.

So for them to have a place to drop
off for free saves them money.

And for us, you've seen the size of
the place, the amount of woodchip

we have to get through.
What a great idea.

Do you know, I did not know that.

I'm blown away by how much
these guys have learnt

in the last three years and how much
they've achieved

on their four-and-a-half acre farm.

You're not trained in this, are you?
No.

A lot of it's observation.
Yeah, trial and error, really.

And experimenting.
See what works, what doesn't.

From just a hobby, something that
you loved, you've created this.

It just shows you, with a bit of
hard work and determination...

And delusion. And delusion, which we
all seem to be familiar with.

It does show you that you can,
if you put your mind to something,

which is what I'm trying to do,
is you can create anything.

This has been great.

I love sharing knowledge and
learning from my growing friends,

and can't wait to get back
to my smallholding

to create my own
edible flower garden.

Being part of this community means
helping each other out,

and farmer Stuart has asked
me to lend a hand.

I'm here. Here to help.

Hello.

These look a bit smelly.

Not smelly at all. Sure?

Doesn't smell at all. It does.
Smells like a sheep.

Smells like sheep!

Let's take it over to the straw.

So everybody knows that when
you take a lamb to the abattoir,

you get back a carcass that you get
cut up into lamb chops and whatever.

What people perhaps don't realise,
or forget, is that this sheep,

as well as growing meat,
has also grown a skin.

I think it's a terrible
shame to waste this.

So Stuart is going to explain to me
the process

of turning this skin into a rug.

So we want to get these salted today
to draw out all of the fluid

from the skin and start
to release this fat.

We've got a great big bag
of just normal table salt,

just like you'd use
in the restaurant. Yeah, that's...

No, no, no, no. No? No, no, no.

In the restaurants that I go to and
we work in, we don't use this salt.

You, in your restaurants YOU go to,
you might.

But trust me, that's the last thing
you want to put on food.

You use sea salt, do you? We use
good stuff. Let's put it that way.

All right. A bit of salt.

And then it's simply a matter
of rubbing it in.

Can I have a go? Yeah.

So we've started the curing process
and drying it out.

But this one I salted about
a fortnight ago,

so this one is now dry.

You can feel it's completely...

Completely changed.

So it's basically been dehydrated.

The next stage is to package them
off and get them tanned.

Tanning is what exactly?

They put it in a big bath
with lots of mimosa bark.

The bark from a mimosa tree.
Right.

All those skin cells need to absorb
the tannin in order to preserve it

and turn it into actual leather.

Would you like to see the end
product? Absolutely.

What we're striving for?
I would, definitely.

So, here's one I made earlier.

That's a familiar phrase.

Wow. And here we are.
Yeah.

I see what you mean.
This is the finished product.

Beautiful suede leather.

The fleece is just so soft.
Exactly. Yeah.

So how long from that process
to that process to this process?

It takes three or four months...
Does it? ..of soaking in the tannin.

So it's a long process.

Enjoyed that. That's my job done.
Can I go now?

We've got another five to do.

I thought you were going to say
that. Shall I go and get them?

Yes, please.
And there's me thinking I've done.

Back at the farm, my no-dig garden
bed is looking very bare.

But lucky for me, Adam and Sinead
gave me some edible flowers

to get started.

Time to begin planting.

We've got sweet William.

This was the one we tried
in the greenhouse.

Purple oxlils... Oxalis.

Put these two flowering ones
in the front.

I'm looking at these names
and there's a few familiar things,

like fennel. There we go -
I know that one!

I know that grows quite tall.

I'm going to bring this thyme here.

I'll just have that
growing over there.

This is a completely different era,

and what chefs do at the moment
is we use them as a garnish.

So they tend to sit on a dish.

And I think what I'd like to do
with these is to bring them

into the flavour, bring them
into the marinade.

This area here is about
stretching my imagination

in the world of cookery.

If this works, that's a massive
milestone for me

in an area of gardening that I've
never, ever done before.

Hopefully, these little fellas will
just get happy and start growing,

and when they start growing,
we can start cooking.

I'm going to cook Sinead and Adam
a treat -

gingerbread cake
with caramel sauce -

to say thank you for the gorgeous
edible flowers,

which means I can also use some
of the sea salt

I brought back from Essex.

First job is to make the
ginger sponge.

Over a bain-marie I'm gently
melting demerara sugar,

golden syrup and butter.

As this starts to heat up,
the butter will melt,

the golden syrup will start
to become nice and soft,

and the lovely demerara sugar
will dissolve.

In with your butter.

And while that's melting,

I can line my baking tin
with greaseproof paper.

But a little tip - it's quite
difficult to line that

and to get that into the corners.

So scrunch it up, like so.

And then just put it into some water

and it just softens the greaseproof.

Squeeze it out.

