Episode 5 Countryfile Summer Diaries

Long sunny days when our countryside is bursting with colour and life.

It's the season that brings out the child in us all.

Summer is here.

It's the perfect time to enjoy the beauty of our great British landscape.

And our amazing wildlife.

Some of us are still hard at work.

But whatever you're doing, and whatever the weather,

our island is at its very best.

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

..bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

46% of young adults have at least some hay fever symptoms.

It is hard to believe that such microscopically small grains

could cause such trouble for millions of us.

The very warmest of welcomes to Countryfile Summer Diaries.

And here's what's coming up on the programme today.

If you're an urban dweller,

Paul is discovering how you could keep city bees.

My initial response was, this is absolutely barking.

It's a silly idea.

I can't believe that is so good and it comes from the rooftop here.

Keeley discovers the dramatic rescue of a stranded dolphin clinging to life.

We realised quite soon after the tide had come in

that we didn't have very long at all.

She needed to swim and she needed to swim now.

And I'll be finding out how going back to the past could help to offer

a solution for the future.

All this week we're enjoying summer on the beautiful and historic

Isle of Wight.

The island broke free from mainland Britain after the Ice Age,

which helped form its stunning rugged coastline,

its picturesque hills and slopes,

and created a haven for fauna and flora.

The island has had its fair share of visitors, too, over the millennia,

including the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and,

in the 12th century, a small group of Benedictine monks

who built Quarr Abbey.

You can see its ruins over there.

There's a new abbey built behind it and a community of monks is still

working and worshipping here today.

This amazing ancient oak tree grew

amidst the monks' original infirmary building

and more recent visitors have also made their mark

on the island and on our national taste buds.

Margherita is now following her nose in pursuit of a whiffy,

yet intriguing tale from the Second World War.

If you walk into any kitchen, you'll find the same staples in most cooks'

cupboards - salt, pepper and of course, garlic.

Garlic is a relative newcomer to our shores

and dinner tables.

In fact, some 40-odd years ago, it was unheard of,

so how did that little bulb arrive from the Mediterranean

to the Isle of Wight?

Well, apparently it all started with a secret wartime mission

behind enemy lines.

So the story goes that during the Second World War, a fleet of

French ships were stationed off the coast at Cowes.

And the French crew, not too happy with the bland English food,

thanks to the help of a local publican, hatched a plan to change all that.

The pub landlord was a man called Bill Spidy.

He told George Castle the full story.

In October 1942,

250 Frenchmen were in Cowes and the French complained about the food -

that there was no taste to the food in the Isle of Wight.

He said he would try and get some garlic.

He had some friends working in the SOE at Tangmere, near Chichester.

The SOE, or Special Operations Executive,

was a British wartime organisation tasked with performing espionage,

sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe.

The next night, a Lysander took off from Tangmere and went to Auvergne.

The next night the garlic arrived at Cowes, two bags of garlic,

and it was taken to the local farm where the Spidys lived, called Little Duxmore.

And that's where the garlic was first planted, at Little Duxmore farm.

The garlic Bill grew for his French customers is known as Solent Wight.

It's the same stock third-generation farmer Colin Boswell started his

business with. His links to the bulb run deep into the past, too.

Colin, how did you come to first grow garlic here?

Well, my mother was growing it in the kitchen garden.

We got garlic from the Auvergne, the same place that Bill Spidy had it

when he grew it in the 1940s on the farm next door to us.

So there is a close connection there.

So she may have seen that garlic in his garden and thought,

"Oh, that's quite nice."

He was a great chatter-upper, so...

LAUGHTER

And then how did we get to the point where you're growing

fields and fields of it?

Well, I came back in 1976 and decided to come back to the farm with my wife, Jenny.

And we looked at the garlic my mother grew in the kitchen garden

and it looked so much better than what was on the supermarket shelf,

we thought we could do this and we could sell it.

