:00:07. > :00:15.All over the country, the race is on to bring in our food. It's harvest
:00:15. > :00:18.time. Gathering in the bounty of the land is the most crucial event in
:00:18. > :00:21.the countryside calendar. And now, as this year's harvest reaches its
:00:21. > :00:29.climax, it's time to see exactly what's happening with all our crops.
:00:29. > :00:34.Seeds of life to sustain us. Fresh vegetables pulled from the earth.
:00:34. > :00:39.Fruit that's our sweet treat. All conjured up from Mother Nature.
:00:40. > :00:43.We'll be discovering the remarkable craft and magic of farming, and
:00:43. > :00:49.finding out just where our food comes from. No matter how clever
:00:49. > :00:55.farming becomes, our crops are still at the mercy of the weather. Harvest
:00:55. > :01:02.2012 was a disaster. After record summer rainfall, crops failed and
:01:02. > :01:11.prices spiralled. Can 2013 put our farmers back on track to deliver the
:01:11. > :01:17.food we all rely on? As the harvest comes in, we will reveal the
:01:17. > :01:22.results. This time we'll be uncovering the treasure of our land
:01:22. > :01:26.- vegetable goodness. Which of our vegetables have been the winners,
:01:26. > :01:28.and which the losers? As the crops come in, we'll reveal the results.
:01:29. > :01:56.Welcome to Harvest 2013! It's great to be in Lincolnshire.
:01:57. > :02:01.The vegetable growing capital of Britain. At the busiest usiest time
:02:01. > :02:06.of year - har vest. All around us vegetables of every size, shape and
:02:06. > :02:10.colour are being gathered in from the rich earth. I'm Gregg Wallace
:02:10. > :02:14.and I've been working in the vegetable business for over 20 years
:02:14. > :02:20.and I still get a buzz at harvest time. And I'm Philippa Forrester. As
:02:20. > :02:23.a keen amateur grower, I will be exploring the farmers' secrets
:02:23. > :02:27.behind the fantastic crops. Over half the vegetables we eat are grown
:02:27. > :02:31.in the UK. I will be finding out the story behind this incredible Edible
:02:31. > :02:37.business, worth over £1 billion a year. And now we are here at a most
:02:37. > :02:42.critical time. We are in the thick of the potato harvest. We'll reveal
:02:42. > :02:47.how our vegetable crops have done in 2013. We've got some surprises in
:02:47. > :02:53.store, even about the most ordinary vegetables, the carrots, the onions,
:02:53. > :02:59.and let's not forget our Greens like broccoli. We'll find out how they
:02:59. > :03:04.had a roller coaster year in 2013. And Stefan Gates will be here with
:03:04. > :03:08.insights into nature which farmers must master if they are to produce
:03:08. > :03:13.crops like these. We'll get a taste of the weird and wonderful new crops
:03:13. > :03:18.heading heading for for our plates. But first our big story and my
:03:18. > :03:22.favourite vegetable ever, the not so humble potato. Do you know, we eat a
:03:23. > :03:25.favourite vegetable ever, the not so staggering 24 billion of them every
:03:25. > :03:28.year. Here on this farm we followed the
:03:28. > :03:32.year. story of their spuds. Now we'll
:03:32. > :03:36.discover just what it takes to harvest them. From planting in
:03:36. > :03:40.spring to flouring in summer, to harvest them. From planting in
:03:40. > :03:43.now, the moment From planting in spring to flouring in summer, to
:03:43. > :03:45.now, the moment of truth -- to flowering in summer, to now, the
:03:45. > :03:50.moment of truth, the first day of harvest. It is time to meet the
:03:50. > :03:55.farmer at the centre of this empire of home-grown goodness. Son of this
:03:55. > :04:00.fertile soil, Andrew Burgess. Andrew and his two brothers are carrying on
:04:00. > :04:05.a tradition that goes back four generations. We absolutely love
:04:05. > :04:14.farming and growing stuff. It is a passion in the family. In 1898 my
:04:14. > :04:17.great grandfather bought a field of potatoes, which he sold in London.
:04:17. > :04:20.That's how the family business started. Since then my greater
:04:20. > :04:24.That's how the family business my father and now me and my brothers
:04:24. > :04:29.have continued to farm and grow a range of vegetables. Andrew's
:04:29. > :04:34.heritage is built on the potato. But the family business has mushroomed
:04:34. > :04:39.into a vegetable empire. We are now growing a complete range of UK omed
:04:39. > :04:43.into a vegetable empire. We are now growing a complete range of UK field
:04:43. > :04:51.vegetable - broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, leaks -- leeks,
:04:51. > :04:55.carrots. Andrew works with growers across lots of different farms. Our
:04:55. > :04:59.growing areas start in Suffolk. We work through the season and we
:04:59. > :05:04.always finish in Scotland for the late-season crop. We are growing
:05:04. > :05:08.pretty much over the east side of England. Andrew also brings new
:05:08. > :05:15.kinds of vegetables to the UK. And that takes him further afield, like
:05:15. > :05:19.Spain. My brothers take the Mickey out of me, because they think it is
:05:19. > :05:23.a holiday. But it is not really. I love to go on voyages of discovery.
:05:24. > :05:31.What I'm looking for is anything new I can learn to bring home to the UK
:05:31. > :05:34.to make things better at home. How many other jobs do you get where you
:05:34. > :05:40.can sit in an office like this? I love being a farmer. It has its bad
:05:40. > :05:45.days but 99% of the time it is brilliant fun, working outside with
:05:45. > :05:50.nature. When I go into a field and it is perfect and ready to go, the
:05:50. > :05:54.it is magical. You cannot beat the feeling of standing in a field of
:05:54. > :06:02.vegetable ready to go. That's why we get up in the morning. Andrew was
:06:02. > :06:07.certainly up early this morning. It is the very first day of his crucial
:06:07. > :06:15.potato harvest. By the end of today, we'll have an idea how the crop for
:06:15. > :06:21.2013 is likely to do. So this must be a super-busy time for you, a
:06:21. > :06:26.passionate potato man, so thank you for having us here at this time.
:06:26. > :06:31.Pleasure. We could see the harvester at work. How many can that harvest?
:06:31. > :06:36.About 40 tonnes an hour. How many potatoes is 40 tonnes? That's 40
:06:36. > :06:41.boxes the size of your car. An hour? An hour. That's extraordinary. What
:06:41. > :06:46.I'm nntsing. Have a feel of that, isn't that lovely. That's amazing
:06:46. > :06:48.soil. Lincolnshire soil is famed for its potato-growing potential. This
:06:48. > :06:51.is fantastic dirt. Everybody its potato-growing potential. This
:06:51. > :06:57.gardener in the world would die for this stuff. This is a real soft
:06:57. > :07:03.silty soil. We are below sea level, and this is reclaimed land. This
:07:03. > :07:07.soil is so smooth, feel it through your fingers. It is soft and light.
