Episode 3 Meet the Watkins

Hidden away in the Gwendraeth Valley, West Wales

is a family business like no other.

In the last count, I'm sure it was 18 family members working here.

They are the fruit and veg mafia of Gorslas.

'There's me, I'm Roland.

'There's Stuart, Reuben, Tom, Davina, Rachel - all who work here.'

Born a scrubber, always a scrubber!

'And then there's Moya,

'Kim,

'Maria.

'My son, William.'

AIR GUSHES

Down! You'll put a hole in it.

Stuart's son John is working here.

Reuben - his son Luke is working here.

I've got to go and kill it. What d'you expect me to do?

His daughter Marie-Alice is working here.

Ashley,

Nicky...

Who else is working here? I can't think who's working here.

Also, I've just forgot, I'd better tell you,

my wife is working there, Gina. Would I be in trouble?!

Don't know, I can't think of anybody else off the top of my head.

I think I've got it all but a few. How many did you count?

This time on Meet The Watkins...

Things get busy in the kitchen as the family face

the busiest Sunday of the year.

And it's all hands on deck for the May Day Bank Holiday Fun Day!

Cwmcerrig Farm Shop lies midway between Swansea and Carmarthen

and is a familiar sight

for many who travel along

the A48 near Crosshands.

Today is Mothering Sunday,

the busiest day of the year in the restaurant.

It's 7am and the kitchen is a hive of activity.

For head cook Gina, it's business as usual.

I don't think I've ever had a Mother's Day lie-in.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Ever?

-Ever, no.

I've always worked Mother's Day

cos it was always a Sunday, market day,

and since being here, no, never had a Mother's Day lie-in.

'I don't worry too much about it, just as long as I get the thought,

'"Aw, they still want me!

-'"You're still Mam!" '

-SHE LAUGHS

No-one is allowed a day off today

and Gina's husband Roland doesn't take any prisoners.

I told the wife this morning,

I've had a lot on my mind

so I forgot about Mother's Day for her and she sort of smirked

and I said, "Yeah, what's new?

"I've never done anything for you, have I?"

Quite often we're running with one or two staff missing

because of all of this.

I just put on the calendar nobody could have holidays today.

For the first time ever, Roland has taken a calculated risk

which could prove to be disastrous.

We really don't know what today's going to be like,

cos the three years we've been open, we've done bookings on Mother's Day.

We've found it quite hard work, a bit affecting,

so we've gone this year with no bookings, people can just walk in.

We've had a lot of enquiries.

We just don't know, we might have done it wrong, we don't know.

We'll know at the end of the day!

If we can do 300...which is only a normal Sunday, I'd be quite happy.

We're not expecting miracles.

Even ex-lorry driver and maintenance man Stuart has been called to the kitchen

to give his sister a helping hand with the veg.

Top man.

-He's been well trained!

-HE LAUGHS

I had nobody to boss me about when I was driving a lorry, did I?

He walks in the kitchen and we give him something to do straight.

It's dangerous to come in the kitchen.

-Are we nearly there?

-Nearly.

As the pace quickens in the kitchen,

Roland makes sure that front of house looks at its best.

While Will, his son, has a very important task,

something that's close to Roland's heart.

-What's the time?

-Nearly 8:20am, Will.

Put it to 4:20pm and then we can all go home then!

That clock up there is one of...

I think one of the last things my mother bought before she died.

Funds were very tight at the time

and she was paying for it a bit at a time.

She died before it actually come to the house.

So that's going to always stay there.

But time waits for no man or woman

and as the clock ticks down, everyone has their job to do.

The pressure's on to get things done

as efficiently and as quickly as possible!

We've got three of these tubs of spuds each holding about

four or five sacks of potatoes and we've got cabbage...

each holding, like, 20 or 30 cabbages.

OK? And we've got swedes, we've got four of them, large ones.

We've got more on standby if we need them.

We've got carrots.

We've got five of them, which means, like, six sacks nearly

and we've got more on standby if we run out.

Hopefully we'll need them all. Hopefully we'll have a busy day.

It's a sunny morning and the jobs list gets longer.

Hidden away in the shed over the winter months,

it's now time to bring the infamous blimp out of hibernation.

