Episode 2 Landward

Hello, and a very warm welcome

to a cliffhanger of an episode of Landward.

This week, I'm smuggling on the Berwickshire coast.

In a moment,

I'll be taking a furtive trip along the newly-opened Smuggler's Trail,

but first, here's what else we've got coming up for you this week.

Euan meets the Aberdeenshire community

literally taking power into their own hands...

It was scary enough at the small-scale project,

but, yes, we're playing with sums

that have got lots of zeros on the end.

..Nick is on a mission to shop local...

-It's a no-brainer.

-It IS a no-brainer!

-You know that expression? No-brainer.

-I DO know that expression.

..and Sarah visits the sales that, for more than a century,

have sent cattle around the world.

Here on Landward, we take every opportunity

to explore Scotland's stunning coastline,

and with the Easter holidays marking the start of the tourist season,

we've come to the wild Borders Coast.

Each year, 1.5 million English tourists

pass straight through this area

en route to the tourist hot spot of Edinburgh.

But the Borderers are hoping to persuade more of them

to spend a while - and some money - on its stunning coastal path.

Today, I'm not on a new path. In fact, the Berwickshire coastal trail

from Cockburnspath in the north all the way down

to Berwick-upon-Tweed in the south,

is one of the country's most established.

But now it's getting a makeover

and a new name which reflects its rich and exciting history.

It's now called the Smugglers' Trail.

After the Union with England in 1707,

taxation on certain goods, such as brandy and tobacco, rose seven-fold.

This outraged the Scots,

who saw it as their patriotic duty to pursue free trade -

or, as the authorities claimed, smuggling.

Hi, there - how are you doing?

-Very well, Dougie. Come in, come in.

-Thank you very much indeed.

I'm meeting historian Derek Janes at Gunsgreen house in Eyemouth.

He's an expert on one of the area's most notorious smugglers

and the man who built the house - John Nisbet.

Oh, this place is amazing!

It's a huge house, isn't it? It's incredible.

It's pretty good, isn't it?

Who was John Nisbet, who lived here?

Well, he came from Eyemouth, went away to Dunbar,

came back here when he was 40...

as a merchant - "Merchant" -

and built this, this...

gesture directed towards the rest of the town

on the other side of the harbour.

And this gesture is pretty much saying,

-"Look at how successful I am", isn't it?

-Yeah!

Well, his own lawyer says that, "Although designed merchant

"in Eyemouth, yet he was nothing other than a smuggler.

"And that to a very great extent."

Back in the 18th century,

if I wanted to make lots of money as a smuggler,

what's the main thing I would bring into the country?

-Tea, of all things.

-Mm.

Tea was absolute gold dust, you might say.

Very expensive, very heavily taxed.

There was a monopoly, and everybody wanted it.

Once the tea had been brought onshore,

it had to be hidden -

and Nisbet had some nifty design features included at Gunsgreen.

So, really, this is a real gangster's house.

And he was using it in all sorts of ways -

I mean, look at this, for example.

-This was the base of what we call the tea chute...

-Uh-huh.

..where 500 pounds of tea is hidden upstairs...

-Goodness.

-..and would come out here,

and I think would be dispensed in big bags to customers...

-Right.

-..who would be the wealthy people of the county.

-And this is all hidden inside the house?

-Aye.

-No-one knows about it?

No, no. It's all completely hidden.

What happened to Nisbet?

Did he continue living off his ill-gotten gains, or did it end?

Well, he was made bankrupt by his business rivals the Robertsons,

and they moved in here,

and he retired to Berwick-upon-Tweed,

where he died in 1796.

Well, you live by the sword, you die by the sword, I guess.

Heading north from Eyemouth, the trail takes you to St Abbs

and the lighthouse.

The amazing views of the rugged coastline

make it easy to see why it was ideal for smuggling.

So, these unfrequented places that we enjoy on the trail were even

more important to the smuggling days...

'Gilbert Summers is behind the rebranding of the trail.

'He's keen to attract visitors to a part of Scotland

'that he feels is overlooked.'

And what do you hope to achieve from calling it the Smugglers' Trail?

Well, to reveal the sort of, as I say, the wealth of information

about the smugglers, but also to make people think a little bit more

about this part of the coastline -

particularly because, I suppose, as an observer

and writer in Scotland for some years now,

I've been thinking that people really do cross the border,

and then are drawn into this tourism black hole, which is Edinburgh.

Well-resourced city - but we'd like them to stay a little longer,

in some of the less-frequented parts of the Berwickshire coast.

The Borders, people already come anyway,

there are things happening all the time -

-but this is a slightly different part of the Borders.