:07:07. > :07:11.That gives us the perfect-shaped potato and a really smooth skin. It
:07:11. > :07:17.has such a lot of small particles in it, the it holds the the moss ture,
:07:17. > :07:22.so it grows without too much rainfall. And this is reclaimed from
:07:22. > :07:26.the sea, is it? The Romans started reclaiming the land. The last bit
:07:26. > :07:31.near the coast was reclaimed in 1976. The Romans must have loved
:07:31. > :07:36.chips. They've stopped reclaiming the land. They are flooding some of
:07:36. > :07:41.it for wildlife. What do you grow? Corral, and in this field we've got
:07:41. > :07:46.Belle de Fontenay. I love that. La Ratte as well? You and I have become
:07:46. > :07:52.good friends. Anything else? Around the rest of the farm, Maris Piper,
:07:52. > :07:56.King Edward, Charlotte. I'm a big fan of the salad potato. You've got
:07:56. > :08:00.some splendid ones here but you can't do anything without the
:08:00. > :08:05.weather. The weather is a critical. It was a nightmare last year. This
:08:05. > :08:11.spring was cold and late. We are running late now. We are stood in
:08:11. > :08:14.this field, our first field to nd late. We are running late now. We
:08:14. > :08:17.are stood in this field, our first field to live. This -- our first
:08:17. > :08:18.field to lift.. Our crop is green over there. Mother Nature can be a
:08:18. > :08:21.field to lift.. Our crop is green good friend to the farmer but it can
:08:21. > :08:26.also be an enemy. Let's remind ourselves just how atrocious the wet
:08:26. > :08:34.weather was in 2012. The summer of 2012 was the wettest for 100 years.
:08:34. > :08:38.And the darkest for a quarter of a century. £600 million worth of crops
:08:38. > :08:44.And the darkest for a quarter of a were lost. The worst harvest for
:08:44. > :08:49.decades... We've been warned to expect further increase in the price
:08:49. > :08:55.of food. Vegetable prices rose by up to a half as farmaries struggled to
:08:55. > :09:01.get poor quality crops from sodden ground. Our farmer, Andrew, had
:09:01. > :09:07.never seen his potato field so wet. Wet. By mid November 2012, Andrew
:09:07. > :09:11.was at his wit's end with the weather. We are here in Home Fen,
:09:11. > :09:16.just below sea level, and we are coming into a field of King Edwards
:09:16. > :09:18.on this lovely black soil. It started raining in April and it
:09:18. > :09:23.hasn't really stopped since. It has started raining in April and it
:09:23. > :09:26.affected the growth of the crop. It is a very small crop. There's bits
:09:26. > :09:32.of this field we are not going to harvest. Is you can see how small
:09:32. > :09:35.these potatoes are, because they haven't had enough sunlight. The
:09:35. > :09:40.soil is such an important factor for us. Having a healthy soil with good
:09:40. > :09:44.nutritional balance, and it all just goes down the drain when you get
:09:44. > :09:48.this, and we have to start again. We have to start rebuilding the soil
:09:48. > :09:54.structure from scratch. My father's 74. It is the wettest year he can
:09:54. > :09:59.remember in farming. I just, it is one year I would love to forget but
:09:59. > :10:04.I'm sure we never will. Crikey, mate, how bad was that? Last year
:10:04. > :10:08.was awful. It was demoralising. It never stopped raining. Everything
:10:08. > :10:11.was covered in mud. Very unpleasant to work in, very bad for the morale
:10:11. > :10:15.of the blokes. It was like the to work in, very bad for the morale
:10:15. > :10:18.battle of the Somme every day. We had a crop that was 30% down in
:10:18. > :10:24.yield. We really need a good year this year to make up for last year.
:10:24. > :10:29.Can I just say, I'm no expert, but this doesn't look like the
:10:29. > :10:35.healthiest of fields. It looks half dead. I thought you knew all about
:10:35. > :10:39.farming. When the crop is ready, we burn the tops off and that enables
:10:39. > :10:44.the skin to set and get tough, so that when we handle it we can store
:10:44. > :10:51.it. As opposed to your new potato, where you have your fluffy skin. I
:10:51. > :10:55.never knew that is what made it. That bit over there is just about
:10:55. > :11:00.ready to burn off. The tops are dying back naturally but we'll
:11:00. > :11:03.finish them off. Thank you, I've learnt something there. Generations
:11:03. > :11:09.of farmers have learnt to look after the potato. But what made us fall in
:11:09. > :11:14.love with this little tuber? Farmers know the potato as a surprisingly
:11:14. > :11:20.complex character. Scarred is skin and black eyes suggest a bit of a
:11:20. > :11:26.bruiser. But the potato is a surprisingly fragile soul. It needs
:11:26. > :11:31.careful tending. People and potatoes have looked after each other since
:11:31. > :11:36.the Inca first cultivated the crop for food some 6,000 years ago. Grown
:11:36. > :11:41.on the terraces of the Palace at Machu Picchu and across Peru, spuds
:11:41. > :11:46.thrived in the wet, cool mountain climate. So they felt at home when
:11:46. > :11:52.they arrived in Britain 400 years ago. Now, if it is not only our
:11:52. > :11:59.favourite vegetable, it is by far the most grown vegetable crop on
:11:59. > :12:02.earth. Our ancestors loved what was then an exotic new wonder, because
:12:02. > :12:07.eat within the skin the spud contains nearly all the minerals and
:12:07. > :12:15.vitamins we need for life. But these days the likes of pasta and rice
:12:15. > :12:20.compete with the old staple crops. You may find this hard to believe,
:12:20. > :12:26.but vegetable consumption in the UK is actually falling. To keep his
:12:26. > :12:27.fields busy our Farmer Andrew can't just rely on growing the old
:12:27. > :12:32.favourites. He needs to entice us just rely on growing the old
:12:32. > :12:39.into eating more vegetable by developing exciting new varieties.
:12:39. > :12:43.This very special trial patch is his secret weapon. Here Andrew's planted
:12:44. > :12:49.exotic new vegetable he has discovered on his world travels. And
:12:49. > :12:53.who knows? Maybe in this field in Lincolnshire is hidden the next top
:12:54. > :12:58.vegetable, something none of us has ever seen before. What about that,
:12:58. > :13:04.Andrew? What have you got to look at? Let's hope so.Look at that, an
:13:04. > :13:08.orange cauliflower. Innovation? Yep. I know you like to mess around with
:13:08. > :13:17.vegetable. I know you do, but how important is innovation to your
:13:17. > :13:20.business or any vegetable business? It's extremely important, especially
:13:20. > :13:23.to our business. We have to keep reinventing ourselves, keep creating
:13:23. > :13:26.premium lines. Why? Tell me. Is it because you get more money for
:13:26. > :13:29.something new? Yeah, well, there's the old saying that today's premium
:13:29. > :13:33.is tomorrow's standard, and you try and find me an example of that that
:13:33. > :13:37.isn't true. Absolutely, because I've heard that you were trendy once. Now
:13:37. > :13:40.look at you! Yeah, same with you! I heard that about you! Big crate,
:13:40. > :13:43.loads of lovely veg. I've got a game for you here, right? I'm a
:13:44. > :13:48.greengrocer. You're the farmer. Try to convince me to buy some of these
:13:48. > :13:50.things. Some of the things we do are just for colour, so the orange
:13:50. > :13:54.cauliflower, the purple cauliflower - they're just for colour. Some of
:13:54. > :13:58.the things I've got here I've selected out for fla r. I went to
:13:58. > :14:02.Japan last year and I brought back one or two really special things.
