Episode 1 Landward

Spring has sprung in the Scottish countryside

and the Landward team is ready to spring into action

for a brand-new series.

Hello and a very warm welcome to Landward.

We hope you can join us every week

all the way through to the end of June.

Later in the programme, I'm going to be donating my body to science,

down in Stirling University, but first,

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

This week, we're looking at the food we eat and asking if we shouldn't

go back to the old days.

Our grannies taught our mums taught our kids how to cook.

Those cooking skills are life skills.

You know, this isn't a good time to tell you,

but I'm terrified of heights.

Euan branches out, to get a bird's eye view.

It's absolutely...

terrifying.

And we're gathering in the sheep...

..from a sheepdog's perspective.

First up, it's time for a bit of spring cleaning, with Euan.

We sent him to Perthshire to do some tidying up before the return of some

of Scotland's best-loved avian tourists.

This is the Loch of the Lowes

and, every year, visitors come here in spring and summer to see

the famous ospreys raise their brood, because every year,

these ospreys come back to exactly the same site just over the loch.

The birds fly over 3,000 miles

from West Africa to take up residence here,

but their summer home has taken a bit of a battering during the harsh

Scottish winter.

-Sandy, hi. I'm Euan.

-Hi, Euan. How are you doing?

I thought we were going to have a long walk around the loch

-to get to a nest.

-No, not today.

-Excellent.

-We're going to go across in a boat, in a canoe.

Luxury travel!

'Overseeing the springtime spruce-up is the reserves

'project officer, Sandy Waddell.'

You do have the perfect day for it.

It's beautiful.

So, do you look forward to this bit?

Oh, aye. This is one of my favourite jobs.

You know, it's a beautiful place.

You know, you get to climb trees,

up to an osprey's nest.

It's fantastic. It doesn't get any better than that.

-So, where are we aiming for?

-Give it a bit, a bit of right hand again.

-Right hand?

-Yeah, sorry.

-The other right hand.

-The other right hand.

The birds usually arrive back in mid-March

and stay in their Scots pine until late August.

-They certainly know how to pick their site.

-Oh, it's a good spot.

-What a service!

-What's that? Water taxi.

'Back on dry land, it's time to get kitted up,

'but I have a confession to make.'

You know, this isn't a good time to tell you, but I'm terrified

-of heights.

-No!

-And I was fine coming across in the canoe.

You suddenly look up there and the whole tree is swaying

-back and forward.

-No, it'll be all right when you get up there.

-Really?

-Aye, it'll calm down.

-Well, here we go. Helmet on.

-OK.

Off we go.

It's the most extreme spring cleaning I've ever done.

'There's a ladder for the first few feet.'

Right, that's the easy bit, presumably.

'But already I'm wondering why Dougie wasn't available

'for work today.'

It's just that leap of faith when you change from the ladder

onto the rope system.

Put your feet against the tree.

Get your foot on top of that branch.

'It's not very elegant,

'but I'm getting there.'

Use your feet on the branches like on a climbing frame.

-That's it.

-I keep on going upside down.

-Yeah.

-You're more than halfway up.

'That means I've still got halfway to go.

'And I'm beginning to become aware just how exposed it is up here.'

This tree is bending over in the wind.

And it's absolutely...

terrifying.

Once you're up ten feet, it doesn't matter really how high up you are.

Really?

'65 feet and a lot of adrenaline later, we finally made it.'

And I can see the top of the nest.

The tree's...

really swaying...

badly back and forward now.

-It's a nest!

-There you go.

So, what do you do now?

What I do is I have a look at the tree.

-Yeah.

-Have a look at the branch, the one that the nest's in,

-because that's a fair weight. It's 150, 200 kilos on that.

-Yeah.

Make sure that it's not going to slide off.

The nest really is a remarkable structure,

made from anything the osprey can find.

There's bits of lichen,

there's pine cones.

-Bits of divot.

-Yeah, they get the divots off the golf course.

They go over and pick them, they dry in the sun,

they bring them over and they line the inside of the nest.

How does that go down?

-Fine with the ospreys!

-Aye, well, it's creature comforts, isn't it?

After checking the stability of the nest and cleaning the cameras that

provide the round-the-clock coverage

of the birds to the visitor centre...

This is the one they'll have problems with. You can see

-spiders' cobwebs.

-Cobwebs, yeah.