Now, Colin grows over 40 types of garlic,

alongside this stunning array of wild flowers.

We've got a selection of garlic from all over the world.

We've got garlic from Irkutsk in Siberia,

we've got garlic from south-west France,

we've got Bill Spidy's garlic from the Auvergne,

and from eastern Turkey on the

Syria-Iraq border we have got tuncelianum, the original garlic.

That's really interesting because it still grows in the wild,

which all other garlics don't.

Colin, I would like a little bit of garlic for lunch.

What would you recommend I try?

Well, currently I recommend this one.

This has been raised in France,

but is actually of Chinese origin and it's ready five weeks before

any other garlic.

-The first garlic of the season?

-First garlic of the season.

I can't wait to try it so I'm off to meet Colin's daughter Natasha.

While her father is passionate about growing garlic,

she's an expert on cooking with it.

-Hi, Natasha.

-Hello.

-I brought these in for you.

I had no idea there were so many different types of garlic.

-Do they all taste the same?

-Absolutely not. So, some of them

have that extraordinary heat that you get when you chew raw garlic.

Some of them have a more rounded and sweeter flavour.

-Would you like to try some?

-Yeah, great.

I saw it come out of the ground with my own eyes.

This is straight out of the field, so it's green garlic.

So it's not completely dried yet.

This variety will get slightly stronger when it dries.

-So...

-Oh, my goodness.

-Here you go.

-OK.

So, here we go.

Oh, I can feel it on my tongue straightaway.

Wow! Ooh!

It's like fireworks.

You're very brave.

-Oh, my goodness.

-It really is strong.

You wouldn't need much of that if you are cooking.

Precisely. So, if you're making, for example,

a bruschetta or something where you'd want to have

the strength of the raw garlic,

that would be an excellent variety to try.

-If I needed...

-Your eyes are watering, I'm so sorry.

Let me not put the garlic up to my eyes.

I can feel it still in my mouth

and I can almost feel it on the insides as well.

Well, it will be doing you a lot of good.

Not only is garlic full of flavour, it's packed with health benefits,

from lowering cholesterol and blood pressure to preventing colds,

boosting our immune system and could even protect us

against some cancers.

What the World Health Organization recommends is one clove of garlic

per day. And the best way to get the health benefits is to eat it raw.

The sulphur compounds in garlic that are so good for our health are also

great for our gardens,

by keeping bugs like greenfly away.

So time to find out how to grow it.

We break a clove off like that.

And we can start it in a pot like this.

Any particular soil that the garlic likes?

Just a general compost.

And do you take the skin off first?

No, don't take the skin off.

The skin is there to protect it.

The growing top there, root there, point there.

Push it in.

There's a good inch of soil over the top of it.

Press it down tight, water it.

And keep it watered.

Once the plant is about that high, there'll be a massive root.

The roots will be really going like crazy.

Take it out of this pot, and put it into bigger pot.

Even better, plant it in the soil so it can grow naturally.

But if you haven't got that available, then the bigger the pot

you put it in, the better the garlic crop you'll get.

Once you've potted, then where do you leave it?

It can be on any space that you've got, preferably outside.

Garlic needs cold for its chemistry to work.

And how long before I'd get my first harvest?

Let's say that you planted in October, November.

If it's Extra Early White, you'll harvest that at the end of May.

You'll have your own bountiful harvest of garlic.

Well, I've definitely had my eyes and taste buds opened to a world of

garlic I never knew existed.

And I'm certainly looking forward to cooking up a storm after I've

harvested my first crop.

Visitors to the Isle of Wight often come to spot its great wildlife.

And the island has become a stronghold for our much-threatened

native red squirrel.

Woodlands like these in the grounds of the abbey provide a sanctuary

for around 3,500 of them.

It's all possible because the water surrounding the island is a natural

barrier for the invasive grey squirrel.

Visitors also flock to the coast to see some of the island's

other great wildlife.