:14:02. > :14:06.Let's have a look at this one. That looks to me very much like a
:14:06. > :14:10.standard Chinese leaf. Yeah, but it ain't. This is a cross between a
:14:10. > :14:14.cabbage and a lettuce. You can shave it and use it in a salad, like an
:14:14. > :14:19.iceberg, You have a taste of that. Will it braise like a - like a
:14:19. > :14:24.cabbage? Yeah, you can stir-fry, or braise it. Now, you thought it was a
:14:24. > :14:32.Chinese leaf cabbage. Chinese leaf has a hairy petiole, leaf stem. And
:14:32. > :14:38.that is as smooth as you like. Yeah. That is juicy. And you can eat it
:14:38. > :14:42.raw. Chinese leaf you can't eat raw. Try that. So that can be a lettuce
:14:42. > :14:45.or a cabbage? Mmmm. So for the summer periods when vegetable
:14:45. > :14:48.consumption's down, and we're quiet as a business, this has a really
:14:48. > :14:52.good potential for us to fill our summer season. Do you know what? I
:14:52. > :14:56.thought I'd seen it all, I really did. That is a beautiful thing. It's
:14:56. > :15:00.got a slight like hint of allium, like slight onion at the end. Yep, a
:15:00. > :15:04.little bit of peppery aftertaste. Mate, that is good. What else you
:15:04. > :15:07.got? What else you got? This one. That's a Kohlrabi. It ain't just any
:15:07. > :15:10.old Kohlrabi, this is a melon Kohlrabi. You're enjoying this,
:15:10. > :15:14.mate. Yep. You have a taste of this Oh my word, That is a little bit
:15:14. > :15:27.like an apple, maybe a little bit like a melon, and a gain just really
:15:27. > :15:31.fresh. I can't believe you can take a Kohlrabli like that and eat it
:15:31. > :15:34.raw. Yep, it's amazingThat is amazing Yep, looks like a kohlrabi,
:15:34. > :15:38.but I mean all the guys in the factory thought it was a melon when
:15:38. > :15:42.we blind tasted it. Is that right? Hmmm. Mate, are these in the shops
:15:42. > :15:46.yet? No, this is all brand new stuff, and we haven't got enough of
:15:46. > :15:49.it to actually start selling yet. So what we do through the trials
:15:49. > :15:52.process, we have the discovery phase, which is what we're looking
:15:52. > :15:56.at now. Then we start to scale things up, so maybe four or five
:15:56. > :16:00.acres. Give it a try through the shops. If it sells well, we scale it
:16:00. > :16:04.up until we've got a full scale product on our hands. You know what
:16:04. > :16:09.I do? You know I work with food. Yep, I heard a rumour. That is
:16:09. > :16:24.amazing! That was good. Yeah, it's incredible. I mean, that was good.
:16:24. > :16:27.That is incredible. Well done, mate. , I am really, really impressed.
:16:27. > :16:31.This sweet shop of exotic veg isn't just exciting, it's puzzling. How do
:16:31. > :16:34.you come up with whole new crop variety? For such big questions,
:16:34. > :16:36.we've enlisted food fanatic Stefan Gates.
:16:36. > :16:52.There are 400,000 different plant species in nature. Our food comes
:16:52. > :16:57.from just 12. From these humans have created a dazzling array of
:16:57. > :17:05.different crop varieties, each with a natural appearance and taste.
:17:05. > :17:12.Everything about them is constantly being refined by evolution.
:17:12. > :17:16.Sometimes a mutation happens by chance, which means a plant is more
:17:16. > :17:19.likely to survive, so if you've got a gene that makes you slightly
:17:19. > :17:24.taller than your neighbours, you'll get more sunlight and so you're more
:17:24. > :17:27.likely to thrive. Natural selection is a lengthy process, but through
:17:27. > :17:34.artificial selection farmers can speed things up by selecting the
:17:34. > :17:43.characteristics we like best. Mangetout peas are usually green.
:17:43. > :17:47.The plant's genes act like an internal instruction manual telling
:17:47. > :17:50.it to produce a green pod. But what if there is a chance mutant, a
:17:50. > :17:57.random plant, with purple pods? And it's the purple colour that I want
:17:57. > :18:01.to keep. By cross-pollinating the flowers of the purple pea plants
:18:01. > :18:05.with those of other plants, it's possible to help it reproduce. So we
:18:05. > :18:08.can artificially spread the genes of the purple pods around. And this
:18:08. > :18:16.increases the chances of purple offspring. It's a painstakingly slow
:18:16. > :18:20.process because you have to do this over and over again over generations
:18:20. > :18:30.of peas. But eventually most of my crop should be purple.
:18:30. > :18:34.In this trial field our farmer Andrew has planted his pick of the
:18:34. > :18:44.best new varieties bred all over the world. To pay for these new veg
:18:44. > :18:53.developments he is desperate that 2013 is good year for one of his
:18:53. > :18:56.biggest sellers, the Potato. ??FORCEDYELOW Only now with the
:18:56. > :18:59.potato harvest beginning, will Andrew discover how many precious
:18:59. > :19:03.spuds have survived the chilly spring and hot dry summer. And
:19:03. > :19:10.Andrew's also worried about his broccoli. Along with carrots, onions
:19:10. > :19:16.and many others, all crops with their own particular needs that must
:19:16. > :19:20.be met through the year. Seeing the world from their crop's point of
:19:20. > :19:22.view is absolutely vital for a farmer's success. They all have
:19:22. > :19:26.different requirements, the crops. For example, carrots like a light,
:19:26. > :19:29.sandy type of soil if they're going to do well. Broccoli likes an alkali
:19:29. > :19:37.soil. And potatoes, well, they need lots of sunshine and lots of rain if
:19:37. > :19:41.they're going to thrive. Most of these veg are planted out as tiny,
:19:41. > :19:49.tiny seeds, but not the potato. The potato comes from another potato, a
:19:49. > :19:53.seed potato. And when I'm gardening, it always amazes me how you can
:19:53. > :19:58.plant these out and then at harvest time they've multiplied into so, so
:19:59. > :20:02.many more. And of course, it's harvest time now, a critical time
:20:02. > :20:05.for our farmer Andrew as he finds out just how many potatoes his seed
:20:05. > :20:10.potatoes have multiplied into. It was back in April that we joined him
:20:10. > :20:13.as he was planting out his seed potatoes, and keeping his fingers
:20:13. > :20:21.firmly crossed. So we're planting these lovely
:20:21. > :20:24.Mozart potatoes. This is a time of optimism when we're planting the new
:20:24. > :20:29.crops, and if you can't be optimistic at this time of year as a
:20:29. > :20:32.farmer, you may as well pack up. You can just see the little shoot on the
:20:33. > :20:36.end where it's just starting to grow. From this one potato we'll
:20:36. > :20:39.probably get another 20 potatoes To prevent disease building up in his
:20:39. > :20:44.plants, Andrew doesn't use any of last year's crop as seed potatoes.
