Gloucestershire A Taste of Britain

He is Brian Turner.

And she is Janet Street-Porter.

I'm passionate about walking.

These feet have taken me the length and breadth of Great Britain.

I've been privileged to cook all around the world,

but it's Britain that I love, fabulous produce,

great ingredients, right here on the doorstep.

We're joining forces to explore Britain's rich heritage.

And the landscape that's given us such wonderful produce.

He's in charge of the food.

And guess what?

She's in charge of everything else!

This is...

A Taste of Britain.

Today we're exploring the historic county of Gloucestershire.

Nestling alongside Wales,

it's famous for its beautiful honey-coloured Cotswold towns,

rolling landscapes, and acres of natural forest.

So where better to be at one with nature with a walk in the woods.

Though, Rupert, I'm not a touchy-feely person.

Deep down inside there's a great tree hugger inside you.

Oh, I've come over all funny.

I won't need quite as much persuading when it comes to sampling the local ale.

-Oh, that's interesting, red wine and beer.

-And beer.

It means you don't need quite so much beer, I'll just...

And we'll be looking out for the perfect ingredients

for a celebratory dish that sums up a taste of the region.

There's a lot of mm-mm and not many...

Do you know what they sounded like?

They all sound like a load of pigs.

PIG GRUNTS

Well, here we are on top of Crickley Hill,

-looking down over Gloucestershire, what a fabulous view.

-Beautiful.

Look, there's Gloucester over there, the Malvern Hills

and right in the background on a clear day, unlike today,

you can see Wales.

Fabulous walking countryside, and, of course, Gustav Holst, the composer,

was born very near here and spent much of his life walking

through these hills and they inspired his music.

There are loads of great producers down here,

but we are in Gloucestershire, so we have to see that

wonderful beast the Gloucester Old Spot pig,

and, not only that, I've met a forager

who's going to take us and show us things we'd never find. Come on.

Along with its beautiful rolling hills and lush green countryside,

Gloucestershire is blessed to have thousands of acres of natural woodland.

I've been told that when it comes to sampling the taste of this region,

if we go down to the woods today we're sure of a big surprise.

According to professional forager Rupert Burdock, a huge

variety of organic ingredients can be found in these woods.

The best part is that they're all free,

and Rupert's invited us to join him on his latest foraging expedition.

-Hi.

-Hello.

-Bare feet.

-Yeah, it actually slows you down in the countryside.

-You have to walk more carefully and you spot more plants and fungus that way.

-Really?

We don't have to take our shoes off though?

You don't. If you want to, go for it.

Do most foragers go barefoot?

-Er, no.

-OK, right, moving rapidly on.

-Yeah.

So what makes you a special forager?

We're all designed to forage.

We've all got hands that can pick things, we've all got noses to smell, we can all climb trees.

It's not a special skill, it's something we all have innately in us.

-People have to know what they're doing, surely?

-Absolutely, yes.

It's like riding a motorcycle or flying a helicopter,

you have to know some basics,

because there's plants out here that can kill you quite easily.

Right, well, I can't even drive a car with gears.

So, just regard me as a learner driver.

Although I do forage for mushrooms

and see all this wild garlic here, I've picked plenty of that,

but after that it's a bit of a grey area.

-They've got such beautiful flowers.

-It's fantastic.

-Yeah.

And this time of year, this is what you want to eat, is the flower.

I've eaten a lot of wild garlic and the thing is this is very,

very strong now, it's got a real kick to it.

Exactly, and you want to follow the natural cycle of a plant,

where its energy is. In the winter time you eat a lot of roots,

root vegetables traditionally, that's where the energy of the plant is.

Spring time, the first shoots and leaves.

Summer time, the flowers.

Autumn time, the fruit.

-Lots of power there, you're quite right.

-This is the plant equivalent of a kipper.

You know when you have a kipper for breakfast and you taste it all day?

-No bones, you're all right.

-You'll be tasting that for the next four hours.

So tell us, what kind of things would you expect to find?

At this time of year, I'd hope to find some Dryad's saddle,

some St George's mushrooms, maybe some chicken of the woods.

-Oh, really?

-It glows in the dark almost,

so if we're here late we might even see some later on.

-So when you eat it do you glow?

-Yeah, you do. You do, yes.

-In a metaphysical way, yeah.

-Janet, you...

-Oh, I want to glow really.

You glow all the time, sweetheart.

Before you take us off, I notice by your bag...

I don't know what this is called, but I've seen this before.

-Is that an edible?

-It is indeed, well spotted there.

-It's chickweed and you can always tell it's...

-I never knew that.

You can always tell it's chickweed, Brian, it's got hairs growing on one side of it.

-Can you see the faint soft hairs there, you know?

-You're right.