But if it's dolphins you're after,

one of the best places to go to is Scotland.

And last summer saw a dramatic dolphin rescue in the Moray Firth.

Keeley now investigates.

Last year, there were more than 800 marine mammal strandings across the

UK. So how can we do our bit for the wildlife around Britain's coasts?

That figure is just for dolphins and whales,

who are often caught by a rapid turn of tides, get beached ashore,

and are unable to return to the sea.

But around the coast, there are groups of volunteers,

like the British Divers Marine Life Rescue,

training to undertake any wildlife emergency.

Led by Martin Boon, today the volunteers are learning how to save

a dolphin using a lifelike model, and I'm lending a hand.

One, two, three.

It's vital training because Scotland's waters are home to around

200 bottlenose dolphins.

For various reasons,

this small and vulnerable population has been under threat.

Keeping the group's numbers up, especially breeding females,

is vital for long-term survival.

Last year, an unsuspecting wildlife watcher, like me,

spotted a young dolphin named Spurtle.

This was no ordinary sighting.

Spurtle was stranded.

Somehow, Spurtle was stuck on tidal mudflats about three miles from

the sea at low tide. By the time she was spotted she'd been out of

the water for at least 14 hours, and was in a critical condition.

With time running out,

Martin and the volunteers answered the emergency call.

What we think possibly happened is at this time of year,

a lot of juvenile males get a bit boisterous and she maybe thought,

I'll just come in here out of the way, and because of the geographics of the bay, it empties really,

really quick. It's really shallow and she just got caught out.

Every moment out of the water was putting Spurtle's life in greater danger.

The lead vet involved in the desperate attempt to save her life was Andrew Brownlow.

So why is it such a problem if they are out of the water for that long?

-Cos they can breathe out of the water, can't they?

-Yeah, of course. I mean, they're mammals.

They've evolved to need the water to supply buoyancy.

So if you take that away from them,

then they can no longer support their own weight,

so when they're lying on their side their muscles can become sort of

crushed by their own body weight and their skin cannot survive being

exposed to the wind and the sun.

As soon as they get out of the water the skin begins to dry out,

it begins to crack and it begins to blister.

Animals without fur, feathers or scales are prone to sunburn and blisters,

with whales and dolphins particularly vulnerable.

Infections which follow are common and often deadly.

So what kind of state was she in when you arrived, then?

You could tell from the respiratory rate that she was quite distressed.

My job is to sort of assess the animal,

and see whether or not it is possible to get them back out to sea,

whether or not the process of them being stranded has caused so much damage

that you actually have to put them down, put them to sleep.

Andrew decided to try and save Spurtle but there was a problem -

the next high tide would not hit until 4am the following morning.

They would have to stay with her to make sure she survived the night.

Morning came and Spurtle was still alive,

but it was now a race against time.

We realised kind of quite soon after the tide had come in that we

actually didn't have very long at all before the tide went back out again.

She needed to swim and she needed to swim now.

If Andrew didn't think Spurtle could survive back at sea,

he'd have to make a tough call and end the rescue attempt.

It was absolutely nerve-racking, to be honest.

I held her in my hands, in my arms,

and pushed her a couple of times to try and encourage her to swim

and the first couple - it didn't go so well.

And then on the third time I gave a big push and that was it,

she remembered how to swim.

She started really powering through the water.

-What a moment.

-And it was the most amazing thing that I've seen during

a refloat. She just took off.

Although Spurtle had found strength to swim,

there was no guarantee she'd recover from her injuries once back at sea.

Unfortunately, most dolphins that are stranded don't end up back in

the water. Spurtle was lucky -

she had a dedicated team on hand to refloat her,

but with such extensive sunburn and potentially other injuries,

would she survive?

And Keeley will be back later to discover Spurtle's fate.

Now, in this technological age there is a risk of workers losing their

jobs to artificial intelligence and automation.

So, could the jobs of the future be found in the skills of the past?

