Episode 22 Landward

Scotland has some of the best wildlife in the world,

and you'll be amazed how many animals we can cram

into the next half an hour.

Welcome to a walk on the wild side.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Landward.

I promised you animals and you will not be disappointed.

In a moment, I'll be getting far too close to some scary water buffalo,

but first, here's what else is coming up on the programme.

'Sarah gets some tips on tracking...'

These are actually wood mouse prints, these ones,

and this is a back foot, and there's a front foot just there.

'..we meet the man that talks turkey...'

HE GOBBLES

TURKEYS GOBBLE

'..and Nick and I challenge taste buds in Luss.'

-Uh-uh.

-No? No?

-No.

-Are you sure?

-Sure.

-OK.

But before all that,

this summer I went to Fife to meet some rather exotic animals.

Ten years ago, Steve Mitchell took the unusual step of setting up

a water buffalo farm in Fife.

Many farmers raised a quizzical eyebrow

at the young kid on the block.

But ten years later, Steve has had the last laugh,

because his buffalo farm has just been awarded top meat producer

at the 2016 Scotland Food & Drink Awards.

'So, how do you get from local curiosity to national champion

'in just a decade?'

How's it going? All right?

-Good. How are you?

-Very well. Nice to meet you.

'I'm visiting Steve's farm to find out about his journey

'and the challenges and pitfalls he encountered.'

Not a sight you would see in Scotland very often.

It's unbelievable, isn't it?

My goodness. Look at them.

They're fantastic. Wow.

People pay hundreds of pounds to go and have these sort of treatments.

So how do buffalo compare to cows in terms of welfare?

How do you look after them?

A lot of things are actually pretty similar.

There's a lot of benefits to the buffalo.

They live a lot longer,

so we've got cows that are still calving in their early 30s.

But there are always also the quirky differences

that we're still learning about.

Fundamentally, they're an intelligent animal,

and if you give them respect, they'll give you it back.

So what are those specific quirks that buffalo have?

They require so little human interaction, you know?

We don't have to handle them very often and so we're finding that

my buffalo are getting wilder and wilder,

because we've got them in big groups out in big, large fields like this.

They're definitely getting a little bit more and more difficult

to handle all the time, but you can have the complete flipside of that.

If you're working with them every day,

they'd learn and trust very quickly

-but they need that constant interaction.

-Uh-huh.

And we're now spending more time almost socialising with them,

just trying to keep them friendly and not seeing us as the enemy.

'It's a serious matter.

'With nearly a tonne of lean muscle mass,

'these beasts are not to be messed with,

'as Steve found out the hard way a few years ago.'

Well, we were doing a piece for the local art gallery,

which was ironically on wild animals,

and a young calf came up behind me.

I didn't... I wasn't paying attention.

The next minute, the mother comes, smacks into me,

lets out a war cry, the rest of the herd join in

and they give me a good seeing to, basically.

Erm...

Ended up with ripping all my clothes off, and several puncture wounds.

Fortunately, I don't think I would ever have gotten out of it

had it not been for the fact that I had a belt on that day

and one of them got me hooked up by the belt on my...

erm, from my trouser leg and that was me off the ground,

so I was, kind of, saved by the belt

and I'm very thankful to the hospital staff

at the Vic at Kirkcaldy for stitching me back together,

and that we could live to tell the tale.

So that was a lowlight of your career as a buffalo farmer,

but one of the highlights must have been

the Food & Drink Awards this year.

Nice to be recognised for what you're doing?

Absolutely. God, you couldn't have put it better.

We were up against some very established brands

in the food and drink industry and we've come out on top.

'With all this dedication and industry recognition,

'I really want to see some of this meat,

'so Steve's taking me to his farm's on-site butchery.'

-So here it is.

-This is the prize-winning fillet.

How would you say it differs from beef?

Well, the buffalo fillet is definitely a little bit smaller,

which surprises some people,

cos everyone's got this opinion that they're big massive animals,

but the truth is, they're slightly smaller than cattle.

One of the main reasons we got into buffalo is it produces one of the

healthiest red meats you can get.

So what about taste?

What does buffalo taste like compared to beef?

Well, taste is everything, but the great thing is,

we're not reinventing the wheel.

Buffalo tastes quite similar to beef.

A lot of people describe it as how beef used to taste.

It's got lots of flavour and great texture.

You know what? That really is some claim,

that buffalo tastes like beef used to.

I'm going to get to taste it later in the programme,

when Nick Nairn works his magic

and we continue our tour of the West.