:20:44. > :20:49.Each spring he plants fresh seed potatoes bought from specialist
:20:49. > :20:56.breeders. We've got a big machine. It's got a tank on the back. We're
:20:56. > :20:59.going to put these in the ground, six inches deep, and a foot apart,
:21:00. > :21:04.and we should have about 20 tonnes an acre come September. The cup
:21:04. > :21:06.comes through, picks up the potato, makes a little hole, plants it, and
:21:06. > :21:31.buries it again. It's a beautiful day, only three
:21:31. > :21:35.weeks ago when there was snow on the ground. The soil at eight or nine
:21:35. > :21:39.inches deep is still very cold, and that's going to get us off to a bit
:21:39. > :21:54.of a slow start. I've got these potatoes on the ridges. We try and
:21:54. > :21:58.grow them as close as possible from north to south cos the sun rises in
:21:58. > :22:01.the east and this lovely broad edge we've got to the ridge really
:22:01. > :22:04.absorbs the sun. Stick your finger in there now. I can even feel the
:22:05. > :22:06.warmth that's gathered here today compared with the cold soil we've
:22:06. > :22:09.cultivated over there. compared with the cold soil we've
:22:09. > :22:13.cultivated the soil. We've got all the clods out, and we've used all
:22:13. > :22:17.the best bits to actually grow the potato in, which is going to give us
:22:17. > :22:20.a lovely smooth skin and a nice shape on the potato. And when we
:22:20. > :22:24.come to harvest in September, it'll be nice and easy to separate the
:22:24. > :22:27.potatoes from the soil. We're going to invest over £100,000 growing the
:22:27. > :22:31.crop in this field. Plus, there's a million quid's worth of kit tied up
:22:31. > :22:34.in harvesting and planting equipment and irrigation. And if everything
:22:34. > :22:37.goes well, and we grow a good crop, we make about 0.2p per potato.
:22:37. > :22:40.goes well, and we grow a good crop, Potatoes only get one shot a year.
:22:40. > :22:43.It's crucial to get it right. Back then in April, Andrew didn't know a
:22:43. > :22:46.heatwave would hit in July, just when his potatoes wanted water. Now
:22:46. > :22:49.Andrew is harvesting those spuds, soon we'll discover how that heat
:22:49. > :23:02.affected the crop. Andrew's profit margin is just point 2p per potato.
:23:02. > :23:05.So he's got to fill massive crate after massive crate - this many and
:23:05. > :23:09.at least the same again just from this one farm. Righto, Ron.Time to
:23:09. > :23:13.meet his harvest machine. Thanks for stopping it, cos this is a massive
:23:13. > :23:18.big beast, and I want to have a look at this in a minute, but I've got to
:23:18. > :23:22.ask you, .2p profit on a potato - you've got to do five to make a
:23:22. > :23:26.penny. Yep, and that's after you've grown a good crop. Only if you get a
:23:26. > :23:29.good crop, by my calculations if you want to make £2,000 profit, you've
:23:29. > :23:33.got to sell, what, a million potatoes? I'm not very good at
:23:33. > :23:38.maths, but sounds about right. :No. You're looking with the tractor at
:23:38. > :23:42.about £200,000 worth of investment with this machine. I don't see the
:23:42. > :23:47.economics. I just don't get it. I know. I sometimes wonder. Every
:23:47. > :23:50.potato is important, and if that's so, this doesn't look like the most
:23:50. > :23:55.gentlest of things to take care of them, if I'm honest. No, it's a very
:23:55. > :24:00.simple but clever design. Basically, we've got the big digging spade on
:24:00. > :24:06.the front. That lifts the whole bed of soil and potatoes onto the web.
:24:06. > :24:08.It goes under them? The web is like a giant sieve. Got you.It sieves
:24:08. > :24:11.the potatoes through the soil. The a giant sieve. Got you.It sieves
:24:12. > :24:15.potatoes carry on through the machine, then go up to the elevator
:24:15. > :24:21.into the yard. We're just at the start of our potato harvest now. We
:24:21. > :24:24.have seven or eight busy weeks coming up now, probably the busiest
:24:24. > :24:30.of the year. What I am thinking is we don't just eat fruit and veg in
:24:30. > :24:36.the spring and summer. We want it 365 days a year. How clever do our
:24:36. > :24:40.farmers have to be to get produce in the cold months even if the ground
:24:40. > :24:54.is frozen? Mid-January doesn't look like harvest season, but it is.
:24:54. > :25:05.It seems the animals have winter's playground all to themselves.
:25:05. > :25:21.Apart from one solitary figure, farmer Ian Hall.
:25:21. > :25:29.I'll have a look here. Carrots, fresh from the ground in the middle
:25:29. > :25:34.of winter - it's no surprise to Ian. He planted these carrots last
:25:34. > :25:41.spring, and all summer they've grown big and strong.
:25:41. > :25:48.By October, they were ready. But not for harvest. It was time to put them
:25:48. > :25:52.to bed. Every further furtherers like Ian store more than 10,000
:25:52. > :25:58.acres of carrots in fields right across the UK. We're covering the
:25:58. > :26:03.crop with a sheet of black plastic. What that does is, that keeps the
:26:03. > :26:07.light out so these tops and these carrots don't start to regrow, so we
:26:07. > :26:12.protect the bed with that, and then we put a layer of straw on it which
:26:12. > :26:17.protects the carrots from the layer of cold, keeps them lovely and warm,
:26:17. > :26:22.a bit like your quilt at home. Throughout the long winter months,
:26:22. > :26:32.the earth acts as Mother Nature's larder, keeping Ian's carrots fresh
:26:32. > :26:37.and ready for harvest at any time. On this freezing January day, Ian's
:26:37. > :26:49.got to fill 27 tractor and trailer loads. So it's time to wake this
:26:49. > :26:59.field of carrots up. Time to bring in the monster carrot harvester.
:26:59. > :27:02.Interestingly, the worse the weather, the more challenging
:27:02. > :27:06.environment we have to work in, the more the orders go up. Carrot sales
:27:06. > :27:13.will always be higher when it's cold. People go back to stews and
:27:13. > :27:17.traditional Sunday roast. Around a third of our carrots are put to
:27:17. > :27:22.sleep under straw for harvest in winter. Unlike most other veg,
:27:22. > :27:28.they're grown in light, sandy soil, which breaks apart when chilly. It
:27:28. > :27:33.wouldn't work for potatoes grown in heavy soil. They have to be
:27:33. > :27:37.harvested before winter and kept in expensive cold storage. For these
:27:37. > :27:42.carrots, Mother Nature does the chilling. While we're all snowed in
:27:42. > :27:47.at home, the British harvest must continue. The demand for carrots
:27:47. > :27:55.at home, the British harvest must never stops.
:27:55. > :27:59.business or any vegetable business? Well, carrots are big business -
:27:59. > :28:03.they're worth over £300 million each year. Do you know, in a really good
:28:03. > :28:06.harvest we dig up about 100 carrots for every single person in this
:28:06. > :28:10.country. So by now you should have eaten 70 or 80 of them. Have you?