Jules has been to a village near Salisbury

contemplating a change of career.

The world over,

people's vision of the English countryside

is one of chocolate-box villages full of pretty cottages

topped by straw and reed.

And each and every one of those thatched roofs has been

skilfully crafted in time-honoured tradition.

Now, as a roofing material,

thatch has long since fallen out of fashion.

But of course it is the original eco-friendly option.

So, as a self-confessed nut when it comes to historic buildings,

I can't wait to get a history lesson in a technique that really does go

back as far as the Iron Age.

Teaching me the tricks of the trade is Adam Nash.

As a master thatcher for 12 years,

he is a dab hand with a bundle of straw, known in the trade as a yelm.

Hello, mate. Nice to see you.

Talk me through how you make a yelm, then, the ridge.

So what we're doing is we're topping and tailing,

so that when it is snapped over the ridge,

it feathers down so we haven't got a big thick lump at either end.

-I've got it. So you're balancing it out, really.

-Yeah, yeah. We're just trying to equal it all out.

Here is one I made earlier.

And so what's going to happen is we're going to...

In effect, they're broken over the ridge.

Like that. And that then helps seal the roof at the end of the job

and keep it watertight when we start to ridge it.

Adam makes 100 yelms a day and to thatch a typical cottage,

he'll carry around four to six tonnes of straw up to the roof.

You had a career as an army officer, didn't you? What gave you the idea to go from army to thatcher?

I didn't want to sit behind a desk. I wanted to be outdoors.

I wanted to be fairly fit, and I considered dry-stone walling,

I considered being a blacksmith.

I just wanted to be able to say, "Well, I did that."

And to see the results of your work is very rewarding.

So how did you make the transition from army officer to thatcher?

I went and found a master thatcher and he was kind enough to indulge me.

I said to him, "Look, is there any way you'd be prepared to take me on

"and train me in an apprenticeship process?"

Over that time he taught me to thatch.

Well, talking of apprentices, you've got me for today.

So what's next?

Well, if we were up on the roof we would be twisting spars and we use these.

They're made of hazel, and they haven't changed in 250 years,

so we twist them like that, and that becomes a staple.

You made that look so easy.

How did you do that?

-See, just twist it.

-JUST twist it?

-So put your hands together. Closer together.

-Yes.

You seem more machine than man.

It's all by hand. So all you're doing is twisting and then bending.

-There you go.

-Like that?

So when they go into the straw, they spring and open up and they hold.

So I wouldn't normally be putting them here,

but if I put that into there now, that is difficult to pull out.

And of course it is green wood. So as it dries, it is going to get really tough, isn't it?

Yes. You can take these out a roof 20 years later and they've still got

spring in them.

With over 60,000 thatched houses across the country,

thatching is a skill that's still in demand.

But it is just one of many heritage crafts under threat of being lost.

Well, keeping these skills alive takes people.

People who not only are prepared to pass those skills on,

but of course people who are prepared to learn them.

But I can tell you, twisting hazel...

It might actually have worked.

..is a lot harder than you think.

In a bid to resurrect these skills,

Nick Crean from the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust

is investing in young, talented British craftsmen and women.

Over the last 27 years,

we've given out about 3.8 million to 440 craftsmen,

and by doing that, we're investing in skills like circus sign writing,

clog making, coach building.

Skills where people have very nearly forgotten how important these skills are.

I'm fascinated by the idea of the apprenticeship scheme.

-That's something you are keen to champion.

-Having something where you've gone and trained

the discipline of sourcing, the discipline of pricing, the discipline of selling...

All of that as part of your craft is of huge value.

Are there any skills that we've lost

that you would love to help resurrect?

Well, I think the one that really stands out are cricket balls.

No-one is making cricket balls in the UK any longer.

That skill has gone.

So you're telling me that I can't buy a cricket ball that's made in Britain?

You cannot go out and buy a British-made cricket ball.

