Episode 14 Landward

Hello and a very warm welcome to a brand-new series of Landward,

taking us through the autumn Montserrat up to Christmas, just 13

weeks away! In a moment, I will look back at a harvest of 2012 and

ask what it means that the price of food on our table. First, here is

what else is coming up: mic is our man with a pan.

Voila, my skinny crepes with seasonal berries and honey cream.

The menace of Himalayan balsam. When you touch it, it springs and

coils around itself, and that catapults the seeds. And we find

out how the Women's Land Army will be remembered with a permanent

memorial. I see that very much as the generation that kind of asked

for very little and gave an awful lot. I am conscious that this is a

real privilege to do something. After yet another disappointing

summer, some of Scotland's farmers are still trying to bring in the

harvest. This year, different types of crops were badly affected by

high rainfall and lack of sunshine. Just as the harvest was beginning,

I went to see the damage for myself and find out what the wider

implications of a bad year are for all of us.

The Scottish summer of 2012 was dominated by low pressure, which

brought cool and cloudy conditions and lots and lots of rain. Records

were broken, giving June and July the dubious titles of being the

wettest, dullest and coldest, with the exception of the west coast,

where it was a lovely summer. And all that rain is bad news for

farmers trying to grow crops and bring in the harvest. It is the end

of August. For some, it is a frustrating and worrying time.

has been an awful summer. All the crops have suffered. The barley was

poor. The bushel weights were poor, which is the weight of the seed.

Very poor indeed. The disease levels in the wake, up to 30% of

the rape will be poor. Today I would visualise something like a

similar figure. Those brown bits are fungus. It is purely because it

is so wet and never really getting sunshine. The seed inside is

obviously far too wet. It has several weeks of drying out to do

before that becomes a viable wheat seed. There are disease levels we

can do nothing about. We are coming towards the end of August. How far

would you normally be on with your harvest? We would normally be a

fortnight further on. We would have the right plum, and we would be

looking at wheat within the next week to ten days. This is maybe

four weeks away. Depends on what whether we get. It is not just the

grain crops that have suffered. The soft fruit, potatoes and silage

have all been affected, with crops not ripening and disease taking

hold. The fire from Alan Berry, the high rainfall has had a major

effect on his potato crops. Potatoes like some light, and there

has been a lack of that. This crop, we should be a struggling to walk

through. The foliage should be up to my knees, and it is not. There

are less tubers because of the wet weather. It is not good. And is

that simply because of the wet conditions? Yes. If we go deeper,

that is not good. I would expect to see more potatoes. I would expect

to see more consistency in the size. And I would expect them to be at

least 50% bigger. But that is typical of what I am seeing.

are looking at a month before you take these out of the ground? Could

be better. But as Scottish crops and stood in

rain this summer, in other areas around the world, crops were

devastated by drought, leading to shortages and elevated grain prices.

Go and kick, which is over �200 a tonne and can only go up because of

the shortage. So that has to be reflected in the cost of production.

It costs more to feed the animals. So you will see the effect in pigs

and poultry. Assuming the public want Scottish and UK milk and

chicken, it may be that consumption cuts back. I hope the consumer will

stay with us, because it has been a difficult season. A month ago, I

stood on this spot almost up to my knees in mud. Thankfully, things

have dried up a little. Let's see how Andrew got on with his harvest.

Harvest has finished. Everything is back to 20% yield. It is the

quality that is a worry. Before weights are poor, and our customer

wants it better than we have got. So some conversations will have to

take place, possibly painful conversations, because we will have

to take less money if the quality is not quite there. Did and the

difficult summer you have had, I imagine that will impact on

consumers' pockets? It has to happen, because the yields are not

only down in Scotland, but in the UK and the whole world. Supply and

demand being what they are, we have to pay more if there is a low

supply. All farmers have been pushing on and getting things done

when they can, because this weather could change again today.

Over the next three weeks, Nick Nairn will be getting out of the

kitchen to cook in a variety of locations. This week, he is

concocting a dish to mark the end of the harvest.

As we had, it will be a relief to most farmers to finally get their

harvesting complete. It has been a difficult year, and in some parts

of the country, yields will be down significantly. But to celebrate the

end of the harvest, I am going to make a simple pudding using the

finest Scottish FA and the last of the seasonal berries. I am making

skinny pancakes with the last of the seasonal berries, and all on a

single burner camping stove. Here is how we do it. One measuring cup,

and I will take a cup full of fine Scottish flour and add that into a

mixing bowl. And I am going to add the eggs into the flour. Equal

volumes of flour and eggs. Be quite vigorous in the whisking, because

this works out all the lumps. You don't want lumps in your pancakes.

Whisk the eggs and the flour until they are stringy. Then we had an

equal volume of milk. Whisk the milk him until you have got the

consistent -- consistency of single cream. There is no sugar in this

pancake batter, because I will add honey to the cream to sweeten it.