-Oh, yes.

I mean, I think when you get over the hill,

you go into the country that we often think about -

that's the Borders, with the rivalry between the towns,

and the riding, there's reiving, there's lots of things...

-The rugby, as well, yeah.

-And the rugby - it all begins with R.

But this is different,

because it's down by the coast. It probably has more in common

with Fife and with Angus and places, or even round the Moray Firth.

This sense of a coastal strip, a wild coastal strip.

But there's a lot more to see on this section,

as well as just the smuggling.

The smuggling, if you like, is the historical backdrop

to a really wild piece of country.

And what a beautiful piece of the country it is, too.

Here's hoping the relaunched trail

brings some more visitors to see it...

but not too many!

Back in the 18th century, tea was smuggled round these parts.

Nowadays, its sale, of course, is much more open.

Which suits me just fine.

While I enjoy the local produce of St Abbs,

Nick is on the lookout for it on the Moray Firth.

2015 has been designated Scotland's Year of Food and Drink,

and the Government want Scots to actively seek out

locally grown Scottish products.

Is all the extra effort worth it?

We sent Nick to Nairn to "Look for Local"

We've had the Homecoming,

we've had the Year of Natural Scotland,

and we've had the Year of Creative Scotland.

And in 2015, it's Scotland, the Land of Food and Drink.

And the Scottish Government are encouraging retailers to promote,

and the Scottish customers to buy, more great Scottish produce.

With its Look For Local campaign,

the Scottish Government will spend half a million pounds

persuading Scots retailers from corner shops to big supermarkets

that local produce should be more widely available on their shelves.

But there's plenty out there already if you know where to look for it.

So, in a completely unscientific experiment,

I'm going to try and track down the finest ingredients

within a ten-mile radius of Nairn.

I'll then cook up a meal from scratch in the Landward food van,

and we'll see how good it tastes!

First stop, two miles along the road, is Little Kildrummie Farm,

run by the Forbes family.

They rear their own beef and lamb and sell direct from the farm.

It's the perfect place to pick up some meat for my beef casserole.

-Hiya!

-Hi.

-Angus Forbes.

-Angus, Nick.

-Nice to meet you. Come on in.

-I'm in the market for a bit of local beef.

-Yes.

-Have I come to the right place?

-You've definitely come to the right place.

And if you stick your head out the door,

the cattle are right there on your doorstep.

The consumer wants to know where the beef comes from, what it's fed on -

animal welfare is huge just now,

so if we can tell them that they're fed on our home-grown produce

and it all gets done here, it never really leaves the farm,

it's a bonus for us.

So, Angus, what I'm looking for is a beautiful piece of stewing beef.

-Yeah.

-And I spy something over there that may well just do the job.

Yeah, this'll do you. This is a lovely bit of shoulder.

Limousin cross Aberdeen Angus cow, 21 days hung.

Would you like to cut me about a 2kg piece, thank you?

Of course, no bother.

Do you think the Government is doing enough to promote local sourcing?

They definitely need to do more when it comes to marketing.

There's too much of going into the big supermarkets

and buying international beef and lamb - there's too much of that.

Now, to find some veg - and I'm going a bit further afield

to Ardersier, seven miles away.

Macleod Organics have been in business since 1998,

and deliver veg boxes across Scotland.

Hi, Donnie!

'However, I'm picking up my supplies in person from Donnie Macleod

'at his farm shop.'

I'm trying to find vegetables to make a really nice beef casserole,

-but I'm trying to get stuff that's...

-We have plenty of vegetables here for you.

They're from various parts, all of them, they're different growers.

Some of them ourselves, some of them just up the road.

-Smell that, and see if you'd want that in your casserole.

-Oh!

Where's that come from?

That's just about two feet outside the door in the polytunnel.

-You've just pulled that straight out the garden!

-I heard you were coming.

HE CHUCKLES

-Is that celeriac?

-That's celeriac, instead of celery.

Put it with your celery, yeah.

With the celery - it's obviously a different flavour.

Oh, onions - can I get some onions?

What do you think of this new government initiative,

Look For Local? Do you think it's going to help you?

I think it's a wonderful initiative

if they put some real effort behind it.

So, presumably, Donnie, this is local, it's organic,

it's got to be a lot more expensive

than people would pay in the supermarket.

Um, you can pay a lot more for it if you want.

But that would be much cheaper than you would ever buy in a supermarket.

-It's a no-brainer.

-It IS a no-brainer!

You know that expression? No-brainer.

I DO know that expression.

'This shopping lark is a piece of cake!

'One more stop, and I'll have everything I need.

