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Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, food writer, and campaigner on food and environmental issues, leaves London to pursue an ambition of self-sufficiency, growing his own vegetables and raising his own animals in Dorset.
2006
Hugh looks back on his early days at river cottage offering advice to other as to how to start their own adventures into small holding.
From putting in his first organic veg beds, running the gauntlet of pests, to harvesting bumper crops from his polytunnel. He also offer tips on how to triumph at the local Horticultural show.
Hugh reminisces about his adventures with his pigs - from buying his first pig to training his breeding sow to hunt for truffles.
Good friends and helpful neighbours are an essential part of the rural idyll. Hugh recalls his initiation into the rural Dorset community.
Hugh believes that to achieve a thoroughly good living, you need to be ready to barter and heckle. He charts the rise of his own little enterprise, from the local farmers market to the tough streets of London.
The difference between a vegetable garden and a smallholding is livestock, and every smallholder needs chickens. Hugh recalls his poultry learning curve.
Hugh tells us about some of the local customs he learned.
Hugh explains how the river and sea offer the free food - from crabs and cuttlefish to eels and pike.
Hugh explains why wild food should be a part of the smallholder's diet.
Hugh decides to continue as a small farmer - but how far should he go?
2002
Hugh cooks up a limpet pie and his neighbour Jo Forsey comes to check his sheep stock and declares that at least two are in lamb and that the birth is imminent.
After several days and sleepless nights, Hugh's first ewe finally gives birth to twins - the perfect Easter present.
It's late May, the vet calls and it's bad news: Marge the cow is not as pregnant as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall once thought, there'll be no more lambs and the first batch of eggs are all addled.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall invites two local felt-making experts to turn his sheep's fleeces into a fashionable garment. He is asked to make the tea for a cricket match, and ends up having to play.
Hugh's beginning to get the hang of his Dorset down-shifting experiment - or so he thinks. Under the hot summer sun, the animals at River Cottage are giving him considerable grief.
It's high summer and with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's vegetable garden in fine shape he's decided to enter the Vegetable Challenge Cup at his local horticultural show.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall finds that one of his old ewes has died. It's a sad day at River Cottage as later on he sends two of his pigs to the abattoir.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Dorset down-shifting experiment finally comes to an end. As winter draws in, he has one major money-earner up his sleeve.
River Cottage Forever - Q&A with Hugh
2005
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall heads off to Dumfriesshire and Cumbria in search of culinary inspiration and some regional recipes that he can take back home. Hugh throws himself into haggis-hunting in the Borders and char-fishing on Lake Coniston, tirelessly pursues the finest Cumbrian damsons, as well as cooking up all sorts of delicious dishes with the talented regional cooks he meets on his travels.
Hugh concludes his trip by heading to the Lake District and Yorkshire in search of the finest northern tea experience. On his return to Dorset, he stops off in Birmingham, where he looks for the definitive recipe for curried goat. Back at base, he rustles up a Caribbean-flavoured feast for local lifeboat men, including salted pollock, rum cake and a beach bar of tropical drinks.
2010
Hugh believes the way to make organic free range meat fit your budget, is to eat and enjoy cheap cuts rather than cheap meat.
Hugh's challenge this time is to convert a house full of student girls to the delights of fresh fish with dishes ranging from marvellous mussels to tempting Thai fish curries.
Hugh tries to win over the shoppers of Bridport to the delights of crudités, and persuade some of Poole's fire fighters to go vegetarian.
With fruit sales falling in the UK, Hugh heads off to a typical suburban street to see if he can get people excited again by nature's original sweet treats, from Eton Mess to lollies.
Hugh shows that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, with Swiss-style muesli soaked in fruit juice, pancakes, sausage-stuffed grilled mushroom and a 'full English' salad.
Hugh tries to rescue lunchtime with the ultimate cheese sandwich, a DIY lunch box, healthy instant noodle snacks in a pot, and a family Sunday roast with a twist.
Hugh makes bread. Everything from simple white loaves to tangy sourdoughs, cheese and Guinness stuffed soda breads, an Italian bread salad, and his favourite summer sandwich.
This time at River Cottage the theme is treats, with everything from sponge cake, lemon curd muffins, cheesy tarts and a vanilla and elderflower panna cotta.
