Episode 2 Landward

If you're as passionate about the great Scottish countryside as we are,

then you're in for a treat during the next 30 minutes,

because it's time for Landward.

Hello and a very warm welcome to the programme.

This week, we've got plenty of food for both body and soul,

but I must warn you that Nick and I are going to be cooking up

an old Scottish favourite that's definitely not for the faint-hearted.

And here's what else is coming up this week on Landward.

All the way at 15, 15, yes, sir.

Euan bids for a piece of Bothy Balladeer Tam Reid's legacy.

We celebrate another of Scotland's native dog breeds.

This is Magnus, who is Puddockswell Augustus Magnussen.

And we ask why we're not serving

more Scottish chicken in our schools.

It's the ultimate goal that, when you're producing food,

you're serving it to as local a community as possible.

But first, it's time to introduce a new face to Landward...

..broadcaster Arlene Stuart joins us,

and in time-honoured tradition,

is being thrown in at the deep end.

This is St Abbs, a stunning location that attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year.

The waters here provide some of the best diving in the country.

But when you combine cliffs with sea, with walkers, with fishing,

with kayaking and diving, there is always a chance that something could go wrong.

So if that happens, you really want a lifeboat close by.

There's been a lifeboat station here since 1911,

and over the last century, 230 lives have been saved.

But back in 2015, the RNLI withdrew the lifeboat from St Abbs,

saying adequate cover could be provided by the lifeboat from Eyemouth, further down the coast.

The community of St Abbs were not going to take that decision lying down.

If the RNLI weren't going to provide a lifeboat,

then they were going to have to do it themselves.

'On the quayside is Euan Gibson...'

-Hello.

-Hello, Arlene, nice to see you.

-Are you well? Nice to see you.

'..one of the locals who decided to raise money to set up their own independent lifeboat station.'

The community were up in arms, but Eyemouth, the closest place,

is practically, as the crow flies,

just over there, so why were they so angered by this decision?

Well, yes, Eyemouth is only three miles down the coast,

but quite simply, the main dive sites are up here at St Abbs, as well.

There can be hundreds of divers in the water any busy weekend.

The cliffs you see behind me, they attract over 50,000 people a year,

so if somebody gets in trouble, you want a lifeboat there as quickly as possible.

-But that costs money.

-It costs a lot of money.

The first part of the campaign was to raise £250,000.

That literally puts the lifeboat back in the water.

Um, and then the second part of the campaign was to try and raise another 250,000,

which would guarantee the sort of medium-term future of the lifeboat.

And they did all sorts to raise money, I'm hearing some incredible stories.

We got a lovely letter from an old lady in Glasgow, she said she had no savings

but she had cut back on her weekly shopping for

about three or four weeks and she sent us a cheque for £10.

I mean, we were very humbled by that, for somebody to go to that length, it's just fantastic.

I'm keen now to see the fruits of the community's fundraising.

The boys will probably do a man overboard exercise. Oh, yeah.

Oh, hang on a minute! We didn't agree that, did we? Did we agree that?

Keen to see it, not take part in it.

Dance in, down to the bottom.

I'm exhausted just getting my kit on!

All right? Sitting comfortably?

In less than two years, the funds were raised, the lifeboat was bought

and last September the Thomas Tunnock became fully operational.

The lifeboat has 16 volunteer crew.

David Wilson is one of the boat's two coxswains.

His family has a deep connection to the St Abbs lifeboat.

There's a history with you, isn't there?

My great-great grandfather was coxswain of the first lifeboat in St Abbs.

-That was in 1911.

-1911.

I'm the helmsman now, myself, Paul, and my three sons are also on the crew, as well.

-Fantastic, it's a family business.

-It is.

Since the new boat began operating, they've been called out to seven incidents.

They never know what they're going to face.

Some of the issues that you've had to deal with over the years,

I mean, I guess they're wide-ranging.

From anything. We picked up a guy in a rubber tyre one day, fishing,

-he got caught in the tide.

-Sorry, a rubber tyre?

-Trapped in an inner tube.

He was standing fishing... Sitting fishing on that, sorry,

and he just got caught on the tide, he was taken out to sea.

'Nothing so serious today, just a Landward presenter overboard.

'All in the name of training.'

Here we go. Ready? Here we go.

Aah!

Man overboard, there!

Straight ahead, Davie.

Just on the starboard side, five metres.

And here.

Nice and gentle, guys.

Ready?

SHE SQUEALS

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, that was so elegant!

'Total professionalism from all involved,

'except one.'

