Salt and Crisps The Farmers' Country Showdown

Across the country,

thousands of farming families work tirelessly around the clock.

Bring them up, Isabel, well done.

-Here they come.

-Shake it, baby, shake it.

But there's one day each year...

Come on, girl, up you go.

..where they get to leave the daily routine behind.

-Yoo-hoo!

-Woohoo!

These are show days.

Welcome to the Pembrokeshire County Show...

..where they come together as a community...

Salute!

..to showcase the fruits of their labour...

I've had a quick look at the competition, I'm in with a chance.

..and try to win prizes for their breed champions...

Well done, wahey!

It's show business, folks.

..and award-winning produce.

I've got first!

You can have the last two jars.

There will be highs...

Yes! Yes!

-..and lows...

-No, no, no, no.

..for the dedicated farmers who give everything to walk away a champion.

No way!

Britain is an ever-growing nation of food lovers.

We now demand more gourmet delights than at any other time in our

foodie history.

This appetite is a lifeline

for thousands of farmers across the country,

as they seek out ways to satisfy our palates.

Today, farmers Rebecca and Anthony Froggatt...

..and Alison and David Lea-Wilson...

..are both getting ready to launch new high-end products

at one of the most prestigious food events in the world...

..London's Speciality Food Fair.

-Lovely to see you.

-Thank you.

Success here could make or break their businesses.

Anyone in the world could be turning up here.

Something new will happen, something unexpected.

The magnificent Isle of Anglesey,

just off the north coast of Wales

is home to David and Alison Lea-Wilson.

They met in 1974 and went to university together,

then stumbled into a life living off the bounty of the sea.

-Well, it was oysters, initially.

-Yep.

And then we collected cockles and whelks and things.

Yep, we were trying to make a living from foraging.

And we sold!

That led on to fish, and we were selling them in the students' union.

And we discovered that students bought the mackerel,

but their lecturers bought lobsters.

It wasn't long before they opened a shop,

to expand their clientele beyond the student halls.

We were fishmongers but we realised we couldn't repay the bank loan

just off selling foraged mussels, cockles and oysters.

The mussels and oysters didn't really make any money at all.

But they gave us the idea that if we worked hard and used what was around

us, then we might make money.

The absolute bottom line was that we wanted to live here when we'd

-finished being students, and we

-had

-to create an income,

because there weren't jobs on this island, so we had to make our own.

Not shy of taking leaps into the unknown,

this industrious couple decided to take on an even bigger challenge.

They opened up an aquarium.

We called it the Sea Zoo, and then we launched it with Michael Fish,

who was then the weatherman on the BBC, and we persuaded him to visit.

Well, we paid him, to be fair.

-We put him up.

-That helped.

But we invited people with real fishy surnames to come and meet him.

Mr Salmon, we got Michael Fish to present him with a salmon.

There was somebody called Mr Winkle, so we had a winkle on a tray.

But it got a lot of media attention and we had very, very little money,

cos everything had been financed by the bank.

So... But that got us into, pre-internet days,

got us into every paper there was.

The aquarium brought in solid seasonal business,

but after 23 years,

they needed something more permanent.

We were looking for something to do

in the same place, using the same resources.

So, they came up with a perfect idea -

they would farm salt from the pure sea waters around them.

We knew we had a good clean resource,

and the fact we could turn it into a food product was a revelation.

What started in a few Portakabins...

..is now an international business...

..with an on-site refinery making eight flavours of sea salt.

And a visitors' centre.

And actually, the flavours,

how'd you come up with the different ideas?

They are ones that people have asked us to do, or they are ones that

we've seen on the market which just aren't very nice, like the celery.

I don't know whether your gran used to use really nasty celery salt,

-but mine did, it was really sort of bitter and acrid.

-Yep.

So we've just done our own, which is nicer.

While the Welsh shores have always been their source of inspiration,

their clientele now spread across the globe.

We were getting a lot of orders for salt on the west coast

of America, from a chocolate company,

and then they said, "Oh, it's on Obama's chocolates."

Any visitor to the White House was given a gift of a box of chocolates

with our salt on, and it gave me a cracking line.

I said, "Our salt has gone from farmhouse to White House!"

I was quite proud of that.

I had to give him that one.

But David never forgets where it all began.

It's lovely to be out on the water, and it's really important,

both to me and to Alison, cos this is where we started,

this is where we grew mussels, under here,

this is where we sold the fish.

