All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E11.1080p.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, 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,
first Wareing potato.

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

..all year round.

You know autumn is
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.

Every morning I check the garden,

and this year,
things have been flourishing.

Potatoes look great.

All this produce behind me,

yes, it's covered up,
and I've never done that before.

Years gone by,
I've just left it all open.

And of course, it gets eaten.

There's one vegetable in
particular that I'm pleased to say

has survived munching garden pests.

What got here is our
one and only cauliflower.

And what I'm doing, I'm just...
I'm just turning the soil over,

just aerating it and just
clearing it of any weeds,

and just keeping the
place nice and tidy,

which is always important.

I might just see... There's a little
cover I can put on top of that,

make sure it stays safe.

Something's always eating it.

It's either the rabbits coming in,

the slugs are getting in
and absolutely decimating anything.

Slugs can be the worst ones of all.

And, of course, what's really

helping with the slugs is
the chickens.

And every now and again,
I let them out in the kitchen garden

and they have a field day in here.
And they do clear the slugs.

And I think that's helping,
because years gone by,

this would've been gone by now.

The rain is great for the garden,

but it does limit the jobs
I can do around the farm.

It's time to take stock
over a warm fire and a cup of tea.

So, there's a chef I came across
some years ago who is really,

really into foraging,

and he's invited me down
to go foraging on the beach.

Once again, I'm trying
something new, and I'm excited

because I've spent a lot of time
with growers and with farmers,

but now I'm actually going
to go and hang out with a cook.

Now, that does sound like fun.

I've come down to
Shoreham in West Sussex

to meet up with Christian,

a former chef who runs Urban Forage,

a business dedicated to finding
edible produce in our environment.

How often do you
come down here, then?

In the summer, I try and get down
here once a week.

Christian's going to show me
a selection of sea vegetables

that are in ready supply
along the River Adur.

Easy to spot, of course,
if you know what you're looking for.

Over here, we've got one
that's called spearheaded orache.

Why is it called spearhead?

Because it has
the spear-shaped leaves.

OK, and that's the spearhead?
Yeah. That's right.

It's quite common down by
the riverbanks, sea estuaries.

And you can eat that raw,
like a spinach.

And this bit as well? Yeah.

You can eat the seed tops,
but when they're a bit younger,

they're almost like a little mini

purple sprouting broccoli
in texture.

That would work beautifully on a
little piece of fish, wouldn't it?

It would be lovely. I wouldn't even
need to do anything with it,

apart from just dress it.

I have tempura-d it before as well,
just really lightly.

And you get a really nice
little bubbling on the leaves,

so that's quite nice as well.

That's what we're looking for.
That's what chefs want.

New greens, new ideas.
That's a great little garnish.

So this one's called sea purslane.

Yeah, I'm definitely
familiar with that one. Yeah.

When I worked in kitchens,
we always picked the leaves off.

But more recently,
I've been cooking the tops,

and I find they're
tender enough to eat

if you steam it for a few minutes.

It's quite a nice one to pickle
as well.

And then it just
becomes all limp and tender

and you just sort of, again,
do the same thing with it,

incorporate it into your food.

And, of course, the vitamins
that are in this must be incredible.

It's got really good iron,
really good vitamin C.

Eating foraged food
is only advisable

if you know what you're doing,
and Christian does.

He's been foraging
since he was a boy

and now instructs people on
doing it safely and sustainably.

Are there any rules about foraging?

There's laws which prohibit you
from digging up a plant

in its environment... Right.
..or damaging an environment

where a plant grows.

But in the foraging world,

we kind of have
a few unwritten rules.

So, I sort of try and teach
that we need to respect it

because it belongs to all of us.

And as a general rule of thumb,

you don't really want to
take more than 10% of a plant

because then you might
damage it from coming back.

So now we're starting to
see the samphire and sea aster.

You might tread on a little bit, but
it's not going to damage the plant.

So we'll start off with looking
at some of this lovely sea aster.

That's a really nice one.

So you can just see
how crunchy they are.

They're packed full of vitamin C,

and they're absolutely delicious.

That's a lovely
acidic finish to that.

When you see it here in the wild,

you see it in its natural place
where it's growing.

I don't think people
connect the two.

Complete secret.

Well, the sea coriander
is even harder to see.

It actually looks like grass.

So where's it hidden, then?
Let's go and have a look.

Sea arrowgrass, or sea coriander,

prefers to grow in
a really wet and boggy area.

Right.
So we've got a little bog here.

So let's have a look.

Basically the sea arrowgrass,

it will look a
little bit like a chive.

The way you tell it apart
is the grass gets more of a blade

coming off of it. OK.

Whereas these don't. They're kind of
almost round all the way around.

But to the untrained eye,

it's very difficult
to tell them apart.