Do you know what? I think it doesn't matter what you're doing,

whether you're walking along the clifftop here or diving of St Abbs' head

or kayaking or just mucking about on the beach,

I think what is comforting to know is that there is a crew ready and willing to come to your rescue

if it's required, and I think it's amazing that the community

did this through some incredible fundraising.

Thank you, boys, I've just had a blast!

And we'll see more of Arlene later in the series.

Now, in February, our colleagues in the news team revealed

that Scottish schools were serving up huge

quantities of chicken imported from Thailand.

Euan has been investigating why Scottish schools

can't put Scottish chicken on the menu.

£1.3 million,

that's the amount Scottish local authorities spent

on imported chicken last year.

In fact, Landward has discovered it is highly unlikely that any Scottish chicken

is served in any Scottish school at all.

So why is that?

Chicken is big business.

Cheap protein that's the staple of takeaways, sandwiches

and stir-frys.

Most of that chicken comes from large-scale intensive producers,

and here in Scotland the vast majority of production is controlled by one company.

And their main base is here in Coupar Angus.

This is the 2 Sisters food processing plant.

2 Sisters describe themselves as one of the leading food manufacturers in Europe.

The company business model is to only sell to supermarkets,

making it difficult for anyone else

to buy their chickens.

We've spoken to three of the wholesalers who supply chicken to Scottish schools.

And they claim that this company will not supply them

with Scottish chicken.

The company have confirmed that the majority of their produce

goes to retailers, supermarkets, ie, not schools.

They said, "As a business-to-business supplier,

"we have nothing to add to the debate."

2 Sisters policy means that Scottish schools are being forced to serve chicken

that, at best, comes from England,

but often from much further overseas.

This isn't good for food miles

or for Scottish farmers.

So when did you start growing chickens here?

Well, my father started before I was born in 1958, when it was cockerels from the laying industry he used,

and then from...

'For nearly 60 years,

'Robert Hay's family produced chickens for the plate here in Aberdeenshire.

'He supplied his chicken to 2 Sisters.

'But three years ago they centralised production to reduce costs,

'and Robert lost his contract.'

Robert, these sheds are empty now, but what were they like at the height of production?

Well, in the production, this shed had about 11,000 chickens in it for the Scottish market.

Robert thinks the Scottish Government could do more to support the chicken industry

by asking more Scottish schools to serve up local produce.

For example, like the school just two miles down the road.

Just this morning I was looking at what their menu is

and every week they are eating chicken twice a week,

but at the moment it's mostly coming from abroad,

which is very sad for the farmers in this economy.

It's not just the poultry farmers. The cereal farmers...

Cereals are getting less for their product because they have to export it out of the region, as well.

So it's a double whammy for the industry.

So, in the meantime,

if the large-scale production companies

won't sell Scottish chickens to schools, what about the smaller, independent producers?

We've got about 2,500 birds for eating on the farm at any one time.

Sasha Grearson rears organic chickens in Perthshire.

Back in 2003, Sasha took part in a pilot study

supplying five Fife Council schools with her produce.

It was a great project to be involved with for all sorts of reasons.

Number one, you know, it's the ultimate goal that, when you're

producing food, you're serving it to as local a community as possible.

And two, really, it was a very powerful... I could see the power of it, economically,

it allowed me to plan production ahead of time, because the menus were set,

and, um, so you had a rough idea of the quantities required,

you know, three, four, six months ahead of time.

Fife Council chose not to carry on with, or to expand the trial.

They cited additional costs,

inconsistency of supply and falling meal uptake

as some of the reasons.

However, the Scottish Government tells us they are keen to

increase the amount of food sourced locally.

In a statement they said...

So there is some interest in making local sourcing happen.

Next week I'll visit a school on Arran

that's leading the way.

Well, I don't have particularly fond memories of school dinners,

but they weren't as daunting as some of Scotland's more traditional foods.

Last week I began a foodie journey, taking my inspiration from the ultimate Scottish cookbook,

F Marian McNeill's The Scots Kitchen.

Written in 1929, the book is a snapshot of Scotland's rich food heritage,

capturing many traditional Scots recipes

that otherwise would have vanished forever.

Last time, Nick gave us his take on the classic Scotch Broth,

turning it into a delicious risotto.

Today, I'm on the outskirts of Edinburgh, tracking down another piece of our culinary tradition.

Fish and shellfish were a huge part of our diet,

as the book reveals.

We ate all sorts of weird and wonderful things that, nowadays,

many of us would turn our noses up at.