I think it has lift, yeah?

And Roland's patience is wearing thin!

Today, Will(!) Think I could really blow it up quicker.

AIR GUSHES

A lot of people come in from the blimp up here,

and I've been to different places

and you'll say who you are - "Oh, yeah, I passed that.

"You're the one with the balloon up there?"

Yeah, we get told it a lot and...

The one that's attracted a lot, I reckon is,

d'you know when the Irish come over and they're going on holiday

to Cornwall, different places, they pass down,

the kids have seen the balloon - "Oh, d'you want to call there, then?" And they have.

So definitely good

and a one-off payment and you've got it, innit it? You know?

So, a balloon, some helium...simple.

-With the balloon, you've got...

-AIR GUSHES

Down! You'll put a hole in it!

Because it's up so high,

you've actually got to have airspace permission for it

so it'll be on the radar for low-flying aircrafts.

You've got to phone every year to pay for the airspace.

Airspace granted and ready to go.

It's heavy.

I hope the wind stays calm so we can keep it up,

otherwise it'll have to come back down and...

it's got to do more good up there than in the shed, doesn't it?

We hope it will attract a few in.

20 minutes from first service and things are well under control.

Everything's basically ready.

When Roland says, "Right, 11 o'clock, let's get it out,"

we're nearly ready to go.

11 o'clock on the dot

and it's action stations front of house,

before the first customers begin to arrive

for their treasured Mothering Sunday lunch.

Lamb today.

Over the last six weeks

we've had lamb for about four out of the six weeks.

But lamb is quite expensive

that we thought we'd put a special treat on today.

So we've got...turkey from this farm,

lamb from this farm,

pork from down the road and the beef will be from this farm.

And on cue, just after 11 o'clock,

Roland carves his first slice of meat.

Customers are arriving quicker than they can be served.

I've got mushroom risotto,

lentil roast or you can have a cauliflower cheese without meat.

-Can I have lentil, please?

-D'you want vegetarian gravy?

Mothering Sunday's in full swing

and things are getting very hot in the kitchen.

Half way through service and Roland's plan has worked.

Works much better than taking bookings, this is miles different.

Nobody can complain, can they?

Beef, please.

As mid-afternoon approaches, things finally slow down.

All the Mothering Sunday customers have been fed and watered.

We couldn't do any more, could we? We haven't stopped.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Are you happy?

-I'm always happy, you know me.

Mothering Sunday over

and since 11 o'clock this morning it's been relentless,

but a very good day for the Watkins' empire.

Time now for a well-deserved drink!

Finishes the day off, don't it? It's good. It's team building, yeah.

Very important in a business. We come down here most Sundays.

We get quite a good welcome so it's nice to come.

A small, little old pub, innit? Did you bang your head on the way in?

You've got to nearly crawl in here, haven't you?!

It's a good day,

it's a good working day, so, you know,

we've got nothing to complain about really.

-When you're busy the time goes quicker, don't it?

-Yeah, it does.

-And now it's just, have a drink time and chill out.

-Have a gossip, innit?

-Yeah.

-When you're in there, you think, "What should I do?"

Today is meant to be Roland's official day off,

but the butchery is short on lambs and so he's on his way

to the local livestock market at Ffairfach, Llandeilo.

I'll try and get some lambs today.

We haven't got any of our own left now until the new season,

which'll be... two months away, I'm afraid.

I wouldn't mind having between 15 and 20.

If we had about 20 there'd be enough lambs for two weeks

cos we're going to take these home and keep them a week,

cos they go on a Sunday down to the slaughterhouse to be killed for us.

The shop on average requires a dozen lambs a week to supply the butchery.

With a bit of luck,

Roland's trailer will be full on his return trip home.

But first, some window-shopping.

I'm looking for meat - lambs with a good cover of meat on.

A lot of these wouldn't have enough for me.

They'd suit the supermarket but we want more cover on them

than what they do.

When you feel the back bit there, you can feel the bone's up too much.

I want extra cover. I'd rather have bigger lambs, preferably.

I've had a quick look up here,

I haven't seen anything really suitable.

If I've got to, I'll find something out of 'em, but let's hope

there's a lot that will come in with something better on there.