River Cottage welcomes the festive season with a Christmas Fayre as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his team offer up their secrets on how to enjoy the perfect Christmas holiday.
2000
It's April, one year since Hugh moved to River Cottage. Hugh negotiates with his neighbour to secure the use of a four and a half acre (18,200 m²) field, just enough to support a cow called Marge and her calf, a steer of beef and a small flock of Dorset Down sheep. The cattle are joined by Hugh's chickens, which he introduces to high-rise living, and three "Spice" pigs which he names Ginger, Baby and Fat. Hugh takes part in a pub's annual raw nettle-eating competition and makes nettle gnocchi. He also goes scallop-diving and prepares a soup of wild watercress and wild garlic foraged from his newly acquired field.
Two of Hugh's chickens aren't acclimating to their 8-foot (2.4 m)-high coop, so he sells them at the annual poultry auction and buys three new birds. Hugh prepares a fruit fool with fresh gooseberry, elderflower and Marge's cream. Hugh calls in vet Jeff Johnson to castrate his bull calf, then they enjoy the testicles on toast with sage leaves. Michael Michaud helps Hugh plant tomatoes in his newly constructed polytunnel. Finally, Hugh joins gamekeepers to hunt rabbit, then he sells bunny burgers and spicy rabbit satay at a farmer's market.
Hugh's landlords the Hitches are hosting a medieval fair, and Hugh offers up one of his pigs for spit roasting. Hugh attempts to breed Marge the cow with a bull named Regulus. Hugh participates in traditional mackerel-netting at Chesel Beach, then preserves his share of the catch as a gravlax. A Kiwi sheep-shearer teaches Hugh to shear his ewes for summer. Then, Hugh has his local bakery prepare lardy cakes using the fat from his pig. Barbara Gunning helps Hugh roast the pig, whose succulent meat is served on rolls at the fair. Finally, the River Cottage team loses at tug of war, sending Hugh flying into the moat, to the delight of all.
Unseasonal rains flatten Hugh's potential hay crop, and the tomatoes in his polytunnel are stricken by blight. Sheep shower Joanna helps Hugh groom one of his sheep—coincidentally also called Joanna—for competition in a show. Hugh joins Nick and Paddy to forage for a full dinner of wild garlic, pigeon, and Chicken of the Woods stuffed in a 6-pound giant puffball. Hugh traps signal crayfish in his river, and prepares a leg of lamb in hay. At the livestock show, Hugh's sheep wins second prize.
The tomato crop has survived the blight, and Hugh prepares to take on organic grower Michael in a friendly competition at the farmer's market. Hugh turns his tomatoes into a variety of upmarket products including ketchup, tomato and apple jelly, and samosas stuffed with green tomato and pumpkin. Hugh enlists Trish, a graphic artist, to design labels for his new brand, The River Cottage Glutton. Meanwhile, Hugh fears his "Spice" pigs may have been targeted by a horny wild boar, so he sets up a whimsical tripwire alarm system around the pig pen. Victor the ham expert returns to sample the dry-cured ham from last year. To thank Trish, Hugh invites her for a dinner of Lobster Thermidor. At the farmer's market, Hugh's strategy of selling prepared foods proves successful.
Hugh tries brewing his own beer, using a hop plant he's found growing atop a tree. Later, he employs Nigel, an expert in hedge laying, to tame the trees behind the cottage. In exchange for a few bales of hay, Hugh acts as the quarry in a bloodhound hunt. Finding that too exhausting, Hugh decides to hold a "bring-a-bale" party to shore up his supply of hay for the winter. He cooks a Moroccan tajine with lamb, and Ray the butcher prepares steaks from Hugh's steer, which they eat with fresh horseradish sauce. The series closes with Hugh's party, as he's joined everyone who has helped him over the past year.
Q&A with Hugh
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Himself
2005
Hugh's journey towards self-sufficiency started out with a modest vegetable patch and a handful of animals, but he soon realised the importance of growing your own fruit, vegetables and meat.
From learning to make felt from his sheep's fleeces to trying to revive traditions of tripe eating at the local farmers market, Hugh's determined that no part of his precious livestock should ever go to waste.