Crappit heid, limpet stovies and fish livers.

But maybe it's time to look at some of these dishes again.

So I'm going to find out what's available.

And where better to come than the former Newhaven fish market

that used to supply Edinburgh?

-Alan, how are you doing? Nice to meet you.

-All right? Nice to meet you.

Now, this is an incredible array of seafood here.

'Fishmonger Alan Semple sells the cod, haddock and salmon fillets

'that we all lap up today.

'But I want him to show me what our ancestors would have tucked into.'

You've got a lovely monkfish there, but what kind of, sort of, parts of the fish

did people eat in the past that perhaps they don't eat as much now?

-Uh, possibly the liver or the cheeks.

-Uh-huh.

Nowadays, we tend to only eat the fillets, but this accounts

for just 50% of the fish.

A century ago, our frugal ancestors

would have made sure there was little or no waste

with every part being used for something.

So here we have a liver.

There's the liver.

-And that's the liver there?

-That's the liver there.

Good gracious, I didn't realise it would be anything like as big as that.

-And obviously, the bigger the fish...

-Yeah.

-..the bigger the liver.

-Sure.

And historically, as well, I guess

in other fish, perhaps, they would eat the roe,

-people would eat roe, as well, would they?

-Yeah, very popular.

-So this is the cheeks.

-So we take the cheeks out now.

Two cheeks, one liver.

So there we have it, we have the fillets,

we have the cheeks, we have the liver,

-we've also potentially got the bones and the head for stock...

-For stock, yeah.

-..if need be,

so no waste whatsoever.

Would you eat more of the unusual cuts of fish, as a fishmonger yourself?

I would, I would try some, I'm up for trying some different things,

-but I'm a bit of a traditionalist.

-Are you?

-I like my haddock.

Nick wants some liver, though.

-Can I take that with me?

-Of course you can.

-I'm looking forward to it.

I think!

-Let me know how it tastes!

-I know!

Well, I have my monkfish livers and I have to confess,

this one I'm not so sure about.

But hopefully, later in the programme, Nick can work his magic.

But first, our weekly celebration of one of Scotland's traditional dog breeds.

This time it's not a dog,

but a terrier.

The Dandie Dinmont, to be exact,

and Angie Miller has brought along two of hers.

I'll let her tell you their names.

This is Magnus,

who is Puddockswell Augustus Magnussen,

is his full title.

And on this side we have Dryfevalley,

Miss Moffat, who is Esme.

They originated in the Scottish Borders over 200 years ago now.

There was always mustard and pepper terriers,

but they got their name from a character in a book by Sir Walter Scott.

They're known for having especially large teeth for their size.

Originally they would have been used for hunting otters and badgers, foxes,

flushing out vermin.

They're great with children,

great family dog.

Esme is one of only 81 Dandie Dinmonts born last year,

putting them high up on the Kennel Club's vulnerable breeds list.

Angie would like to see more of them.

They are terriers and they do have some terrier traits.

I would say they are a lot more laid back than some other terriers.

Very affectionate.

They can be stubborn.

Very loyal.

Little comics, really.

Right wee characters.

We've been delighted by the photos of your dogs on our Facebook page.

Please, keep them coming.

And now to Cullerlie Farm in the northeast.

59, 60, 70. 70. £70.

Anybody else, then?

No, you haven't accidentally tuned in to an episode of The Mart,

but I am at an auction, and this one is unique.

All the way at 15, 15, yes, sir.

In there, 25.

Farm sales like this are known as a roup, but what makes this roup so special

is this huge collection once belonged to royalty.

The king of the Bothy Ballad, Tam Reid.

HE SINGS

Bothy Ballads spring from the northeast of Scotland.

The songs tell of the often hard life of farm labourers in Aberdeenshire,

and arguably their greatest ever exponent was Tam Reid.

Born in 1929, there was no better interpreter

of Bonnie Wee Trampin' Lass,

The Hash O' Benagoak

and A Pair O' Nicky Tams.

# Withoot your Nicky Tams... #

Crowned the king of the Bothy Ballad in 1977,

he died on his farm while out feeding the livestock

during the winter storms in early 2003.

Fellow Bothy Balladeer Scott Gardiner is a huge fan.

-So was Tam an inspiration for you?

-Oh, aye, yeah, he's an inspiration to lots of us.

Ever since I was really wee

I would go along to hear him and sing along with him at various ceilidhs and concerts and stuff.

-How good was he?

-Oh, he was just great, you know, he was just...