I feel that I'm actually farming the sea here.

So, we're passionate about this bit of beach, that we look after it,

and we also look after the sea all around here.

It's just beautifully peaceful out here on a day like this.

Over 100 miles away in Staffordshire, is another family

who have found an ingenious way to keep their farm going.

Anthony and Rebecca live on a 700-acre farm

with the rest of their family.

I was born here in 1964. Becky and I moved here about seven years ago,

so we swapped houses - my parents now live down the road

and we now live here.

The farm is still a family affair,

with his 75-year-old father, Richard,

working alongside them.

14-year-old son Johnny also gets roped in when he's not at school.

Yep. Keeps me busy, anyway, keeps me out of mischief.

I'm all right as long as I don't do all the donkey work.

I don't mind all the looking, and that sort of thing.

It's nice to get up in the morning and know you've got a job.

WHISTLING

Come on. Come on, girls. They've grown well, haven't they?

Yeah, yeah, they're good. They look good.

My grandfather bought the farm originally in 1927.

Then my father took over, and then I took over in...

..about 1965.

Hopefully, it might go on for another two generations.

Despite the enduring strength of this family farm, in 2001,

it was brought to its knees.

The foot and mouth outbreak turned their lives upside down.

It was one of the worst days on the farm.

The children were little, they didn't really understand, but...

..having the Army in, having the farm sealed off...

..most of them were...

-Well, they were all in-lamb.

-They were all due to lamb

in about two weeks' time. It was really, really sad.

We lost 1,600 sheep.

It was not a nice sight.

They were slaughtered on the farm

and then burned in the next-door field.

It was not nice. So it's good to have some livestock back, yeah.

Me and Pops went off to buy 25,

just to get a grasp for what farming life is really like.

And since then, it has grown.

And now it's 125.

And now it's 125. And now we are all a bit grumpy.

But no, I have enjoyed it, definitely.

Even when you get shouted at by us cos you're in the wrong place.

Of course, all the time. Goes without saying.

THEY CHUCKLE

The foot and mouth disaster was a national tragedy,

forcing thousands of farmers to look for ways to survive beyond their

livestock. The Froggatts were no different.

Five years ago, Anthony had a brainwave.

They were growing rapeseed and had started to grow potatoes alongside.

Why not combine them, and make one of the nation's favourite snacks?

So we're now just coming into

a field where we're lifting some Lady Rosetta.

This is where everything starts.

These potatoes will be in a bag within 24 hours.

The Lady Rosetta is the perfect potato for making crisps,

due to its low sugar and water content.

You've got the green top here, this has been doing the growing.

There's the original seed there,

then the tubers grow out in the ridge.

So a nice pink colour. Once we slice,

you do get a nice little pink colour to the skin.

Finding another way to use their crops has been a lifeline

for the family.

The Froggatt family have farmed in this area for nigh on 100 years.

Either arable farming, or dairy.

You couldn't farm without being interested in the countryside

and without being interested in horticulture in any way,

it just wouldn't work.

An interest in plant life and interest in how things grow.

While the men grow the potatoes,

the other essential ingredient in their crisp range

is being bottled by the women of the family.

On the rapeseed oil production line today is Anthony's mum, Susan,

his sister, Sarah, and his daughter, Kitty,

who is on break from university and eager to earn some holiday cash.

You enjoy getting your beer tokens, don't you, Kitty?

I do. Well, given the number of hours I've worked,

I hope they're gin and tonic tokens by now.

Kitty will be back to uni, won't you?

Yes, yes, back quite soon.

We'll have to get somebody else in here for the Christmas rush.

-Exactly.

-That nice big order we've just got.

-Yes.

Yeah, everybody has to be involved if a job needs doing,

whoever is hanging around at the time, looking like they need a job,

often gets to go and do it.

-We have our moments, don't we?

-We do.

-Yeah.

-My daughter's very bossy to me.

-Yeah.

That's not fair.

THEY LAUGH

Anthony's gamble for the family is paying off.

Out of the ashes of the foot and mouth disease,

the farm is now going from strength to strength.

All the family are living off it

and, you know, we have to diversify

and make products that produce more money for us.

From field to farm sales, I think it's a good thing.

I'm very proud of him. Yeah, I think it's really great.

But he asks me more now than he did when he was 21,

-cos he knew everything then(!)