'..there's a bit of time to savour the location.'

It is a truly spectacular view, though.

You get a real osprey's view of Perthshire.

When you think there's like 76 young ospreys fledged for this reserve...

-Wow.

-This is what they call home.

Imagine waking up to that view

every morning.

Fantastic.

If this camera is shaking, it's nothing to do with the wind.

As summer homes go, it's pretty breathtaking.

But it's time to leave it to the birds.

That is one of the scariest things I've done in a long time.

I just hope the ospreys think it's worth it.

And I can report that the birds are making the most of Euan's handiwork.

The male osprey returned on the 17th of March,

with the female joining him six days later.

She's already laid three eggs and you can follow their progress

by visiting the Loch of the Lowes Reserve,

or catching up with the now-cobweb-free live webcam.

Now, while the ospreys make themselves at home,

it's time for me to visit Edinburgh, to find out about an unsung heroine

of Scottish cuisine.

You know, we have a lot to be proud of in Scotland,

but the state of our nation's health isn't one of them.

We have one of the worst health records in Europe and our diet

has a huge part to play in this.

But at one time, the Scots diet was healthy,

with recipes making the most of the bounty provided by land and sea.

-Hi, how are you?

-Hi, there, nice to see you.

So, what happened?

Fiona Richmond from Scotland Food and Drink is going to show me how

our diet has changed over the last century

and introduce me to the work of F Marian McNeill,

who tried to keep the old and healthy traditions alive.

The traditional Scottish diet, what exactly was it?

Is this a great example of it here?

It is. I mean, it's a pretty good selection of what was really

an exemplary diet.

We've got great vegetables, a lot of root vegetables, kale,

oats and barley, oily fish, lovely quality meat, dairy products -

dairy's always played a strong role in the Scottish diet.

So, really, a perfectly-balanced diet.

A bit frugal, perhaps, but healthy.

As society has changed over the last 100 years, so has our diet.

Two World Wars, globalisation,

industrialisation and the demand for convenience means that what we eat

today would often be unrecognisable to our great grandparents.

And that's where Mary McNeill comes in.

F Marian McNeill wrote this, The Scots Kitchen, back in, was it 1920?

Yeah, 1929, the first edition was published.

I mean, it's incredible that

she clearly had a fear about the way things were going.

F Marian McNeill, I believe, is a national treasure.

I'd love her to be a household name in Scotland.

I think we owe her a great debt.

She grew up in Orkney, on a croft,

and had a very simple diet, but a very, very good quality one.

As early as the 1920s,

McNeill could see the change in our eating habits coming and, with it,

the loss of our unique Scottish food culture.

She took to the road,

collecting as many of the old recipes as she could find,

before they vanished forever,

and the result was this.

Now considered THE Bible of Scottish cuisine, The Scots Kitchen.

She wrote this to try and tell the story of the food in Scotland

and our food heritage, our food history and culture.

And she encouraged everyone to

embrace it, to understand it, to treasure it.

And she was a lady years ahead of her time.

Back in the 1920s, this book is all about eating locally.

Exactly. Eating what's in season.

Seasonality was very, very important.

Making the most of every scrap of food, not wasting food.

And if we can preserve those traditions for future generations,

I think that will have a big impact on our health, as well.

-In goes the barley.

-'And later on in the programme,

'chef Nick Nairn will be in the Landward food van,

'using McNeill's book as an inspiration, to try and tempt us

'Scots back to the old ways. But what to prepare?'

Oh, I mean, there's so much to choose from.

I would say a Scotch broth, you can't go wrong with.

That was one of my grandmother's sort of, you know, staple dishes.

There was always soup on the go and Scotch broth was a favourite,

so I think that would be a good place to start.

'I love Scotch broth, so join me later, to find out what

'unique spin Nick Nairn will put on it when the food van visits Kelso.'

But before Nick prepares the mutton for his broth,

we're catching up with where it comes from.

Last year, we followed Sheep Farmer of the Year, Joyce Campbell...

-Excellent.

-..through the lambing season and onwards to the

Lairg sheep sales.

170, 170. Last chance, 170.

This year, were heading back to Joyce's farm in Armadale,

for another stage in the process.

Sky, in. In here. In here.

-Gathering the gimmers.

-In here.

So, they're first-time mums

and they're going to get a treatment for ticks, because in the spring,

the ticks hatch out, and they're going to get a vaccination,

which they pass on immunity in their milk to their lambs.

