All language subtitles for Marcus.Wareings.Tales.from.a.Kitchen.Garden.S02E16.1080p.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...

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 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.

A summer in the kitchen garden
slowly creeps into autumn.

There's still fruits,
veg and salad in abundance.

And although, as a chef,
timing is everything,

when it comes to
harvesting what I've grown,

I'm learning that Mother Nature
is much harder to predict

than anything in
a professional kitchen.

I only had one cauliflower

and it was looking great

about six, seven days ago.

And we've had sun,
we've had lots of rain.

And it's just seemed to
have turned into something

that doesn't represent
a cauliflower any more.

It's almost sort of gone to seed.

It's sort of a shame.
I was looking forward to this.

I even put a cage over it,

but I should have picked it earlier

rather than waiting
for it to get bigger

cos that looked
sensational seven days ago.

Now it's bolted and
it just looks a right mess.

Ah! Need to try again next year.

There's a few things that have
beaten me in this kitchen garden.

Celeriac, celery,
cauliflower, broccoli.

The things that are
so familiar, so common,

I just... I'm just
not getting right.

And I need to revisit the
planning of them for next year.

What I'm learning is that there's
no substitute for experience.

And each area of the smallholding
has the potential to teach me

some valuable new lessons.

On the edge of the farm,

I've got some very
neglected hedgerows

that, even with my limited
knowledge, clearly need some TLC.

There's a broken wood here.

Got some really big
overgrown branches coming in.

I just think, though,
there's too much top heavy here,

not enough down below.

It just looks really thin.

Some areas appear
to be dead or dying.

You see, it's just rotten.

Good for wildlife,
good for the insects,

but not good for the hedgerow.

Other parts are badly overgrown.

I don't know whether
that's right or wrong.

What I do know is that there's
a lot of undergrowth in here,

and there's a lot of place for the
wildlife to hide and to be safe.

You know, birds will be in there,
all the rabbits will be inside.

And in the summer and the spring,

this is full of berries,
full of food.

And so there's an element
of it that I know is correct,

but I don't really
understand the bigger picture,

to be honest with you.

This hedgerow, without doubt,
needs some work.

It needs cutting back.

And I think we've got
to look at the gaps

and potentially fill them in.

But I do... I do need some help.

I need to understand them more.

I actually really want to know
what hedgerows are all about

because nothing's
been done with these.

Well, definitely,
since I've been here,

and it's sort of dying back.

So I've got to...

I've got to save it
and then add back into it

to make it sort of...

..or make it do its job, really,

because it's not really doing
a great job at the moment.

To discover how to restore my
hedgerows to their former glory...

..I'm travelling to Norbury Park
to meet Paul Matthews,

an expert in the
ancient art of hedge laying.

Morning. Ah-ha, hi, Marcus.

Morning. Morning, Paul.
Nice to meet you.

Finally found you. Finally, yeah!

This is quite a place.

It's a bit of a
mission to find it. It is.

So I want to understand
the importance of the hedgerows

and why we've got to cut them back.

What are you actually doing?
It's a very old craft. Right.

You cut through the stems,
you lay them over,

and what you're creating is
better density in the hedgerow.

Right. And then we
stake it in the centre,

and then the binding goes along the
top and that holds the hedge down.

So it is still a living thing.
It's not dead wood that's been...

No, as long as they're attached,

you are shocking the plant into
growing from the root stock again,

when you cut and
split them like that.

They're already a good habitat
for mammals, nesting birds.

What you're creating when
you lay a hedge, though,

is an even better habitat for them.

OK. Where to now?

We're going about 50,
60 metres down there.

I have a cleaving break there and,
if you're not sure what that is,

you're just about to walk past one.

The cleaving break is
where the stakes are made.

And we're greeted with some pretty

brutal and
medieval-looking equipment.

They look pretty menacing tools.

They can be if
you're a piece of wood.

Yes.

What's the first
process for hedge laying?

So, we need stakes.

What skill!

Left side.

Right side.

And it's not, physically,
a lot of effort at all.