-THEY CHUCKLE

As he's probably told you, I was probably very old-fashioned

-then.

-I think I was probably just a bit arrogant.

Come on, girls.

-HE WHISTLES

-Come on.

Come on, boys.

Across the Menai Strait, in Anglesey,

David is in the salt refinery,

to monitor the latest harvest.

This is probably one of my more exciting moments

of the week, is to see the first salt coming out

and check that it's how I want it to be,

which is flaky and soft and crystalline.

So if I've got to satisfy the best chefs in the world,

I've got to know that our team are on top of their game.

The brine has been heated to 60 degrees to produce the crystals.

I've learnt by going to the university,

and I sat at the back of chemistry lectures,

as the sad middle-aged man who actually wanted to understand

crystallisation, I didn't want the exam results or anything,

I just went and sat at the back.

I became passionate about it, and the more people said to me,

"People will never pay that much for sea salt,"

the more determined or obstinate I became.

The next step of this process is to dry the salt out.

Amongst all the modern technology available,

it's the old-fashioned techniques that still work the best.

I'm looking to see that it makes the right sound when it's dry.

This isn't quite dry yet.

SCRATCHING

So, can you hear that?

It will make a lighter sound, a tinklier sound, when it's dry.

And I'm checking it, looking at the texture,

and seeing whether or not it sticks to my fingers.

The fact there are a few grains there,

means there's a little bit of moisture left,

so it's not quite right yet.

So, Gareth is now going to pour it into the grinder.

It will go through the mill and come out as a powder down below.

I know there's a lot of corny jokes made about little bags of white

powder, but this is ground as fine as any white powder,

and it's probably the same price!

When they started their first business, decades ago,

David was keen to create jobs for the island.

And that hasn't changed.

These are two of our key packing team, and they're sisters.

Our maintenance engineer is their brother, as well, so...

-Oh, yeah.

-And John nearly counts as a local.

You've been here how many years?

15 years, now.

Yep. It's really important, because otherwise

the island would get depopulated.

There aren't that many jobs everywhere.

And I did think we were the biggest employer in the village.

But then I discovered there's a care home that's got 40 people

working in it.

David and Alison are so proud of what they've achieved on the island,

they are endlessly keen to spread the word.

So Alison and David, they knew that the waters in the Menai Strait here

were particularly clean and pure, and we pay the Queen,

or the Queen's estate, to be able to pump this water.

You can't just walk down to the beach and pump 20,000 litres

a day and not pay anything for it.

Have any of you ever sat down and eaten salt before, like this?

No. You just don't, do you?

It's just something that you shove on your food.

So it's a great opportunity.

It is. Now, the middle one is our pure Halen Mon.

When you taste that, you will taste beautiful fresh sea salt

but without any bitter aftertaste.

While sea salt is the gourmet choice in Wales, over 100 miles east,

in Staffordshire, the gourmet potato is being put through its paces.

It takes around ten acres of the humble potato

to make one million bags of crisps.

It's a sophisticated process now,

but when Anthony and Rebecca started out,

there wasn't a machine in sight.

Literally started off making them in the kitchen,

just with Becky's mandolin,

and then just trying to physically see

if people liked the taste of them.

Then I bought a food processor, then we did some more trial work.

And then people liked it, so then we've gone and bought

this bit of kit here.

People can't believe that it's all done here, on the farm.

They presume that they are made elsewhere.

But the whole thing is here.

So.... Yeah, food miles are zero.

So, straight from the field, washed,

straight up the conveyor.

The really big ones we have to chop,

because they're far too big to go into a crisp packet.

And then they're going straight through this crisp slicer here.

At the same time, we are washing the starch off them,

so they're a bit of a lighter crisp.

Just check the thickness on the potatoes themselves,

make sure they are the right thickness.

So, you can see, a nice pink skin from the Lady Rosetta.

That is field to plate.

Or, field to bag, shall we say.

Once sliced, they are fried in their rapeseed oil

for around three minutes.

Give it a nice little stir, keep them going,

just in case there's any ones that don't like being fried.

We just give them a little bit of a shake on the shaking table,

to knock any excess oil off them.

Rapeseed oil is obviously very low in saturated fats.

So these will actually be...

They're not a health food, but they're certainly lower

in saturated fat than normal crisps.

It's been a difficult few years

building their farm back into a thriving business.

It's been a challenge, I have to say. If I knew then what I know now,

maybe I might not have done it.