I chop it like chives,

or sometimes I garnish a
piece of fish with it like that.

Try a little bit of that.

Do you like coriander? I do. Yeah.

My goodness me. Yeah.

It's actually quite delicate,
quite mild. Yeah.

And so you can forage them,
and then you can keep them

in your fridge for about a week
if you put them a glass of water.

Why do you enjoy
sharing this knowledge?

When I first started foraging,
I got the buzz.

I compared it to what I
would imagine gold-mining to be.

And when you see people
get that same gold fever,

it makes it all worthwhile. Yeah.

I'm from the coast, and I'm sure
this is on the beach

that I used to walk on as
a young boy but didn't even know.

Do you think you'll go back for a
look now? Yeah, I will, actually.

Yeah. I'm familiar with
nearly all of these.

I've never seen them in their
natural environment, though,

and this is actually beautiful.
It's so pretty to see.

It's a carpet of sea vegetables,
that in four or five hours from now

will be almost covered in water.

I've really enjoyed this.
It's been great.

Thank you for your time,

and thank you for sharing
this with me as well.

Thank you so much.

It's just amazing to find
a larder of different flavours

on my doorstep.

I will not forget this
experience with Christian.

It's been absolutely brilliant,
it's a first for me,

and it certainly won't be my last.

Back at the farm, I'm keen to finish
my long-term project,

the paddock.

The existing fence already
has crab apple trees along it.

Now I need to complete the fencing
and plant the remaining trees.

The question is,
can we just knock them straight in?

Do you need me? Yeah.

You're in charge. You're measuring.

But it's going to need more
than the strength of three men

to sink these posts into the ground.

That way.

The cook, the gardener and the
farmer all trying to put a fence in.

Can you release this yellow bit?

Anatoliy won't let him do anything
without some proper guidance.

It's got to be done properly.

Didn't quite go according to plan.

It's just not powerful enough.

And that's pretty solid,
but it's just not going any further.

It's fine if you've got
giraffes to fence in, isn't it?

With the ground too hard,

we'll need an extra bit of kit
and an extra pair of hands

in the form of Stuart's son Fred.

So I think if we drill the
holes first, we can then knock it.

That way.

Down.

Let's try it this time.

That's it. That's it.

Now we need to drill another hole.

After sinking the first few posts,

the wooden fencing
begins to take shape.

That's pretty much... Yeah,
that's pretty good.

It's just interesting
working with Anatoliy again.

He just has all these little tips
that just make such a difference.

Such a difference.

It's like being an apprentice again.

I absolutely love this.

Getting the guys round,
helping me out,

getting the fencing in,
big tractors, diggers.

That's brilliant.

That is a great job, well done.

As a chef, experimenting with new
flavours always gets me excited,

and I particularly love
trying out my smoker,

which I'm using on cream
to make smoked chilli butter.

In here, we've got double cream,

and then all that smoke
just gently just...

HE INHALES
..adds, ooh, into the flavour.

That's had a couple of hours in
there. Two-and-a-half, three hours.

That's our smoked cream.

Next, I'm separating
the cream into butter

and buttermilk in the mixer.

A surprisingly easy
way to make butter,

even without adding flavouring.

You see already
it's thickening up.

Now, that didn't take very long
at all.

You just need to get
it into the muslin cloth

and just let that milk drain away.

There are other things I want to
add into it cos I just want

to elevate that lovely
smokiness, and these chillies

that have been on the fire,
they'll do just that.

Don't be afraid about
leaving all the seeds in.

There's a bit of skin in there, too.
It doesn't matter.

Chillies chopped, parsley,
a little bit of rosemary,

a touch of marjoram from the garden.

Then give the butter
another quick burst in the mixer

to get rid of any
remaining buttermilk.

That pretty much looks
like we've got the most of it out.

Now I can start
adding my ingredients.

In go the chillies, herbs,
seasoning

and for extra flavour,
some chilli flakes.

Now for the taste test.

That's great.

That works really well
with this fantastic olive bread.

And that's one of the best
things about the kitchen garden.

It allows you to experiment.

And having silly things
like a smoker that we built,

it's just new and something
different, and it's great.

There you go.
Your own smoked chilli butter roll.

What a great little gift.

Always curious to find out
about unusual crops and flavours,

I've decided to
visit some neighbours

who specialise in growing hops.

I've come to the Tibbs Farm near Rye

to meet up with
Simon and Phil Wheeler.

I think I'm in the right place.

Hops. Hops. That's the one.

I want to know all about it,

and I believe you two
are the people that can tell me

and show me what it's all about.

I'm excited about this.
We can give it a go. OK!

Go on. All aboard. All aboard.
Let's get on the tour.

Is it just you two
managing everything?

It's the whole family.
Everyone's involved.

Always been like that.
All passed through families.

Pretty much.