So, there you go.

See if you can go from there.

Bit more tension
with your free hand.

It's the repetition thing.

You know, you move it, you look at
it, you move it, you look at it.

And then it becomes
second nature in the end.

There we go, and then just
pop it out and...it'll go.

And so that is exactly
what you're looking for?

That is exactly
what we're looking for.

And you've got two
now instead of one.

Each stake also needs a spike
to help drive it into the ground.

You make that look so easy.

So, armed with a
bunch of handmade stakes,

we set off through the
woodland to find and finish a hedge

that Paul is currently working on.

Hedge laying
rejuvenates existing hedgerows

by encouraging them to
put on new growth.

And Paul's invited me to
help him fill in this gap.

Drop these here.

Drop them there.

First, safety gloves.

OK. You'll probably need a bill hook

because I want you to
go with that first.

But before I get hands on, Paul's
going to show me how it's done.

So I'll do this little one.

The heel there,
which you need to cut off,

I normally use a bill hook,
so I hit it like that.

Why have you left
that little Nottle there?

That...that... The heel?

Yeah. What I've done
there by cutting that,

I've shocked the
plant into thinking,

"What the hell's going on here?

"So I better start
doing some regeneration."

Hazel goes absolutely
crazy when you lay it.

You can expect probably
six to eight feet of growth...

Really? ..the following
spring, summer. Oh, wow.

And that is enough
to reach across this gap.

And then we're good, really.

There you go.

It might not look
much at the moment,

but this is the start
of our new hedgerow.

And I can't wait to have a go.

Let's do this one. It'll give you a
chance to have a go at the cutting.

That's it. That way.

I think that's not
far away now, is it?

There you go.

I'm tempted to almost just...
Cos that'll snap it, won't it?

Yes. Yeah, it will.

So just sit the axe in the base
of the cut and then lever it,

push the handle towards me,
and it should open the cut up.

If I hold that,
and it helps it run down.

There you go. I see.

Make sure they sit
where we want them.

Which is there, like that.

The simple context of
cutting a tree and lying it down

sounds incredibly simple,

but there is a huge
amount of complexity

and understanding
that goes with that.

You can't just hack away at a tree.

When I work with master craftsmen,
such as Paul, laying a hedge down,

there's a step by step process
that you've got to follow.

And I think every single step
has a meaning and has a reason,

and there's an
understanding that goes with it.

And it's like any craft,
any skill, you can't cut a corner.

You've got to do it right.
You've got to do it the right way.

Paul touches up my efforts.

And with the hazel all in position,

we can start to place
the stakes we made earlier.

Now just give it a tap in.

Yeah, that's fine.

Once the stakes are
firmly driven into the ground,

we can start the final stage,
which is known as binding.

This involves weaving hazel
around the top of the stakes

to keep everything in place.

The first one goes behind the stake.

Then you weave it all
the way along, in and out.

So that one goes the
opposite way on top of it.

Yeah, that's the one.

You feel the tension coming
into it straight away.

You can with the hazel.
It's just so elastic.

There's nothing better,
put it that way.

And then the third one is
the same as the first one.

So...

Let's get out of the way.

Cool. All right, that's good.

Again, so you're going to the next
stake, under those top two again.

Then all the way along.

It's pretty good,
I have to say, the stake line.

What's the final stage of this?

You knock the bindings down.

Firstly, you compress them
to make it even tighter.

And do you push these further down?

You drive them in even further,

then you cut the
tops of the stakes off.

I've learnt a lot on my journey
through coming into the countryside

and working with people,
farm and growers.

But just to come and do this, Paul,
you know, a real master craftsman

doing something that
is practically ancient,

it's brilliant.

I've learnt a lot today,
and I actually think

I really want to have a go at this.

I might just have just
a go at doing an area

and just try the skill at hand.

Well, I suppose
we'd better crack on.

There's still a fair bit to go, so.

Yeah, we've got to do
that before it gets dark.

Right.

Next bit.

Next bind on.

As well as my chickens,
cows and pigs...