It doesn't have black spots on the bottom cos that would be

scarlet pimpernel, which is poisonous, but you can eat this.

It's very good for women's metabolism if they want to lose weight.

Victorian ladies used to eat mouthfuls of it.

There you go, Janet.

I've only just got to know you

and I'll have less comments about the size of my backside,

if you don't mind. Let's start foraging.

Let's go deep into the woods.

Yeah, let your bare feet find the way.

I'm glad I've got my shoes on, I don't know about you.

Rupert's discovered an amazing variety of edible ingredients here,

including many species of woodland mushrooms.

But, be warned, they should always be picked with caution.

Here we've got some St George's mushrooms here.

-You see it's got white gills.

-Yeah.

Now most of the deadly poisonous mushrooms have white gills

but one of the things that makes this particular one safer is,

because of the time of year, the poisonous ones are more autumnal.

Also I know by the smell. Have a whiff.

It's sort of a flowery smell.

Also, I'm familiar with that mushroom,

it's like a friend of mine - I pick them a lot.

I'd advise the first thing anyone should do

when they're thinking about picking wild mushrooms to eat them

is learn the deadly poisonous ones first.

Realise there's ones out there that can kill you and you'll be all right.

I've picked this, but I've never picked it in the woods.

-I've picked this on grassland.

-Good point.

This mushroom, strangely enough, grows in the middle of the woods

-and out in the pastures.

-Yeah.

-It's everywhere.

Oh, that's good you've said that because before,

I would never have looked for it in the woods.

These are ones I picked earlier in the year, I've dried these.

-Have a whiff.

-Twice as strong when they're dried.

Oh, yeah, it's a concentration.

-Also perfect for adding flavour to sauces, are those, aren't they?

-Yeah.

While all this woodland flora provides a great source of new

tastes and flavours to discover,

Rupert also feels a close spiritual connection to the plants

he forages and even believes some have healing powers.

Here we are, here's a beech tree, now the thing about

beech trees is that you can get some therapy from it, free therapy.

Each tree has its own power to transform a negative emotion.

Now the negative emotion the beech tree can transform

is being hypercritical.

-You can tell...

-Are you looking at me?

I'm not, I'm looking at the beech tree.

Let's give this tree a hug and get rid of that hypercritical energy.

-Give it a hug?

-Give it a hug, yeah, absolutely.

OK, I'll give it a try.

But, Rupert, I'm not a touchy-feely person.

-This will cure that, your touchy-feely emotion.

-I don't want... I like the way I am.

So we just, seriously, just hold this?

Yes, hold it, feel it, put your heart to it.

Just become at one with the tree, let the tree influence you a bit.

-We'll all do this together, Janet.

-Yeah.

Your aversion to hugging this tree shows you how powerful

the medicine will be.

-What, my aversion to hugging a tree?

-Mm-hm.

Deep down inside there's a great tree hugger inside you.

Now if you just hug it, you don't fight it.

You'll find that you have a deep sense of peace

and acceptance of all things in the universe.

Don't fight it, Janet.

Oh, I've come over all funny.

-It's working, isn't it?

-No, I want a drink.

It's lovely, I really appreciate it, but it's time for The Archers.

Rupert, you said you had some pesto for us to eat.

-I do, Brian.

-Fantastic.

And this one is made from wild garlic, Alexander's and goose grass.

Well, I have to say I'm really chuffed to bits cos this

tree's really worked, so well done, tree, and thank you very much.

-You're welcome.

-Foragers are us, huh!

I think you've been eating that dodgy mushroom, Brian,

you've gone a kind of strange orange colour,

there's a glow around your head.

Orange glow, indeed!

Well, Rupert's foraged ingredients have given me

an idea for a mushroom dish that's very quick and easy.

So what have you foraged for us here?

Well, that's just it, not everybody can go foraging,

so I've got some wonderful local field mushrooms.

I'm going to stuff these

and I've got some local Gloucestershire cheese here, OK?

-So we'll just trim those and put those in there.

-Yeah.

Salt and pepper on.

Turn them down and cook them for about 20 minutes on a slow heat.

So they're on the go, these have been cooked

for just about 20 minutes.

Now they have shrunk a little bit.

OK, so we're going to stuff them, quite a loose stuffing.

-I've got some breadcrumbs.

-Yeah.

Chopped garlic.

This is a dish that has got bags of garlic in it.

-Some chives.

-Yeah.

-Lots of colour. Salt and pepper.

-Yeah.

And then...

..this Hampton Blue, from Minchinhampton...

-Can I have a sniff?

-..near Stroud.

-Oh, that smells fantastic.

-It's good, isn't it, eh?

-Yeah.

If you keep it in the fridge for a long time, you can grate it in there.

But, in your back garden, in weather like this, you got no chance.