:28:10. > :28:14.Well, that's carrots. Right now we're in the middle of a broccoli
:28:14. > :28:17.field, another one of Andrew's big passions, and we are smack bang in
:28:17. > :28:21.the middle of the harvest. And I've got to ask you, there's no ignoring
:28:21. > :28:24.it, what is that enormous tent on wheels? Well, that's my favourite
:28:24. > :28:28.toy that I went to California and got this idea and what that does is
:28:28. > :28:30.it's a factory in the field. What, there's a gang of guys working
:28:30. > :28:35.it's a factory in the field. What, inside that thing as well? Wrapping
:28:35. > :28:39.and labeling. Well, that is state of the art isn't it? And right at the
:28:39. > :28:42.cutting edge of that is Philippa right now. Now this is actually
:28:42. > :28:46.quite a tricky one to harvest, what I have to do is assess how heavy
:28:46. > :28:50.that broccoli is then cut the same length as width of that broccoli in
:28:50. > :28:52.one swift movement, remove the leaves and put it in the right
:28:52. > :28:54.container for the right supermarket, leaves and put it in the right
:28:54. > :28:57.because different containers, colours want different weights in
:28:57. > :29:08.them so there's a lot to think about. And also you have to move
:29:08. > :29:12.fairly swiftly otherwise you're going to get run over at the same
:29:12. > :29:16.time! It's worth it though, broccoli is a super food. Let's find out more
:29:16. > :29:21.about it. Rich in vitamins D and C. Bursting with antioxidants. Broccoli
:29:21. > :29:25.is a cousin of the cabbage and the cauliflower. You can trace its
:29:25. > :29:33.family tree back thousands of years to Italy. Calabrese, as they say,
:29:33. > :29:37.must be planted in warm soil. What we eat is actually an immature
:29:37. > :29:42.flower head. Leave it a moment too long and it goes over into bloom.
:29:42. > :29:49.It's a tricky blighter, broccoli. Timing is all important. At the end
:29:49. > :29:52.of March, Andrew's broccoli timings were in crisis due to the weather.
:29:52. > :29:54.It was exceptionally cold and were in crisis due to the weather.
:29:54. > :30:02.Andrew's fields weren't drying out enough to use the broccoli planting
:30:02. > :30:04.machine. So a staggering 20 million young broccoli and cauliflower
:30:04. > :30:11.plants were stuck in the greenhouses, because they couldn't
:30:11. > :30:13.be put in the ground. When the fields were ready, they all had to
:30:13. > :30:39.go in at once. But getting the broccoli plants in
:30:39. > :30:50.was only the beginning. The long, cold spring dragged on, and on.
:30:50. > :30:54.Andrew, it is a stunning crop now. How did you fair through that really
:30:54. > :30:58.difficult spring then? Well, it was very cold, the plants were late, the
:30:58. > :31:02.four planters that we put in in April, it was so cold they didn't
:31:02. > :31:06.grow at all and then when it did warm up, they all grew together and
:31:06. > :31:11.we had a glut of broccoli at the end of June. Which is great isn't it?
:31:11. > :31:19.No, because we overloaded the market place. We should be planting every
:31:19. > :31:23.day and we should be harvesting every day, so if we get four lots
:31:23. > :31:26.that come together, we have too much. The hardest thing about
:31:26. > :31:30.broccoli is supply and demand. When the sun comes out and it gets warm,
:31:30. > :31:34.it grows like crazy and nobody wants to eat vegetables. So what happened?
:31:34. > :31:38.We sold some off into freezing, some off to export, and some of it we had
:31:38. > :31:42.to plough in. You didn't?Yep, we did. So you were harvesting four
:31:42. > :31:44.lots all at once as well? Yep.That must have been difficult?
:31:44. > :31:48.lots all at once as well? Yep.That 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
:31:48. > :31:50.Through the night? You cant do that through the night! It's got
:31:50. > :32:10.fantastic floodlights on it and we double-shifted it. Sharp knives,
:32:10. > :32:18.darkness? You have got a cracking crop now. And Gregg is packing it.
:32:18. > :32:24.I'm on an amazing moving factory and I'm here with Boxer, who is in
:32:24. > :32:30.charge of this rig, right? Yes.How long have you had this moving
:32:30. > :32:33.warehouse? Three years now.Let me understand what's happening had,
:32:33. > :32:39.we've got a team of cutters at the front? Yes.And then it is coming
:32:39. > :32:44.in, taken off these, and every now and then one is weighed to check,
:32:44. > :32:49.and then you have to get them Cellophane lap wrapped? We put a
:32:49. > :32:54.label on it and she is like the last person who is checking. For all the
:32:54. > :32:58.picking and weighing we wrap it in Cellophane, put a sticker in it. How
:32:58. > :33:02.long does it take for each spear of the broccoli to go through the
:33:02. > :33:07.cutters, selection, weighing and machinery and packing? About one
:33:07. > :33:11.minute. And you have to get that broccoli just before it flowers.
:33:11. > :33:17.However, with Andrew's potato crop, flowering is vitally important.
:33:17. > :33:22.It was in July that Farmer Andrew was checking his spud crop at the
:33:22. > :33:26.crucial flowering time. We are here in this beautiful field of Maris
:33:26. > :33:32.Piper pool. It is coming into flower. They are very pretty. Are
:33:32. > :33:39.they are an indicator as to what's going on under the ground. We start
:33:39. > :33:43.off with the mother tuber. This is the seed potato we plant in the
:33:43. > :33:48.spring and the stems produce the little potatoes. These liny potatoes
:33:48. > :33:53.here. And these are the baby potatoes that swell to turn into
:33:53. > :33:58.these and then eventually into the bake being potatoes you see in the
:33:58. > :34:01.shops. What the plant needs now to get these potatoes to their full
:34:01. > :34:09.size is plenty of water and plenty of sunshine. Ouch sight under e is
:34:09. > :34:11.plenty of water and plenty of sunshine. Ouch sight underground --
:34:11. > :34:16.out of sight underground Andrew hopes it is a miracle of nature -
:34:16. > :34:22.potatoes forming in the soil. To unearth the magic, here's Stefan
:34:23. > :34:28.Gates. How and why does sunshine and water get converted into a potato?
:34:28. > :34:32.Gates. How and why does sunshine and Above ground, photosynthesis creates
:34:32. > :34:34.the sugars the plant needs to grow. Any extra issuing arrest the plant
:34:34. > :34:40.the sugars the plant needs to grow. doesn't need to use immediately are
:34:40. > :34:45.instead used as building blocks to make larger starch molecule's. The
:34:45. > :34:50.starch is stored in the potato tuber we eat. Starch doesn't dissolve in
:34:50. > :34:55.water, so it is a safe water to store energy in the wet earth. Every
:34:55. > :35:00.single potato is like a power cell for the plant, packed to bursting
:35:00. > :35:06.with starch molecules. And that means it is full of energy. The
:35:06. > :35:19.potato use ooze its stored energy to grow a new plant. We use that starch
:35:19. > :35:22.for food. I know when you taste a potato you don't think of the
:35:22. > :35:28.energy, but have a look. I'm putting a couple of teaspoons of starch into
:35:28. > :35:36.this piping and then blow it across a naked flame to see what happens.
:35:36. > :35:44.What you saw there was the energy being released in just about 30 or
:35:44. > :35:50.40 calories of starch. The average spud contains around 150 calories.