Second-hand kit, old machinery.

Everything anybody will ever tell you about starting a business from

scratch. Finding the customers... Cos we started from zero.

We didn't buy a brand, we created a brand.

This has been a hard path to make work.

I went into the pub the other day, I saw someone buying a packet of

crisps and sitting down and drinking a pint and eating them.

It was just quite funny seeing something you'd made.

And they're obviously enjoying them.

So, that was nice. If you can get a crisp in somebody's mouth,

then they realise they're different.

And that's our biggest challenge.

To help them meet the challenge,

the families are going to this year's

Speciality Fine Food Fair at London's Olympia Exhibition Hall.

Tomorrow, the fair will open its doors and this hall

will be filled with some of the most influential buyers in the world.

-This show is very much seen as

-the

-event in the calendar for the fine

food industry here, in the UK.

We see genuine food innovation, and that is why people love

coming to see what is new, what is on-trend

and what is going to be the next big thing.

Back in Staffordshire,

Anthony is risking all on a range of new products

that they hope will whip up some attention at the fair.

This is my gamble for this year, the fava beans.

So they're British broad beans,

they're roasted with their skins off.

We've got three flavours.

So I'm packing in for the sweet chilli that's won an award.

But a lot of other people like just the plain salted ones.

And then also we're doing a wasabi pea.

One of the main reasons we're going to the Fine Food show is actually to

get this product out there.

I'm hoping for big things for these. These are really on-trend,

nice and high in protein,

and they're really good for you.

Before their trip to London, a quick family meeting is needed,

over tea and cake, to talk tactics.

Can we have a bit of a plan for the weekend, then?

We've obviously won those two awards,

so hopefully that will be good for the peas and beans.

Those are the ones we got an award with.

As you know, I'm not a curry man.

They're not actually curry, Dad, they're sweet chilli.

I know, but I'm not...

-You're not into spicy.

-No, I'm not.

There's one flavour I wanted to do, so I've been proved right,

cos they won an award, again.

Yes, I was opposed to them.

-Thank you.

-So...

-There you go,

-you see?

-Yeah.

In Wales, Alison and David also have a whole range of products to

take to the show, including one of their more eccentric ideas -

smoked water.

It was a casual conversation with a very famous chef, said,

"I want to get a smoky flavour into my risotto,

"would you mind smoking some water for me?"

It has taken off, and it's now in all sorts of things.

You can take this smoked water and add a little of it to ice cubes

and then, if you're having a tequila or a cocktail,

as the ice cube melts,

you get a smoky aroma.

It's hard to imagine how or where you might make smoked water,

but David's found a method.

You can see the smoke.

Come and see what's at the bottom of it.

Production manager Ronan doesn't always trust David

when it comes to the smoking equipment.

I always tell David, "Do not open the door."

It's like a souffle - once you've opened it, that's it.

That day's production is finished.

I think you'll agree, there is a bit of smoke there.

Well done, David, thank you.

So that's set him back two hours,

cos all this smoke should be going into the water.

After months of hard work and planning,

the families are ready to take on the international competition that

awaits them in London.

Hopefully, people like these peas and beans now.

I hope so. Hopefully we can get them into a few coffee chains.

Yeah. Fingers crossed. Maybe an airline would be nice.

An airline would be very nice.

The Speciality Food show, for me, is my favourite trade show.

It's great. And we always come away

with one or two new customers as well.

There are now quite a few salt companies around Britain,

and we need to keep ahead of the game.

Hopefully, we'll have a good show.

Today is the 18th annual Speciality Fine Food Fair.

The Olympia Exhibition Hall's 150,000-square-foot arena

will house just over 700 artisan food producers,

showing to buyers from all over the world.

This is the one place where they can see the biggest array

of new products coming into the fine food market.

There is nowhere else that they can do that in this country.

It's one of the most respected events

on the food producers' calendar.

And the range of products on show is jaw-dropping.

Speciality Fine Food show, for me, is really unique.

It's lots of small producers.

It's almost the great and good, if you like, of the industry.

This is not about mass production,

this is about little producers

really making something they're proud of.

You can get so excited. You can walk round the whole showroom

with a massive smile on your face,

just by seeing some of the products you can get here.

It's nine o'clock, and the farmers are busy with last-minute touches

to their all-important stands.

They know that, over the next 24 hours,

opportunity could be around every corner.

It's a great place to spot new trends.