..I also have three sheep.

Stand.

And at this time of year,

they get their annual haircut
from my neighbour, farmer Stuart.

And despite how confidently
he handles these animals,

Stuart wasn't always a farmer.

I started off as a commuter,
as an engineer.

You see all the sheep and
cattle outside the windows

on your train trips up to London.

I ended up getting
interested to the point

where I bought four sheep of my
own and did a shearing course,

learnt to shear.

I learnt to shear because I
presumed that all farmers shear

and shorn their own sheep.

It's one of the hardest
skills that I think is to master.

I mean, it's so
difficult to manipulate

the animal into position.

But a lot of people, most
farmers get contractors in to come

and shear sheep, just
because it's such a skilled job.

And the things I've picked up
from them is just consistency.

Not trying to speed off,
you know, just a nice even pace.

It's a very strange,
addictive occupation,

shearing sheep.

There we have it.

This is a fleece from one sheep.

About three kilos of a hill sheep.

Probably worth 10p
a kilo, maybe 30p.

Not a lot for three minutes' work.

Although I'm always keen
to learn new skills,

I'm happy to leave the
sheep shearing to Stuart.

For now, I'm staying
in my comfort zone.

I'm pickling some carrots
with my favourite garden herbs.

So I'm going to take one of these
jars down to the community fridge

because, whenever I've been before,

they've always got
all sorts of different veg,

but I've never seen anything
like pickled carrots there before.

So I thought, I'll do
something a little bit different.

What I'm doing here is just scraping
off just a little bit of the soil.

Oh, hello, Es.
Come on, you. Come on.

Now, this happens to be
one of your favourites.

Yeah. I spend all day
wondering where this dog is.

And then, when there's
a bit of food around,

look who arrives.

Show your hands.

You want this?

Off you go.

Never refuses a carrot.

I'm adding two parts of vinegar
into one part water.

Along with cumin...

..salt and sugar.

So what we're going to do is
just bring that up to the boil

so that you dissolve the sugar,

you dissolve in the salt
and you're infusing the cumin.

So you're getting the best
flavour out of it there.

And so we're going
to open these jars.

Just get your carrots in
there and just pack them in,

but don't put them all in in one go

cos you want to add
little bits of the ingredients,

like your rosemary, in between.

Push that through in between.

Just cutting that in half.

Now, it's up to you,

you can leave the seeds in
or you can take them out.

I'm going to take a few of them out.
I don't want it too hot.

Quite like the chilli element

because it's sort
of that hidden surprise.

You're not going to expect it.

Fill in the space,
pack it out, fill in the space,

the jar's there, fill it up.

Get as much as you can in there.

Really important that, once
you've poured the liquid in,

that you seal it up straight away.

And that seals the jar.

And that's a lovely jar of carrots
with loads of flavour.

Delicious.

I'm taking these carrots
along with another batch

to the community fridge, a nearby
foodbank that serves the local area.

Morning. Oh, hello!
Nice to see you again.

I'm just dropping off some stuff.
What have we got today?

Pickled carrots.

Can't use them all,
so I thought I'd pickle them up

and give them to you.

Thank you. Vinegar, water,
a bit of sugar... OK.

..and some of the
garden herbs in there too.

So, they're delicious.

Once they're open,
make sure they stay in the fridge.

There we are. That's lovely.

Thank you very much.
Nice to see you. And you.

Bye. Take care. Bye-bye!

Ever since I've
moved to East Sussex,

I've loved learning from
my countryside neighbours,

including last year's tractor
driving lessons with Stuart.

Gently up on your clutch.

Whoa! Oi!

Sorry. I said gently up on the...

..on the accelerator on there.

No, no. Hey. All right. We're off.

But I'm always keen to learn more.

So today I've come to the Lawton
and District Plough Match in Barkham

to try my hand at this
most rural of occupations.

There's a serious
feeling in the air.

It may just be
ploughing a field, but it's not,

it's so much more than that.

There's a lot of pride,
I think, on display here.