That's shocking. From where you stand, looking forward,

do you think our craft industry has a bright future?

I think craft is having the most fantastic future.

It's been elevated to where it should be, which is on par with art.

So I think it is a wonderful time to be part of that craft movement,

adding to that continuum that we've had in this country for hundreds

if not thousands of years.

It shaped the national character of the country and helped shape

the people within it.

You know, it's easy to see why it takes years to master a skill like

thatching, but it must be nice to think that in mastering the craft,

the fruits of your labours are going to be around for a very long time.

And Adam's second career is certainly going well.

-Adam.

-Jules, hi.

I love it. Those finishing touches just with a pair of shears.

It takes a while. Ultimately,

you want it to be steep because you want to get that water off the roof

as quickly as possible because it's the water that wears it.

-And it's so neat.

-A little bit of fine tuning but we're getting there.

What would you say to anybody who is thinking about chucking it all in

and taking up a craft skill as a vocation?

If that's what you want to do, be prepared for quite a long haul,

but if you're passionate about what you're doing and you're enthused

about what you're doing, the light is at the end of the tunnel.

-Well, it's a beautiful job, mate. Well done, you.

-Thank you.

Come on, let's get back to it.

And if you fancy a change in career, and why wouldn't you, maybe this...

..could be just the option.

I love it.

Here on the Isle of Wight, Quarr Abbey has its own smallholding.

It's got pigs and enough fruit and veg is produced to feed the monks

and to sell at the Abbey shop.

Now, at this time of year, all kinds of rural produce are on display

at country shows all over the UK.

And here is our Countryfile guide to some of the best.

The Kent County Show celebrates farming and country life.

With champion breeds...

..traditional skills...

..and crowd-pleasing displays.

It even boasts its very own Lamb National...

..and the hottest of horse shows.

They are lighting the rings.

It's about to get a little bit more dangerous.

Here we go. This is the moment of truth.

It is terrifying to watch.

This is amazing.

If you head out west,

the Cotswolds show at Cirencester Park offers a perfect family day out

with fun activities to try.

And a mouthwatering food hall to tickle your taste buds.

And here's a very local loaf - a Painswick loaf.

This one I created with a hint of Earl Grey tea.

But there are many shows that offer an alternative to food and produce.

Every summer for the past 45 years,

things have got hot and steamy in Blandford Forum.

These gleaming machines are all part of the Great Dorset Steam Fair.

In fact, this is the biggest event of its kind in the world.

This five-day celebration helps keep our heritage alive...

..with iron giants like Old Tim,

a centenarian who served during the First World War.

Well, I hope that that little taster inspires you to find out about

country shows in your local area.

Earlier we heard about the dramatic rescue last summer

in the Moray Firth of Spurtle,

the bottlenose dolphin who'd been beached for 24 hours

before a dedicated team managed to get her back into the water.

But with life-threatening sunburn and maybe other injuries, too,

what was to become of her?

Keeley has been finding out.

One of the reasons the rescue team knew so much about Spurtle was

because the dolphins of the Moray Firth are closely monitored.

The University of Aberdeen has been studying the small group of dolphins

in this area since 1989.

Barbara Cheney heads up their dolphin identification programme

so if anyone can tell me Spurtle's fate, it's her.

Barbara, you know the dolphins in this area better than anyone.

How is Spurtle? Did she survive?

It's a dolphin we see quite a lot.

We know her quite well. We've seen her since she was born.

And so when we hadn't seen her for two months after the stranding,

we just thought she hadn't made it,

so we were very pleasantly surprised when we saw her and she was still

alive. But then of course we saw the sunburn wounds and we were quite

concerned about that. And actually,

we really didn't think she was going to make it at all.

You can see the whole side of the skin is missing there.

-And you can see how the wind...

-It's really bad, isn't it?

-The burns.

-I mean, although she was with other dolphins when we saw her,

she didn't seem to stay with the group.

She was always on the outskirts of the group.