'Just a mile down the road from Donnie's is Connage Highland Dairy.

'They make cheese from the milk produced by their 150-strong

'organic herd of cows.

'It's another family business -

'Callum Clark runs it alongside his wife Jill,

'his brother Cameron, and his wife Eileen.'

Oh, Callum! Hi! How you doing, how you doing?

Callum, how do you think we can encourage people to shop locally?

I would say this Look For Local is definitely another step

in the right direction.

But what we have for the customers, availability, has to be good,

and we're continually raising the bar as far as customer service,

and that's where you get the people -

you must be able to offer them a really good service,

and quality product.

'Quality products indeed.

'I'm looking for a cheese that will sit well

'as an ingredient in my rumbledethumps -

'that's a kind of fancy mashed potato.'

And then we've got our fully mature cheddar, at 12 months old.

That's the one...

-Oh, well, we can do that.

-..for my rumbledethumps!

Well, I have the final piece of the jigsaw in my search for local food,

and I'm heading off down, now, to Inverness

to meet Dougie at the Landward Street Food Van.

We're going to cook up my beef casserole and rumbledethumps

to find out if tracking down these local ingredients

has been worth the effort.

For many cattle breeders like the Forbes of Little Kildrummie,

the bull sales are a crucial event in the calendar.

A good price can make or break a year.

Sarah has been to visit the Bull Sales in Stirling.

Well over a thousand pedigree beasts will be in the ring,

with their owners hoping for top prices.

And in 2015, the auction at Stirling

is marking an extraordinary milestone.

This year, the Sales are celebrating their 150th anniversary,

and they're marking it with a royal visit.

The Princess Royal can see considerably more bulls

than the 14 shorthorn animals that were on offer

at the first Sale in Perth in 1865.

Those Sales were the brainchild of one man.

My grandfather started the Bull Sales 150 years ago.

JM, he was known as.

-Or, the Governor.

-The Governor.

-Mm.

The Governor was John McLaren Fraser.

His grandson Roley Fraser remembers a single-minded man.

How did he help develop the Sales? I mean, how did he...?

He just had an ambition to make Scotland,

and Perth in particular, the centre

for international cattle breeding.

And that's exactly what he did.

-NEWSREEL:

-When pedigree Shorthorn bulls come to the show,

you can pretty well guess they're the real Mackay.

Scottish cattle are among the most famous in the world.

Over the decades, the popularity of the Sales spread,

with farmers coming from all over the world to buy at Perth.

The Sales reached their height in the years after World War II.

World-record prices for every breed of cattle

were knocked to smithereens at Perth's Shorthorn show,

when an American cattleman paid £15,225

for champion bull Pittodrie Upright.

Overseeing that historic sale was Roley's father.

The life's ambition of auctioneer Mr Lovat Fraser

was to pass the five-figure mark.

Hero of the day, the bull worth a pound an ounce, 13 months old,

and measuring seven feet round the middle.

Away overseas goes another product of the British Isles

in this age of export.

That's the equivalent of half a million pounds today.

The Perth Sales sent thousands of beasts all over the world.

The Shorthorn breed had dominated in the early years,

but Aberdeen Angus soon muscled its way into the ring -

a lot of them sold by Roley.

The third generation of the Frasers to work at the Sales.

Was it inevitable that you were going to follow

in your grandfather's footsteps?

I never thought of doing any different.

I mean, someone said once - my father said,

"What do you want to do when you leave the army?"

And I said, "Don't ask a silly question."

You know, I had no intention of doing any...

Never thought of doing anything different.

BID CALLING

Roley is retired now,

and three years ago he saw the Sales move from Perth to Stirling,

changing their name in the process.

The auction might be bigger than in 1865,

but the Governor would still recognise it.

BID CALLING

GAVEL BANGS

It may have been 150 years, but that sound has remained the same -

a sale is still a sale.

Here on Landward, we travel the length and breadth of the country.

While we're out and about, we like to discover what the best thing is

about the places we visit.

Since I'm on the Berwickshire coast this week, I thought I'd come

down to the harbour and ask, what is the best thing about St Abbs?

Scuba diving's the best.

It's well-known for scuba diving.

The scenery. Definitely the scenery.

-What about the water?

-Crystal.

There's an abundance of stuff to see out there.

I think, in any weather, it's absolutely glorious.

-What the best... Oh!

-Hold on!

-Hold on to your lunch!

-Yep.

-THEY LAUGH

You look like a man who knows all about St Abbs, right?

Well, I've been here 65 years.

As far as I'm concerned, the best thing about St Abbs in the summer

is the seafood we get from the boats.