Now it's just like a wet cloth

and it just goes into the corners.

No problem at all.

On to the egg, milk and stem
ginger mixture for my sponge.

The ginger has been nicely cooked
through, and when it's cooked

and nice and soft, we'd mix it up,

and then we've got this lovely,
almost like a little ginger syrup.

Looks more like a ginger pulp.

And this is where the flavour,
the real flavour of the ginger,

comes into the cake.

And that lovely golden dark sugar
is that molasses flavour.

So these two ingredients working
together, absolutely sensational,

and that's what gives
you that gingerbread flavour.

And we're just going to mix
that into our milk and egg.

With the butter, golden syrup
and demerara sugar melted,

I can now pour my mixture
into the bowl.

Just mix them in gently.

I remember making my first cake,

which was a pineapple
upside-down cake,

and I remember I made it at school.

Was one of the first things I made,
but I had the love for pastry baking

with my mum, and when I brought that
pineapple upside-down cake home...

And I'll never forget it -
it was pineapple rings from a tin

cherries on top
and that lovely sponge.

I was so proud of it
and everybody enjoyed it.

And I can remember that
like it was yesterday.

And so that... That got me going.

Next, add the mixture
to self-raising flour.

Just make a little well.

Then just pour this beautiful
mix in.

Make sure you get the ginger
out of the bowl.

There's our mix.

The sugar's dissolved, working well.

I'll just put a little
pinch of salt.

And salt works really well
with the molasses flavour

and the stem ginger.

It just brings out the flavour
just that little bit more.

Just a little taste.

Mmm.

Whoa.

That's quite extraordinary,

how the sugar and the ginger
are working together.

And I think we all know
what a good ginger cake's like.

You get that little bit of heat and
warmth in the back of your throat.

It's delicious.

Right, we're ready to put it
in the tin.

There's a touch of salt in the mix,

but it wouldn't be me if I didn't
add a little bit more.

Just a little bit on top

so that when the cake is cooked,

you've got those little salt
crystals just sitting on top,

and then you get that little crunch
when you bite into it.

Yeah. You can never have too much
salt on a cake.

I don't think my nan or mum
would agree with that, though.

Right. That's ready to go
in the oven.

170. 20, 25 minutes.

Here we go.

I'm going to serve my gingerbread
cake with salted caramel sauce.

So into the pan goes sugar
and water.

What you want to do is you want
to dissolve the sugar in the water,

cook it out.

The water will start to evaporate
and the sugar will start to go

through the different caramel
processes,

the different colour stages.

You start to see
the colour changing there.

All I need to do now is
add my butter and cream.

That's a beautiful
caramel sauce done.

Now it's time to get the cake out.

What you get here is you get
those lovely little speckles of salt

just sitting on top. Fantastic.

And because I've invited
Sinead and Adam over,

I think we should put
a few flowers with it.

There we go.

I'm also serving it with some
of my pickled pears

and a sprinkling of lavender.

Let's go and eat some cake.

Grab a seat, guys.

A little bit smaller than our
flowers, perhaps,

but still impressive.
They are your flowers!

LAUGHTER AND CHATTER

I know you've got a sweet tooth.
Yeah. I know.

I remember. I remember.

Look, I even decorated it
with some flowers. Yeah!

I knew you were coming over.

I'll take that half, and you split
the other. That'll be for Adam!

Ladies first. Ladies first.

Dive straight in. Thank you.

This is great. Yeah. Gosh.

Tasting good? Yeah.
Happy with that?

Better than our ginger cakes,
isn't it?

There we go. Yeah, great.
The salt is great.

Works well, doesn't it? Yeah.
Yeah, it does.

Well? Everything looks like it's
taken really well. It looks healthy.

They look good. You've labelled them
correctly, which is good.

Good start. Yeah.

Some of the stuff is a bit close.
OK. But it will kind of end up

just being like survival
of the fittest,

and who pushes through first
for some of it. OK.

Some of the stuff,
like the sweet William,

they'll also be quite tall,
but they'll come back

kind of year on year, if you
want them and if you like them.

The fennel as well. Those are
probably a little bit close.

So what you'll probably find
is that they'll probably compete

with each other, maybe a couple
of them might end up dying.

But that's fine because you get
so many flowers off them.

And also I'm going to be
eating them. Yeah.

I want to be picking them and eating
them and using them in recipes.

Farming and growing
and the ecosystem

is about talking to people,
making mistakes.

The knowledge that everyone
has around me

is because they've made mistakes

and they've learned
from those mistakes.

If you had to give me one bit
of advice, as I said to you, right,

I want to really expand
my imagination...

..what would you tell me to do?

Just make it bigger. Make it bigger.
Yeah. More things?

Yeah. Yeah.

Passing on that valuable
information to me

is absolutely priceless.