A Taste of Spring! Countryfile Spring Diaries

Springtime, when the days lengthen and signs of change are everywhere.

LAMBS BLEAT

There's not a corner of the British Isles

that doesn't warm to the arrival of spring.

It's our most extraordinary season for one big reason -

it's a time of astonishing growth and regeneration.

From pond life to birdlife, from the scent of fresh blossom,

to our smallest mammals reawakening after months of hibernation...

..we'll be bringing you the most remarkable stories

of this wonderful time of year.

Tales of survival, endurance and occasional indulgence.

Join us for this special week of programmes,

as we celebrate the secrets of spring

here on Countryfile Diaries.

Springtime gives the green light to the growing season.

164,000 hectares of spring crops transform the British landscape.

Here in the New Forest at Hampshire, as well as the woodland,

carpeted with bluebells and all the scenic beauty,

almost a quarter of the national park

is actually made up of farmland.

Fertile land, that provides a livelihood for 9,000 people

who raise livestock and grow fruit, vegetables and salad crops.

The team has been roving around the UK,

ready to report on the spread of spring throughout the nation.

Jules is discovering there's a new kid on the block down on the farm -

but could it be tantalising our taste buds this spring?

-It's got half the saturated fat of chicken.

-Has it?

Margherita uncovers why spring is the busiest time of year

for our turkey farmers...

-LAUGHS:

-That's so gorgeous!

..and if, like Paul, your dream is living the country life,

he'll be revealing the simple steps to keeping your own honeybees.

Here's the Queen.

That is fantastic.

Making a living from the land can be tough.

There are long hours, unpredictable returns,

an often uncertain future.

Temperamental weather in the spring can add to a farmer's woes,

but so too can a tiny little beetle that you've probably never heard of.

But right now, a battle is going on in the arable fields

between farmers and the pollen beetle.

Keeley tells us more.

With a helping hand from science and technology, over the past 30 years,

the British growing season has been extended by a phenomenal 29 days.

But with this edible breakthrough

comes additional challenges.

No matter how hi-tech your farm is,

the crops are still at the mercy of the weather...

..and the weather in spring is notoriously unpredictable.

Different crops require different conditions

at this changeable time of year.

One crop that paints our countryside

a vivid shade of yellow in springtime is oilseed rape,

used to produce one of the best-quality vegetable oils

on the market.

For oilseed rape farmer James Wilmott,

keeping an eye on temperature is vital to the survival of his crop -

because when the weather warms to 15 degrees,

a unwelcome visitor invades his farm.

The prolific pollen beetle.

-Hello there, James.

-Good morning.

-What are you looking for in here?

I am looking, this morning, for the pollen beetles,

which are in the green buds on the oilseed rape plants.

-Can you see there's one there?

-Oh, yeah.

Right in the middle of the plant, there.

-A tiny little black, shiny beetle.

-Absolutely.

If we get too many of them, what they will do,

they will bore into the green bud on the plant, as you see here.

Once the green bud has been bored into, the flower will not form.

You'd end up with a stalk with nothing on it.

It'd be just like that, with no flowers.

-You get no pod filled, you get no harvest.

-So it's destroyed?

It's totally destroyed.

So what I'm doing at the moment, at this time of year,

is walking the crops, looking at the different plants,

different stages in the different fields,

and counting the pollen beetles.

Each plant can sustain up to 15 beetles

without doing too much damage to the crop.

The problem lies with the timing of their invasion.

The pollen beetle, as the name suggests, loves pollen.

It's desperate to get this sweet treat,

and it's not prepared to wait until the flowers have opened.

If the weather warms to 15 degrees before the flowers have bloomed,

then the pollen beetles will burrow into the buds themselves,

killing the flower to steal their prize.

With no flowers, there are no seeds, destroying the harvest.

It must be very difficult,

because the weather's so changeable at this time of year.

The spring stops and starts,

we go through a warm spell, then a cold spell -

-that must be very difficult.

-Absolutely.

And that's why at this time of year

I have to look at these fields everyday,

because if you let these things get out of control,

they will take the whole crop out in a couple of days.

It's almost like a race against time, though.

They both need the same conditions,

-and which one is going to win out?

-Absolutely, yes.

But once the flowers are formed, it's not a problem.

They will actually help the pollination of the flowers.

It spring quite a stressful time of year?

It is a stressful time for most farmers,

because it's a very busy time.

We have so many different crops in the ground.

It's a very busy time for everyone on the farm.

-And this makes it even worse?

-This is part of it, yes.

That's why I have to go around them every day.

So, what to do?

The last defence against these prolific beetles

is to spray the crop with pesticides -

and it's not always kind to the environment or wildlife.

What James and farmers like him need each spring

is an accurate way to predict what will arrive first -

flowers or beetles.

With 2.3 million tonnes of oilseed rape growing in the UK,

what can be done to help farmers like James?

One woman thinks that she might have the answer.

Dr Sam Cook from Rothamsted Research,

one of the world leaders in agricultural science,

is looking at ways to help farmers

predict the arrival of the pollen beetle.

-Hello, Sam. You all right?

-Hi.

Tell me about the project.

Migration is driven by wind speed,

so they won't fly if it's a really blustery day, like today.

Mainly temperature.

They like temperatures above 15 degrees and lots of nice sunshine.

-Fussy little devils, then?

-Oh, absolutely, yes.

So what exactly does the tool do, then?

So we've got these monitoring traps here.

Pollen beetles are very attracted to the colour yellow

and we know they're very attracted to the scent

of the oilseed rape crop itself,

so we've combined these two elements to develop this trap

that will monitor pollen beetles very effectively,

and this can help growers at the moment

to look at the local movement.

Using these traps and detailed weather reports,

Sam is testing out an online tool to warn farmers of conditions

that could spell a potential beetle attack.

By identifying hot spots across Britain,

farmers will know exactly where and when spraying is necessary

before they lose their crop.

So, it could be as easy as a farmer going online,

"Yes, it's ready, they are migrating,

"let's go and check the trap,

"there's plenty in the trap,

-"right, we know what we need to do now"?

-Yes.

So it will save growers a lot of time, effort,

and hopefully save unnecessary and wasted sprays.

Every crop requires something different from our spring weather,

so the more farmers like James can predict

these complex conditions at this crucial time of year,

the better it'll be for the future of our food.

It's hard to believe, isn't it,

that a little beetle's search for something sweet

can cause such trouble?

But when our farmers do manage to grow their crops unscathed,

it means that we, as consumers,

can really enjoy their produce when it's in season.

I did an investigation of my own a little while ago,

to find out what the environmental benefits

of eating seasonally really are.

40 years ago, if you'd been shopping for fruit and veg in spring,

your choice would have been fairly limited.

Today, there's endless choice, and it's relatively cheap.

So when it comes to our food, does spring really matter any more?

The fact that a lot of things are imported, well,

maybe they should not be imported,

and we should just see what we get in season and be happy with that.

We've got very good farmland here, all over the countryside,

and we can actually make our own food if we wanted to.

I'm on my way now to meet Vernon Mascarenhas,

who supplies seasonal fruit and vegetables

to some of the finest hotels and restaurants in London,

and he's convinced that eating seasonally is good for us.

It's 8am and Vernon has deliveries to make

to some of the most demanding chefs in the capital.

-Good morning.

-Good morning, nice to see you.

What have you got on the van today, then?

Right, well, this is what we harvested yesterday.

So we have some black cabbage here, we have some Cheltenham beetroot,

some Swiss chard, some red Swiss chard,

and there we have some purple sprouting broccoli.

-Can I help you with the boxes?

-Yes, yes, we'll take these.

-Where are we going?

-Just up here.

-So you believe in seasonal vegetables, then?

-Absolutely.

I work very closely with people like Henry,

tell them what's coming in season

and he'll have it on his menu the very next day.

-So you serve seasonal stuff in the restaurant?

-Always.

The whole restaurant's driven by seasonality, nothing more.

It's what brings in the changes in the menu.

-Well, here's some black cabbage for you.

-Fantastic.

-And some Cheltenham beetroot for you, as well.

-Thanks a lot, Vernon.

See you later, Henry. Bye.

-Strawberries.

-First of the English season.

A lot of people can't wait till now for a strawberry, can they?

-They want one at Christmas.

-They don't taste of anything then.

These are beautifully delicious English ones.

-They'll be on the table at lunchtime, will they?

-Absolutely.

-I know you're in a hurry to get them all delivered and everything.

-Yeah.

So how many London restaurants

are going to be getting fresh seasonal food today?

We'll do about 200 - but we don't just do restaurants,

we do shops, as well, so people can come out and buy it.

-Hey, what have you got for me today?

-Sanjay.

-Hey, Sanjay. There's strawberries.

-Beautiful.

-First of the season.

First of the season, eh? Great. Anything else for me?

I've got some sprouting broccoli, I've got some Swiss chard...

Seasonal food champions like Vernon

question shipping and supplies like these new potatoes from Egypt,

which they believe are using up valuable water resources

in an already dry region.

For them, it's best to wait until we can grow our own.

But eating seasonal food out of season

doesn't necessarily mean shipping it from abroad.

These days, we can extend our seasons here in the UK.

July to October were always the months to eat tomatoes,

but now vast heated greenhouses

mean we can grow them between February and November.

But in years to come, we may not have to heat greenhouses

or fly in as much fruit and vegetables.

Global warming could make our choice of British produce

look very different.

These walnuts didn't grow in the South of France, or Turkey,

or China, they grow here in this orchard in Kent.

-Could they be a crop of the future, do you think?

-I hope so.

That is what I believe and that's why I planted them.

-And is it because the temperatures are rising a bit?

-That's my bet.

And with 14 acres of walnut trees reaching maturity,

it's a bet he hopes will really come good.

If all those scientists who believe in climate change

are proved to be correct,

well, that could open a whole new world of seasonal food

here in this country - not just walnuts,

but many of what we now consider to be a exotic fruits and vegetables

could be home-grown all year round.

For now, though, it's a choice between sticking to genuinely

seasonal British food or paying the environmental price

for the alternatives.

One of the favourites on a springtime menu

is, of course, lamb - but there is a meat

which three quarters of the world's population eat

but which we, the great British public,

are only now are beginning to discover.

Jules has been to a farm that is ahead of the trend.

Five years ago, retired teachers Anne and Mike Roberts

gave up life abroad to run a mixed livestock farm

on the edge of the New Forest.

In record time, they've transformed

what was then an empty 40-acre field into what you see now -

a vibrant smallholding complete with chickens, sheep, rare breed pigs...

Hello, you lot.

..and some goats.

These aren't dairy goats, but a breed developed especially

for their lean and healthy meat,

tapping into a niche but growing market.

-Look at this lot enjoying breakfast.

-They are. They love it, yes.

They all look very happy -

and they do look as if they've done very well this winter.

These goats are very striking.

-What breed are they?

-They're Boer goats - B-O-E-R -

-South African breed.

-OK.

They are bred specifically for meat.

They actually grow a little bit more chunky than the dairy goats,

and that's why we keep them.

The animals are just so fascinating, so curious,

so naughty, so much fun that it makes it very much worthwhile.

And Anne has certainly got her hands full with this year's arrivals.

-I'm afraid they're very good at getting out of everything.

-Hello.

-Not all of them.

-Hello, you.

-Hello, you. Is this what you're after?

-Yes, I'm afraid it is.

-Is this what you're after?

-Come on, then.

-Come on, then.

-There we go. How about that, how about that?

-Makes it look easy.

Doesn't it just? Doesn't it just?

They are lovely animals, aren't they? As characters.

-How old is this kid now?

-About three weeks.

-Three weeks.

-Yes.

She is one of last year's kids,

and she is nearly reaching the size that we would kill out at.

It's all gone. It's all gone. It's just air in there at the moment.

You'll get hiccups if you're not careful.

This is your domain,

but I gather Mike is in charge of the butchery side of it.

Yes, he is. I'm not at all involved in that, so...

You'll have to talk to him about that.

Must be quite helpful, though, having that degree of separation,

-I suppose.

-Yes, it does.

I try not to think about that too much and let him deal

-with that side of it.

-Yes, I can see why. You're all too cute.

I won't say the word delicious because that would be wrong,

wouldn't it? Right, then. Let's go and see Mike.

Butchering their goats on site

allows Anne and Mike to sell their specialist meat

straight from the farm.

-Hello, Mike.

-Hello there.

-How are you?

-Not too bad.

I've just been with Anne and seen the start of the process

but you're clearly very much involved in the final bit.

That's right, yes.

Were you a fan of goat meat before you started to breed them?

I had never eaten it before I started breeding them.

-You never had?

-No. Actually a very mild, subtle taste.

It looks incredibly lean.

-It has got half the saturated fat of chicken.

-Has it?

And it's got a very, very low cholesterol.

If you're going to continue eating red meat, then it's goat.

Go for goat. That, I obviously recognise as leg.

That is a haunch of the leg, yes.

Compared to a leg of lamb, it's very similar, isn't it?

Similar, apart from that leg would have a thin layer of fat

-if it was one of my lambs.

-How do you say to cook it again?

-Low and slow. It does not like fierce heat.

-Low and slow.

-Good advice. Cheers, mate.

-OK.

Springtime is when new life begins,

and for the entire livestock industry, it's a vital time.

It's easy to forget

when we're looking forward to all those celebrations

at the other end of the year,

that the preparations for them start right now in spring.

Margherita is looking into why spring is such a key time

in our food calendar.

This season is all about the baby boom.

Leaping lambs, chicks finding their feed, ducklings learning to swim.

And this lot, turkeys -

but these aren't your average turkeys.

These are some of the rarest in Britain.

In fact, there are only ten rare varieties left here in the UK,

and what I'm keen to find out is why the farmer who owns this site

is so keen to save our traditional turkey.

They look very tatty at the moment.

For heritage breeders Ian and Brenda Waterman,

Christmas planning starts in spring.

It's now they are at their busiest.

Ian, why is spring such an important time of year for you?

Spring is when it all comes together.

They mate, they give us eggs,

and we get young, and we can keep them going.

Ian's bright idea began just 12 years ago

following a festive turkey feast that fell short on flavour.

He and his wife, Brenda, decided they could do better

by taking a more traditional approach

to rearing turkeys year-round.

All our birds will mate naturally, they rear their own young,

they do everything for themselves.

They will free-range given the opportunity.

You can't do that with a commercial variety.

Half of the goodness of these birds comes from what they eat

and being able to walk around and be free ranging.

What makes them what they are.

Ian has spent more than a decade

searching out Britain's remaining rare varieties.

Some had hit rock-bottom,

and now he's bringing them back from the brink.

Today, his farm is one of just two places in the UK

where all our remaining heritage varieties can be found.

The ones behind us, which are Buff turkeys, are very vulnerable.

That's probably the biggest group of breeding Buff turkeys

you'll find in the UK. Almost died out completely.

We need to keep them.

It is part of our rural heritage, you know,

-and we need to keep it going.

-And could I raise one of these at home?

If you wanted to raise a turkey for Christmas,

you should really only keep them in pairs or trios,

because they are social animals.

A small garden shed and a plot of land about 10x12

would keep a pair going quite well.

For Ian and Brenda, spring is their busiest time of year

when chicks hatch and there are young to look after.

With 150 breeding turkeys,

they are expecting anywhere between 300 and 400 eggs

to be laid this spring.

The eggs are brought into a warm and dark environment

to incubate for about 28 days until the fertile ones hatch.

I can't believe I witnessed a live birth today.

It is astounding, isn't it?

-We see it quite often but it never ceases to amaze.

-So gorgeous!

He's a little bit camera shy.

We know that the egg was laid on the first of the fourth.

So far, 60 chicks have been born, but by the end of spring,

Ian expects to have around 250.

Ian, it was really incredible to see that little chick

hatch into the world. That is what spring is all about, isn't it?

It is, absolutely. New life, new beginnings.

-So, about seven days old?

-Just about seven days old.

They very quickly fluff up

from that bedraggled little thing that we saw,

they very quickly fluff up into this.

As you can see, this one is starting to put some feathers on already.

By about six or eight weeks,

they are getting a lot more feathers on

and they're not quite as noisy, either.

They are very, very vocal.

He'll chirp away now until he gets back over there with his friends.

They are very, very social and they thrive much better in larger groups.

Over the next seven months, these chicks will be raised outside

until they reach table weight in time for Christmas,

but all the work begins now in spring.

TURKEY CHEEPS

For me, the first sight of a honeybee is a sure sign

that spring has arrived.

Around three billion British bees are tended by amateur beekeepers

and if like Paul Martin and his wife, Charlotte,

you'd like to help swell the dwindling number of British bees,

well, here's how you can.

I live on a 27-acre smallholding with my family

in the heart of Wiltshire.

I've always wanted to make more of the land,

so this spring, I'm on a quest to learn how to create

a habitat for wildlife and produce food for the table.

While I've been busy planting the beginnings of a traditional orchard

and putting saplings for some of Wiltshire's rarest varieties,

my wife, Charlotte, has been taking lessons

in what has become a popular British hobby

estimated to be worth up to £35 million each year

in honey production - beekeeping.

The honeybee population of Great Britain

has plummeted by a third in just ten years.

Now that's a worrying decline, so to help pollinate our new orchard

and our other fruit trees that are in blossom,

Charlotte and I are going to keep our own beehive.

Luckily for us, master beekeeper Sally Wadsworth

lives just down the road.

At this time of year, you will be able to get a nucleus of bees.

If it goes well, by midsummer, you could have as many as 50,000.

-50,000?

-In a box.

-In one box?

-In one box.

-Wow!

-It's a little bit daunting, but it's exciting. So much to know.

When will we get honey?

You may get some this coming year but there won't be very much.

You're really looking at next year before you can expect

very much of a honey harvest.

I think we'll get our suits on and get started, don't you?

Yes, that will be great.

Bee stings are no laughing matter,

so our new bee suits are a serious bit of kit -

with one possible exception.

I think we are good to go. We just need our marigolds on.

Where are the marigolds, darling?

Rubber gloves are perfect for protecting our hands

when tending to bees.

Time for my first practical lesson in beekeeping.

In order to check the health of the hive,

we're going to take a glimpse inside.

We're going to give them some smoke.

Would you like to do that, Charlotte?

What does the smoker actually do?

What effect will it have on the bees?

The smoke seems to calm the bees.

When bees lived in woodland and the forest fire was blazing away,

the bees would fill up with nectar and honey

from the hive ready to fly away.

When they have filled up their honey stomachs with honey,

they can't bend their tails quite so easily to sting us.

It's not the smoke that makes them feel dizzy,

it's the fact that they think they're in danger, there's a fire,

-they've got eat and they've got to escape.

-Yes.

Right, now we're going to take the roof off.

Oh, wow! Look at that!

We're going to check that we have a laying queen.

The way we can do that, is seeing either eggs

or actually finding the queen, which would be lovely.

You can take that, Charlotte.

Make sure you hold it over the hive in case there is a queen on it.

How often do you inspect your hives?

Roughly once a week during May to August during the swarm season.

Can you see any eggs or anything in here?

-I can see some of the brood, little larvae in there.

-No queen there.

You can see there is pollen coming into the hive.

If there's pollen,

you can be fairly certain that all is well in the hive.

I can smell honey. Do you know what?

They are quite therapeutic, aren't they?

It's all as if it's in slow motion. Can I put it back?

You can put it back.

-This one will probably have the queen on.

-Looks the busiest.

-Hopefully.

-Here's the Queen.

That is fantastic.

She's a lot bigger, isn't she? Incredible.

There are an estimated 274,000 beehives in the UK

and the majority of these hives are kept by approximately 44,000

amateur beekeepers.

The thought of keeping our own bees and having fresh honey every year

is pretty exciting, but there's still work to do.

My first job is to find a suitable spot

for our bee enclosure, or apiary, next to our new apple trees.

There we are. That doesn't look too bad.

Willow cuttings have an amazing ability to re-root

once they're planted in the ground, and hopefully, over time,

this whole structure will become a living wall.

The apiary will also keep animals and children away from the hive,

but will encourage the bees to fly upwards

and further away in search of pollen.

With our empty hive fully assembled,

it takes centre stage in the new apiary.

A hive like this will set you back about £195.

Soon our resident bees will be helping to pollinate

my heritage orchard.

With the sun shining and with Sally's help,

our queen and her colony are introduced to their new home.

Collectively, the healthy hive can produce 11kg of honey,

more than enough for a family of four.

Time to sample last year's efforts.

Well, Sally has gone and thankfully everything

went smoothly with the bees.

We've got some bees now, Meredith.

And our honey, when we do get some, should taste like this.

-Go on, then, let's try it.

-Drink it!

-Drink it!

Mm, that's delicious.

What do you think, Meredith? Yummy?

Yeah, that's not bad, is it?

What more can you say when someone is literally drinking it?

I mean, that's a compliment.

Can't wait till next year when we're tasting our own.

-No, I can't, actually.

-That'll be amazing.

-Yeah.

That's all we've got time for today.

Please do join us again tomorrow. Until then, goodbye.