That's what I'm hoping, anyway. More texture-type.

Another lorry load of lambs has arrived.

Out of 700 sheep on sale today, will there be something in this batch

to catch Roland's eye?

This is a pen I think would suit us. It's the one I picked out today.

I think they've got more cover on, what we'd want.

A lot of the lambs here would be a bit too lean for us,

these would be more what we'd want.

I think they would look well hanging up in the shop.

I'll wait till the sale and see if I can afford them.

I'll have to try and buy them...

against all the others.

The Watkins family have had to learn a lot of new skills

since opening up the shop.

Will and Luke are the next generation to join the business

and are training to become full-time butchers.

Today, they're being assessed to see how their meat-handling skills

are coming along.

-WILL:

-'We've got Trevor down to see us today.

'You know, assessing us doing our apprenticeship.

'We're on the NVQ Level 2 now.

'Hopefully if we manage to get it all done,

'a couple of months now, then we should hopefully finish it all...

'if it all goes to plan! And we pass everything!'

At just 18 years old, Luke has less experience than his cousin Will.

He started the year before me so I try to see what he's doing

and try to get a bit more off Will as well.

So basically, you want to be just like me?

THEY LAUGH

As well as their assessor, head butcher Justin

is also keeping a watchful eye on his young apprentices.

They know to a point what they're doing, but I like to keep just...

just that little extra so that they know then that something's wrong.

They only ask me anyway and I just correct them

and leave them to carry on then.

They do learn by mistakes, it's the only way you can learn.

When you're trimming the fat off,

how do you know how much fat to take off it?

By following company specification

to carry on and have it how they want it.

OK.

Will, what are you actually doing there?

Taking the spinal cord out.

Right, and you've got two parts to a loin - what do you call the parts?

-The best end and the loin end.

-And what would you actually do with it?

You prep the loin end, cutting it into chops

and then prep the best end,

we use it for rack of lamb.

Yeah, right.

Cutting and preparing the meat is one part of being a butcher,

their knowledge about the meat they sell to their customers is crucial

and cooking and tasting their products

is part and parcel of the job.

Every day someone will ask us, "How do you cook this?

"What temperature do you want to cook it at? Is it a slow cook?

"How do you want it cooked?" and we will give 'em feedback on it.

It's nice that they know that we know how we do the job.

When you see a nice cut coming through, it's nice to be able...

"Ooh, I'll have that for food tonight."

You get to taste what you're doing

so you can feed back to customers as well,

let them know what's nice and what's not.

As the younger Watkins generation learns its trade,

one of the older Watkins is enjoying his afternoon off.

You do miss being out on the land and coming to the mart

and meeting with the people,

it's the social aspect of the farming life, like,

and with the shop now

we just can't...it's not possible,

so on my day off like this it was ideal.

It's a nice change and as good an afternoon as any for me,

but the wife wouldn't agree!

The auction begins and Roland bides his time.

20? 79, 20.

-35 and a half.

-Five!

-Five I'm bid.

68, 58, 80. At 80...

Finally, he has a chance to place a bid

but he's got some tough competition.

50. Sold away, £880.

Roland Watkins - Cwmcerrig Farm Shop.

37 and a half...

I'm quite happy.

They'll work out quite nicely for us, the amount we paid for them.

Dealers don't like us butchers coming in buying in the mart,

so they'll run you up a bit to try and keep you out, but...

at the end we're going to get the end price,

so they should turn out very well for us, hopefully!

Then we go into the slaughterhouse on Sunday to be killed on Monday

and they'll be in the shop the next week and the week after.

So we'll have local lamb, we won't have our own

but we'll have local lambs to sell in the shop,

which is what we've always tried to do -

support the local farmers when we haven't got our own.

There we are. Back home now.

Back at Cwmcerrig headquarters,

the boys' training assessment comes to an end

and they're quietly confident.

I think I've done very well today.

It's nice to know that I'm improving every day.

It's good to know that I am improving.

Hopefully we've passed this module

that we're doing at the moment with...

You know, Trevor seeing us cut the lamb down and things.

Hopefully we're well on our way.

So you've worked together on the block and everything's been spot-on.