But it's a task that needs to be approached carefully.

They're heavy in lamb, so just the same as a pregnant lady,

you just need to give them their time, you don't need to stress them.

You just need to be quite calm and quite easy with them and just

take your time. It's not a job to rush.

And that's why Joyce has brought two of her most experienced sheepdogs.

I've got Sky, who is a five-year-old bitch.

And I've got Meg, who is an eight-year-old bitch, as well,

so they've both been trained here.

Meg was born here.

Sky, I got her as an eight-week-old pup and trained her up myself.

And we've put a camera on Sky to get a dog's-eye view.

Come back.

That's them, they're going in now. They're over the hill and just...

They'll come out, hopefully, on site there.

Well, we're just going to head in now to the farm

and they're streaming in ahead of us

and just going quite nice and easily and slowly,

so we'll just give them their time.

My granny and my grandad and my dad took on the lease in 1962.

So, I was born in 1970.

So, I've been here all my days, other than a while away at college.

It is stunning and I'm, maybe, as I'm getting older,

appreciating the whole changing colours, the changing seasons,

you know? When you're younger, you never really think about it,

but now I see it completely, maybe, with different eyes.

Sky and Meg have brought the sheep back to the pen without any stress.

And now Billy and Faith help with the vaccinations.

They're in good heart and we gave them plenty of time when they were

coming in, so they're not, like, puffing and panting.

It's just to avoid any extra stress on them.

My first memories of the farm,

I can remember being put to bed at lambing time and I would be mad

about being put to bed, because I loved lambing time.

And, these days, Joyce loves to share her passion on social media,

where she has a huge following.

Billy's very good and very patient.

I think it's really important that

as a farmer and as producers of livestock,

that we show what our life is about.

We are really privileged to have a great way of life and...

and to show that we care for animals and...

You know, my sheep world, when my sheep are well and healthy,

all is well in Joyce's world.

They are king here. Or queen, would be the word.

I just think it's important to show that to people.

And we'll be meeting up with Joyce again later in the year.

Now, in Scotland, the tradition of working with dogs

goes back a long way.

So, over the next five weeks, we're putting together a beginner's guide

to some of our finest native dog breeds.

This time, appropriately, we're starting with another

type of sheepdog.

This is the Sheltie, officially the Shetland Sheepdog.

Like the ponies of the islands and the sheep they were bred to herd,

the dogs are small.

Breeder Derena Ritchie has brought along a perfect example.

This is Murieston Classic Design, also known as Millie

and she's four years old.

They are intelligent, they're alert and they just love to be active.

In the Shetlands, many, many years ago,

they weren't the fluffy dog that they are now.

They're more glamorous than they were when they were herding sheep.

She's lovely today, but you should see her when she's been out

for a walk and she's absolutely filthy!

Hey? That's you!

Derena's not the only fan of the Sheltie.

People always stop you and say, "Oh!"

Hey? Especially with glamorous ones like you.

They don't need an extensive amount of exercise, but at the same time,

they love nothing better than to be running over fields and getting

dirty and in burns. They're very, very affectionate.

Very affectionate.

Hey, you.

They're absolutely brilliant.

If you'd like to show off your pooch,

you can upload photographs of your dog in the landscape to the Landward

Facebook page. We're particularly keen to see native breeds,

like Dandie Dinmonts or Shetland Sheepdogs.

Now, a dog is a perfect way to get some exercise,

but me, I like to get on my bike.

Healthy habits encouraged at a young age will last a lifetime.

I'm still cycling now because I was encouraged to exercise at school

and that's why the Scottish government insists on PE

being part of the curriculum.

When I was at school, I did a lot of sport.

Rugby, football, basketball, volleyball, badminton -

you name it, I did it.

Not very well, but I loved it.

These days, the habits have stuck.

But tackling the nation's obesity crisis requires more than just

regular exercise. Good nutrition and education about it is key.

So when Landward discovered that, in many parts of the country,

schools are no longer able to offer home economics education,

we wanted to investigate further.

-Right, shall I jump on or shall I get on the bike first?

-Yes.

'Here at Stirling University's Sports Science Department,

'Professor Kevin Tipton believes that nutritional education is as

'important as physical education.'

So we're going to start you out nice and easy and then we'll

bring it up a little bit.