Dolphins are always very social animals and they are very physical

with each other. They rub up and down against each other

to keep their social bonds.

And we wondered if she was deliberately staying away

from the other dolphins so that they wouldn't rub up

against the wound on her side.

It would be quite sore to rub up against her with that, wouldn't it?

You'd imagine that, yes, definitely.

And how often do you spot her?

So actually last week was the first time we'd seen her.

-Oh, really?

-Yeah, since 2016.

It looks so much better now than it did last year.

So this is Spurtle when we saw her last week.

That must be a relief to see her progress.

Yes. Actually it was a little surprise.

We weren't sure if she would survive the winter.

So the difference between just a couple months afterwards and now

is amazing, isn't it?

And how's she behaving now?

-Is she back to normal?

-Yes, I would say so.

She was in the middle of quite a big group of animals and she was

actually... We even saw her leaping out of the water.

It's great to hear that Spurtle has come on leaps and bounds and she's

back mixing with the other dolphins, too -

a few of whom are making an appearance today.

Is this a good spot to see the dolphins from, then?

I would say definitely the best spot in the UK if not the world, actually.

-Really?

-Though I'm a little biased, obviously.

I might not have seen Spurtle today,

but I'm just happy she's out there alive and well,

and doing what dolphins do best.

If you'd like to join a dedicated team of volunteers like this one

and get involved in marine wildlife rescues in your area,

contact the British Divers Marine Life Rescue to find out how.

And you too can help out whales and dolphins like Spurtle this summer.

At the height of our British summer, flowers are blooming everywhere.

And in the last few years,

British-grown blooms have become increasingly popular

in the cut flower market.

But why has there been such a renaissance in British cut flowers?

Anita has been to the world's most famous flower market,

New Covent Garden, to get the answer.

It's six o'clock in the morning and the place is buzzing.

There are buyers and sellers and flowers from all over the country,

like these stalks from Cambridgeshire which don't just

look beautiful, they smell divine.

And whether they're from Sussex or the Scillies, Norfolk or Guernsey,

they are a riot of colour and scent.

There are flowers here from all over the world,

but it is the UK flowers that are really creating the buzz.

And they're championed by two stalwarts of the market -

Mick Waite of Pratley Flowers and Graeme Diplock from Zest.

Hi, Graeme. Why do you specialise in British flowers?

The flowers were picked literally a day, two days ago.

They're as fresh as you can get and local.

It's varieties of flowers you don't get in Holland or Colombia

or wherever you want to be.

-So where are these from?

-Spalding.

-Spalding.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Not too far.

So all these little buds here,

they will all open up into a little flower like this.

That is absolutely gorgeous.

And how long will the season for these Sweet Williams last?

They'll go on for about eight weeks.

People would rather buy British flowers.

It's like with food, everyone wants British, local food.

Local produce. It's great.

I'm passionate about what I do so if I can promote English flowers,

if it's something we're good at, why not do it?

Look at the green fields we've got.

Why not do what we're good at?

Last year more than 220,000 boxes of flowers, worth around £56 million,

passed through the market.

Buyers come here from all over the country, from supermarkets,

hotel chains and specialist florists like Ellie and Anna,

who've turned a passion for flowers into a business.

As it's British Flowers Week, I've asked Anna and Ellie to come up with

something a little out of the ordinary to mark the occasion.

Hello, ladies. How are you doing?

-Good.

-Look at these fantastic flowers.

What is it about British bloom?

I know the two of you particularly like using British flowers, don't you?

-Why?

-There's something about them.

They've just got a different quality, we think, to imported flowers.

They often have a really lovely scent.

Flowers that have come from far away can lose their scent a bit.

The other thing about British flowers is this is very different from what you see at the rest

of the market. The kind of cultivated flowers from further afield wouldn't travel so well.

The delicacy, and the lightness and the bounce that they have,

it's like a different feel to cultivated flowers, I think.