-Your hygiene, your safety has all been to the standard required.

-Yeah.

All right? Cheers, boys. Thank you very much.

Early Monday morning and officially a day off

for some of the Watkins' staff.

Not quite - Roland has organised a special trip for them,

leaving Gorslas for the day and heading up the M5 to Birmingham.

All skiving today.

We're going to this trade fair at the NEC in Birmingham.

Never been to it before, don't know if it's going to be worthwhile, but we'll see at the end.

We asked all the partners who wanted to come

and the others didn't want to come,

and then we thought it was essential for Nicky to come,

cos he's in the shop but we're all in charge.

We went to one a couple of weeks ago, that's the first time,

so we've had a little taste to see what it's like,

but no, I've never been to a big one like this.

Donna and Maria, they work on the deli,

so there's supposed to be some delis up here.

Because they work there,

they interact with the customers more than what we would.

We'll probably look more at the cheese

and bits like them that we would sell, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Mainly the cheese, cos we make everything else ourselves, really.

And obviously anything else we want to taste that we like!

William, he's in charge over there, so...

that was basically it,

nobody else was asked.

You couldn't have everybody coming.

Tom takes advantage of another driver for the day.

Well, whenever he gets in a car if he's not driving,

it's not long before Tom is asleep.

At the drop of a hat! He'll wake up all refreshed. A big softie, he is.

A big food and drink exhibition

and the Watkins family arrive en masse.

With hundreds of stands to visit,

it's down to business as soon as possible.

-Peach Melba.

-The mandarin one's really nice.

-Have we had it?

We've only got the big ones at the moment,

we haven't had the small ones yet.

So which pate? D'you have the chiller or the cutting ones?

We haven't gone far and everything we've seen so far is from Wales!

No need to come here! It's like being back in the shop so far!

Big place, mind. Oh!

I'm frightened I'm going to lose them.

Going so quick in different directions and you're thinking,

"Which group do I follow?"

-Where are these based, then?

-Wrexham.

We had a box of goodies sent to us

and there were some of these and they were quite nice...

-Yes, sir. I sent them to you.

-Yeah, they were quite nice.

As well as food, there's always room for a bit of alcohol too!

It tastes like shandy. He said, "It's only 2.8%."

-I told him it costs more now to get drunk!

-HE LAUGHS

-What's it like?

-It's nice.

-I've never tried a quail egg in me life.

-And how much do they cost?

-They're £1.50 for a dozen.

-And what about quail, Scotch eggs?

-The quail eggs are 60 pence each.

And if we bought those, we could make our own Scotch eggs.

VENDOR LAUGHS

Wheeler and dealer Roland

always keeps an eye out for a good deal and this is no exception.

-A case of each for the big ones.

-A case of the granola as well, OK.

And the small pots. Have you got that down? You tell me what you've got.

Tell me what you've got!

I've got - a case of each type of muesli, so there's four types.

A case of each type of porridge, which is four types.

A case of granola, which is one type.

-VENDOR:

-Nick, ring me with an order!

We can't do that now, we're not sure if we want that.

Is that all right?

-That's lovely. Thanks very much.

-We'll leave you in peace. Thank you.

Thanks a lot. Bye.

Quite shocked to see so much Welsh stuff here, which is...

I shouldn't say I'm shocked, I'm pleased to see it here,

but there's a lot more of it here than I expected.

Yeah, a big part of the show.

You go round and you see things

and some things we've seen today you wouldn't expect to see.

If we had a bit more time, we could see a bit more of the show,

but I think everybody's got tired out to be honest.

I think it's a two-day event, I think! Make a real event of it.

A really good show. I think about the best I've been to so far.

We'll definitely come back.

May Day Bank Holiday, and the family have arranged

a special fun day for the public

to raise money for local charities.

But things aren't looking too good.

It's either cancel or move up here,

cos nobody's going to go outside in this weather.

There's a lot on our mind cos, like, we had thought to have it outside.

So it's a case of, righto,

we've had to get outside tables into the shed

and then we've got to drive 'em down.

Other sheds have had tables in, so we've got to bring them in

and clean down the things.

I think once the kids get here it'll be fun day wherever it is,

so it's not going to stop them enjoying it, is it?