Now, when it comes to wildlife,

the star of the show is often reluctant to put in an appearance,

but Sarah's been finding out about a different way of

connecting with nature.

Going out for a winter walk in the Scottish countryside is always made

better if you catch a glimpse of some wildlife,

but, as we all know, you need to have a lot of luck on your side.

However, by changing your view from here to here,

you could discover a whole new world of wildlife at your feet.

If you give up on looking for the animals themselves

and concentrate on what they leave behind,

you can find a different and satisfying way of

connecting with Scotland's nature.

-Dan, morning.

-Hi, Sarah.

-How are you doing?

-Yeah, good, thanks.

-What are you up to?

'I'm meeting wildlife expert Dan Puplett,

'who is going to teach me all about tracking.'

So we're just going to have a look and see what's come by in the night.

What is tracking?

Tracking's really the ancient art of looking at

the signs that have been left behind by wildlife

and, really, interpreting those to find out what's been going on,

what's been around and what they've been doing.

What do you need to track?

Let's have a closer look.

So this is basically a paint trap,

-so it's non-toxic paint mixed with oil.

-Uh-huh.

These are actually wood mouse prints, these ones,

and this is a back foot, and there's a front foot just there.

You can see they've been pretty busy during the night,

coming back and forth, so it's really nice,

getting this glimpse of what's been happening.

And then this patch of sand?

-Yeah.

-Which I'm sure is more than just a patch of sand!

Yeah, if we have a closer look.

So this has been rained on in the night,

so some of the tracks aren't quite as visible as they might be,

but in here, this kind of square, blocky shape

is actually a badger print with its kidney-shaped palm pad.

I've actually got a cast of one just here,

just to show you the details.

So this is what it would look like if it was really clear,

so you can see that would be the palm pad. The toes...

They've actually got five toes, including this, and the long claws.

And with practice, you can just get your eye in to see these shapes.

It just takes a bit of practice.

'Still with eyes peeled, we head into the woods,

'nature detectives looking for clues.'

As a novice tracker,

what sort of telltale signs should I be looking out for, Dan?

There's all kind of things to look out for.

There's things like rubs or marks against trees

and diggings in the ground.

There could be droppings or feeding signs.

'It's just as well I've got Dan with me,

'because I would have missed this altogether.'

-So there's something here - we've got a bit of a sign.

-Right.

So this is an old antler rub from a roe deer.

-So just where it's been worn away?

-Yeah.

Yeah, so it happened quite a while ago,

but in spring and summer, they actually rub their antlers,

partly to get the velvet off and also as a territorial marking.

There's a few hairs actually, if you look really closely.

Wow!

So, now, if we try and break this,

we'll see that it snaps really easily,

and that's because it's hollow for insulation,

so that's a good indication that this is a roe deer sign.

OK. Onwards?

It can take a wee while to tune in what you're looking for,

but, once you start, it can be fascinating.

Dan, evidence? Something has definitely happened here.

Definitely. We've got evidence of something that's happened.

What we can see is a load of wood pigeon feathers,

so this wood pigeon, obviously, is now dead.

-It's quite a mess!

-It is, yeah.

Looking at these feathers here,

we start to get an idea of what might have killed the wood pigeon.

If it was a fox or a mammal of some kind,

you would expect it to be sheared through

where they've bitten through it.

These are intact, so it means that it's most likely plucked

by a bird of prey of some kind.

That's amazing.

And if we think about it even more,

we can start to think, "OK, what bird of prey might have done this?"

In this kind of habitat, it's most likely to be a woodland hawk,

so either a sparrowhawk or a goshawk.

So we can really start to get an idea of what wildlife is around.

'Next, another change of habitat.'

From the woodland floor to the riverside -

what would you expect to find here?

So this is a classic place for otters.

You get a lot of otters along the riverside here,

and just 48 hours ago I was here

-and this was actually heaving with otter footprints.

-OK.

And now they've almost gone.

-I can see the tiniest remains of them over there.

-Yeah.

Just with heavy rain over the last couple of days...

On certain kinds of ground, like sand,

tracks vanish really quickly.

We've just, I suppose, looked at a small picture, a small area -

what do you think it tells us about the, sort of,

the bigger picture?

I think tracking is really interesting in that way

cos once you start to follow a thread,

find some footprints or whatever,

you start to ask questions about what trees are around,

what plants, even what the birds are doing,

the weather patterns, all these kind of things,

so it really gives us an awareness of the wider ecosystem.