:35:50. > :35:55.About ten potatoes would provide all your daily needs. This isn't
:35:55. > :36:00.recommended, but skin on potatoes are so rich in nutrients that
:36:00. > :36:11.supplemented with a bit of butter for fat, you would pretty much live
:36:11. > :36:16.just eating potatoes. Back in early July Farmer Andrew knew exactly what
:36:16. > :36:20.he wanted for his spuds to fill out. Sunshine is the key thing. We can
:36:20. > :36:29.put as much water on as we want but we can't make the sunshine. And boy
:36:29. > :36:34.oh boy did the sun shine in July! The longest heat wave this century,
:36:34. > :36:40.and it was Heaven sent for potato farmers like Andrew. Long, dry
:36:40. > :36:45.conditions aren't a crisis for commercial growers. They invest in
:36:45. > :36:49.ir gaig systems to spoke their spuds. Farmers know that every year
:36:49. > :36:54.their plants will require lots of water. Once they've flowered, to
:36:54. > :36:58.build up the potatoes. But even with the exceptional summer sun in July
:36:58. > :37:06.and August, growers couldn't know for sure what was happening out of
:37:06. > :37:11.sight in the soil. Now we are in the potato harvest, only the end of
:37:11. > :37:18.today will Andrew really know the the quality and quantity. So there
:37:18. > :37:22.seems to be plenty of potatoes here, mate. How many more fields have you
:37:22. > :37:27.got to go? We've only just started sta. We've got another 20 or 30
:37:27. > :37:32.fields to go yet. Where do they go from here? From here to the pack
:37:32. > :37:37.house for washing and sorting for supermarkets. What's some of your
:37:37. > :37:44.biggest issues? There's loads of challenges, but the biggest one is
:37:44. > :37:48.potato blight. What is that?It is a fungal disease that kills the
:37:48. > :37:53.foliage and rots the potato. If you get it in your crop it is a
:37:53. > :38:00.disaster. It spreads quickly across the country. What can you do?We
:38:00. > :38:07.have to spray. This year was dry, so we sprayed once a fortnight. We hate
:38:07. > :38:11.spraying, because pit costs a fortune. Tell me honestly, is it a
:38:11. > :38:16.question of the you don't spray you lose the lot? If you have got potato
:38:16. > :38:21.blight in your crop, it's a write-off. Potato blight is one of
:38:21. > :38:24.the natural enemies farmers have to contend with. Can you imagine if you
:38:24. > :38:31.could grow in an environment you contend with. Can you imagine if you
:38:31. > :38:35.could control? Philippa visited a farm in Kent where they are
:38:35. > :38:39.attempting just that. It is a freezing morning, minus 1, with
:38:39. > :38:51.highs of 3 degrees. So if you are out and about, wrap up warm... In
:38:51. > :38:58.the middle of winter, and in the middle of the night, here in Kent
:38:58. > :39:04.they harvest tomatoes. Tomatoes. An Army of pickers marches to work. And
:39:04. > :39:09.today I'm joining them The Morning Philippa, how are you? Freezing.You
:39:09. > :39:16.can take off your winter stuff now. Yeah? Leaving winter outside,
:39:16. > :39:32.suddenly I feel like I'm walking into summer. It goes on forever!
:39:32. > :39:39.It's amazing! It is isn't it?What an enormous place. Is this what
:39:39. > :39:45.happens to me if I stay in this greenhouse? I turn into the size of
:39:45. > :39:50.you. Have you spent doing in the greenhouse? I have.Dutch tomato
:39:50. > :39:55.you. Have you spent doing in the guru Gert van Straalen is a big man
:39:55. > :39:59.with an even bigger office. He's hoping his greenhouse will give him
:39:59. > :40:05.a bigger bite out of the UK the tomato business. Worth over £600
:40:05. > :40:09.million, and growing. UK farmers only meet about one fifth of our
:40:09. > :40:16.demand. So there's plenty of room for them to expand their market
:40:16. > :40:20.share. So if I look down there I can hardly see the end. If I look down
:40:20. > :40:26.there, I can hardly see the tend. How big is it? It is about 25 acres
:40:26. > :40:31.or ten football pitches. This one greenhouse is 25 acres? It is.So
:40:31. > :40:36.how many tomato plants does that translate to? We have 400,000 plants
:40:36. > :40:39.in the greenhouse and we'll be producing 50,000 kilos of tomatoes
:40:39. > :40:49.this week. We are the only ones in the UK who produce fruit through the
:40:50. > :40:56.winter. 50,000 kilos of tomatoes? In the middle of winter? How does Gert
:40:56. > :41:04.do it? Like his plants, I'm heading had up towards the rising sun to
:41:04. > :41:16.find out. This is an altogether very different view. It goes on for
:41:17. > :41:21.miles! This is where it happens. We've got blue sky today and it is
:41:21. > :41:23.easy to forget that it is absolutely freezing. It is.We were in here
:41:23. > :41:26.since it was dark, so how are you freezing. It is.We were in here
:41:27. > :41:34.managing to grow tomatoes in the middle of the UK in the middle of
:41:34. > :41:37.winter? The secret is is this Formula One greenhouse. We have all
:41:37. > :41:44.the ingredients that you need for perfect plant growing. During the
:41:44. > :41:50.winter months, daylight just isn't enough. So these huge lights
:41:50. > :41:56.illuminate and heat the greenhouse 16 hours a day. Buying electricity
:41:56. > :42:01.off the grid would be expensive, so this greenhouse has its own
:42:01. > :42:06.gas-fired power station that waste heat is fed back into the
:42:06. > :42:12.glasshouse. They also pipe waste carbon dioxide from the power plant
:42:12. > :42:20.into the tomato plants. The extra CO2 increases photosynthesis, so
:42:20. > :42:26.they grow quick we are. These plants are so happy. Yes, they are. You can
:42:26. > :42:31.see - they're much bigger than any tomato plant I have ever grown. Yes,
:42:31. > :42:34.the plants grow a foot a week. That's extraordinary! We actually
:42:34. > :42:38.have more light available to the plants than a Spanish or Italian
:42:38. > :42:44.producer would have. Outside? Outside, correct. So in here, it's
:42:44. > :42:52.better than the Mediterranean? It is. He is able to control every
:42:52. > :42:56.aspect of the growing environment. He's regulating the temperature and
:42:56. > :43:03.making sure his tomato plants have all the food and water they need.
:43:03. > :43:09.It's this high-tech greenhouse that allows him to produce his tomatoes
:43:09. > :43:13.year around. Tomatoes picked today should taste just as good as those
:43:13. > :43:18.harvested in the summer, but I still haven't tasted one yet.
:43:18. > :43:22.You can lay out all the tomatoes you want, but my deep belief is I will
:43:22. > :43:27.never find another tomato to match the first one of the year that I
:43:27. > :43:32.pick off the plant in my own greenhouse. You couldn't be further
:43:32. > :43:42.from the truth! There's one particular variety of variety he
:43:42. > :43:48.thinks will win me over. This is called piccolo. That's the perfect
:43:48. > :43:53.tomato, really sweet with just enough crunch. Is it better than
:43:53. > :43:58.yours? Not nearly as good as mine, but nine out of ten. You're nearly
:43:58. > :44:05.there. Thank you.Some question the energy cost of growing tomatoes in
:44:05. > :44:09.Britain in winter. Gert would argue it's no worse than shipping them in
:44:09. > :44:14.from Spain or Holland where they're grown in similar greenhouses. In the
:44:14. > :44:18.end, it's our insatiable appetite for tomatoes that fuels the
:44:18. > :44:20.development of facilities like this and keeps the tomato harvest going
:44:20. > :44:29.year around. Tromt toes aren't the only produce
:44:29. > :44:34.we're very particular about. Growers know they must deliver
:44:34. > :44:40.appealing-looking veg to tempt us to take that their harvest home. Months
:44:40. > :44:44.of worry and hard work nurturing these potatoes may yet come to
:44:44. > :44:50.nothing. They may yet make it out of the ground but are they good enough
:44:50. > :44:54.to go to the shops? And here are the first of the potato harvest. They're
:44:54. > :44:58.bought here after you have harvested them to be sorted, but actually,
:44:58. > :45:04.this is also crucial quality control for you, isn't it? Yes, this is one
:45:04. > :45:08.of the first of the harvest at the moment. We have to treat these
:45:08. > :45:12.delicately without breaking them. It's surprising to me - the rough,
:45:12. > :45:16.tough spud but you have to be gentle with them. It's not rough at all. It
:45:16. > :45:21.bruises very easily. How do you sort that out through the system? With
:45:21. > :45:25.well designed machinery with maximum drops of three or four inches.