The Tibbs family have been
farming hops on this 40-acre site

since the '60s,

but the history of hops growing
here stretched back 300 years.

By the time you finish here,
you'll see a...

You'll see a hop ready to
go straight to a brewery,

ready for beer.

Let's do it. That sounds good.

I quite like that.
It's like a drawbridge, isn't it?

How high is this?

In England, it's generally around
15 foot high. 15 foot high, yep.

The longest day, 21st June,

you want them, the first of them,
to be up at the top of the wire.

Right. And then from there,

you're sort of hoping that
they put on these side shoots,

which then produce the hops.

And also, if you think every year,
that's got to chuck up

15 foot's worth of growth
in the space of five months.

Most of the year, these hop gardens
are blank, bare, kind of... Flat.

Flat, yes.

Talk to me about hops,
because I am clueless.

OK, so, hops add flavouring
and bittering to beer.

Grab one.

So this is Target.

That's the variety.

If you rub it in your hands...

And then you can really...

HE INHALES

Oh, my God.

It's almost like lemongrass, ginger.
That is incredible.

That's got seasoning for me,
you know,

that's got a
seasoning element to it.

And seasoning could be in a rub,
on a piece of meat.

You could put that into a cordial
and let that down

with some sparkling water, ice,
slice of lemon.

You've got your own
little hops drink there.

I'll leave that one with you.

So, how do you get these things
down? How do you harvest them?

I mean, it's pretty old school,
but we have tractor and trailers.

Lead the way.
I want to see what's going on.

I want to see how you do this.

So your job, Marcus,
these are going to fall down.

I want the bottoms at the top.

And you want the heads,
which is at the top at the moment,

at the back.

Full speed ahead! That's a joke.

Well, it seems
straightforward enough,

but we're dealing
with 15-foot hop vines,

so anything could happen.

I'm getting covered in the things.

Do you know what's nice about this?
It actually smells good.

My God! You've got to keep
up with them, haven't you? Yep.

I can just imagine you
doing this with your dad

when you were younger.

And all he can do is shout at you.

Hmm!

There's nothing worse than
feeling useless at something.

I feel I need to lie down
right now, a cup of tea.

Is it tea break?

A beer break.

A beer break, yeah, exactly.
Good one.

But there's no time to rest.

The hops need stripping
from their vines,

and where once it would
have been done by hand,

today it's all mechanised.

It's called the pluckers.

They're like fingers,
rotating fingers.

It's quite gentle. It looks quite
vicious, but it's plucking them.

That's the first process.
We then go in there

and it's all just separating out
the leaf, the hop.

That's a piece of kit, that is.

So, by this point, all the hops,

if they've got this far,
it means they're good.

So they're going into the drying
kilns, where we'll dry them,

take the moisture
down to about 8% to 9%.

And that takes at
least seven to nine hours

before the raw material
is ready to be moved on.

This is what a brewer gets.

I'm trying to put it next
to something that is familiar to me,

and I can't.
It's actually quite unique.

It's almost gone
savoury-like in a way.

It's completely changed.

And maybe that's
the drying out of it,

the oil seems to
have disappeared slightly.

So what happens to this next?

They get pressed
into about a 50kg bale.

Do you want to tip them? Oh, yeah.

Literally just pull that up.

That's it. You've got to
but your back into this. Yeah.

And with the
simple flick of a lever...

HE CHUCKLES

..the dried hops go off
to be packed and dispatched.

Well, gentlemen, I have
had a proper education today.

I've enjoyed your company.

And I love the family tradition.

I love the story.

Thank you very much.

Now, I always ask myself
when I discover new things,

would I grow hops? No.

But what I do know and what
I have found out today,

I've got this new flavouring.

I can smell it on my hands.
It's a seasoning.

And I think it can be brought
into rubs, into marinades.

I want to bring
it back to my kitchen.

I want to give it a go.

Don't get me wrong,
I love a lager and a beer,

but I think I've found
hops in their raw state

quite interesting.
Something for me to work on.

Back at the farm,
it's dinner time for the animals.

But, worryingly,
not everything is as it should be.

I've just come up to feed the pigs,
and they're not in the pen.

They're not here,
which is slightly worrying.

Now I've actually got
to look for them

cos I actually
don't know where they are.

So I'm drafting in help.

Hi, Stu. It's Marcus. You all right?

I'm in the woods,
and I just went to feed the pigs,

and they've escaped.

Yeah, please. Yeah.
Can you bring Fred?

Because we're going to
need a couple of you.

Cheers. Bye. Bye-bye.

Piggies!

Hey, Stu. You all right?

Now with extra manpower,

I'm hoping we can
track down my escapees.

Pig, pig, pig.

If you go round there
and then come back this way

and then I'll go
and meet you over there?

Pigs!

I can't hear them.

I have to say,
I actually am quite worried.