Anyone in the world could be turning up here - could be any celebrity,

could be a huge range. Something new will happen, something unexpected.

We love it, I wouldn't miss it for the world.

Across the hall,

Anthony and Rebecca know the secret to success is to get those tasting

-bowls out.

-Peas and beans are new,

so I would quite like to find a nice decent-sized customer for that.

Taste Of Game, nobody's really seen it in the speciality market,

so we'll hopefully find a customer for that.

And a chain looking for a change would be nice.

It would be lovely if they came to us and said hello.

I'll do the talking, Becky will do the writing.

I'll do the writing -

Anthony has a habit of taking notes that nobody can read when they get

-back to the office.

-Right.

Everybody says they think I'm a doctor cos my writing's so terrible.

Expectations are high.

The general public is not admitted to this event,

so everyone could be a potential buyer.

It's great just to have a really intense few days,

where you are literally just nattering,

either to customers or to suppliers.

You come back full. Yeah, it's good.

This year, we are launching two new ranges of product.

We know that all the right people from the industry

come through these doors.

Otherwise, you have to go and visit everyone individually,

and that takes a lot more time.

Coming to a show like this, for me, is invaluable. It really is.

Here, we will meet the type of buyers that we need.

I can't imagine my business

thriving if I didn't come to shows like this.

At ten on the dot, the doors are unlocked.

We've come to the Speciality Fine Food Fair

because we change our menu every six months, and we are coming up to the

next menu change, so we want to find, you know, the best stuff,

preferably local.

So, yeah, we're just going to see what we can find today.

Has everyone under one roof -

you can just go from

the Cotswolds to Spain to Turkey, or something, in five minutes.

So, it's great for that.

We've come to the fair today

to look for speciality foods,

snacks and accompaniments to our dinner-of-the-month boxes.

The choice here is fantastic. So, yeah, we can't wait

to get stuck in and start tasting and start eating some fine foods.

Over at the salt stand,

David is already pushing his smoked water.

If you just smell the product that we did for Heston...

He wanted to get smokiness into risotto,

and then, having done it with that,

we took it to food manufacturers.

That is a really good... That is a really nice smell.

Like most farmers, getting the family involved is a priority.

Alison and David's daughter, Jess, is happy to help.

That one is with nine organic spices,

and it's based on an old meat preservation recipe, a French one.

And today, they also have the talents

of their new sales manager, Sue.

I would suggest, if you like tomatoes,

is to bite into one of these beautiful home-grown tomatoes

and then put a tiny bit of salt on.

So any one you want to particularly try...

Sue is our first sales manager, and she has been with us for...

I'm going to put those at the back, if that's OK.

She has been with us for a month. She hasn't really been out much,

has she? She has been in Wales,

learning the ropes about the business,

learning the products, and so on,

so I had to test her yesterday as to which was which

and how many different grades we do the flakes in

and that kind of thing.

She did very well, very well indeed.

If you've got a business card,

then I can send you all the information on the pack sizes.

-OK, I'll send you all the information.

-Yes, please.

-All right.

-Thanks.

-Thank you. Thanks.

This is my first time at Speciality Food Fair.

I think with Alison and David, they are personable,

they are very dynamic and I think I'll be working very close to them

because they obviously have

a way that they want to grow that business.

I love the product, and in particular,

something like the vanilla salt,

I can't eat ice cream without it.

And with the pure salt,

I can't, you know, cook any meat without it.

And I've even found now that even if I go to a restaurant,

I have to keep a Pinch Me tin with me, because I can't use normal salt.

With the stand set up and work piling up in Wales,

David is ready to head home.

So, this is our baby that we've run for 21 years, and I wouldn't be

leaving unless I was completely happy that the sales team,

they're going to really do a fantastic job there.

Take care.

-OK. Good luck.

-Thank you.

I have every confidence.

-Bye, David.

-Bye, then.

The hall is filling up.

Anthony has got his work cut out encouraging customers

to sample his crisps.

-Can I interest anybody in a crisp for breakfast?

-A bit early.

A bit too early? Never too early for a crisp!

Would you like to try a proper crisp?

Oh, why not? That sounds good, yeah.

I'll turn that up the right way.

They are not quite as hard on your mouth as a normal crisp.

-Really great flavour as well.

-You like it?

If you don't mind sending us some distributor pricing...

-OK, yeah.

-That would be great.

Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, good.