Continuing his retrospective assessment of the vital elements of rural life, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back on his ever-increasing commitment to sourcing his food locally.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back on the part that wild food has played over his six years of Dorset downshifting.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back on his experiences of bagging 'one for the pot' from the rabbits that are eating his lettuces.
Hugh revisits some of his finest food gatherings, including a blossom party picnic and an annual cider knees-up.
1999
Hugh arrives at River Cottage, a former Gamekeeper's cottage in west Dorset. He sets about removing the plants from the garden and starts planting his vegetables.
Hugh's been at the cottage a month, his vegetables have been planted and they are growing nicely. Pike is on the menu today, but he'll have to catch one first. There's also a trip to the local fruit farm for a day's fruit picking with the transient eastern European workforce.
The vegetables are doing so well, Hugh decided to enter them at the Beaminster Show. He also enters the Home Craft section with his own jam and a sponge cake. Then it's off on a fishing trip for spider crabs.
Hugh has discovered that he is not alone at River Cottage, there are mice at the cottage and he wants rid of them - by humane means. There's an early start to try and bag a roebuck and a nostalgic reunion with a childhood hero as he goes in search of prawns.
Hugh decides that the river that give the cottage its name should contribute to his larder. So he has an eel trap made and puts it to use in the river. He also spends the day as a pheasant beater being paid with pheasant not money for his day's work. Then it's a lesson in cider making with the Chiddick Cider Circle. He tests the theory that the cider's purity will never result in a hangover.
The day has arrived for Hugh's pigs to go to slaughter. He intends to use "everything but the oink", so enlists the help of Ray and Victor. Then it's party-time to say thank you to everyone who has helped him over the summer with one of his pigs helping to provide food for the guests.
Christmas Special at River Cottage
2007
Hugh heads to the Channel Islands to cast his fishing rod into the ocean. What he catches, he cooks, either on board his boat or on the beach.
Hugh visits the Hebrides in Scotland where he learns about how the sea and the food it provides have shaped life on the islands. He also sources shellfish and sustainable salmon, and takes over Skye's chippy with only eco-friendly fish he has caught himself.
Hugh returns home to the West Country where he teams up with the region's most progressive fishermen to investigate commercial developments in sustainable fishing.
2004
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has outgrown the old River Cottage and now owns a 44 Acre farm in Dorset. To improve the economy of the new farm Hugh realizes he needs to branch out into further business ideas. But first he needs a viable location.
Hugh has finally located a suitable property and begins transforming the site into a going concern. His first challenge is to prepare one of the buildings to open for a special Valentine's Day dinner for 30 couples in just two weeks.
In this episode Hugh has to deal with impending birth of piglets. He solve the problem of no toilets for the new restaurant and finally tests some new soup receipts at the Bristol Farmers market.
The year has moved to April. With the seasonal spring vegetables coming into their own, Hugh decides to set up a special seasonal dinner for 40 paying customers.
The year is moving to late spring and the lambing has gone very well. Hugh attempts to win the Blossom Picnic Festival. Finally he decides to learn a bit about traditional English bread making.
River Cottage HQ restaurant has been open for a month and things are going well. Hugh agrees to host a wedding feast for over a 100 guests, using nothing but produce grown on his farm.
Summer is now if full swing. Hugh inspired by an excellent crop of tomatoes decides to conduct a tomato festival at River Cottage HQ in an attempt to make money from the over-supply of produce.
Moving into Autumn Hugh decides to enter competitions promoted by the local bee keeping society. He also decides to try and reignite interest in offal by preparing tripe for the local farmers market.
Hugh takes up pottery skills to learn how to make clay pots designed for cooking chickens. He also goes in search of mushrooms from the air and finally he arranges for his ewes to be serviced.
Hugh ends the year with a medieval feast including 10 birds within a bird. He also takes his staff to a Christmas party hunting and then cooking squid freshly caught that day.
2006
Hugh entertains a group of fast food addicted city folk. With busy lifestyles and no desire to cook, the only solution seems to be buying something from the chinese, kebab or curry houses, which is definitely not the River Cottage philosophy. First up, it’s a group of finger-lickin’ chicken-lovers who are living off takeaways and cheap chicken portions from the supermarket. Hugh’s not afraid to use shock tactics in his mission to change their ways.