The spirit of the plough match,
very best of luck.

Thank you very much, sir. Thank you.

Looking forward to this.
I am looking forward to this.

And, yes, I am
incredibly competitive, so.

Straight lines.
That's what it's all about.

Then I have certainly
come to the right place.

The tractor they've given
me is from the 1960s.

A rough old machine. Look at that.

I have to say, there is something
quite nice about old tractors.

When you get the bug,
you end up with a collection.

That's Jim,
who's looking after me today.

I've been to many farms
when I was growing up,

picking up produce from the
farms back in the north-west.

And the farms were littered
with these old machines.

And I always wanted to
get on one and drive one.

With poles lined up to guide me,
I'm keen to get started.

Make yourself comfortable
on a Ford luxury seat.

Having never driven
a tractor as old as this

or ploughed a field before,

a crash course is required.

OK, so if you would like to
put your foot in the clutch.

ENGINE RUMBLES

Let's leave it here.

We'll lift the plough up and down.

Put this one in H,
and then put this one in one.

What's H and L mean?

High and low ratio. Right.

Ease the clutch up gently.

Why do I feel nervous?

I don't know why.

There. We're off.

Right. I'm off under
the watchful eye of Jim.

And if I am to get any points,
I need to plough in a straight line.

Whoa, whoa. Marcus, Marcus.

That's... I'm a bit out.

I'm going to keep
that in line with that.

Going along with the red
and white stick, not the line.

For a novice like me,
this isn't easy.

But for everyone else,
it looks like a piece of cake.

Right. I'm going to do this.

Keep going, Marcus.

That's not good.

It's got a bit of a kink in it.

Well, I've seen
worse than that, Marcus.

Not too bad.

I'm proud of that.

But will my furrow
impress the judges?

THEY CHATTER

Yeah, it's gone real nice
in the middle, hasn't it? Yeah.

Slightly concerning that
they're having a little laugh

and a bit of a giggle.

So, we've taken into
account its straightness,

how well you've moved all the soil,

how evenly your furrows are
going up and down the field.

This section is scored out of 20,

and we're quite
impressed for your first go,

and we've put you at a
score of 13 out of 20.

I am absolutely....

I'm over the moon.

It means you could
be employed by a farmer

and could do some ploughing.

I'm really chuffed with that.

I didn't think I would be
above ten, and I appreciate that.

Well done, Marcus.
Well done. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you
for your time. That's no problem.

This is what it's all about.

This is what I love.

All these incredible
memories come flooding back to me

about when I was growing up

and working with people
who are task masters,

who won't let you cut a corner,

who will not allow you
just to go on and just plough

through the field the way you want.

You do it correctly
or you do not do it at all.

And that's always been a
process that was drilled into me

from the minute I stepped
into my father's warehouse.

And that process and that
mindset still stands today.

I'm putting the big
machinery away for now

because, back at the smallholding,
I've got two chickens

that need releasing from quarantine.

They've been kept
separate from the others

since being
introduced a few weeks ago.

Hopefully there's no
squabbling and no fighting.

Come on, ladies.

Come on.

Time to really meet your friends.

Look at that. You open the door
and they don't want to go out.

Go on. Off you go.

The door's open. Go on.

Slightly subdued.

Look at that, look.

Come on, you should
know each other now.

That one there is a
little bit of a troublemaker.

Just the one pack for each one.

The others have been fine.

The chickens make me laugh
cos, everywhere you go,

especially in the farming community,
there's chickens everywhere.

Can't wait to let them
out into the kitchen garden

and let them have a
little rummage around there.

Who thought the humble
chicken can give you so much fun

and so much enjoyment?

And...delicious eggs.

And, of course, more eggs means

coming up with more
delicious recipes to use them in.

And today I'm going
to experiment with

a herb-infused dessert
of three parts.

Bay leaf flavoured
ice cream, thyme crumble

and rosemary nectarines.

I'm starting by making a custard,

which is the base for the ice cream.

In goes the
milk...cream...and sugar.