-No, it's very squishy, isn't it?

-So, yeah, so just...

we'll use its squishiness just to pull it all together.

I've just got four mushrooms here.

And I brush these with quite a bit of butter now.

And a bit of butter in here.

Now remember that they're cooked, so that's not a problem.

We just want them to settle a bit now, and leave a bit of that

mixture on top and, hopefully, the breadcrumbs will hold it together.

But just to try and make sure that works,

I'm going to take a little breadcrumb now, just sprinkle it.

I'm going to put the lid on top, so it acts like a bit of an oven.

-So those are on there.

-Yeah.

-They've just got to heat through.

-Right.

Now we're going to make our aioli.

We're not going to get it out of a jar like I do.

Buy the mayonnaise, pass it off as if you made it

and stick a bit of garlic in it.

Do you know, sometimes there's nothing wrong with that.

If you put yourself under too much pressure sometimes, you think, "Why am I doing this?"

It's good to know the proper way to do it, as well as the quick way.

-You have to do it slowly, don't you, putting the oil in?

-Yeah.

So there's the Dijon mustard.

-Chopped garlic.

-Yeah.

So I've got garlic in there, I've got egg yolks, mustard.

What actually happens now is the old muscle starts to get toned up,

-I can feel my tummy pulling itself in whilst I'm doing this.

-Really?

-Yeah, really, I'm just...

-So you don't go to the gym, you make a lot of mayonnaise?

Do you know, I was just going to say, I saw a machine the other day where

you ended up doing this - 1,000 it cost.

This is a cheap way to do it.

I tried that trembling machine, it just made my fillings vibrate.

Is that all olive oil you're putting in?

Yeah, in lots of these sauces I don't think you want too much

olive oil in there, cos it's too strong.

But this kind of sauce, it is meant to have that strength about it.

So now I'm going to put a little bit of this smoked paprika in there.

Yeah.

And I'm going to put some chopped parsley in.

Get some colour.

And I'm going to put a little bit of lemon juice in there.

-So now, see that lovely colour it's got?

-Yeah.

Do you want to put it on a...

Actually, yeah, can I just show you this as well? I was taught...

I'd forgotten about this. I was taught at college to take a cloth

-like that, to wrap it around.

-Yeah.

Pull it over here, down like that.

-Get your body against it.

-Oh, that's good.

And it means, then, you can keep it still.

The last thing you want is for this to split right at the last minute.

So if you're not sure, put less olive oil in there, OK?

You have a taste and tell me what you think. We haven't really seasoned it,

but, at least, see where we're at.

That's nearly there.

-It's quite powerful, isn't it, eh?

-Yeah.

-I'm going to put a bit more salt in there.

-Loads of garlic.

Not going to snog you tonight, that's for certain.

You see, I think that's all right, I'm really quite happy with that.

Let's have a look over here.

Right. We're almost there.

-So we'll take these out.

-Yeah.

You could do this on a barbie, yeah.

So all I'm doing now is just browning those crumbs,

just to give it a little bit of contrast.

-Crumbs and butter.

-Yeah.

That just makes it look that little bit more attractive.

Looking good there. All we need to do now

is just quickly put, I think, three...

It's certainly a nice-size portion, is that, and there's

something about the shape of the three that actually works well.

And all we do now is just take our sauce.

Yeah, incredibly powerful garlic sauce.

If you run out of petrol you could put this in the car, can't you?

Just a little drop there.

-It's a nice colour.

-A little drop there.

That looks a lot better than I thought it would look.

It looks good.

Field mushrooms stuffed with Hampton Blue cheese

-and a little aioli.

-Aioli.

-ENUNCIATES:

-Aioli.

-That cheese is nice.

-Mm.

-Cooking the mushrooms slowly concentrates the flavour.

-Yeah.

Wouldn't be eating this aioli on a date night.

As a keen rambler, I can't miss out on a stroll through

the beautiful Cotswold countryside.

If I'd been hiking here 100 years ago, the chances are

I might have bumped into the famous British composer Gustav Holst.

Born in 1874, Holst began composing as a child,

and his father would often send him out into the hills

to practise his trombone.

MUSIC: "The Planets Suite" composed by Gustav Holst

2014 marks the centenary of his Planets Suite,

the composition that made him one of Britain's most famous composers.

And we've come to St Lawrence's Church in the village

of Wyck Rissington to meet Graham Lockwood, who helped design

a 35-mile rambler's route in honour of the musician.

Hello.

-Hello, Janet, how pleased I am to meet you.

-Hello, Graham.

Now, I know exactly who you are because you're holding

The Gustav Holst Way. What a fabulous cover that is.

-Yeah, it is nice, isn't it?

-Is that Holst on his trombone?