Success with the crisps, but Anthony really needs to push the new bean range.

Peas and beans, they any interest to you?

Erm... I'll see the pricing,

-but I don't do a lot of these things.

-OK.

-Nice to meet you, anyway.

-And you.

-Take care.

-Thanks a lot.

That guy was their international distributor,

so he has asked for prices,

so that's a good start, anyway. So hopefully, fingers crossed,

we'll see what we can do with him over the next week or two.

As the morning flies by, the hall is buzzing,

and it becomes obvious that our farmers

are not the only close-knit business around.

Joe & Seph's was started by my dad, Joseph,

myself, my brother and my mum -

proper family business. Which is a really nice dynamic.

We all look after different areas of the business.

My dad is behind us, hopefully selling, doing some work.

To be able to see your sons every day, it's absolutely wonderful.

And, I think the thing that still gives me a high

is when someone new comes along

and tries the popcorn, is just watching their face.

We are a small family business that makes chocolate bars, essentially.

I don't trust anyone that says they don't like chocolate.

It's an easy business to be in, really, so...

While Alison is working the room, meeting other producers,

she suddenly spots a familiar face in the crowd.

Hello. How are you?

-Lovely to see you.

-Haven't seen you for ages.

-Oh, ten years.

-Ten years?

Look at all these products you've brought out!

I know, it's fantastic. Hi, I don't think we've met.

-This is my daughter.

-Very nice to meet you.

We've just bought a business, actually.

-So we're interested.

-Oh, wow!

What sort of business?

-Deli and cafe.

-Fantastic!

Alison now has the chance to turn an old friend into a new client.

That's really good.

-Oh, that's good.

-Did you say these were home-grown?

They are home-grown.

And what's even better about them

-is we grow them in an old telephone box at work.

-Oh, you haven't?

We have.

Tomato-red telephone box, yeah.

So that's quite fun.

So there's our card. We'll put an order in.

The deal is sealed.

Another card in her hand.

So we're actually going to use that on our tables,

in our, like, coffee shop-cum-bistro,

so that people can try it, and then...

-And also buy it off the shelf.

-Hopefully, buy it off the shelf.

-Thank you very much.

-Well, we'll be talking more now!

We will. That's lovely. That's lovely.

And it won't be another ten years, I hope.

-Oh, gosh, I'll probably be dead by then!

-Don't say that!

If you eat this, it'll preserve you.

I'm very excited to be working with her again.

She's such a lovely woman, isn't she?

We've known her for a long, long time

and sort of lost touch with her.

And... And then one thing we can do,

which we've done specifically for her,

is we will tailor an opening order for her, which will be way,

way below the minimum that we would normally do.

Because, you know, we want to encourage small start-ups.

It's all about landing the best deals.

And across the Food Fair, everyone is going all out to sell.

That's a jalapeno, they are quite hot.

-Tiny bit.

-OK!

-This one has just won a Great Taste Award for this show, as well.

-OK.

Anthony and Rebecca are gathering some solid leads.

I think they go quite well in coffee shops.

They're not artisan, but they are towards artisan.

Their luck is in, when the owners of a busy tourist attraction not far

from their farm decide to place a big order.

So I'm Sabrina, I'm from Wistow Maze.

With 20,000 visitors coming through our doors,

we love the idea of supporting other local farmers.

At the end of the day, we are farmers at heart,

so it's all about bringing that community together.

-Jalapeno. Yeah, yeah.

-I like that one.

I saw the jalapeno crisps, for me, it's just a different flavour.

Quite different from all your cheese and onion, salt and vinegar.

And, yeah, they had the... What was it? Pheasant crisps?

-Pheasant and the grouse.

-Grouse crisps.

That's what I found really interesting.

Is you've got those traditional British flavours,

-which you don't often see with crisps.

-Yeah, definitely.

-I thought, "Why not? Let's give them a go."

-No, definitely.

Yes, it's picking up now everyone's had some lunch,

and they're probably thinking about going home, thinking they've got

to get to work a bit harder and find some more good leads.

But we've had three or four in the last half hour, which has been nice.

Over on the salt stand,

the conversation has turned to sweeter things.

Certainly for ice cream, I would recommend the vanilla.

-Would you like to try some?

-If I can, yeah.

So just try that.

Salted caramel is something we get asked for

a lot.

I've never done it yet cos I've not found the right product that I've

felt is worthy of our ice cream.