Well, next time I'm out for a walk, I will be looking more closely at

what's down on the ground.

Now, probably the only tracking most of us will be doing this weekend is

searching for the all-important Christmas tree,

but there is more to growing Christmas trees

than you might think.

We sent Euan to one of Scotland's biggest tree farms

to find out what's involved.

This is Wester Auchentroig Farm, near Aberfoyle,

and there are currently over 400,000 Christmas trees growing here,

of which 40,000 will be harvested and sold in the run-up to Christmas.

Across the UK, 60 million festive firs are sold every year

at Christmas time.

So, what species are these?

These are Nordmann firs.

'Euan Duff is the owner and farmer of this plantation.'

So, how difficult is it?

I mean, is it just a matter of plonking a tree in the ground

-and coming back 15 years later?

-No, everybody...

Everybody thinks that, Euan, but really it's a lot of work,

and as soon as the harvest's over,

we'll start, at the beginning of January, pruning.

Erm, March, April, we'll start fertilising...

So you're actually pruning them into a Christmas tree shape?

We're pruning them into shape,

otherwise these would be enormously fat,

so we're cutting them back every year,

and you can actually see cut marks on the trees,

where we've pruned them to stop them growing out too far.

'80% of all Christmas trees sold are Nordmann fir,

'the variety which is known for lasting the longest.'

So, how long will these keep their needles for?

-Well...

-No guarantees?

No.

The problem is that if they go into a very warm house,

they really won't last, you know, much more than a few weeks,

so we try and get people to keep them outside

for as long as possible, and keep them away from direct heat

when they take them into the house.

But they will... If they're cut and left outside,

they will last for months.

Some of the bigger trees that we cut in October, for shopping centres

and that sort of thing, still have all their needles.

I do have a real tree every year, sometimes I have two...

-Very pleasing.

-..but the big dilemma is choosing the tree.

I mean, it can wreck marriages.

You've got 40,000 - how do you choose a tree?

What's your idea of the perfect tree?

Well, it's very subjective, but, you know, we...

After years of experience, we know what the customer wants, really.

Yeah, I know, but what goes in your house?

Erm, my wife picks that. I don't.

In fact, we have two trees as well.

His and hers?

Well, yes, hers and hers, I think!

But by the time Christmas comes round, really, well...

you know, I don't want to see another Christmas tree for a while.

'But for Euan and his team, there's a "fir" way to go yet.

'Once the trees are cut,

'they're netted by a specially-imported machine.'

So, what have we got here?

I kind of had this image of guys with a chainsaw

and packing them all by hand.

This looks like quite serious kit.

All changed now.

It's very much a hi-tech business,

the harvesting of the trees.

It has to be fast. We need the trees to be as fresh as possible.

This is a Danish machine which we imported.

So what do you do, apart from the obvious packing them?

It senses the length of the tree and cuts the netting exactly.

The tree goes up to the back and Angus catches it

and packs it into a pallet.

You got these from Denmark,

but you also get your trees from Denmark, why's that?

We do. We do. The plants come from Denmark.

They're very much specialist growers in Denmark

and they know what they're doing.

When the trees come in, they're approximately 12 inches in height,

they're already four years old,

and then we've got them here for another six to seven years

before we can harvest them, so a tree is really 11 years old.

Hit that black button with your shoulder, Euan.

That's it.

'It's easy when you know what button to press.'

Well done.

'Most of the trees from this plantation go to wholesalers

'all over the UK,

'but if you're keen to get hands-on, there is a DIY option.'

-Donnie.

-Hi, Euan.

-What do I need?

You need a mat to kneel on,

you need a pair of gloves, and a saw,

and your instructions on how to use it, etc, and what you do.

How hard can it be?

That's it. It's quite simple and your choice -

whatever you want, just cut it down and bring it back.

-Quite simple.

-Bye.

Normally I would spend hours with the family arguing about

which tree to choose, but today I have the luxury

of choosing my own.

HE PANTS

HE EXHALES

Working on Landward, we're often surprised and intrigued by

the weird and wonderful place names we stumble upon

as we travel across the country.

This week I've come to the village of Dull in Perthshire,

so what bright spark came up with this interesting name?

'Dull consists of a collection of more than a dozen houses on the banks of

'the River Tay, just outside Aberfeldy.'

The parish church, now a private home,

sits on the site of an ancient monastery founded by St Adomnan,

the Abbot of Iona, who died in the 7th century AD.

Legend has it that the bindings on his hearse, dul in Gaelic,

snapped right here,

determining his burial place and founding the hamlet of Dull.