There is lots of stories about Gustav walking

the countryside practising his trombone.

-And it's the scenery of the...

-Contradictory...

-The Planets Suite.

Which is a piece of music that's so iconic...

that seems to sum up Britain,

-and yet a lot of people don't think he was English.

-No, you're right.

-I mean, with a name like Holst it sounds...

-And Gustav as well.

Gustav, he was christened Gustavus Theodore von Holst,

I mean, in Cheltenham.

In Cheltenham, so he was born in Cheltenham.

MUSIC: "I Vow To Thee My Country", music composed by Gustav Holst

The Gustav Holst Way retraces the routes Holst himself used to

walk, passing many landmarks important in the composer's life.

And it begins here at St Lawrence's Church.

So why did you choose this church?

Well, this is because he got his very first job,

when he was a 17-year-old boy,

and he wanted to, you know, hone his musical talents.

Yes, he got this job at £4 a year...

as organist and choirmaster at Wyck Rissington Church.

He had no money so he actually had to walk from Cheltenham,

and I think that started him loving walking and when he was on his own

Gustav wrote music in his head

and he found it inspirational.

-He did write something called the Cotswold Symphony.

-Yeah.

Very early on, erm...

..and listening to that you can hear the countryside in it.

You know, you can imagine him composing that piece

as he walked over here.

Well, Graham, I'd love to see the organ that he had his first

-paid job on.

-Yeah.

-Will you show it to us?

Let's go and do that, yes.

-So that's the organ?

-That's the organ,

the famous organ that he played for a year in the 1890s.

As you can see it's quite small.

I suppose most village churches had a fairly simple... one keyboard, pedals.

Did he know a lot about music from a very young age?

Oh, I think he did because he grew up in a very musical house.

His father was a church organist in Cheltenham,

and Gustav would go and help his father there, sing in the choir

and do some instrumentation, play on the organ,

do a bit of composition when his father wasn't listening.

Get his ear in to listen to it all.

Yes, I think playing in a church like this with a choir

would have been second nature to him by the time he was 17, I'm sure.

Er, but he was basically an unassuming chap who

wanted to make his mark in music and nothing else.

Well, thanks, Graham, but I want to get on and continue with the walk...

-Quite right.

-..and follow in Holst's footsteps.

-Quite right, too.

As well as the beautiful countryside, the Holst Way takes in

many pretty Cotswold villages with their characteristic stone facades.

The style is a particularly lovely honey colour, isn't it?

Er, yes, very characteristic of the area.

Our next stop on the walk brings us to Bourton on the Water,

another significant town in Holst's musical career

and now a very popular tourist spot.

Long after he finished teaching and conducting,

he used to walk the Cotswolds a lot.

I don't imagine in Holst's day there were 5,000 tourists

-and the plastic chairs...

-I doubt that very much, no.

-..and tearooms.

Probably 20 or 30 people.

Choral music was a popular source of entertainment in the 1890s.

As his musical reputation grew, Holst was soon leading the local choir

here in an assembly room attached to this pub.

Here we are at the Old New Inn.

-The Old New Inn?

-That's right.

-1712 as it says up there.

-So it was new in 1712?

THEY LAUGH

Anyway, behind this pub there used to be assembly rooms

where the Bourton on the Water Choral Society used to rehearse.

The word got to them that there was this young, talented musician.

So he was invited to come and rehearse them for a while,

and they took to him so much that he then became appointed as their conductor.

-How old was he then?

-Oh, he was still only 17, coming on 18.

-17 and he was leading the local choir?

-That's right.

I suppose he was sort of the Gareth Malone...

-Absolutely!

-..of that era.

Younger than Gareth, much younger than Gareth.

No, absolutely, he had that sort of motivation.

Well, Graham, you've told us so much about Holst, it's been fascinating.

-Now can I take the book off you...

-Please do.

-..so I can do the walk all over again?

-That's right.

-I hope the walk's a great success.

-Thank you very much.

-I hope you really enjoy it and find it of interest.

-Thanks.

-Come on, girl.

Janet's going to do more of the Holst Walk,

so I'm off on the hunt for a local chef who's making the most of the area's food.

A host of home-grown ingredients on chef Will Greenstock's menu

has made the Horse and Groom a firm favourite on this area's culinary map.

So, what are you going to cook for us today, boss?

OK, so on the menu we've got a beef, ale and horseradish pie.

The beef is from a Dexter cow and they're very local to us,

they're about five miles down the road and it's a phenomenal breed.

And this.

Yeah, this is equally special, this is from even closer,

-about 20 metres away, from our garden here...

-You grew it yourself?

-Yeah.

-Oh, good man.

-It's Swiss chard.

Show us what you're going to do.

I'm going to start off by flouring the meat.