:45:25. > :45:30.Quality control is obviously important to you before any potato
:45:30. > :45:37.leaves here? That's right. We have a simulator, which I'll show you down
:45:37. > :45:42.here. This very simple little device delivers enough force to simulate a
:45:42. > :45:44.five-inch drop on the concrete. This potato will then go in what we call
:45:44. > :45:48.a hot box, which is a sort of warm, potato will then go in what we call
:45:48. > :45:52.like an airing cupboard with high humidity, for 24 hours, and then the
:45:52. > :45:56.next day you get the potatoes out of the hot box and we peel then. And
:45:56. > :46:00.we're looking for the bruising. And the most susceptible places are on
:46:00. > :46:03.the ends of the potatoes. These are clean. There's no bruising in these.
:46:03. > :46:08.So it really is quite a process, after? I just thought you had to dig
:46:08. > :46:11.them up and send them off. If only life was that easy. But you're
:46:11. > :46:16.actually really checking out the bruises, potential, and the ones
:46:16. > :46:20.that are bruised. And what happens to the ones that are bruised? If we
:46:20. > :46:25.get a sample with too many bruising on, we can't use it for our premium
:46:25. > :46:28.outlets, so it will end up going for processing or for animal feed. So
:46:28. > :46:31.these potatoes going in there now, what happens to them? We're going to
:46:31. > :46:35.size them, so we'll split them into small and large, and then they're
:46:35. > :46:38.going to go away to the packhouse for washing and pre-packing. Harvest
:46:38. > :46:42.2013 is heading our way. Over the next year, on average, each one of
:46:42. > :46:53.us will eat the equivalent of 450 medium-sized potatoes. --
:46:53. > :46:58.380-medium-sized potatoes. Everything about spuds comes in big
:46:58. > :47:03.numbers, except the profit per bag. To make money most vegetable farmers
:47:03. > :47:07.have to scale up their operation. But I've met a one grower whose big
:47:07. > :47:10.idea is a small-scale harvest, tiny, in fact! To search out this
:47:10. > :47:25.micro-business, I headed north to Scotland. St Andrews is famous as
:47:25. > :47:28.the home of golf. But it's also home to a small farm that's supplying
:47:28. > :47:32.some very customers with some rather extraordinary veg. Now, are they
:47:32. > :47:35.baby vegetables or have I grown an enormous head? They're cute,
:47:35. > :47:46.baby vegetables or have I grown an they? And I'd really like to find
:47:46. > :47:52.out more about them. Henry Aykroyd used to grow normal-size veg for
:47:52. > :47:56.some of our biggest supermarkets. But he struggled to make it pay. So
:47:56. > :47:59.he down-sized his product, and now his customer base is more
:47:59. > :48:04.Michelin-starred, people like Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal. Ooh,
:48:04. > :48:09.is it harvest time? That's right. Can I lend a hand? Course you can.
:48:09. > :48:14.I'll be quite gentle with it. Beautiful little turnips. How do you
:48:14. > :48:24.get them to only grow to that size? Well, it's all about plant density,
:48:24. > :48:28.really. These are grown at nearly 800 to the square metre. In these
:48:28. > :48:37.perfect conditions in here, they just take four or five weeks to
:48:37. > :48:41.grow. N So if they were more spaced out, they'd get bigger. That's it,
:48:41. > :48:44.is it? Yes. More time and more space, they get much bigger. And how
:48:44. > :48:47.much is the average order? We're charging 25p a unit for these. Some
:48:47. > :48:51.people might think that's ridiculously expensive, but I don't.
:48:51. > :48:55.I don't. I can see that. I mean, in a smart restaurant you probably only
:48:55. > :49:00.get three of those on a plate anyway. So that's 75p. He's growing
:49:00. > :49:04.some fantastic veg, and I suppose shrinking his business literally has
:49:04. > :49:09.increased the profit. I mean, he used to get 25p for half a kilo of
:49:09. > :49:16.veg. Now he gets 25p for every single little turnip. But it isn't
:49:16. > :49:27.all about the size. He's also experimenting with some
:49:28. > :49:35.revolutionary growing techniques. It's like a disco for little plants!
:49:35. > :49:41.Henry is collaborating with Professor John Allen. In the 1960s
:49:41. > :49:44.John developed the world's first practical LED lights. Now John is
:49:44. > :49:53.working with the horticulture industry to research how coloured
:49:53. > :49:58.LEDs may increase plant growth. Right. Are you going to explain, or
:49:58. > :50:02.try to explain, some of the science behind this to me? Yes, here I've
:50:02. > :50:07.got some radishes. They've been growing for three weeks from seed.
:50:07. > :50:11.And these were grown under 100% red light, and you can see the top
:50:11. > :50:15.growth is quite long. And these have been grown under 100% blue. And you
:50:15. > :50:26.see they're very much shorter. No chemicals? No chemicals, just light.
:50:26. > :50:29.No growing additives? No growing additives. That's just crazy. The
:50:29. > :50:32.difference between those three is entirely the colour of the light.
:50:32. > :50:35.John's red light has increased photosynthesis in his plant, making
:50:35. > :50:38.it grow bigger. But John's also discovered that combining red light
:50:38. > :50:42.with blue light increases root growth. And that could make better
:50:42. > :50:44.veg. So if the light can affect the shape and colour of the plant, I'm
:50:44. > :50:53.almost scared to ask this - could it shape and colour of the plant, I'm
:50:53. > :50:58.affect the flavour? Yes. You can try it. Have a bit of that and have a
:50:58. > :51:04.bit of that. And see if they're different. Well, that one's quite
:51:04. > :51:09.strong and peppery. That one's mild. Yes. They taste completely
:51:09. > :51:13.different. Yes, this is exciting. It's very, very exciting. Anything
:51:13. > :51:18.else? The nutritional quality of the plant can be changed by the colour
:51:18. > :51:23.of the light. A red or blue light or a combination can actually make our
:51:23. > :51:28.foods better for us? That's right, and that's important. That's
:51:28. > :51:32.seriously important. Science is fun! You're going to be really famous.