Hugh is faced with a group of self-confessed ready meal addicts. Hugh struggles to cope with their laziness, food foibles and squeamish approach to fresh produce.
Hugh deals with the takeaway townies: too lazy to cook, shop or even bung something in the microwave! Can he change their ways and turn them into competent cooks?
2008
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall cooks using produce from Britain's abundant spring harvest, including asparagus, artichokes and lamb. The chef's mother's shepherd's pie recipe is taste-tested against Delia Smith's cheat version with surprising results, and five Bristol families are challenged to turn an acre of city land into an urban smallholding. Plus, an update on the Chicken Out campaign
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall prepares dishes using seasonal lettuce and spinach from his kitchen garden and dandelion and burdock grown in the hedgerows. The experimental Bristol smallholding receives four saddleback pigs, and vegetarian Susan accepts the task of butchering a whole lamb's carcass. Plus, the chef's country honey is pitted against the city variety at a taste-off in Broadway market.
The potatoes and radishes are ready for picking and the broad beans are de-podded for a luxurious dish of beans on toast. Vegan Jess chooses a batch of hens from a battery egg farm as the Bristol experiment to turn an acre of derelict city land into a smallholding continues. Back at River Cottage, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall organises a foraging competition and finds his ducklings hatch days early.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall celebrates the arrival of summer with a fair. He prepares elderflower champagne and the Bristol families spit-roast pigs, lamb and goat. The final crops he still has to harvest are peas, gooseberries and wet garlic, at which time he will have experienced all that his land has to offer during his favourite season of the year.
2008
It's autumn at River Cottage and Hugh's going to get us all eating beetroot. There's duck on the menu too, hatched by Hugh himself as well as some wild birds bagged by hunter-gatherer chef, Tim. We return to Bramble Farm, to see how Hugh's Bristol smallholders are handling their harvest and Hugh travels up North to meet some green fingered guerrillas.
The autumn abundance is enough to tempt committed carnivore, Hugh, to lay on a slap up vegetarian feast at the River Cottage Canteen. But there's one vegetable that's not invited. Cauliflower.
We're deep into autumn and the harvest has been hearty for Hugh and his faithful River Cottage crew. As a reward for their hard work, Hugh's planning a slap up meal and, to show that you don't need piles of cash to dine like a king, he'll be foraging for all his food.
It's firework time at River Cottage and Hugh's preparing for a Bonfire Night shindig. But before any marshmallows can be toasted there's some hard graft needed, as the team bottle down for winter with some pickles, chutneys and preserves.
Hugh uses the fat from a cow's 'kidney knob' to make a spectacular flaming jam roly poly, his road test for a Christmas pudding with a twist
2009
Hugh is trying to change the opinion of veal, which has recently been avoided in Britain on the grounds of poor welfare. He visits a local farm that is producing welfare friendly veal animals to explore the problem further. Armed with culinary veal delights he then heads to Taunton farmers market to put the welfare friendly meat to the public vote.
Hugh wants to run a 'Leftovers Night' at the River Cottage Canteen. Together with chef Tim Maddams they make canapes from leftover fish, gnocchi from roast potatoes and puddings from breadcrumbs.
Hugh learns slugs have been scoffing the soft cabbages so he plans some drastic action. Snails have long been established on the River Cottage menu, so Hugh wonders if he can turn slugs into a culinary hit too. Hugh's goat has had a phantom pregnancy but because her milk is flowing, he takes a little in order to make a cheesecake.
River Cottage is celebrating the strawberry this summer with a massive 500-person strawberry fete. In preparation, Hugh and the River Cottage gardeners plant strawberries in every available space.
2011
In this first episode, Hugh makes peace with the pigs, and says goodbye to bacon sandwiches, and instead heads into the River Cottage vegetable garden to see what green summer vegetables he can get his hands on to set him on his way. A classic summer garden soup is a sure fire winner.
This second programme is all about the garden. Hugh and the garden team revel in the first sweet roots of summer - delicious whether snaffled down raw in the veg patch or cooked up into dishes like a glorious beetroot tarte tatin.