So this is going to help to thicken the sauce in the final pie,

and it's going to help the colour.

OK, so the meat's nicely floured,

we're going to melt a bit of butter in a pan.

-Good man, a bit of butter, a bit of flavour.

-Exactly.

And, then, nicely foaming.

How long have you been using Dexter beef?

Ever since we started. We're spoilt for choice around here.

We've got three or four farms within a ten-mile radius that

-supply us, so we're lucky.

-OK, so you're browning that.

Yeah, browning that off and we want to get really nice,

-caramelised flavours.

-Right, so now your meat's brown.

Yeah, so we've got a nice colour on the meat here.

I'm going to take that out the pan and I'll add the onions in

and fry off the onions.

They'll just sweat off.

Meanwhile I can put in the meat into the pan.

-OK, so onions are coloured, they go in with the meat.

-Absolutely.

OK, so now we're going to add a splash of red wine.

-Oh, that's interesting, red wine and beer.

-And beer, yeah.

That means you don't need quite so much beer, I'll just...

And the red wine adds a good colour, as well.

I think that's going to go down rather well, is that.

I think that's lovely, that is.

So that's the red and the beer's gone in there.

I'm going to add a teaspoon of tomato puree.

Again that just helps with the colour, adds some colouring

and a bit of wine, it just brings in that depth of flavour.

Yeah, yeah.

-You can really get stuck into a good meaty pie.

-Exactly.

-Bread and butter, wipe the bottom of the pie dish.

-Exactly.

-It's just like you used to do.

-Then, also a couple of bay leaves go in there as well.

-Yeah.

And that's about it for the pie.

How long do you put it in the oven for?

That's going to take about two, two and a half hours.

-And about what temperature?

-Erm, 160, 170.

OK, so just nice and slow and let all the flavours meld together

-and just, really, fantastic.

-Yeah.

-I assume you've got some ready for me.

-Yes, I do.

-Good man,

that's what I like, forward thinking of chefs.

OK, so it's... I mean, it's so tender, it's almost falling apart.

I am not going to put my fingers in there cos,

if I did, I'll start eating it. That looks great.

A bit of creamed horseradish here, stir that through.

Pull out the bay leaves, as well.

But pies are something we do so well in this country,

a good British pie.

-Yeah, it's something we're famous for.

-Yeah.

-And nobody does pies like what we do.

-Exactly, exactly.

-OK, so here I have a puff pastry lid.

-Yeah.

I'm just going to brush it with some beaten egg,

that helps it go nice and golden in the oven.

OK, and I put a little crisscross across the top.

Oh, here we are now, you're not doing that just for me now, are you?

-You're being really swish.

-Every customer gets the er...

..the special crisscross.

OK, so that just goes on the top there like that.

-That goes on there.

-Perfect.

-In the oven.

-Temperature?

-About 200 degrees.

-OK, for how long, Chef?

-For about 10, 15 minutes just until it's nicely golden brown.

-Sounds fantastic.

And that pie is looking delicious from here.

Yeah, so that's good to come out.

Lovely and golden brown, just the colour you're looking for.

-Freshly baked.

-Freshly baked.

-What are you going to serve with that?

I've got some of the lovely Swiss chard from the garden that I've cooked down already.

-Oh, right, yeah.

-So I've blanched that in salted boiling water

for a couple of minutes and then put it in the pan with

-some double cream, a bit of chicken stock, salt and pepper.

-Excellent.

I'm just going to finish it off with a bit of grated nutmeg on top.

Yeah, like that.

OK, so I've just got some lovely new potatoes,

-Jersey Royals actually.

-Ho-ho, even better, yes.

They've just been boiled, a bit of mint,

a bit of parsley, a bit of butter.

It's a classic British dish.

As a taste of Gloucestershire, Will's use of local beef

and vegetables can't fail to impress the Duchess.

-Hello.

-Hello there.

There you are.

So we've got a Dexter beef, ale and horseradish pie with some

home-grown creamed chard and some new potatoes.

-Fabulous, thank you.

-OK.

-Cheers, Will.

Now what's the etiquette on this?

-You lift the pie pastry up, and I'll pour the pie out.

-OK.

And it's blooming hot.

There you are.

-Well, I like his pastry.

-Yeah.

Look at that, it's very neat. When I make it, it's a bit of a mess.

The nice thing is put the pastry on top of the filling,

put it in the oven and cooked it. Some people cook that separate.

That's not a pie, this is a pie.

Yeah, because you want the underneath of the pastry

to take the flavours of the meat.

That's it, yeah, have a taster.

What I like is that the meat's been cooked for a long time,

it looks really tender.

And I love this meat with horseradish in it.

I think it's last minute, it's great

and the chard, which is growing over there, look...

Yeah, I was looking at that, comparing it with my chard.