To make the pancake, a little splash of vegetable oil into the

pan. Swirl it around to coat the bottom of the pan, then pour out

the excess oil. In goes a little splash of the pancake mix. Then

give that a good swirl round to coat the bottom of the pan. As it

starts to set, you can return the pan to the heat and wait for some

bobbles to start forming. Once you see the edges of the pan kick-start

to set, you should just come away with the pan. He's the pancake away

and quickly, using your fingers, flip over. Then we cook it a second

time for about 90 seconds. Once you see some bubbles forming, it is

time to flip the pancake batter check that it has cooked. I am just

going to flip this back over to make sure it is fully cooked. You

can see a nice bit of colour in there. Then slide it onto a plate.

Little splash of money into some double cream. Whisk back together

until it just starts to thicken. A tablespoon of the honey cream on a

corner of the pancake, a handful of seasonal berries, and we are still

getting raspberries and blueberries, another dollop of cream on top and

then just fold the pancake together, and the final flourish - a drizzle

of honey. And for life - my skinny crepes with seasonal berries and

honey cream. Next week, I am going back to school and into the

classroom to tempt pupils with some Scottish Asian seafood.

Still to come: we visit the first permanent memorial to the Women's

Land Army. The prime quality I want to get across is this youthful

exuberance, this lust for life, this joyousness, really.

And we are on the gallops with top Scottish racehorse trainer Jim

Goldie. In this one but his name because he finds a lot of things to

do wrong. Around 900 non-native species have

been recorded as having escaped or been released into the Scottish

environment. The majority of these caused little or no problems, but a

small number have the potential to do serious damage to species or

habitats. Sarah has been following the relentless spread of one of

those problem plants, Himalayan balsam.

In Victorian times, gardening became extremely popular, with

gardeners keen to create drama in the flowerbeds by using non-native

and exotic plants from all corners of the empire. One of these was

Indian, or Himalayan balsam. But if you have it in your garden, you

probably don't want it. Himalayan balsam was introduced at the same

time as Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed, and like them, it has

become a rampant alien invader. plant was first found in the wild

in Britain in the mid- 19th century. In the intervening 150 years, it

has colonised everywhere from the Isles of Scilly up to the Isles of

Shetland. You will find it along riverbanks and a long shady roads.

Where people move around, it follows. It is a very showy plant.

You can see why there was an ornamental variety. The seed cap

tries out, and it gets a lot of tension in it. If you brush against

it or touch it, it springs or coils around itself, and that catapults

the seeds. Why is it a nuisance? is very rich in nectar. The

downside of that is that the pollinating insects then neglect to

pollinate the native wild flowers around. It is like when a large

superstore comes to your town and the high street tends to wither. It

is the same with the native wild flowers. The insects get sated on

the Himalayan balsam and don't quite do the job for the rest of

the plants. This amazing coloniser has marched across Scotland and

found its way here. But the Rangers are fighting back. Because we have

got a large body of water here, once the scenes exploded, they go

into the water and can get spread right across the park. So we are

constantly on the lookout for new colonies of the Balsam. This is our

biggest area of Bolton. That is a big area. We use machinery. Rangers

go out with streamers, and we have large parties of volunteers. If we

are lucky, they come out and handballed them. So you need armies

of volunteers to get rid of the ball some? If there is an army of

volunteers, we will gladly have them to deal with the ball some.

But we are coming to the end of the season now where the ball some

stars to set seed, and we would not be tackling it. We have got one

close by, one to have a look? So this is the successful area that

has been cleaned. We used to cut this with machines and handling and

also using streamers around the edge. At the front, you can see a

large, nice colony of meadowsweet. And we have smaller wild flowers on

the ground player. How realistic is it that you can completely

eradicate Himalayan balsam from the park? It is not realistic, to be

honest. I would say it is here to stay, just because we cannot access

all areas. And where we can't access it, it will spread its seed.

New legislation was introduced in July when the Scottish Government

introduced a code of practice on the non-native species. It is to

help people understand their responsibilities.

It means that people who plant or cause non-native species to grow in

the wild are guilty of an offence. If you let it grow, technically you

are breaking the law. So it has to be managed. I would show you what

it looks like when it springs, but I don't want to show your camera

what it looks like by would be breaking the law!

It may be pretty which is why it is known as the poor man's orchid. But

if you do find it, be very careful with it, and remove it before its

If you have a comment about anything you see on the programme

or have a wonderful story to share, please e-mail was. Now, the weather

here is lovely and warm. But what about the prospects for the weekend

Over the next few days they is a common theme of sunshine and

showers. No different tomorrow. Thus the area of low pressure is

centred over Shetland. Some of the show was will be heavy. -- showers.

But they should tend to fade and the winds will ease. By mid-

afternoon, generally dry and bright. Temperatures, 14 Celsius or so. But

the cloud will turn particularly easy, the proper East you are, you

hold on to the sunshine. Across the Highlands, head the show was on

Saturday morning. But notice the north-westerly winds which at times

will be Severe Gale Force. East, generally dry, but a chance of some

isolated Sharon's still. -- showers. Generally good visibility, drying

up by the afternoon. Around the east, the force five, force six.