'And he's putting me through an experiment, to demonstrate

'the link between the calories we consume and the calories we burn.'

OK, Dougie. Ten...

'Half an hour on the bike,

'and he'll tell me how many calories I've used up.'

Five, four, three, two, one, zero.

Good job. Excellent.

'It turns out to be 250.'

Right, I've got a relatively healthy, yogurty flapjack.

I know that that's 500 calories.

So, in half an hour,

I've basically burned enough calories to eat half of that.

-That's about right.

-Good gracious.

-It's not very much, is it?

-It's not very much, no.

It seems... It seems like it should be more for as much,

as hard as you were working.

'For Kevin, being trained what to cook and how to cook it

'is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle.'

There is evidence that, by learning to prepare food properly,

that that actually leads to healthier eating and, ultimately,

better health outcomes.

If you're cooking your own food and preparing it,

you're controlling the amount of salt, the amount of sugar,

the amount of fat, the amount of calories,

but what if you've never been taught how to cook?

If you didn't find out at home,

school would've been the obvious place to learn,

but Landward has discovered that there are now many schools where

there are no home economics classes on the curriculum.

What we found was surprising.

Across Scotland, there are more than twice the number of PE teachers

as home economics teachers

and in some schools, there are no home ec teachers, at all.

In Aboyne Academy in Aberdeenshire, at Kincorth in Aberdeen City,

in James Hamilton Academy in Kilwinning in Ayrshire,

as well as others in Argyll and Stirling, no home economics teacher.

In Glasgow alone, there are five schools with none.

And Hillhead High is about to become the sixth.

The current home economics teacher is about to retire

and the school can't find a replacement.

Well, if we're reaching the point where schools are having to take

home economics off the timetable because they can't get a teacher,

then we certainly are facing a crisis.

'Teachers' union representative Larry Flanagan used to teach here.

'He's concerned about the future

'for home economics teaching across Scotland.'

We're in a downward spiral, in terms of home economics staff

-in schools.

-What do you think can be done to encourage more people to go

into home economics and perhaps become teachers?

Well, I think part of it is around advertising the, you know,

the career choice of teaching

and home economics is just one part of that.

So I think there's a lot to be done around raising the profile

of teachers generally. Some of that is to do with salary,

but some of it is also to do with, you know,

the joy you can get from being a teacher and imparting skills

to young people.

Glasgow City Council, which is responsible for Hillhead, told us,

"This is a national issue and unions,

"colleges, universities and local authorities must work together to

"find ways in which to attract new HE teachers into the profession."

At a time when we're facing an obesity crisis in this country,

it seems incredible to me that more effort isn't going into teaching

nutrition, cooking and the value of eating good food.

The Scottish government has put £1 million into a fund

to try and attract new teachers and, certainly, it seems

in home economics, those teachers are desperately needed.

I guess we won't be seeing those new teachers any time soon.

So, attempting to fill the knowledge gap is Landward chef Nick Nairn.

Earlier in the programme,

I found out about the traditional Scots diet.

Now, inspired by the Bible of Scottish food,

F Marian McNeill's The Scots Kitchen,

I'm taking the Landward food van

back on the road, to see if some of those old recipes

can tempt the taste buds of 21st-century Scots.

This time, we heading to the Borders

and the historic market town of Kelso.

'Landward chef Nick Nairn will be reviving some classic dishes,

'giving them his own unique twist.

'And then we'll find out what the locals think of his update,

'and if they agree if we should

return to our frugal, but healthy, eating habits.

'This time, what will Nick make of Scotch broth?'

-Dougie, what's in the bag?

-Well, I've been doing a bit of research

about what we used to eat and I know

that we didn't eat a tremendous amount of meat,

because we were a poor nation. I've got some lamb there, cheap cuts.

We had some... We ate a lot of oats and barley,

and lots and lots of vegetables.

Veg. Because that was the Scottish diet, wasn't it?

It was high in veg, low in meat, and grains.

Yeah. Also got a wee bit of dairy here.

-A small amount of cheese.

-Yes, a bit of cheese, too.

So, Fiona, who I spoke to earlier, suggested we do a broth.

Is that something that excites you?

You know, I love Scotch broth, but let's bring it up-to-date.

Let's make it into something a bit more modern.

How about a Scotch broth risotto?

Although, technically, it would be a barlotto.

-Using barley and not the rice, then?