The Old School Cafe, that's definitely the best scone. Yep!

Loads of good walks round about here.

And that's why people come here.

Never been here before,

but we're going to go for a walk up the top there, shortly.

Take the dogs out.

Probably just the characters that live here.

I was going to say, I've seen your face!

THEY LAUGH

Now, one thing I bet you didn't know...

St Abbs got its name from ABBA -

but Anni-Frid, Agnetha, Benny and Bjorn

did not have their Waterloo here.

Abbe was, in fact, a 7th century Northumbrian princess who was

shipwrecked on this coastline.

And that's what I think is the best thing about St Abbs.

The coastline - truly stunning.

HE HUMS "Waterloo"

We'd love to hear from you about what you think

is the best thing about your patch of the country.

Why not post a picture on our Facebook page?

You can also tell us what you think of the programme

or share a story idea with us.

St Abbs certainly seems to have a thriving community spirit -

and that's one of the things Landward wants to champion

across Scotland.

So, when Euan heard about an Aberdeenshire village

where the residents are taking power into their own hands,

he had to pay them a visit.

These are the rolling fields of north Aberdeenshire,

about 30 miles from Aberdeen City.

And this is the village of Insch,

nestling at the bottom of the iconic Bennachie.

But this is no sleepy rural backwater.

The people of this community are truly remarkable.

They've embarked on a renewable energy project

that in terms of scale and ambition is very, very impressive -

and everybody will have the opportunity to benefit.

The story begins with a community desperate to raise money

to save its cottage hospital.

The NHS decided the building was no longer suitable,

and they wouldn't fund a replacement.

The hospital has always been a really important

part of the community.

'Jane Reid is one of the Insch residents

'who refused to take no for an answer.'

The original hospital was built in 1922,

and it was built in memory of those who died in the First World War,

and it was built totally by public subscription.

So, really, what we're doing now is just trying to replicate

what was done 97 years ago.

But it's quite a challenge, isn't it?

It's not a simple thing to suddenly say, "OK, we'll build our own."

Yeah, but the Friends of Insch Hospital

have never really shied away from a challenge,

and I think we just saw it as a challenge

that we could potentially meet.

Clearly, holding coffee mornings and rattling collection tins

wouldn't raise the millions of pounds needed.

However, one enterprising member of the community

suggested renewable energy and the income it would generate

might be the answer.

Most communities would just put up a couple of small scale wind turbines,

but not the folk of Insch.

They're going the whole hog.

Wind turbines on two sites

combined with an array of solar panels and a biomass boiler

will provide cheap power and heat for the entire village.

The surplus energy created will be sold to the grid

for cold, hard cash.

This is the money that will pay for the rebuilding of the hospital.

Yzanne.

-Hello.

-Cracking day, isn't it?

'Yzanne Turbett is one of the driving forces

'behind this unique scheme. There's nothing else like it in the UK,

'but it hasn't been easy.

'Funding has been tight,

'and the final go-ahead was only secured last month,

'when the project received £6 million of funding

'from the Scottish Government's Local Energy Challenge Fund.'

So, how big is this project?

Cos it seems like a massive undertaking.

Yeah, it is. It's a really enormous project.

And, you know, it's just grown more and more, right from the start.

To begin with, we were just planning, you know,

an ordinary, run-of-the-mill wind turbine development.

But we then got our grid connection cost,

which was going to be around £2 million.

So, that's the connection fee, essentially,

that you have to pay to connect your turbine to the network?

And that just meant that the project wasn't financially viable.

And then, at that point when we were just wondering what to do,

the Government came up with the challenge fund,

and that encouraged us to develop this

into a much bigger project.

How scary was that time?

Cos you're talking about a massive amount of money, here.

It was scary enough at the small-scale project,

but, yes, yeah, definitely, it's quite an undertaking,

and we're playing with sums that have got lots of zeros on the end.

So, power TO the people is producing power FOR the people in Insch.

They'll get reductions of between 20 and 30% on their fuel bills,

and a brand-new hospital to boot.

All the renewable energy infrastructure should be in place

within the next few years,

and that will mean that the money will start rolling in

as the electricity flows into the national grid.

And the plan is to have the new building in place

in time for the centenary of the original building, in 2022.

Earlier in the programme, Nick hunted down the ingredients

for a meal made up entirely of local produce.

I'm catching up with him in Inverness

at the Landward food van to see what he makes with it.

So, Dougie, I was set a Landward task to try

and create a meal which was very local,

so all the ingredients from within ten-miles radius of Nairn,

and I have come up with a beautiful piece of beef

from Little Kildrummie Farm, Forbes family, there, got this for me.