You really do get the vanilla...

-You really do.

-..come through, yeah.

-And of course, that,

on the top of ice cream, obviously you wouldn't use a lot...

Or even if you use that as an ingredient,

-I think it would be a great addition to your product.

-Yeah.

OK, fantastic.

Tasting the Halen Mon today was really interesting.

It would be something I'd be quite keen to pursue, maybe.

Oh, hello, Kelly, nice to meet you.

Sue is finding her stride,

gathering more business cards for Alison's magic contacts book.

It is filling up. It's filling up with new people,

but also, as I say, with...

I should also say that Mum has one of these books for every single show

that we've ever done,

and it's such an impressive filing system because if you go back,

and, for example, working with Green & Black's,

-you found the first business card that they gave to us.

-I did.

When was it, ten years ago?

-Yeah.

-And it was just in her filing system, in her shelf, and she could

find it straightaway.

I was so impressed with that.

The day is coming to a close.

Just time for one more deal.

A garlic farmer from the Isle of Wight

is looking for a partner.

Crisps could be perfect.

-Good, good, good, good. The crisp man returning.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-So, how are we going to do it?

-What we could do is maybe put the garlic

farm on that panel there.

So it would be under our brand, so to speak,

but you would still get your...get the Garlic Farm bit in.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Like that, as a sticky on.

-So you do a proper sort of collaboration?

-Yeah.

The team back at the farm had always had the idea for crisps, like,

"Oh, we need crisps, we need crisps."

We are excited on how we might be able to collaborate,

doing some really garlicky crisps, which would be fun.

-All right, mate, I'm going to get back to the stand.

-Excellent. Thanks a lot.

-Bye.

Yum.

With the promise of some big deals for the crisps,

it's the perfect time to sample some local beer.

Thank you. Are you giving me another one?

Thanks very much. If you'd like to come over to Just Crisps,

maybe we can do business together.

-What do you like?

-Cheese and onion.

Yeah? We've got some pheasant, some grouse...

Cheese and onion.

Cheese and onion, OK. See you in a minute.

Where have you found this from?

The Welsh stand.

Yeah, they export it to Japan.

But he wants some cheese and onion crisps in exchange.

-LAUGHS:

-Oh, does he? Yeah, it's a fair swap.

It's a long day when you've been

standing on your feet all day, isn't it?

Yeah, but then you'll go and network for the next two hours and start

talking nonsense.

I have about two hours.

He will, he goes and stands in the pub,

drinks too much and then this is when he starts repeating himself.

I'll go and take my friend some crisps.

Right.

Bring another one back.

Anthony may have to watch out for that hangover because the hard work

continues tomorrow.

But for now, the farmers can enjoy a job well done.

-We've had some cracking...

-Yeah, we've met some interesting people.

-Good leads.

-Very good leads

from abroad and from home, which is always nice.

A lot of it is about luck, isn't it?

It is about who walks in and whether you're there at the right time.

And that's one of the reasons I value you being there,

because you're a bit of young glamour,

-if I can put it like that.

-That's how I look at myself,

as very glamorous!

Found it really interesting, end of a big day.

When I get back to the hotel tonight,

the feet are going to get soaked and I'm probably going to celebrate a

good day with a glass of prosecco.

I think we've had a really good day. Got a lot of interest from some nice

big customers and some nice little ones as well.

We've probably taken details from 30 or 40 customers today,

and if we can convert a third of those, I think we'd be happy.

Both farming families have overcome adversity,

putting their hearts and souls into making their products world-class.

Our salt has gone from farmhouse to White House!

Thanks to their farms back home,

they've been able to show off their produce with pride.

-Come on, girls.

-HE WHISTLES

Come on, boys.

They have pulled together...

We have our moments, don't we?

-We do.

-Yeah.

..and are looking forward to a tasty future.

I'd like us to look a little bit less country farmer,

a little bit more dynamic,

but a mixture of the two, but...

I think it's been a successful day.

-Yeah.

-It's certainly be really enjoyable,

and you can't ask for better than

a glass of Welsh cider, can you, at the end of the day?

-Absolutely.

-I think we should go and join the others, don't you?

-Yeah.

-OK. Iechyd da!

-Do you want a hand down?

Can I have my bottle, please?

Thank you.

Come on, my darling.

We'll hold hands together.

I can't hold your hand.

That's ridiculous behaviour.

HE CHUCKLES