-Oh!

-It's interesting how he's cooked the chard

because I'm always looking for different ways of cooking it.

-And then can you taste what he finished it with?

-Cream.

-Yeah, he's got a bit of cream in there, yeah.

-Not much. Nutmeg.

That's it, nutmeg, you're absolutely right.

Yeah, nutmeg's very interesting with green vegetables.

-Well, I like this pie.

-So do I, it is so British, is it not, yeah?

I think that's pie-fect.

Do you get it?

Ghastly!

-Well, that was a top pie.

-Fantastic, I love pies, that beef was delicious.

However, up there is a great pork farmer that I heard about.

I suppose you're going for a walk, are you?

-I'm definitely going for a walk, that pie sitting round my middle.

-See you, girl.

Nothing sums up the beauty of this part of Gloucestershire more

than its green rolling hills

and charming Cotswold villages with their characteristic golden stone.

And the limestone used in their construction underlies

the history and heritage of the area,

so I'm off for a walk with a local land management officer,

Mark Connolly, to find out more about the landscape's unique geology.

-Hi, Mark.

-Hello, good to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

Well, I'm really looking forward to this walk.

It's a really nice walk down this valley and I hope you like it.

A great day for it.

Limestone runs in a belt across Great Britain from Dorset

to Humberside, with the highest and most prominent outcrop

here in the Cotswolds.

So this stone we're walking on is how old?

Er, it's from the Jurassic period, but this particular limestone

dates from about 120, 140 million years ago.

My goodness.

And it's the limestone that you see all through the Cotswolds.

It's the building blocks of literally the landscape

for the features you see in the landscape too, in terms of the

walls, the buildings and, of course, it influences what grows here too.

I think, in terms of building, what makes the Cotswolds so special

is this kind of honey-coloured stone is used for everything

from the smallest farm workers' cottages to the big posh mansions,

so it makes it all look of a piece, doesn't it?

It does and it is one of the defining features of the area.

And when did they start building houses in it, in the Cotswolds?

-The Romans, of course, were here...

-So Roman villas built in this stone?

Yes, and there are approximately 70 villas known in the Cotswolds.

It was very important for the Romans in terms of farming.

Because the soil's light and easily worked,

it's been a focus of farming for over 6,000 years.

Well, I like it, good walking.

Mark, this undulating landscape is so typical

of the Cotswolds, isn't it?

It is and what we've got here is actually incredibly

typical of the Cotswolds, because if you look down the valley

you've got these alternating, interlocking spurs.

-Which is...

-Yeah.

..really something you've got to come to the Cotswolds to find.

And this soil is a poor soil, but it might be poor for grass

-but good for flowers?

-It is.

What we've got here is unimproved limestone grassland,

and it's very rare, we've got half the country's grassland

of this particular type in the Cotswolds.

And it basically works on being low in nutrients,

so the wild flowers have a chance to compete with the grasses.

And do the farmers use fertiliser to improve the soil

or are they not allowed to?

It varies. I mean, on this side, where we're actually sitting,

this is semi improved,

-because basically, you can get machinery onto it.

-Yeah.

The steeper bank, you can't get machinery onto it, so it can't be

improved, so by accident, it's sort of kept its low-fertility status.

Actually, the folks that farm here are really proud of this grassland

and they like their sheep to feed on here

because it actually improves the flavour of the lamb.

Mark, thanks for explaining such a unique landscape,

and looking at it,

it looks just like a Samuel Palmer watercolour

of the English countryside,

it is just so...well, it just sums it all up, doesn't it?

I can't wait to walk all the way through it now.

As a key ingredient for our celebratory dish,

I can't think of anything that sums up a taste of the region

more than the Gloucester Old Spot pig.

Todenham Manor Farm, to the north of the Cotswolds, is famous for

its pork and is owned by a former City barrister, Irayne Paikin.

Hi, you must be Irayne.

-I am, it's lovely to meet you.

-Brian Turner, lovely to see you.

It's fantastic, what a wonderful day and what a wonderful place

-you've got here.

-Oh, it's the most perfect day, I think.

-And just look at all these lovely pigs round here.

-I know.

So you came here looking at a property

but suddenly fell in love with farming.

How did that all start? How long has it been going on?

For about five or six years now. It kind of happened by accident, really.

I come from London and I knew nothing,

all I knew is that Old MacDonald had a farm.

That really was the beginning of it

-and, er, we started with four.

-Oh, right.

-Four pigs.

So from four pigs, you've obviously got more than four pigs now?

I'm really, really proud of what we've done.

Irayne farms three varieties of pigs,

including Gloucester Old Spot,

the first ever breed to be given speciality status by the EU

for its superior meat.

And what actually made you choose those three breeds?