Orkney, Shetland, force six, forced seven. The rest of the afternoon

sees the rain arrived from the West. It will be heavy at times and

crossed the country quite rapidly. Temperatures for many will reach

double digits. This weather front will cross the country quite

quickly. But in behind it, some showers will still be with us. They

will start to work their way into the West, dry and bright in the

east. The first few days of next week, sunshine and showers

continued. Here his wife. Eat area of low pressure stays. -- here is

why. The winds are gusty at times in the east and will make showers

blustery. Tuesday, low-pressure centre to the north. A day of

sunshine and showers, temperatures, 14 Celsius at best. The show was a

slow moving on Wednesday but in between this should be sunshine. --

Jim Goldie is one of the most successful racehorse trainers in

Scotland. He recorded one of his biggest wins earlier this summer

with victory at Goodwood. Over the next few weeks we will spend time

in his East Renfrewshire and Jaap as he prepares for the Gold Cup

festival. Just south of Glasgow as the racing yard. Jan has been

training horses since he was in his teens. Earlier this year he won the

Stewards Cup, the first time it had been won on a Scottish trained

horse. I was born and brought up to do

this. My father had horses, stallions, we bred m and hunted.

Unfortunately, he was hurt in a riding accident when I was 16. My

brother and I took over the training. I started from a young

age, developing opinions on how horses should be trained.

He has 60 horses in training but each has its own temperament and

character. This is Gonnae No Dae That. He got the name because when

he was a to-year-old he would duck in between the paddles and fight

with his pals. He saw everything as an opportunity to be mischievous.

He is one of life's characters. I The business employs many people

but at its heart it is a family affair. Jan's wife, both his sons,

and his daughter-in-law's, work in the art. When you are racing you

are away for a lot of time. It is vital that the work is done

properly back at home. Having my family working here is ideal.

What is it like working for your father in law?

Positives and negatives. I live at my work, basically! But it is a

privilege to write these beautiful horses every day. We have a great

team. Everybody gets on with it and it makes the job enjoyable.

Jim tries to work with the natural instincts of a horse. That is the

theory behind the layout of the stables.

Their idea is to make it open plan, the horses can see and touch each

other. Basically it mimics the held in the wild. Horses like to have

panoramic vision and beware of the thing is. -- know where everything

Next week we will meet a top prospect for the Gold Cup, Hawkeye

Eccrine estate in Moray has debated land to the Land Army memorial

Scotland. A charity set up to fund it attributes. The new structure

will be a permanent memorial to the The war has taken most of the

younger men away from Scottish farms, leaving farmers without

enough help to produce fatal food supplies...

This Ministry of Information recruitment film called for more

land girls in Scotland. It picked - - depicts the tasks they carried

out which are vital in terms of keeping the nation fed. But despite

the upbeat tone of the recruitment campaigns the reality of the work

for these women was often hard physical labour and terrible living

conditions. They did everything from that

catching to sewing, harvesting, hen maids, clipping sheep, they also

had to have some knowledge of working with machinery. Some of

them were on farms, just a single goal, others were run purpose-built

accommodation. They were basically a prisoner of war type pubs.

Buna Stuart left's Glasgow for a very different life on the farm.

I saw a photo of a Lady laughing her head off with the heart this

crop below her. So I joined to do my bit. I was posted to just

outside of Arbroath, a farm called and I am hell. -- Iron Hill. Game

do it was hard, physical work. The natives thought I was posh because

I was well-educated it, I spoke different from them!

It was a shock? It certainly was!

At its peak there were 8,500 Land girls in Scotland. But despite all

their efforts they became known as the forgotten Army and had very

little in way of recognition. It may have been a long time coming

but in a few weeks a permanent memorial will be unveiled at this

site. Peter Naylor was the artist commissioned to design and produce

what is to become the first national memorial to the Women's

Land Army in Britain. Because his is a world war two

memorial there is a feeling that you doing it for your parent's

generation. I see that as the generation that asked for little

and gave a lot. So I'm conscious that this is a real privilege. As

well as being artistically interesting there is a grabber Tass.

-- gravitas. What about the actual sculpture?

Shrouded in secrecy but a striking piece of work.

It was a huge adventure for many Andy look back on it with nostalgia

and happiness. If the quality I want to get back on it is this

youthful exuberance, lust for life, joyousness. In that sense it is

unique as a war memorial. The Land girls are doing their bit,

and a bit more... What impact did it have on your

future wife? And great deal. I met my husband

and married him. He was one of the young men.

So it changed your life? Its debt. It turned me head over

heels. I would love to be there for That fitting tribute to the Women's

Land Army will be unveiled on Tuesday 9th October at 1pm. Now, a

preview of what we will be featuring on next week's programme.

The unique qualities of Shetland will.

That is one of the key points. That springiness.

And we try to tempt schoolchildren to eat Scottish seafood.