A piece of Connage cheddar,

beautiful little creamery just outside of Nairn,

and some of Donnie Macleod's fabulous organic and local veggies.

-All looks brilliant.

-So, we're going to make a casserole.

-Great.

And some rumbledethumps.

-And what is that?

-Rumbledethumps is a Scottish version of champ,

the Irish mashed potato and spring onions thing...

-Yeah.

-..except I'm making it with kale and put a bit of cheese on top.

-Nice.

-Cos we're Scottish, we like a bit of cheese on top.

-We certainly do!

-We do.

So, is there a task I can get on with?

Yes, you can peel and chop all the vegetables,

and I'll cut up the meat.

-All of these?

-Yeah.

Can I borrow a knife?

OK, Nick, I'm happy.

That was fairly straightforward.

I'm impressed.

How did you do that?!

It's just an amazing thing, what can I tell you?

Extraordinary.

Right, first thing I do is to season the beef.

Little bit of salt, little bit of freshly ground black pepper,

and then a little bit of oil into the hot casserole.

You really must preheat the casserole first,

get it nice and warm.

Why is that?

So we brown the meat, we going to sear the meat.

-We don't want the meat to stew, we want it to fry.

-OK.

We need to get some colour, the caramelisation on the outside of the meat

is the thing that will make it tasty.

-And I'm just going to let that colour up for a couple of minutes.

-OK.

And so we're going to add a bit of local beer. Black Isle Beer.

And a little bit of stock in there, as well.

Now, that's a porter, that a very dark beer.

Why are you going for that, in particular?

Because I want a real rich, dark, caramelised flavour.

A sort of hearty stew is what we're looking for, here.

So, once the meat is browned,

then in go the veggies,

and you just add them all at once.

Whole lot, in it goes.

So, once the veg is in, in with the beer.

-Like so.

-Don't be shy.

-About half a bottle of that.

-I'll leave that for you. I know how you like a good...

-Ooh!

-I know how you like a good porter!

-Indeed I do.

Bit of stock in there as well.

Give that a stir round.

-And that is it.

-Simple as that.

That really is as simple as that. We whack on the lid...

We're going to pop that in the oven,

we're going to cook it for three to three and a half hours,

-until everything's really dark and reduced and rich.

-Yeah.

We're going to make some rumbledethumps.

We've got some mash - add a little bit of milk and butter to this,

until it's nice and creamy.

-And then we've got the kale, which has been blanched...

-Uh-huh.

..so, it's just boiling water, salted water, for two minutes,

and then wrung out. In that goes.

And you just fold the kale through the mash,

-whack it into a little dish.

-Yeah.

Not too carefully - you want it looking a little bit rustic.

-And then this fabulous, really...

-You can really smell!

-..farmy smell to that, isn't it?

-That cheddar is amazing.

That's not block cheddar from the supermarket,

that's proper farm cheddar.

And we give it a generous grating over the top.

-Oh, my goodness!

-Like so.

And then we just take that and chuck it into a hot oven.

So, this isn't the healthiest meal ever, but it's...just amazing!

No, it's not very healthy at all!

-No, the casserole's healthy.

-Of course!

No fat in there, full of veg.

-Yep.

-It's just this particular potato garnish is rather naughty.

While that lovely cheddar melts into the mash,

it's time to get the casserole out of the oven.

Well, it does smell absolutely delicious!

And you can see how it's all cooked down,

the veg has absorbed all that stock, and just got...whoar!

-It's got that "eat me now" flavour.

-It smells amazing.

-Then, to go on the side...

-Yeah.

-..we've got the rumbledethumps.

-Pop that down there.

-Fantastic.

I mean, it does look incredible, and it smells unbelievably good -

but it's not the cheapest option, is it, really?

Well, surprisingly, the thing I find out when I was doing this is,

some of these ingredients are the same price as in supermarkets,

-and some of them are cheaper than the supermarkets.

-Mm.

So, if you shop canny,

you can enjoy really high-quality local produce at realistic prices.

And you're supporting local producers,

-which has got to be a good thing.

-Yep.

Dougie, I think we need to take these to the streets of Inverness.

-Let's do it.

-Yep.

Aren't we supposed to share this with the people of Inverness?

Too good to share.

-HE CHUCKLES

-Yes!

-Fire in. Absolutely.

Mm. Oh!

That's like nothing I've ever had before.

-That is so incredible!

-It's sensational.

-Mm!

Even though I made it mys... We made it together.

-No, that's...

-We made it together. It's fantastic.

-Thanks for the food, Nick. Bye-bye!

-Bye!