They're all very different. We had to have Old Spots, obviously,

we're here in Gloucestershire.

We had Middle Whites, which are amazing pork pigs,

so I settled on those two,

and we also have Saddlebacks. They have wonderful litters for us

and we've been really happy with the pork that they all produce.

When it comes to producing high-quality pork,

Irayne believes in giving her pigs the five-star treatment.

We built all these pens, they've got loads of space,

but I think our farmer, Barry,

thought I'd sort of maybe lost the plot a bit

when I suggested that we plant fruit trees all round the pigpens,

so that in the summer, ultimately

they're going to provide lots of lovely natural shade for the pigs.

And he rolled his eyes a few times and suggested that maybe

I'd like to provide them with patios as well, outside their pigpens.

-Deck chairs.

-I think he's rather taking the mickey out of me a bit,

but I've got my fruit trees.

And in the autumn we do go collecting all the fruit

from all the fruit trees.

And I just want to give them a happy life.

Your passion, your enthusiasm for the product has really convinced me.

I have to cook a celebration dish,

and hopefully with your help, you're going to let me have a piece of

this wonderful Gloucester Old Spot. I know just what I'm going to cook.

-Absolutely, no problem.

-Let's have a look at these piglets over there,

they look so sweet, don't they?

PIG GRUNTS

Now Brian's found the perfect main ingredient,

it's time to cook up

'a taste of Gloucestershire

'with a celebratory dish for the friends we've made along the way.'

Brian, what are you going to cook?

Well, we're in such a wonderful place, and seen such lovely

great produce, I'm going to use some Gloucester Old Spot,

but I'm going to use a joint that people don't use very often.

The main bit of the shoulder...

-Yes.

-They call it the collar.

So I'm going to do a pot roast collar of Gloucester Old Spot,

served with a bit of braised cabbage - very rustic,

very simple, but extremely tasty.

Do you cut a lot of the fat off it?

Cos when you see it at the butcher's it's got quite a lot of fat round it.

Yeah, I've taken quite a bit of fat off there.

What I'm going to do first is get a bit of colour on the old meat.

So a bit of lard in there.

Good, honest pig fat, give it a stir, get a bit of heat in there.

And really what we want to do now, I think,

is just to get a nice bit of colour on, brown on here.

Here we go.

Of course you can get the butcher to roll it like that for you.

-I think you probably have to...

-Yeah, because I think

-it's very hard to do it yourself that neatly.

-Yeah.

Unless you're Brian Turner, of course.

At this time, I'm not going to salt it.

And it does take a little bit of doing here.

My father used to make bacon collar and boil it...

-Oh, yeah?

-..and make sandwiches out of it in his transport cafe

and they were the best sandwiches I've ever had, I have to tell you,

and I'd forgotten until I saw this cut of meat.

I think people ought to be a bit more confident

when they go to the butcher's and ask for these different cuts

instead of always having the same thing.

So, lovely, I've got that lovely colour,

all round there, so we take that out of there.

Now what we don't do, of course, is throw anything away,

we keep it all in the same pan,

so now I'm going to put some onions in there.

I don't want to colour them too much, but I do want to get

a little bit of colour on them, and a bit of garlic, but not too much.

Give it a bit of a stir.

Right, now I'm going to put the joint back in there.

It already looks tasty.

Whatever you do, don't throw any juices away.

There's a little bit there, not a lot,

but it all adds to that flavour.

I've got a bit of chicken stock.

I think chicken stock with this kind of dish works extremely well.

You don't want anything too pungent or forceful, and now you can feel

-the whole thing coming together...

-Yeah.

-..the real magic bit.

And I'm going to put a bit of wine in there.

-Do you want a taste?

-We've gone upmarket.

Dry white wine, fantastic.

So now what we do is we put the lid on.

And that goes into our oven.

Now what I'm going to do, I want to put it in at about 180 degrees,

after half an hour then turn it down to 160,

and cook it as nice and slowly for as long as you can.

Right, now, I'm just going to make this cabbage,

I want just a tad of butter to stop it sticking.

And not a great deal on this.

I wouldn't put the lard in here, but you could do.

Just a wee bit of butter and we've got these wonderful Savoy cabbages.

-Oh, I grew those.

-These, did you?

-Yeah, I grow those.

-Oh, say hello.

-Hello.

-Yeah, but there you go, you see.

Might be one of mine. I love my cabbages so much,

I left them in the garden as long as possible.

I'm going to just cut it in quarters.

Take the core out, just don't want all that tough stuff in there.

Right, now, Old Spot bacon, is this.

-Look at that fat.

-From this very place.

Yeah, exactly, look at the fat.

It's the fat that makes the flavour, I think.

-That's where people go wrong, you know?

-Yeah, especially with bacon.