If that all sounds a little far-fetched,

I think we can accept that not a lot goes on here.

In fact, it's been twinned with Boring, Oregon,

and more recently Bland Shire in New South Wales.

Can you imagine if all of the residents of those three places

got together for a night out, how much fun that would be?

If you want to tell us about another unusual place name,

visit the Landward Facebook page or send us an e-mail to...

Earlier in the programme, Sarah was out tracking wildlife in the woods,

and now she's finding a farmed festive favourite,

which was filmed before the current order that

all poultry be kept indoors.

This is Gartmorn Farm near Stirling,

and every December they produce and sell thousands of turkeys.

Can you hear them?

TURKEYS GOBBLE

I'm here to find out what life's like for a turkey farm in December.

-Brian, good morning. How are you doing?

-Hi, good morning, Sarah.

-It's quite noisy.

-They can get a bit noisy, yes.

Could I help you put out some straw?

Yeah, please, by all means.

'Stockman Brian Petrie looks after the turkeys

'in the farm's many polytunnels.'

It's a bit like the Forth Road Bridge -

you start at one polytunnel,

and then by the time you get through them all you're...

Will I just throw it out? Will I?

Yeah, just, kind of, loosely throw it out.

What is it like working with turkeys?

I actually love them.

They're very inquisitive, very, very friendly towards you,

they're always coming, and they always seem happy to see you in

-the morning.

-How long have you been working with the turkeys?

This is my fourth Christmas this year,

I've been here three-and-a-half years working for Roger.

Before that I was a butcher

and before that I was a chef in the Army,

so I kind of know the whole process,

from cooking them to butchering them to actually growing them.

Personally, I've cooked turkeys all around the world,

including South Armagh in Northern Ireland to Iraq.

So I consider myself kind of a dab hand at cooking turkeys.

And Brian doesn't just rear them and cook them...

HE GOBBLES

..he talks turkey as well.

Oh, look, all their heads just went up.

HE GOBBLES

TURKEYS GOBBLE

As well as the sheltered polytunnels,

these turkeys also get to gobble around outdoors.

So they seem quite happy and content.

Paradise for these lot.

Some lovely young trees, a plantation we put in just a couple of years ago.

And one nice thing with turkeys is,

although it looks dirty at the moment, it's the middle of winter,

in the spring the grass comes up a beautiful green.

'Farm owner Roger Lucy

'has seen customer tastes vary over the years.'

Traditionally turkeys were all black.

We just do them to what customers want these days.

And it's slowly swinging back towards the black.

Black turkeys, you need to take them up to full maturity for plucking

cos of the ink in the feathers.

If a turkey is immature it won't look good if

-you pluck them early.

-And why do you keep both?

Customer demand.

The black turkeys are slightly better, I think, flavour wise.

Come on, you lot.

In you go.

There we go.

This is the catching operation.

-OK.

-We think it's about the least stressful system you can use.

On we go.

We put a little bit of straw for their step.

OK.

How busy do you get in December?

Can you quantify it?

Quantify it? Yeah, we do get very busy.

We're talking about 20 times our normal amount of turnover

we go through in December time.

Turkeys have always been seen to be the sort of family favourite

at the dinner table. Is it still the first choice?

I think so. We always eat turkey at Christmas time.

How do you eat yours, then?

A decent big bronze roast turkey.

And I've never known a Christmas we haven't had a big roast turkey for Christmas time.

When do you get to relax and unwind?

Midday, 24th of December.

Midday 24th of December.

Yes, and then on Christmas Day

you feel like taking the telephone off the hook,

but just in case there is a problem anywhere we always have some

birds still sitting in the cold room.

I have known two Christmases, people bought birds from elsewhere,

larger places, and they've put them in a warm place so they've gone off.

And they've come to us.

-Do you get SOS phone calls?

-They come to us because where else can you get a turkey on Christmas Day?

You might get a swearing if you come to us but you'll get the turkey.

This summer, I visited Steve Mitchell's buffalo farm in Fife,

and now it's time to find out how good they taste.

I'm joining Landward chef Nick Nairn

on the last leg of our west coast culinary experience,

and this week we're back again in Luss

on the bonny banks of Loch Lomond.

Nick's going to prepare some of that buffalo and let the locals and

visitors alike taste it to see how it matches up against beef.

Once I've sorted out his apron, that is.

We're going to make a carpaccio.

Remind me what a carpaccio is?

It's raw beef with a thinned out mayonnaise

and some rocket and Parmesan.