-Yes, uh-huh.

-Wow.

-Shall we do that?

Yeah, sounds great. What's the first stage?

We're going to make some stock, some lamb stock using the lamb.

Now, this is just cheap pieces of lamb.

This is either shoulder or shin, or breast of lamb.

We need to chop up some veg.

-Yeah.

-Onion, celery and carrots.

-All in?

-All in, yeah.

-Beautiful.

-So we want the broth from this to cook out the barley and the

veg, and we're going to reduce it down, and then we're going to finish

it with butter and cheese and parsley.

That sounds absolutely amazing.

Here's the thing that I've been finding out and something that

you've talked about for many years that, in Scotland, we tend not

to cook any more. In Britain, we tend not to cook any more.

It's really frustrating, because you've got these really simple,

beautiful and tasty ingredients, and it's not difficult.

In the old days, it's a cliche, but it's true, our grannies taught

our mums taught our kids how to cook.

Those cooking skills are life skills.

If you can cook, you're in charge, you're in control.

You know what's going into the food that you eat.

You're five-a-day is right there in front of you.

How do I get my five-a-day?

Make a pot of soup, make a Scotch broth.

And the risotto that we're going to do is just a variation on that.

We start off with a bit of butter into a pan.

In goes the barley.

And we're just going to fry that.

Once the butter has melted and the barley has absorbed the butter,

-we add the onions.

-And what do we do with this, then?

-Because we've got the lamb stock there, as well, haven't we?

-Yeah.

So, once the onion starts to soften a little bit, we add the lamb stock.

And we're just going to let this come up to the boil,

and then we'll simmer it for about ten minutes or so.

So, at this point, we start to add the veg.

So, in goes the finely-diced potatoes.

Next, what do you...?

-The, erm...

-Turnip?

-Turnip, yeah.

-OK.

-I don't think we use all the turnip, just a bit of turnip.

A bit of carrot, yes.

-Celery yet?

-A bit of celery.

And then we're going to cook this for about another ten to 12 minutes,

until the potatoes are starting to fall to bits.

So far, this is dead easy. This is all putting things

-into stock, really, isn't it?

-It is, yeah. I mean, the hard work's

the chopping and you did a very good job.

-Bless you. Thank you.

-So we finish it in exactly the same way as

a risotto. So, butter, in that goes.

Cheese. So I'm going to stir this in and you have to stir

the whole time, so as the butter and the cheese melts,

it emulsifies and richens this up, so...

'With the addition of some chopped parsley and the lamb used to make

'the stock, the dish is complete.'

-Wow!

-It's... What an intense flavour!

It's like Scotch broth, but it's condensed down, it's reduced.

That's amazing. The cheese in there

is making it really beautiful and creamy

and fantastic. Oh, my goodness!

Now we need to take this out to the people and see what they think.

They're going to love it, I know it.

-La potage, Scotch broth.

-Voila, c'est bon.

Mm! Oh, it's delicious!

-Do you know how to make Scotch broth?

-I don't.

-You don't?

That's lovely, actually. I don't like Scotch broth, either, but...

-You don't?

-I don't. But the cheese in that is lovely.

-Beautiful.

-Delish. DOGS BARKING

Let's go and ask what the schnauzers think.

-It tastes lovely, like stovies....

-DOGS BARK

-These dogs need fed.

-Aye, it's all right, that.

It's all right? High praise, indeed(!)

Beautifully seasoned, can taste the meat in it

and the vegetables and the broth,

and it just comes in...

Very Scottish-y.

-It's nice.

-It's nice!

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

-Merci, monsieur.

-Merci, monsieur. Enchante.

Enchante. Oh, my goodness!

Everybody was just raving about it

and I think that this is proof that the food of our forefathers is still

-relevant today.

-It really is and it's delicious and good for us.

And that brings us to the end of this week's programme.

Let's have a sneak preview of next time around.

All away at 50? 50! Yes, sir.

Euan tries to bag a memento at an historic farm auction.

30 quid, I'm bid. At 38, 38, 40. 40, I'm bid. At 40.

We're all at sea, with the community-funded St Abbs Lifeboat.

'And I meet my match in the food van - Monkfish livers.'

-We lose a little bit of liver...

-OK.

-..as we go out a bit.

-Do you want to do one?

-No, you're fine. I'll let you do that.

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

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

thanks so much for your company. Bye for now.