-So what's the plan?

-We thought we'd show you how to make your very own

British flower headdress, using all these wonderful British flowers.

What do we need to pick for this wonderful headdress?

Well, let's just choose a selection of anything you like the look of.

I'm choosing sweet peas that smell divine, dramatic guelder rose,

some vibrant campion,

garlicky alliums

and delicate scilla.

I'm going to feel like I'm in A Midsummer Night's Dream, aren't I?

-Shall we head back?

-Let's.

Let's get creating.

Just as the rest of the city is getting up for work,

we're off to Anna and Ellie's studio.

And I can't believe the riot of colour and scent that hits my senses.

This floral headdress is going to be something else.

These are all the things that you need.

So we're going to start with this little allium.

And then go for a bit of guelder.

I might go for one of those as well, then.

That's great. So then you put your first flower there and fix it nice

-and tight.

-OK.

And go down at a slight diagonal.

And then you go back up again.

This is really therapeutic.

I'm really enjoying myself.

It's hard to work and talk.

We find there is often silence in our workshops.

"Oh, gosh, is everybody having a good time?"

And we look around and everyone is concentrating so hard.

That's a good one.

-You need one more.

-I think I do.

-Do you want a guelder?

Yes, please. Let's finish the way we started.

Yes.

So, which way does it go?

Yeah, that's good.

-That looks so great.

-Does it?

It really does. Have a look in the mirror.

Yours is gorgeous.

I love it. I mean, you can enjoy flowers not just in a vase -

you can get out into your garden and make a headdress.

It's easy.

Here at the Abbey,

the monks have been as busy as bees making their own honey for 40 years.

And last year, Paul and his wife Charlotte embarked on their very own

beekeeping adventure at their smallholding in Wiltshire.

It's been a learning curve, but this summer,

Paul is finding out how you too can keep bees on even the smallest patch

of land.

Our quest to produce honey has definitely had

a few stings in its tail.

From Varroa mites in the hive...

We are going to be thinking about how we can treat the Varroa

and get the Varroa out of your hive.

..to a swarming queen.

They're not the happiest ladies today.

I'm getting a bit uncomfortable.

We are now fairly confident with our beekeeping skills,

although we admit there's still so much more to learn.

We are not alone. There are currently around 30,000

amateur beekeepers in the UK, and a growing number are in urban spaces.

Limited land seems no barrier to beekeeping.

I've come to an unlikely spot for bees in the heart of the city

of Bristol to meet urban beekeeper Quentin Alsop.

Quentin's hive isn't in a garden or even on a proper patch of land -

it's on a roof.

It's an unusual spot to keep bees with.

You've got so many hives up here.

Why did you do this? What was the main inspiration behind this?

Well, it was the cafe and food hall downstairs in St Nicholas market.

They approached us to see if we would keep bees up here.

My initial response was, this is absolutely barking.

It's a silly idea. But they were very keen on the provenance

of their food and that kind of rang a bell with me.

Knowing where things come from, it's really,

-really important.

-Well, obviously, it's been very successful.

Cos you probably started with one hive?

Well, in each box you've got nine or ten

frames of honey and that's maybe 30lbs of honey so that's quite a lot

of activity going on just to fill one box.

And they kept on coming for the second one, third, fourth, fifth, six.

It was just crazy. Better than any of my other hives.

It was wonderful.

But why are these bees such happy city-dwellers?

Up here we're at bee level. You can see all of the trees.

I can see there's a park over there.

Is there enough to sustain the bees?

Well, we're really lucky in Bristol because all the streets are lined

with trees and mainly lime trees,

and when they come into flower that's a massive surface area,

that's great. So I like to say Bristol streets are lined with gold.

The city's plethora of parks and trees might make great foraging,

and Quentin reckons it also makes their honey taste better.

So how does city honey compare to the stuff produced by my countryside

hives? Time for a taste-off.

Here it is, Quentin.