On this occasion, it's raw water buffalo.

It is indeed.

So, Dougie, the first thing we need to do is just to sear the outside of

the fillet, in a very hot pan just for a couple of seconds.

-OK.

-So you want to do the salt, I'll do the pepper.

This is the only seasoning that it's going to get,

so that's why you put so much on the outside.

And that is ready for the pan.

One of the great things, Dougie, about cooking outdoors...

When it gets smoky...

..the ventilation is really good.

So all we do is put a little bit of colour on the outside

and killing the bugs.

And that's it.

And out it comes. Pop that over on the pan rack.

What we're going to do now

is wrap the fillet in clingfilm

and what that does is it gives it a really

nice round shape and makes it easier to cut.

Nice clean piece.

'Nick chills the meat down in some ice and we set about making

'the mayonnaise.

'A teaspoon of Dijon mustard is added to a couple egg yolks,

'then whisk, adding olive oil as you go.'

-How's your arm?

-Fine if I do this.

OK, as long as you go fast.

See, it's starting to thicken up now.

'Once it's thickened up, Nick thins it down with some single cream.'

What we have is a really light mayonnaise and we need to season it.

'With some salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce.'

Oh, yeah, that's working really well now.

-Delicious dressing.

-'The meat is now cool enough to slice.'

And it's all fine to be serving this essentially raw water buffalo?

It relies on a couple of things.

The searing on the outside is important because if there is

any contamination it will be on the outside of the meat,

not on the inside.

And it relies, of course,

on high-quality meat that you know exactly where it's come from.

'Then it's time to give these little bits of buffalo a hammering.'

It does look absolutely fantastic.

You wait.

'Sprinkle on some rocket and drizzle a little bit of dressing

'over the meat.'

You are just talking... Oops!

Quite a lot! 'I said drizzle.'

A bit of boldness in your movement.

That's it. And a shaving of Parmesan.

Oh. That looks truly amazing.

I'm very excited about this.

Is it going to taste like beef?

-It's going to be interesting.

-You're going to find out.

-Right now.

-Bon appetit.

The combination of flavours in there is amazing, aren't they?

And the carpaccio...

It melts in the mouth.

The question is, would you know that's water buffalo?

I have to say, not in a month of Sundays.

-I really wouldn't know.

-You know what I would say that was?

Incredibly high-quality beef fillet.

This is one of the best carpaccios I've ever tasted.

Stunning. It's absolutely stunning.

It really is. But what do you think the good folk of Luss will make?

-We'll give them a taste, shall be?

-Raw water buffalo.

Ding-dong.

Could I interest any of you in some raw water buffalo?

No?

I've made a carpaccio of water buffalo.

Look at that face, that's a happy face.

Yes, it's actually quite nice.

That meat is water buffalo.

-Oh.

-It's raw water buffalo.

Is that a first for you?

It's like the bush tucker trial, isn't it?

Come on now. You've got to try it.

You can't have an opinion unless you give it a go.

Just scoop it down like an oyster.

It's all right, actually.

Oh, it's all right, actually.

After all that!

-Yeah.

-Richer than beef.

-Yeah.

But not as rich as, like, venison or something.

It's good.

-Really good.

-I'm quite surprised.

That really is nice.

That was absolutely delicious.

-Mm.

-You like?

-I like.

Very good?

-Would you try that again?

-Definitely, definitely would.

I'm delighted. Have a good time.

-Round of applause, look at that, round of applause.

-OK, thanks.

-Well, thank you.

I don't know about you, Nick, but it's happiness across the board from me.

-100% all loved it.

-I had a woman over there who said, "Not having that!"

And then she went, "Oh, that's not bad, actually."

This is one of the great things about what we're doing,

we're taking stuff that is here in Scotland out to people who would never have tasted before.

It is good.

Now, I have seen these animals up close and personal and I can tell

you they're very scary but ultimately extremely tasty beasts.

Now, that's all we've got time for this week.

Here's what's coming up next time around.

In our final programme this year,

we'll be back where we started 2016 - Ballater.

The Deeside town suffered devastating floods

last January and we're going back to see

how the residents are recovering.

The touring site has been a very, very successful season.

In fact, everyone has said it's better than it was before.

And we'll take a look at some of our highlights of the year.

Whoo, whoo!

This is great. It feels really good.

So join us again next Friday night, 7.30, BBC One Scotland.

In the meantime, from all the Landward team here in Luss,

-thank you so much for your company.

-Goodbye.

-Bye for now.