Oh!

I keep tellin' Roland, "Don't worry about it, it'll be fine after,

"wherever it is."

The butchery boys are on hand,

transferring tables and benches from the cutting room.

Whilst the barbecue area's being set up,

Reuben and farmhand Gareth have the task of moving the pigs up to the top shed

ready for the main event.

I hate pigs.

At last, the three pigs are inside,

ready to dry off before their big moment...pig racing!

There'll be sheep an' all in a few minutes.

When we're ready, we'll set it up first.

Put them in a pen,

then we'll be making a run across here to the hurdles.

And when they're ready for the race we'll be marking 'em.

One, two, three and when they're ready for the race, let 'em go.

Kids enjoy it, they'll all start shouting then.

That's the normal, anyway.

Stalls and activities are crammed into the sheds

as quickly as possible.

But before the public arrive,

a little test first on the bouncy castle

by Reuben's two youngest children, Adam and Francis.

And yes, it works!

The fun day visitors - if they turn up -

will need feeding and head butcher Justin is in charge of the barbecue.

I've got about 100 sausage in here ready,

well, we're happy, like, innit?

I've got beef burgers, pork sausage.

I've got some onions, lovely fresh onions -

the kitchen has just prepared them for me.

Catering-wise, I think...

We're looking to cater for about 200 to 300 maybe, hopefully.

It's been in the shed, undercover for the last year,

since the last fun day, so we've just got to wake it up a bit.

It's had a good scrub down and we're ready to go.

Ellis Davies has been a good friend of the Watkins family for years

and volunteers each May Day Bank Holiday

to help them raise as much money as possible.

Lovely.

When this started about three years ago, Roland and Gina said,

"Look, we've got an event in the village at the end of the summer,

"which is the fair in the Welfare Park,

"we can do an event at the beginning of the year."

So we open and close a year in the village

and this is what it's become.

It's an excellent day out and everybody enjoys themselves.

What I'm doing now, I'm selling tickets for the sheep racing and the pig racing.

Wales' indoor arena because of the weather,

so they'll be two lots of races now -

one before lunch, one after -

and people can buy their tickets and if they win, they get money back.

The rain has stopped for a while and slowly the public arrive.

And what could have been a damp squib

has turned out to be a busy and successful day!

Remember now, nothing for a pair.

Higher?

Flat out. Flat out! They're taking them quicker than I can cook 'em.

I'm in charge of the bouncy castle and we've been quite busy today.

The children seem to be enjoying it.

Not bad for the sort of day it is, yeah.

It's stopped raining so people are coming out and about,

and they're willing to walk up from the shop

to see all the children on the bouncy castle and things.

Everybody's waitin', I think, till the pig racing starts,

so that should be quite fun.

Usually, there's a lot of bets going down.

-We'll have a bit of a gamble again, Gin.

-Yes, and they'll be people running around

trying to collect their pennies, so, yes. That'll be good.

D'you want to guess for the sheep racing and the pig racing?

And now, today's main attraction... it's pig racing.

Right, any more? Last chance. Here we are, under starter's orders.

-Come on, number four!

-PIGS SNORT

-CHILDREN YELL

-Yeah, come on!

CROWD CHEER

Yey! Winner!

As the day ends, Roland and Ellis have a bit of totting up to do.

-Well, Roland, I make it £1,250. I think we'd agreed on that.

-Yep.

-And that's £400 then for Gorslas Welfare.

-Yeah.

£850 for the Wales Air Ambulance, but I've got £2 left to pay

the lady who's coming out now from the bookie's,

so she'll be all smiles.

Compared to last year, I think the funds we've raised

is just over the double and there's been a lot more people there.

Maybe having it in a separate building has worked better than...

and we thought it was going to be the other way!

Everything's a learning curve, isn't it?

It's just lucky when the weather was so bad that we had a building

we could move into.

Imagine if we were over in Gorslas Park,

we'd be knackered, wouldn't we?

I think we've earned a pint tonight, have we?

One maybe!

Next time on Meet The Watkins...

Things get busy on the farm with sheep shearing and silage making.

And it's a busman's holiday for Roland at the Royal Welsh Show.

Come on, lady!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd