Episode 3 Countryfile Spring Diaries

Across the UK, days are warmer...

..brighter...

and longer.

In the countryside,

the air is filled with birdsong,

and the scent of flowers.

Spring has sprung.

It's the time of year when nature...

wakes up.

And there are new beginnings everywhere you look.

It's a time to plant and sow.

And to get out and enjoy everything...

..our wonderful countryside has to offer.

All week, we're travelling the length and breadth of the UK.

We are going to be growing some marrows, aren't we?

-We are.

-Super, super sized ones.

Bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

This kind of project is really a springboard

to a new style of life for older people.

A very warm welcome to the most joyous of seasons.

This is Countryfile Spring Diaries.

In today's show...

Keeley discovers how we can all chip in

to maintain vital mountain shelters.

It's a refuge that has saved lives in the past.

Joe Crowley is getting under the skin of

one of our most popular spring veggies.

I don't like to call myself a fortune teller because I'm not.

I make predictions on

showbiz personalities, royalty...

And I'll be getting some expert advice

on how you can guarantee a bumper crop of fruit

from your trees this year.

At this time of year, when the trees are active,

the roots are really, really fragile.

We're celebrating the freshness of spring, here,

in glorious Devon.

Now, surveys show that Devonshire people

are amongst the most contented in the country,

and it's easy to see why.

In Devon's pretty villages,

you feel as though you've stepped back in time.

But for all its charms,

this is still a farming county,

with over 10,000 people employed in agriculture here.

Spring is of course a very busy time on the land

with crops to plant, and newborn animals to care for.

And there are now more women than men

signing on for courses at agricultural colleges.

And Margherita has been digging into our past,

to discover whether these farmers of the future

have lessons to learn from a previous generation.

World War I, a conflict that took three million men away to fight...

..while, at home, farms struggled to feed the nation.

Into the breach stepped the British Women's Land Army,

formed 100 years ago, in 1917.

Members of the Women's Land Army became known as Land Girls,

and, through their sheer hard graft, got the country farming again.

When war broke out again in 1939,

the ladies marched to the fields once more.

Amongst the 80,000 who joined up

was one of Britain's last remaining Land Girls,

93-year-old Elizabeth Henderson.

Why did you become a Land Girl? Did you volunteer, or were you...?

Oh, no, you had to.

Everybody... You either had to go into one of the services,

-or go in the Land Army.

-And why did you pick the Land Army?

Well, I just...

I'd always worked with animals.

During the war, Elizabeth read an inspirational bestseller

on life in agriculture -

The Farming Ladder, by Cotswold landowner George Henderson.

I couldn't put it down.

I thought, this is marvellous.

So I wrote off straight to George and said,

"I'd like to come and work as a... a pupil on your farm."

And he wrote back and said,

"We like lady students but we've nowhere to accommodate them."

So I wrote back and said, "Oh, that's no trouble.

"The Land Army's got a hostel just up the road. I'll stay there."

Elizabeth was just 18 when she wrote that letter.

Little did she know that it would change her life

in more ways than one.

So, your love of the land introduced you to the love of your life.

Yes, that's right.

Was it love at first sight?

No, no, no.

I came up in the January...

..and we didn't get engaged 'til the July.

Then we got married on November 19th, 1944.

So while this romance is bubbling away and beginning between you

and George, you're still a Land Girl, working the farm?

Yes, that's right.

Did you feel proud, being a Land Girl,

feeding the nation during the war?

Don't think we thought about it, actually.

THEY CHUCKLE

-Just got on with it?

-It was a job we wanted to do.

We just took it as part of life.

And there's no doubt that it was a hard life.

To give Elizabeth a flavour of how times have changed,

we're taking her to meet a group of modern-day Land Girls,

female students at the Royal Agricultural University

in Gloucestershire.

I love your machine!

Well, it's a robo crop precision guidance system.

So the tractor's here,

and then the hydraulics will shunt this whole back bit

backwards and forwards,

and make sure that the hoes go directly through the rows

and pull out all of the weeds.

It's really clever, isn't it? It's got this camera here

so it takes a picture of the whole width.

-So it knows it's in between the rows.

-Oh!

That's very clever.

So you don't accidentally take out your crop as well.

Yes. So you don't have to hoe any more?

ALL: No.

CHUCKLING

It's making everything a lot quicker.

Hoeing was the bane of our lives.

With hi-tech equipment now standard on modern farms,

it seems unlikely that these students will share

Elizabeth's lifelong dread of hoeing.

But what exactly is attracting women here in such great numbers?

Dr Nicola Cannon is the university's principal lecturer

in agronomy.

Why do you think the change has happened so recently,

that so many more women are coming through?

I think there's lots of skills that lend themselves to women.

And also it's not about brawn and muscle so much any more.

It's not about humping bales and sacks of fertiliser about.

There's machinery which you don't need muscle to drive this machinery.

The young women that are coming to study here,

what is getting them excited about getting into farming right now?

Once you study in agriculture,

you can go from livestock to crops,

to research, technology, management, marketing...

The world's your oyster.

And it's a global industry that's changing almost daily.

Before we go, the students want to show Elizabeth

a piece of equipment that's now virtually indispensable

to the modern farmer.

So, this is one of the drones,

and it's used to look at the variability within crops

and this is just going to help us ascertain

sort of health of the field.

You can cover so much more land

than if you were just walking it yourself.

And you can look at the differences within patches of the field,

so you can compare soil type,

and in some cases, application of nitrogen,

so it really helps with precision.

Would that have come in handy?

I don't know.

LAUGHTER

Would you like to see it in action?

-I would.

-OK!

Drones cost anything from a few hundred to several thousand pounds,

and are likely to become an increasingly useful tool

for farmers across the UK.

New innovations like driverless tractors

are also very much on the horizon.

It's all a far cry from Elizabeth's Land Girl days.

CHEERING ELIZABETH CHUCKLES

So, Elizabeth, what do you think of the drone?

I thought it was very clever and I thought it could help you a lot.

You could see just how your crops were doing.

That would be a great help.

And do you like the look of this future technology

that we've seen today,

and the future for these young Land Girls?

I think it's very good.

Yes, because everything...

..just requires sort of brain work rather than brawn.

And girls have just as much of that as boys.

LAUGHTER

Hear, hear.

What a truly remarkable lady.

Now, the warmer weather heralds the arrival into our shops

and supermarkets of fresh British-grown spring produce.

But little known to the rest of the world,

there is one quiet corner of England

where one of our favourite vegetables has

an almost cult-like following.

Joe Crowley tells us more.

Now, I love this stuff.

Definitely one of my favourite veggies.

There's a whole group of folk who go absolutely mad for it.

Quite literally.

Experts in such matters predict that we'll eat

340 million asparagus spears in Britain this year.

And the market for it is estimated at a massive £30 million.

The Vale of Evesham is the heart of British asparagus growing,

and every St George's Day, they hold a festival to celebrate it.

Complete with Morris dancers, brass bands,

and an awful lot of people dressed in green.

The Fleece Inn is the nerve centre of the festival,

and it's also the start of the Great Asparagus Run.

I'm hitching a ride with classic car enthusiast Dave Shaw,

who's joining his pals to drive in convoy

through the Worcestershire countryside,

with a giant ceremonial bunch of asparagus.

As you do.

What a sight this is.

You don't see people in Kent dressed up as giant strawberries

driving around the country, do you?

DAVE CHUCKLES

No, you don't. But it is a special event round here.

Evesham asparagus is a fantastic product we all enjoy.

So, what is the Asparagus Run?

Well, every year, we take the first cut asparagus

from the Vale of Evesham, 100 pieces of asparagus,

on a special plate, go to the Cathedral in Worcester,

and included in the service will be a blessing of the asparagus

-from the Vale of Evesham.

-I love it.

While Dave's off to the Cathedral,

I'm taking a pit stop to meet asparagus grower Darren Hedges

to get the lowdown on how to grow this awesome vegetable.

So, no leaves...

-No.

-Nothing bushy at all.

It's just literally the spears that come through the ground.

Literally, yeah. So you've got the crown underneath the ground.

which is where it's growing from.

It's a bit similar to the rhubarb crown and things like that.

It's part of the lily family.

Everything's growing upwards.

It's not growing outwards.

It's literally growing upwards.

This has been in this field for about eight years.

And how quickly does it grow?

So over the course of a day,

you'll probably find that this one

will grow to that sort of length

by this time tomorrow.

-What?!

-So you could...

It's one of those crops,

you could sit, on a hot day,

sit and watch it grow.

That's incredible.

And everything's cut by hand.

Everything in this country's cut by hand.

Why is this area so good for asparagus?

We're quite fortunate here because we've got perfect soil conditions,

really good drainage as well, we've got good light conditions,

just absolutely perfect for growing asparagus.

So, all that's left is for me to have a go at cutting a bit.

There you go. Cut away.

OK.

-Just underneath...

-Just underneath, that's it.

That's great.

It's really good, actually!

Wow!

Well, it tastes gorgeous straight from the ground

but I'm still not convinced

asparagus warrants a daylong celebration in its honour.

Perhaps Angela Tidmarsh can set me straight.

She's co-founder of the festival here in the Vale of Evesham.

Angela, why is everyone here so nuts about asparagus?

Because asparagus is so important to the Vale of Evesham.

Horticulture for the Vale of Evesham and in Worcestershire

is essential, really, and has been for centuries.

For me, it's one of those vegetables that says spring is here.

People want to eat it when it's in season.

Absolutely. I think it's the caviar of all vegetables.

We started the asparagus season on St George's Day

because that is the actual physical start

of the English asparagus growing season.

And that season really only runs through,

as far as we here in the Vale of Evesham are concerned,

to mid-summer's day, which is the 21st June.

How would you cook it? What would you do?

-Griddle it.

-You'd griddle it?

-Yeah.

-Oh!

Sounds delicious. I wonder how other folk like it.

Simply boiled. Not too overcooked,

with a knob of butter, brown bread, just the job.

Anything with it? Are you a purist? Do you like it on its own?

I like it on its own, but we do eat it with fish.

I keep hearing fish mentioned today. A bit of salmon or something?

-GROANING

-No? No!

Morris dancers don't eat fish.

There we go!

The area has become so renowned for this tasty veg

that its asparagus has even been awarded

European protected food name status.

It's now like Champagne or Roquefort,

in that to be called Vale of Evesham asparagus,

it must be grown round here.

With the festival in full flow,

I'm keen to have an earnest chat with Jemima Packington.

This is very interesting.

It looks like you thrive on chaos.

She reckons she can predict the future

using nothing more than a handful of asparagus.

Now, I've been told you're an asparamancer?

-Yes.

-I don't know what that is.

Well, I'm the world's only asparamancer,

which means I use asparagus to make predictions.

-Right.

-I don't like to call myself a fortune teller, because I'm not.

But I make a predictions on politics,

showbiz personalities, royalty...

What sort of things have you been able to predict?

-I predicted Brexit.

-Did you?!

I predicted the Brangelina split.

-Right.

-I've predicted royal births, I've predicted royal weddings.

How? How does this work?

It's quite simple.

The asparagus is cast by the person I'm doing a reading for.

And their energy is passed through

to these wonderful robust vegetables.

OK, so how do we do this?

Right, well, I will hand you this round of asparagus.

I will ask you to cast it onto the table.

Now, that's very, very, very interesting.

It does look...

Sometimes you might get distracted quite easily.

Sometimes I think you need to...focus more.

Focus a little bit more.

-Focus a little bit more.

-You sound a bit like my wife, now.

Now, this is very interesting here,

because this suggests that there is a colleague

or a family member possibly moving away.

-Really?

-Yeah.

So this could be my little sister...

who is going to Boston to do an MBA in the autumn.

She's going abroad for two years.

Yeah. That's what that is.

-This is my immediate future.

-Yes.

What about a few other things?

Do we know who's going to win Wimbledon this year?

Well, do we see an M anywhere around there?

-No.

-No.

-So I would suggest that it's not Murray.

-Oh!

Andy, I'm so sorry.

-I know.

-Heard it here first.

-I know.

I'm not sure we should risk our hard-earned cash

placing a bet on the say-so of asparagus.

But I am certain that I'm growing to love this subtle-flavoured vegetable

even more than before.

Well, I thought I was fond of asparagus,

until today.

I don't think I'll ever love it as much as this lot.

Exmoor National Park stretches for almost 270 square miles,

across North Devon and Somerset.

More than a tenth of the park is forested,

including ancient woodlands

that took root here more than 500 years ago.

But we're losing our fruit trees at an alarming rate,

right across the countryside.

Two thirds of all orchard areas have disappeared since 1950.

Now, if you're lucky enough to have a fruit tree in your garden,

you might be wondering how best to preserve it for the future.

Well, Paul has been to Worcestershire to find out.

If, like me, being surrounded by all of this stunning fruit blossom

fills you with excitement,

then learning to care for your very own crop

is a spring essential.

Last year, I showed you how to graft

the roots from standard varieties

of fruit trees with root cuttings from Heritage stock.

I was guided by Megan Gimber,

key habitats officer from

the People's Trust For Endangered Species.

A year on, and my trees are ready to be planted.

So, to guarantee my fruit trees end up as healthy as these,

I've come to Megan's backyard to find out what I need to do next.

Megan helps to run an orchard of almost ten acres

in Pershore, near Worcester.

I want to know how we can get the best out of our fruit trees.

You know, maximise the harvest in a way.

There are some things that you can do to give them better quality

and bigger fruit. So now really this starts when you plant the tree.

So you need to do what we call formation pruning...

-Right.

-..for the course of about ten years.

And it's just a little snip here and there.

And what you're trying to do really is just to create

a good shape of tree.

So you want wide-angle branches, and you want them well spaced out,

to get as much light on the fruit,

and as much air circulating round the tree as possible.

So, looking at this one we're under now,

it's just come into blossom.

It's got the right kind of crown, the right kind of height?

Yes. For the first few years,

you don't really want it to fruit at all cos any fruit that you'll grow

on the young sort of sappy new growth will warp the branches.

And really you want the energy that it would be putting into fruit

to go into growing the tree.

Exactly. So, take off all the side shoots

to a height you're happy with.

So you don't get one in the face when you're mowing the lawn?

-Yeah?

-Absolutely.

-And also pick all the fruit off quickly,

so that the goodness stays in the tree itself.

Yeah, so that energy goes into making tree, rather than fruit,

for the first couple of years.

For the first few years it's like...

you've just got to be patient!

And it's not just us who benefit,

because traditional orchards can be left to grow

relatively undisturbed.

They're a great habitat for wildlife.

In spring, the blossom is an important source of nectar

for pollinators like bees,

and in autumn the fruit attracts swarms of insects,

which in turn are food for birds.

And you don't need to own an orchard to enjoy

all that wonderful wildlife.

Up and down the country,

you've got these things called community orchards

which are run by community groups,

and you can get involved with them.

All you have to do is

go on the People's Trust For Endangered Species website,

type in your postcode,

and you can search for your nearest community orchard.

-How many are there?

-We've got about 600 on the map at the moment.

Hopefully there's one near you somewhere.

-Hopefully, there'll be one near you...

-Brilliant!

..that you can get involved with.

There's often pruning courses and grafting,

and there'll be a lot of work to do in the winter

-as well as in the summer.

-Course there is.

-And then of course, picking fruit.

-Sounds absolutely fabulous.

Something to do all year round. Visit an orchard.

Well, look, let's get back to my place,

and plant up the trees we grafted last year, shall we?

Create my orchard. Let's bring it on.

After finding out just how important these trees are,

I can't wait to get started.

Well, here we are, look, Megan, they have all survived,

bar one.

The cat jumped out of the window and landed right on the grafting.

Oh, no. I reckon we could probably plant this one,

-this one, and that Dredge's Fame over there.

-OK.

After selecting the cuttings for planting,

Megan gives each one a good water.

At this time of year when the trees are active,

the roots are really, really fragile.

So the most we can do to stop damaging the roots

-when we plant them, the better.

-OK.

And watering really helps.

And then we set off for the site.

A sunny, sheltered spot where we've planted our other fruit trees.

First, dig a hole about twice the width of the pot.

The next thing we need to do is we need to remove some of the grass,

some of the competition.

-Turn that upside down.

-Turn that upside down.

-Right, do you want to do the honours?

-Absolutely.

'Take care to remove the sapling gently,

'keeping the roots intact.'

Got it? Oh, well done. Look at that. All in one.

That's the topsoil on.

Then add plenty of mulch.

Finally, and vitally important, the rabbit protector.

That's a job well done.

It's a good start, isn't it?

It's a good start, yeah.

Just keep it well watered through the summer

and they should grow nice and strong.

And you just need to think about formation pruning,

-like we talked about earlier, in the winter.

-In the winter.

Well, I'm so pleased.

My fruit trees are now in the ground.

And it's a great relief to know they have been given

the best possible start.

And as you've just seen, it was so easy.

My family are going to enjoy watching this orchard grow,

and I know the wildlife will, too.

BIRDS TWITTERING

Well, if fruit blossom is one of the most beautiful sights of spring,

surely the most joyous sound of the season is the dawn chorus,

when birds sing their hearts out,

either to attract a mate, or defend their territory.

But as Steve Brown has been hearing,

there's more to their tuneful calls than meets the ear.

-RADIO PRESENTER:

-This week Charlotte Leslie has dropped by for a chat.

And today it's your turn at last to, you know, grasp...

One or two in there that...

Accents. Experts can't agree on the exact number,

but we're certainly not short of them,

here in Britain. You only have to go ten miles up the road,

and you'll hear someone that sounds

completely different.

"Ee bah gum."

"Alreet, pet?"

Well, maybe I should stick to my Kent accent, eh?

But it turns out we're not the only ones to have accents.

A lot of our wildlife has them, too.

With their gorgeous plumage,

yellowhammers are one of the loveliest British birds.

For me, their distinctive call is a sure sign that spring is here.

But according to Cambridgeshire-based scientist

Dr Mark Eaton,

they're not all singing from the same hymn sheet.

I've been helping with some research globally, really,

looking at yellowhammer dialects,

and seeing how the way yellowhammers sing varies

across the world, really.

So depending on where the yellowhammers are from

will make a difference to the call they have?

Yes, so much like humans, really.

We all know that we have regional accents, we use different words,

different phrases in different parts of the country.

Humans do. Some birds are the same.

So is there almost pockets of yellowhammers

-that have each got their own accents?

-Yes.

So the two main types we'll find around the UK,

if you go to north of where we are in Cambridgeshire,

you'll find one that...

-QUICKLY:

-"There's a little bit of bread!"

There's chatter. And then it goes...

-SLOWLY:

-"No cheese."

And you've got this sliding "cheese" at the end.

Whereas if you look a bit more to the south of us,

you'll find one which goes for

a "high - low - cheese".

So the high note, and then a long cheese at the end.

So we've got a little bit of bread,

and...no....cheese.

And the other one is a little bit of bread, and no cheeeese.

Perfect.

-I speak yellowhammer.

-You do. Like a native.

Mark based his research on recordings of calls

sent to him by members of the public.

So we can see a picture of the call and use that to analyse

and identify what dialect the yellowhammer belongs to.

That's excellent.

It's interesting stuff, but I really want to see a few of the birds.

Let's hope my fluent yellowhammer can coax them from their nests.

Yellowhammers are found in open countryside all over the UK.

In theory, it should be possible to spot them all year round,

perching in bushes and hedgerows.

In practice, it looks like they're not too fond of the rain.

Well, do you know what, Mark?

They're being a bit elusive today, aren't they?

They're obviously just a bit slow off the mark today.

Cold weather, they're not in full voice, unfortunately.

Until now, experts thought that just a few species,

including humans, bats, and dolphins had accents.

Cod and elephants may be joining that list,

and that's not all.

You're not really going to tell me that these goats have accents?

They do, believe it or not.

Goats have accents.

Dr Alan McElligott is Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour

at Queen Mary University London.

So, a goat from the south of England would sound different

-from maybe a goat in Glasgow?

-Yeah, when goat kids are growing up,

they start to sound like the other goats that are in their group.

So when we carried out a study of their vocalisations,

we recorded their calls,

and basically the goats that lived within the same social group,

after five weeks of age, started to sound more similar.

So you're saying that depending on which group the goats were in,

they would mimic and learn the same noises of the rest of that group?

Exactly, yeah. So it's probably a way of then recognising

what social group they're in,

versus goats from a different social group that might sound different.

They have very close family bonds,

especially between the mothers and kids.

And cameramen and goats.

So, where are you hoping that your research will take you?

So, when we started working on goats and their vocalisations,

it was really with a view to understanding their behaviour,

and improving their welfare.

When goats are happy and when they're calling,

the pitch is a lot more stable, whereas if they're a bit nervous,

the pitch becomes a bit more unstable.

And potentially with that,

you can actually monitor the welfare of your animals, then,

if you record the calls.

Well, do you know what? All the best with your research.

I would love to know what this goat's been trying to tell me

all afternoon.

The UK has a large population of goats that are well cared for.

The yellowhammer, sadly, isn't so lucky.

In the past 20 years, numbers have dropped by a worrying 25%.

But here at the RSPB's Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire,

they're bucking that trend.

Yellowhammer territories here have more than doubled since 2010,

thanks to a protection project run by farm manager Ian Dillon.

So, what small changes can farmers and landowners make

to make the habitat better for the yellowhammers?

So, yellowhammers are a species which really depend on farmland.

Changes in farming have made life quite difficult.

If you were a yellowhammer,

you would struggle to find food during the spring,

summer and winter.

So we do things here to help yellowhammers,

like a safe nesting habitat in the hedge.

Lots of food for them to feed their chicks,

and they feed their chicks insects.

So a margin like this beside us with lots of flowers

has lots of insects, lots of caterpillars,

and then during the winter,

the yellowhammers start to eat seeds.

So this area beside us here which has been cultivated,

we're getting it ready to plant the crop which will provide the food

for the yellowhammers next winter.

The thing we need to bear in mind is this is a working farm, isn't it?

-It's not a reserve.

-No, it definitely isn't a reserve.

We're growing crops like every other farmer would,

as well as caring for wildlife at the same time.

So it is spring, there are the nests, there's the chicks...

What can we do as the public to just be mindful of that?

So, as we're walking along the track here,

we could be very close to some of the nests of yellowhammers.

And they are quite prone to disturbance.

If we are out walking a dog, for example,

just keep it close to you,

so that you're reducing the chance that the dog could find a nest,

and disturb those birds.

They really are beautiful and fascinating little creatures,

but as for their accents, well,

I think I'm going to need a little bit more practice

before I can tell them apart.

But it's great to know that with such little effort,

we can all do our bit to save the yellowhammer AND its song

for generations to come.

If birds and animals really do have accents, well,

it's just one more example of how nature is never short of surprises.

And being in tune with livestock is all in a day's work for Adam

on his farm, but last year,

he stepped outside his comfort zone to visit a fellow farmer

who tends more exotic stock.

Spring is such a lovely time of year,

when the weather's warming up,

the blossom's on the trees,

the little buds are starting to come out on the deciduous trees,

and there's new life everywhere on the farm.

All the sheep have given birth, now.

And the lambs are growing well.

Just about every animal on the farm is getting in on the spring action.

We've got some piglets,

calves,

and chicks.

Absolutely gorgeous!

Really sweet little fluffy ducklings.

CHEEPING

But this lot are small fry, compared to where I'm heading.

Eggs are a firm favourite for us Brits.

We eat a staggering amount, around 30 million every day.

But we'd be hard pushed to eat as many of these.

Spring is the start of the ostrich laying season.

Just one ostrich egg is the equivalent of 24 chicken eggs.

Coming from the world's largest bird,

it's hardly surprising they're the world's largest eggs.

Mick Dean holds a dangerous wild animal licence

to farm these flightless birds in Cambridgeshire.

-Hi, Nick.

-Hi, Adam.

-Ostriches, my word!

-Are we safe?

-We are, yeah, we'll be fine today.

They're big birds, aren't they?

They are. Yeah, they're seven to eight foot tall.

-25 stone.

-Goodness me.

-And how fast can they run?

-They can run about 40 to 45mph,

-faster than we can.

-How on earth do you manage to farm them, then?

If you want to do something to one of them?

Well, we have to catch them first, obviously!

We tend to use a crook,

just to get it by the neck, and then we hold the beak.

And then we can pull a hood over the head.

Once the hood's over their head and they can't see,

they just stand there,

and we can walk them to where we need to take them.

-They're extraordinary-looking animals. They've huge eyes.

-Yeah.

Ow!

LAUGHTER

-Hurts a little bit, doesn't it?

-LAUGHTER

How many eggs are they laying, then, in a year?

They're laying between 30 and 40 each, the females.

So not very many. A chicken'll lay 300 eggs.

Yes, so they lay probably every three days.

And they start to lay in the spring like a lot of British wild birds?

They started early this year. They started...

Oh! Right on the ear!

LAUGHTER

They started laying this year early April.

Can we can collect some eggs?

Yeah, let's go and see if we can find some.

-Are they just dotted round the field?

-They should be in a pile

-over there, where they lay them.

-OK.

So, she's got some eggs there.

Yeah, she gets up every...

..hour or two and she'll just turn them around, and sit down again.

Incredible. So is it safe to collect these?

It is, but we have to watch the boys.

The girls are fine, but the boys sometimes take offence.

What do we do? Just walk in and pick them up?

-We'll just walk in and pick them up. She should be fine.

-OK.

We're just going to take your eggs away, missus. Is that all right?

Come on, then. Good girl. Good girl.

I've never collected ostrich eggs before.

Oh, they're heavy, aren't they? That's quite a weight.

Yeah, about 1.5 kilos.

There's a boy there. How're we going to get round him?

-I'll hide them behind my back.

-We'll walk off. He'll be fine.

All right. All right, fella.

Don't worry about it. Just pinching your eggs.

How do you protect yourself against an ostrich who's angry?

I just hold the stick up.

As long as the stick's higher than their head, they're normally OK.

I know we can't outrun them. So let's rely on the stick.

-Incubators.

-Goodness me.

They're a bit bigger than the ones I've got.

They take 72 ostrich eggs.

We just plonk these in, do we?

Plonk those into the holes that are there, yeah.

Specially designed.

-How long will they take before they hatch?

-42 days.

The incubator will turn the egg once an hour.

And then we take them out three days before they're due to hatch.

And they go into the hatcher.

And what have you got over here?

Emu chicks. They hatched last week.

They're lovely!

Really stripy.

And is that just their camouflage?

It is, yeah. They stay like that

until they're probably eight weeks old.

And do you ever eat the ostrich eggs?

We do.

Would you like to try one?

-I would, yeah.

-Shall we fry one up?

-Shall we do that?!

-Yeah! Let's go.

-All right.

Nick heats up an extra large paella pan and adds plenty of cooking oil.

'Normally, I like two, fried, sunny side up.

'But on this occasion, I think I'll just have the one.'

Oh, look at that. Beautiful!

-It really is huge, isn't it?

-It's massive, isn't it?

I tell you what, shall we try one next to a chicken egg?

-Let's do a comparison.

-OK. Let's go.

-Look at that. And that's a normal sized chicken egg?

-It is!

Look at the difference!

And have you ever tried boiling one?

No, but I understand it takes about 90 minutes.

And by the time the yolk's cooked in the middle,

you've got a rubbery compound on the outside.

-Not very nice.

-Not recommended.

Well, that looks pretty well cooked now. Shall we give it a go?

Yeah, let's give it a go. Let's try it with some toast, shall we?

Not bad.

-Just like a chicken egg, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Exactly the same.

It's really quite delicious. I'm going to have some more!

Thanks very much, Nick.

It's been fascinating to meet you,

and delicious to eat my first ostrich egg.

-Nice to see you.

-Lovely.

With two national parks and over 500 miles of coastline,

Devon certainly attracts its fair share of walkers,

especially now the days are warming up.

Here in the Valley Of Rocks, the scenery is spectacular.

But it's only a short distance away from civilisation.

It's a very different story on the mountains of Wales and Scotland.

But luckily, there are about 100 remote buildings called bothies

that can offer shelter.

As you can imagine, keeping them in good order is quite a task.

So Keeley is off to the Highlands for a spot of mountaintop DIY.

I'm only an hour out of Glasgow, and already I'm surrounded by

some of the most spectacular scenery in the UK.

This is the Arrochar Alps,

one of the most remote areas in the Scottish Highlands.

Those who really embrace the outdoors come here

to experience its majestic beauty and isolation.

Somewhere around here, there's a very special building,

in desperate need of an overhaul.

All I've got to do is find it.

It's three miles from the main road, well off the beaten track,

and that's precisely why it's been taken on

by the Mountain Bothy Association.

Hello there. I'm looking for Peter.

-Oh, hello, Keeley.

-Is that you?

-That's me.

-Hello, Peter.

-How are you doing?

-I'm good.

-Nice to meet you.

-And you.

It's a hive of activity here.

-What's going on?

-It is.

We are converting an old estate building into an MBA bothy.

Now, you're going to have to forgive my ignorance,

but what is a bothy?

A bothy is an outdoor shelter in the mountains

for those that love hills and remoteness

to come and use it as a shelter and explore the hills,

and stay in it to have lunch, or to stay in it the night, and be warm...

Well, as warm as you can be, warmer than outside,

and away from the wind and away from the rain.

And do people plan to come to these places,

or do they just stumble upon them and use them instead of a tent?

Well, some plan to come here.

Some will stumble across them, maybe, in bad weather.

They're marked on OS maps,

and they're there so if you're in the hills and the weather's bad,

it's a refuge that has saved lives in the past.

So, what's going on in there? What's in the bothy?

A typical bothy will be maybe a concrete or a timber floor,

there'll be a couple of rooms, there'll be somewhere to sleep,

somewhere to cook a meal, there'll be a fire.

Somewhere to sit and socialise with others that you will bump into

when you use them.

Is everyone here that's working on the bothy a volunteer?

Yes, they're all volunteers.

All ages. Some old, seasoned bothy users,

some have never stayed in one before.

And they'll come along and help us out.

And do they need to have certain skills to do that?

Preferably, if they do.

We're always using, like, joiners and roofers.

But if you don't have that skill,

we'll help you pick up that skill, and you'll help us.

I'm pleased you say that, actually.