:51:32. > :51:38.You won't any longer have to do Father Christmas in the department
:51:38. > :51:41.store! LAUGHTER
:51:41. > :51:47.Well, it brings in useful pocket money. John isn't alone in
:51:47. > :51:52.researching the effects of light on plant growth and taste. The results
:51:52. > :51:56.may have a really big impact on our future harvest. At the moment,
:51:56. > :52:01.Henry's feeding high-end diners, but John hopes that one day what they
:52:01. > :52:09.learn with these tiny crops will help feed the world with higher
:52:09. > :52:14.quality vegetable vegetables. Now, look at that. Who 'd have ever
:52:14. > :52:17.believed it that you could actually change the flavour of a vegetable by
:52:17. > :52:23.shining a different coloured light on it? Henry and John may appear to
:52:23. > :52:26.be a bit eccentric, but I think they have stumbled on something here. I
:52:26. > :52:30.know it's early days, but this could be the future. A different colour
:52:30. > :52:33.light can make a vegetable taste better and make it more nutritious.
:52:33. > :52:38.That is amazing. But right now, what concerns us more
:52:38. > :52:42.is Andrew's crop. Now, Andrew, unlike other vegetables, your
:52:42. > :52:46.potatoes have been growing under the ground, so they're being lifted for
:52:46. > :52:50.the first time today, and now we'll get a real idea of the quality and
:52:50. > :52:54.quantity. That's right. This is the day of judgment, the moment of
:52:54. > :52:59.truth. It doesn't matter how many times you sample. You never know
:53:00. > :53:06.what you have until you put your harvester in. Is that the first
:53:06. > :53:11.load? Are you happy with the yield? I am. I am not quite up to target
:53:11. > :53:15.but a lot more than this time last year. So the indications are it's
:53:15. > :53:19.going the right way? Going the right way. Right. A cook like me, an old
:53:19. > :53:26.green grocer, what's the quality like? I am very happy with this
:53:26. > :53:31.quality of crop. It's a lovely, waxy, fresh potato. You look pretty
:53:31. > :53:37.satisfied. I am happy.Where you been? On the tractor? Yeah, you know
:53:37. > :53:43.me and farm machinery. I can't help it. Big boys' toys, eh?I love it.
:53:43. > :53:48.How is the broccoli harvest going now? Very well since June. We're
:53:48. > :53:54.going flat out until the middle of November. That's amazing. Potatoes
:53:54. > :53:59.are up. That's good. Broccoli, good. Any late successes? Onions, I don't
:53:59. > :54:03.think are ever going to make the target. Mixed report, but all in
:54:03. > :54:07.all... I am happier than last year. Good to know. The question is, are
:54:08. > :54:12.we going to import into the UK potatoes and other vegetables this
:54:12. > :54:14.year, or will we be self-sufficient? Time to find out how harvest 2013
:54:14. > :54:16.year, or will we be self-sufficient? has affected the rest of the
:54:16. > :54:22.country. Let's look at the national picture,
:54:22. > :54:29.starting with potatoes. In a year, on average, we grow 5.7 million
:54:29. > :54:34.tonnes, but in 2012, wet weather hit potatoes hard. The crop was down
:54:34. > :54:46.nearly a quarter. Harvest 2013 will be better. We predict spuds up 20%
:54:46. > :54:50.on last year. The glorious summer broke the record for salad sales.
:54:50. > :54:54.Congratulations to our farmers who grew more than 15% more salad leaf
:54:54. > :54:58.than last year, but it's not all good news. Some veg struggled to
:54:59. > :55:03.grow in the cold spring, and farmers are still counting the costs.
:55:03. > :55:09.Carrots are currently down about 8%, but they should catch up. What about
:55:09. > :55:14.onions? On average, we grow 400,000 tonnes of onions a year. In 2012,
:55:14. > :55:19.onion farmers failed to reach that target. Harvest 2013 is likely to be
:55:19. > :55:21.even worse. Onions didn't get the warm spring needed for their bulbs
:55:21. > :55:25.even worse. Onions didn't get the to fill out. But good news for
:55:25. > :55:34.brussel sprouts lovers. In 2012, sprouts fell well short. But this
:55:34. > :55:41.year, early reports suggest a green Christmas, sprouts may be up a
:55:41. > :55:46.third. So on the whole, our vegetable farmers are happy in the
:55:46. > :55:53.sun of 2013. So Andrew, a brief moment to just
:55:53. > :55:56.sit with us and think about how this year's gone cos we have been
:55:56. > :55:59.following you through this whole year, which has been such a
:55:59. > :56:03.privilege, and thank you for having us, and it's been amazing to see
:56:03. > :56:06.just what you go through and what you're faced with in the course of a
:56:06. > :56:11.year. It all starts again tomorrow for us. We're already planning and
:56:11. > :56:15.planting next year's crops, at Christmas, King Edward potatoes,
:56:15. > :56:19.parsnips and brussel sprouts - they all go mad at Christmas. So you've
:56:19. > :56:21.got another harvest before the end of the year? We have a huge week -
:56:21. > :56:25.got another harvest before the end the biggest week of our year is
:56:25. > :56:30.Christmas week. Is it? And you still have a smile on your face. I don't
:56:30. > :56:33.know why. Can we get stuck into some of these, chips here - I mean
:56:33. > :56:37.roastiesactually when you look at this you're actually providing the
:56:37. > :56:43.nation's favourite food, aren't you? That's the plan. Look at that. I
:56:43. > :56:49.don't know anyone in these beautiful windswept islands that doesn't enjoy
:56:49. > :56:50.these. No. Well, we've got Maris Piper for the chips, King Edward for
:56:50. > :56:53.the roasties and Corral for the Piper for the chips, King Edward for
:56:53. > :57:02.salads. See I haven't eaten one of these, can I? Help yourself. Skin on
:57:02. > :57:06.man, are you? Tell me what you think of them? It's soft and really
:57:06. > :57:14.earthy. You don't know a dairy farmer who has a kilo of butter, do
:57:14. > :57:17.you? Not around here.We're set. We have some nice beer. Tell you what's
:57:17. > :57:20.impressed me - two things - one is the scale of the operation to farm
:57:20. > :57:25.potatoes. The other is the passion for the subject. How did it get
:57:25. > :57:30.under your skin like that? I just love farming, growing crops, growing
:57:30. > :57:33.great crops on great farmers is so satisfying. And this year
:57:33. > :57:38.particularly must have been a bit more satisfying. Last year was a
:57:38. > :57:42.disaster. I want to forget about it. It's a year I'll probably never
:57:42. > :57:46.forget - wish I could. This year has been good fun. Despite having us lot
:57:46. > :57:49.around. Despite having you lot around. We have had quite a laugh
:57:49. > :57:55.really. We have learnt so much. Thank you so much. If you want to
:57:55. > :58:00.pick up tips and recipes written by the great Gregg Wallace, go to our
:58:00. > :58:05.website and you can download this leaflet. They're not just some
:58:05. > :58:09.recipes. They're fantastic. They're delicious. You can find out about
:58:09. > :58:14.events surrounding the harvest near you, free ones as well. I would like
:58:14. > :58:17.to raise a glass because where would we be in Britain in the UK without
:58:17. > :58:23.the potato? Cheers to the potato. Cheers to you, Andrew. King Edward.
:58:23. > :58:30.Next time: As the harvest continues, we unleash the combines. We discover
:58:30. > :58:33.what it takes to bring in our daily bread. Join us for Harvest 2013
:58:33. > :58:35.tomorrow at 8.00pm.