The summer of '16 - that is our first batch.

We had one and a half pots.

My first reaction is, it's a lot lighter than your honey.

Yes, that's true.

And it's a very fine grain as well.

All natural honey starts off runny but the speed which it crystallises

varies, depending on the bees' pollen source.

My bees gather most of their pollen from nearby oilseed rape fields,

which sets really quickly.

So let's try a bit.

-That's really good.

-It's not bad, is it?

It's better than not bad.

It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

You should be really, really proud.

Well, that's mine out of the way.

-Can I try yours now?

-You can, yeah.

On to the city honey. Oh, this is like syrup.

Quentin's honey is bursting with complex flavour,

and it's all down to the nectar from Bristol's wide range of blossoming

trees. That is fantastic.

It has a fruitiness.

Apple and cherry.

So the cherries came out, fruit trees came out.

And the first time I tried it there was a hint of cherry

-in the first mouthful.

-Oh, there is, isn't it?

-It is a very

different taste and you wouldn't get that with a supermarket honey.

I can't believe that is so good.

And it comes from the rooftop here in the city centre.

That's blown me away.

We can't decide,

so we're bringing in cafe owner Joe to give the final verdict.

First up is my country honey.

That's a really nice sweetness. It's a very nice flavour. Very good.

Now for the city honey.

-Here we go.

-Thank you.

So, which is it, Joe? Number one or number two.

In my opinion the second one is my favourite.

It had much more going on,

more depth of flavour to it and the longer...

A longer taste on the palate.

Well, there you go.

-Put it there. You're the winner.

-Thank you!

Those urban bees are definitely doing something right.

A worthy winner.

A city centre rooftop is an unusual spot to keep bees but there are

easier-to-reach places where you can set up a hive,

even if you don't have a garden.

Retired couple Penny and David chose this local allotment.

But their motivation wasn't honey and Penny wasn't initially keen.

-Nice to meet you.

-This is brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

So who fell in love with beekeeping first?

It was me to start with because I was on the allotment one day

and thought, "There aren't any bees."

There's nothing pollinating my fruit and veg.

And so I investigated the idea of keeping bees, then bought my

first hive and in May 2016 was lucky enough to get my bees.

So, May was the first introduction to beekeeping for you.

Yes. Up until that point I just thought they are going to be a lot

of time, a lot of money, and probably a real nuisance to look after.

-And now you're the one that is totally in love with them.

-I know, I know, how did that happen?

-Yes.

-I'm sure you would name them all if you could.

LAUGHTER

But you both grow your own fruit and veg. This is your plot, I can see

the strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, your peas.

Everything is looking so good.

And our plot holders next door just commented on what a fantastic

strawberry crop they've got this year,

and they are sure it's thanks to the bees

-that are pollinating it.

-They're pollinating everything.

The bees are doing a fantastic job.

And what about honey? Any plans to get some honey?

If there is a great big surplus this year,

we may have some honey but that's not the reason we got the bees.

Just to pollinate the veg?

-Yes, indeed.

-We left all the honey for the bees to keep them through

the winter. And we were really glad we did.

And, to be honest, we would be happy to do the same thing next year.

If you're thinking of keeping bees in a small space in the city,

go for it. But be sure it's the right thing for you.

Get hands-on training, consult your neighbours.

And if you do decide to take the plunge and start a hive of your own,

get yourself an experienced mentor

who can advise you every step of the way.

Would you encourage more people to keep bees?

I definitely would.

But only if they've thought about it,

and they know that bees are needed in that area - then it is fantastic.

So whether you live in the city or the countryside,

no matter how large or small your patch of land is,

or indeed if you don't have a garden at all,

you can still produce your own honey, and believe me,

nothing tastes better.

And that brings us to the end of our Countryfile Summer Diaries

from the Isle of Wight. But please,

make a note in your diaries to join us again in three months' time

when we'll be celebrating autumn.

So, until then, goodbye.