The building will get a total revamp.

Among other things, new roof trusses,

a new ceiling, a timber floor,

and new doors and windows.

Peter anticipates over the next few weeks

just under 50 volunteers will come out to help.

You are going to be busy, aren't you?

-That's right. You'd better come and help us.

-I will indeed, come on.

I think I'll need one of these.

You will need one of those.

Liz is a veteran of bothy restoration,

and absolutely meticulous when it comes to re-pointing the stonework.

And have you got to do this on the whole building?

-No.

-It must be...

-All of this side.

-Loads of it to do!

Yeah, there is, yes.

Yes, it's quite a big job.

And what's your speciality, then?

What do you bring to this team?

I'm a good tea maker.

LAUGHTER

Now THAT is important!

No, I mean, it's amazing.

You learn to do all these different jobs.

So, I learned how to slate a roof, learned how to put windows in,

-all sorts of things.

-And the team spirit, how's that?

Oh, yes. It's very sociable.

It's going to be a very sociable three weeks, I think.

So, how have you found yourself here, Callum?

I'm doing my gold Duke of Edinburgh,

and one of the five sections is you have to do a residential,

and it's good for, like, a practice work environment,

and learning new things, which is what it's about as well.

How am I doing here, then?

Yeah, that's brilliant.

-Yeah?

-Spot on.

-Is this how it should be looking?

-Yeah.

Not all volunteers are from the UK.

Martina Cramer has brought the whole family on a special working holiday.

I've been coming to Scotland since I was 18.

And loved it.

That isn't a British accent.

No, it's not. It's Dutch.

I've come from Utrecht in Holland.

Lovely. And the whole family's come?

Yes. The whole family's come, this time. First time for the boys.

-And do you enjoy it?

-Yes.

And did you use the bothy first, or did you volunteer first?

We used the bothy.

We stumbled across the bothies, I think, 30 years ago.

-Oh, really?

-And started using them before we had kids.

And that's what made you want to volunteer?

Yeah, yeah.

It's good to do something back.

And we enjoy helping,

and I'm, well, a wood worker by trade.

-OK! That's why you are so good at this.

-I enjoy doing it, yes!

LAUGHTER

-OK, come on, then.

-We'll do another one.

Let's try and...

-Hammer it in.

-I think you just need to be brave, don't you?

Yeah.

Ah, good one, Keeley.

THEY LAUGH

Well done.

One, two, three, go.

These roof trusses weigh a tonne,

but at least they'll help the roof stand up to

the Highland weather.

Come on, Jim. Put your back into it.

What strikes me is what a nice sense of community there is here

with people from all walks of life.

Take Liz and Callum -

they perhaps wouldn't ordinarily be friends, but they're there,

they're chatting, they're sharing stories.

And they're working together.

Getting on together is never more important

than when you're all tightly crammed under one roof.

So this is where all the volunteers sleep.

It's actually an old sheep pen, would you believe it?

They've got a toilet tent over there.

And everybody's got their own section

where they've set up their tents. Everything's very neat and tidy.

It's a bit of a tent city.

But the most important part is this building.

This is where we're going to get some hot food.

A good day's work. Thanks very much for all the hard work today.

APPLAUSE

Thank you, Peter.

FIDDLE PLAYING

It's a bit small in here for a ceilidh, isn't it?

Well, we've made great progress today,

and it's fantastic to see that the people here

are leaving this small but positive mark on the landscape.

There's still much work to be done,

but when the bothy is finished,

weary travellers will find shelter from the elements,

and hopefully have a slightly more comfortable night

than the one I'm anticipating.

Well, I'll be honest, I've never camped in a barn before.

But I'm pretty sure that Scottish whisky is going to help me nod off.

Night-night.

Night-time temperatures in the Highlands can dip below zero,

even in springtime,

so bothies can quite literally save lives.

Well, back here in Devon, the weather is rather warmer,

but sadly that's all we've got time for today.

We are back again tomorrow, though,

with more entries in our Countryfile Spring Diaries...

when Jules gets a shocking picture

of how plastic is threatening our seas.

We've found small pieces of micro plastic in ten species of fish

taken from waters here, near to Plymouth.

Keeley finds out how a cuppa and a cat could be good for your health.

This is my idea of heaven.

Tea, cake and cats.

And Steve Brown discovers how anyone can get

a sofa's eye view of wildlife.

-Here he comes.

-Oh, he's in.

It's in! Look how quick that is!

That is amazing!

See you, then.