It's days like today that you
want to have a job in an office.

They're having a little laugh
at our expense.

PIGS GRUNT

Literally, they are
nowhere to be seen.

There's no noises,
no rustling of leaves.

No excited piggies
running around the woods.

There is silence.

You haven't seen two
pigs anywhere, have you?

What, is he stopping the neighbours?
Big hairy things.

They're not in the back
of that person's car? No?

We've got them!

Marvellous.

Were they in the garden?
One step away from the lettuce.

Ah!

You're joking me? No.

Oh, well done, Fred.

I genuinely thought
we'd lost them there.

The farming community is
a fantastic community

who really do chip in when
you need them.

Some people run farms with
hundreds of these things on them,

cows and sheep.

There's me struggling
with just two pigs.

It's at that point that you
feel what an amateur you are

at this really tough game.

Anyway, they're in.

They're happy. I'm happy.

Now I can get with
some of my other jobs.

Next on my to-do list is to
complete my tree-planting plan

along the edge of
the fence we finished earlier.

This, what I'm doing now,

is something I started
over a year ago.

I started at the top there
with my apple trees,

nut trees, pine trees down there.

I've got five more of
these fabulous crab apple trees.

I am using these for the wildlife,

drop on the floor, let all
the little things eat them.

Putting this crab apple tree
in that ground

puts a smile on my face.

In the next five, six years,
I'll come out here,

these trees will be up here,

and in the spring, they're going to
be full of blossom

and full of colour.

What I love about growing
herbs in my kitchen garden

are the flavours right
at my fingertips

whenever I get the
inspiration for a new dish.

There's a technique that I've
heard about that I'm going to try.

So, I've got thyme, some rosemary,

marjoram
and some beautiful tarragon.

I'm also going to pick a little bit
of that fennel pollen over there.

Mm-hm.
I've got a beautiful Dover sole,

which I'm going to be
cooking on a board over the fire.

And I have some beautiful samphire,
some mussels and clams.

So, what I've got here is my board

and some pretty
menacing-looking nails.

And this board has been
soaked in water for 24 hours,

so that, basically,
it doesn't set itself alight.

First, though, I'm going
to make a bed of herbs

and slices of lemon
for the fish to sit on.

As the herbs start to heat up,

it's going to bring out
all that beautiful garden,

aromatic herb flavours,

but also a little bit of oil
and a little bit of seasoning

is what will penetrate the base
of the fish while it's cooking.

Now for the bits
I'm experimenting with -

nail a fish to the board.

The reason why I'm putting
the nails in is because

the fish is going to stand here

and then the heat just
cooks the fish from the side.

Without nailing it on,

you fish will just fall off.

Add salt and oil and place
the board next to the fire.

The head is the
thick part of the fish,

so put that at the bottom, and we
can just leave that sitting there,

letting those herbs do their thing.

On to my clams and mussels.

Slice an onion...

..and some garlic.

What's really important when
you're cooking mussels, clams,

have all your
ingredients ready to go,

cos when they go into the pan,

you've got to get the lid on
straight away.

Always, when you're cooking clams
and mussels or any shellfish,

if they don't open up in
the cooking, don't eat them.

My pan is nice and hot.

Got them in.

Onions and garlic.

My herbs.

Some salt

My wine.

Lid goes straight on,

and all the juices of the onions
and the mussels and the clams

will all start to be released.

Dover sole is looking great.

This is a brand-new technique to
me, and it's absolutely fascinating.

That's just a little bit spongy,

so that just needs a little
bit of resting just up there.

Now a quick check on the shellfish.

Smell's absolutely incredible.
And as you can see,

they're all starting to
open up, just move them around.

Samphire can go on top.

A couple of knobs of butter.

The butter just melts into it
and just makes the sauce

just that a little bit better.

But samphire working with
the clams and the mussels

is a match made in heaven.

Let's have a look at our fish.

A bit of oil.

There we have it. Plank-cooked Dover
sole along with garden herbs,

and the beautiful mussels and clams

with the stunning,
stunning samphire.

Lunch is served.

Remove the nails and the fish skin

and then just tuck in.

We can eat this
straight from the bone.

Look at that.

The mussels, a bit of juice...

..a touch of samphire.

Wow.

With a touch of imagination,

it can be magic.

Farming and growing,

it certainly breaks me
out of the straight lines

that I'm used to,

the perfectionism of cookery
that I so adore and admire.

Putting a Dover sole
on a piece of wood

that's been soaked
in water for 24 hours

with a load of my garden herbs
underneath,

it's something I've never done
in my professional life before,

but it just is
absolutely sensational.

In fact, I'm enjoying my cooking
now more than I've ever done.

And this is a new
chapter in my life.

A new part of my life, and it's
a new part of my cooking life.

And I actually think it's great.