That is exactly the flavour, you're quite right.

So we put that in there

and then just pile the cabbages...

-OK.

-..on top.

-Bay leaf goes in.

-Yeah.

Just want there a bit of peppermill.

And some...look at this.

-A bit of fresh thyme here.

-Yeah.

Plenty of that in there.

-Yeah.

-Wonderful, a bit of stock.

Yeah, cos you're steaming it, basically, aren't you?

Yeah, just put it on there to get a bit of heat in there.

Can you get it in?

One way or the other, this will definitely go in, trust me.

Cross your fingers, cross your fingers.

Oh, just.

As if by a modern miracle.

PEOPLE CHUCKLE

-It's taken about two and a half hours to cook that.

-Yeah.

Just over two and a half hours and I got a pan on here

cos I now want to get the gravy ready to serve the whole thing.

That's grand.

Just be careful when you take these out of here

cos they are now extremely hot.

As you can see, that looks...

It's got steam in it, yeah.

It looks lovely, does that.

Just look at that.

It's shrunk a lot, hasn't it?

-It has shrunk a bit, you're quite right.

-Yeah.

It's got a lovely colour to it.

It's a good idea to let this rest, if you can, as long as you can,

-perhaps another 20 minutes would be better.

-Yeah.

But we'll take that out of there

and what I need to do now is take this sauce,

sieve out the bits and pieces,

and that goes...

HE WHISTLES

-That's hotter.

-Yeah.

-Smell that, though, it's wonderful.

-Smells very rich.

-What we then want is the supporting act,

but the supporting act for me plays almost as great a part

as the star here.

This goes so well with this wonderful Old Spot pork,

and I've got a bit of juice in there

that I'm going to put in there as well.

Now, that looks really good,

I'm really pleased with that.

This is a great dish when all the family have turned up

and you've always got plenty of it for them.

If you were having a blow-out meal

-you could have some mashed root veg with it?

-Yeah, you could...

-You could have mashed swede.

-Well, swede and carrot.

-Yeah.

So I haven't cooked these too much,

I've kept them as whole pieces.

There's bags of flavour in there.

But what I really want to do, I want to get these juices here...

-Right.

-..back into my gravy here.

So it'll be quite pokey, will this.

Right, now, the proof of the pudding.

Do you like thick slices or thin?

Medium, really. You want a bit of substance to it.

This is holding together lovely,

but you see, it's still got lots of moisture in the middle of it.

-Yeah, looks lovely.

-So all I'm going to do now

is just very carefully,

just lay it on there as nicely as you can,

just pile it in the middle.

-Yeah, well, in my case...

-That colour.

-..that's quite a challenge.

Right, now,

I think parsley is a good addition here.

A nice colour, go on, plenty of it, gives it a stir.

-Ladle?

-Thank you, I do need a ladle, you're quite right.

Just before you serve it, make sure you use a cloth

cos that pan handle might be warm.

Really concentrated flavour.

Don't put too much on there, serve a bit separate.

Just look at that.

I don't know about you,

-but this Gloucester Old Spot has done us proud.

-Yeah.

So we've got a pot-roasted

collar of pork with braised cabbage.

And I think that for Gloucestershire, that really is

a great taste of Britain. What about you, Duchess?

Well, dish fit for a queen.

-That's a simple dish.

-Mmm.

But it's got bags of flavour.

Right, I've combined pork and cabbage in one great big mega mouthful.

Mmm.

It tastes delicious.

Before you finish all this,

-shall we ask our friends here to come and join us?

-Come on,

-they've been waiting.

-Come and have a taste, people.

-Next.

-Come in from the back.

-Mark, push your way through.

-OK.

-Delicious. Delicious gravy.

-Succulent.

-Happy pig.

-That was a happy pig.

It falls apart in your mouth.

-Mmm, come and have some.

-Cabbage tastes good, doesn't it?

There's a lot of "mm-mm" and not many words!

Do you know what they're sounding like?

They all sound like a load of pigs!

Well, you did well at foraging. I hadn't got you down as a forager.

No, I hadn't either,

and I'm not sure I'm going to be a permanent forager, but...

I'll tell you what you're really, really good at - hugging a tree!

You think that,

but I've actually had two phone calls from that tree already.

But I was really gobsmacked, I really enjoyed looking and...

The sight of you hugging the tree

has made my entire trip to Gloucestershire. I loved my walk,

that was fantastic,

it's a part of the countryside I haven't walked enough.

And here, of course, this is

state-of-the-art Gloucester Old Spot farming,

and that animal that we've tasted right now just proves it,

you know, if you put quality in,

you put expertise in there, that's the kind of product you get.

So for me, once again, it's a Taste of Britain in Gloucestershire.

-I've loved it.

-Terrific.