Now for our bay leaf, these
are what we call hard herbs.

And they're generally in the
garden pretty much all year round.

Your bay leaf,
your thyme, your rosemary.

Hard herbs because they are hard,
you can't eat them like a soft herb.

But just to get them working,
just to get them activated,

let's give them a little
scrunch up in your hand, like so.

And just drop that
into our milk and cream.

Once the mixture is simmering,

I'm leaving the bay leaf to infuse.

Next, I'm taking three egg yolks.

Split away the whites.

And always, when you're splitting,
you crack your egg

and just gently just
roll it back and forth,

just to get off as much
of that white as you can.

Bit of sugar.

I'm just going to whisk
that until it lightens up.

What you don't want to do is you
don't want to pour the hot liquid...

..onto an egg yolk that's
just sitting in the bowl.

Mix it all up, aerate it,

and then you'll see
it all come together.

10p for an ice cream cone
when I was growing up.

That's going back a while.

The next stage, pour in just a
little bit of the milk and cream.

Just a touch. Whisk it straight in.

Let the egg yolk
accept the liquid, gently.

The reason why I'm doing it slowly
is because, if I poured all that

milk straight on top
of that egg yolk,

there's a possibility
that it would scramble it.

Once you've got about half,

you then just transfer all of it
in the bowl back into the pan.

What you need to do now
is basically stay with it.

Do not leave this
to cook on its own.

Otherwise it will curdle.

After several minutes,
the custard starts to thicken.

That's your English custard made,
infused with your bay leaves.

While that cools,
I'm getting on with the crumble.

What I've got here,

some flour, sugar
and a bit of butter.

In goes some fresh thyme.

The garden is running
through every aspect of the dish.

I'm rubbing butter
into flour and sugar.

I watched my mum do this
time and time and time again,

and she never really ever
gave any of us the time of day

to learn how to do it.

Whenever any of us was
hanging around, me especially,

it would always be,
"Get out of the way."

But I was always watching.
And there's our little fine crumble.

That's pretty much it done.

That can just go
straight on to our tray.

Now that's ready to bake.

My custard has cooled down and,
with the bay leaf removed,

I'm churning it into ice cream.

Here we go.
Yeah, this is the best bit.

Put your lid on.

Timer on.

Now to the final stage
with these beautiful nectarines.

What I'm going to do is
I'm just going to cut them

into half or into quarters,

depends on how the stone comes out.

I'm going to give
them a quick grill.

I'm just looking just for a
little bit of charring on that

so it stands out and just
gives a little bit of flavour.

Into a pan I'm adding honey,
the grilled nectarines,

a touch of rosemary,

some salt and sugar.

Then putting them back on the grill.

What the honey is doing at the
bottom is it's nicely bubbling away.

It's infusing the rosemary,

and they'll just start to just
slightly burn just a little bit.

They're just about ready.

And then just tip
those out onto your plate

so they can just nicely cool down.

There we have it.

Honey, nectarines,
rosemary from the garden.

Incredible.

Ice cream with bay leaf
and, of course,

a little crumble in the
oven with some fresh thyme.

All that remains is to
assemble my garden dessert

as an afternoon
treat for Jane and I.

Now for our ice cream.

And lavender.

There we have it.

Bay leaf ice cream crumbled with
thyme, nectarines and rosemary.

I've brought...

..a bit of afternoon tea.

Oh, wow.

Some nectarines. Mm-hm.

Bay leaf ice cream
and a little bit of crumble.

Wow. What a treat.

The ice cream is fantastic.

Thank you. Nice, isn't it?

I could get used to
this every afternoon.

I suppose the question I ask
myself every day I'm on the farm is,

am I starting to feel a
little bit more like a farmer?

And the answer to
that is, yeah, I am.

I am, because I'm being taught
some fabulous old techniques.

These skills must
never be forgotten.

They're like a classical recipe, a
dish that is always being cooked.

It's classical for a reason, because
it works and people enjoy it.

And it should always be
taught to the next generation

because, without that old craft,
we wouldn't be here today.