Hugh prepares to cook a meat-free feast. But he faces a battle with the slugs who are tucking into his vegetable patch with vigour! Catering for a wedding party, Hugh has convinced the couple, Louise and Phil, to have a vegetable banquet. Hugh visits Jagdish Ghelani, owner of Indigo restaurant in Leicester, who regularly prepares south Indian speciality feasts for over 450 people. Back at River Cottage Hugh begins perfecting his curries with a fresh homemade aubergine and bean curry. He also knocks up some stuffed courgette flowers.
Hugh's commitment to a summer without flesh takes a hit when he joins a fishing trip and has to pass up the fresh mackerel sushi. So he visits Sachiko in Birmingham, where a Japanese chef introduces him to the vegetarian ways of Buddhist monks, and cooking techniques entirely dedicated to wowing the palate out of any yearning for meat or fish. Back on track, Hugh plunges back into traditional English summertime and prepares a full cricket tea without a pork pie in sight.
Hugh immerses himself in the pleasures of wild swimming with vegetarian triathlete Colin. Meanwhile, Tim and James go head to head in the kitchen with a summer veg showdown. Colin Hill has swum the English Channel, the Bosphorus and the Hellespont, and he puts pay to any suspicion that a meat-free diet lacks power. But his pasta-heavy diet lacks imagination - pasta and ketchup, anyone? So Hugh whips up some delicious carb-loading dishes that provide plenty of flavour as well as energy.
Hugh is well into his summer without meat. But even though he's turned veggie, life goes on - and it's time to take two of the River Cottage sheep to slaughter. But Hugh now reckons when it comes to cheap delicious seasonal food, vegetables can't be beaten. To prove his point he accepts a challenge thrown down by the landlady at a local pub to try and wow customers with his veggie treats, including golden squashes and pea and mint ice cream.
Hugh has spent the summer dedicating his time and attention to vegetables. In this final episode his experiment of not eating meat ends, and it's fish he first turns back to. Still keen to share the vegetable love, Hugh invites a group of local children who hate veg to join him in the garden, and attempts to win them over with pizzas and garlic butter. And James at the River Cottage restaurant cooks a mouth-watering pumpkin and blue cheese pastie.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back at his summer of vegetarian living through the eyes of the people who helped turn him from a committed carnivore into a veg muncher and cruncher.
2012
Philip Glenister, Keeley Hawes and Felicity Kendal join Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for a two-day cookery master class at River Cottage farm, including fishing, foraging and tasty food.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is joined at River Cottage by comedians Robert Webb, Lee Mack and Ruby Wax. Can two days of classes whip them into shape as serious chefs?
Hugh welcomes comedy actors Kathy Burke, Stephen Mangan and Mark Heap to River Cottage. What could possibly go wrong?
2009
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall returns to celebrate the selection of fare available over the autumn and winter seasons. After travelling to Gloucestershire for expert advice on making pear cider, he undergoes a crash course in free diving and takes to the open sea to find scallops. He also joins foraging guru John Wright to hunt for mushrooms in the woods, visits a mass tree planting day in the Peak District and uses the offal from his two-year-old steer to make a hearty stew.
Hugh deals with a rabbit invasion in his garden by bringing in two warreners, and takes his children to Devon to look for wild mussels with French teacher Nathalie Arnold and her family. He receives help from his local Women's Institute to get rabbits back on the British menu.
Hugh prepares a chilli and pumpkin party for 200 people. He joins Gill Mellow and Tim Maddams to resurrect a childhood favourite of crispy pancakes using smoked pollack, bacon, cheese and sweetcorn. He travels to Cornwall to meet fishermen who have found a sustainable and lucrative market in catching squid, and visits members of a community who are determined to grow and rear their own Christmas dinners.
Hugh begins his preparations for Christmas, making chocolate brownies to give as gifts and using his slaughtered steer to create canapes of biltong and pastrami for a party. He heads to an Exeter nightclub to continue his mission to get wild rabbits back onto the British menu, hunts for the blewitt mushroom, and tries to catch herring for the first time.
To celebrate a bumper year at River Cottage, Hugh has some of his food heroes round for a fabulous four course dinner including rare mushrooms, ten bird spit roast and the ultimate sponge and crumble