He just had a lovely way with him, just sort of, very...

Charming, funny... Pauwky is the word that you always...

P-A-U-W-K-Y, you know, it always gets used to describe him.

Tam and his wife Anne opened a museum at the farm to display

their vast collection of agricultural and domestic memorabilia in 1993.

But it's been closed since Anne's death in 2006.

It's an amazing amount of stuff, you know. We see all around us here, this is a lifetime of Tam

going to other roups himself, you know,

and buying things.

Is there a ballad that fits this?

Aye. One of the songs was very much one of Tam's kind of signature songs,

a song called Bandy's Roup.

It's about a farmer from Aberdeenshire selling all his stuff

and moving, moving into town, retiring, you know?

# Aul Bandy, he wis roupin oot,

# His fairmin' days were deen,

# He'd bocht a wee bit hoosie In the toon o Aiberdeen

# So a his stock an implements Wir a gaun up for sale

# He'd even sell te moose-trap An the auld slop pail. #

Well, I can't see a mousetrap amongst all this stuff,

but there's just about everything else.

-It's an amazing array of things, isn't it?

-It is.

There's nothing the same, everything's so different.

'Tam's daughter Tracy Walker

'has looked after this treasure trove since her parents passed away,

and has decided that the time is right to dispose of the collection.'

Most of the things, I don't know what they are, but these,

-I'm guessing, are snow shoes.

-Snow shoes, that's right, yeah.

Fantastic.

'But there's one thing that isn't for sale.'

-Is this Tam's crown?

-It is. Do you want to try it on?

Certainly not going to win it, that is incredibly heavy!

-It is, yes.

-So what was the deal behind that, how did he come to be the Bothy Ballad king?

There was a competition held in Turriff in front of 10,000 people

and he won it.

And it was amazing, it was like being in the Beatles!

You know, sitting in the crowd. But it was fantastic,

there was about 36 competitors and he just sailed through to the top.

And you've still got that. Was it not handed on to the next competitor?

No, because they only ever had one competition.

And that's why Tam will always be the king.

And also why people want to take away a piece of his legacy.

Including myself.

..now at six.

Eight, ten, 12. 15.

I'm hoping these snow shoes have got my name on them.

30 quid I'm bid. 38. At 40, I'm bid, at 40. Your number, sir.

'Don't worry, your licence fee is safe.

'I bought them with my own money.'

OK.

Here in the northeast,

roups can be remembered for decades, and this one especially will go down in history

as the passing of an era.

And it's great to see the sun out,

hundreds of people here to pay tribute

to the king of the bothy ballad.

And perhaps, like me, to take home just a little memento

of one of Scotland's greatest ever singers.

# ..was heavy as he set aff

# Tae that toon. #

Earlier in the programme, I was in Newhaven to discover

that there's more to fish than just the fillet

and that our forefathers wasted nothing in the Scots kitchen.

I'm back with the Landward food van now

to see if 21st-century Scots

can be tempted back to nose-to-tail eating.

We're in the Borders at the historic market town of Kelso,

where I think Landward chef Nick Nairn

may have bitten off more than he can chew.

Yes, that's where it's going! Thank you!

What will Nick and the brave Kelsonians make of monkfish livers?

Now, I have to confess, I'm not too sure about this.

-You'll have to convince me.

-See this book here? It's recipes that go right back to the 17th century.

And it comes from a time where there were no supermarkets, there were no fast-food outlets,

everything had to be made from scratch.

There are recipes in here for all kinds of bits.

Look, this just fell open at, "To dress a cod's head and shoulders."

-Who knew a cod had shoulders?

-Exactly!

But there's some real gems in here,

and one of the things that I think is actually a delicacy

are these monkfish livers,

because, for me, they're kind of a bit like foie gras.

The foie gras of the sea.

And it tends to get chucked out.

But we've saved them, you saved them!

-Yes, I did.

-Singlehandedly. So you can taste them.

-Yes, indeed.

-And you were very enthusiastic about it.

-Um, yeah, I'm kind of...

-So one of the things you have to do

with monkfish livers, of course, is to de-vein them.

And you just pull away the veins,

let the knife cut down and follow it.

In here, hold them up

and just... The last bit gets a wee bit messy, you lose a little bit of liver.

OK!

As we go out, like so.

Do you want to do one?

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

-I know you're a little nervous about eating monkfish livers.

-Yep.

So what about we do them with butter,

-garlic...

-Yes. Now you're talking.

-..lemon, parsley.

-So you put a lot of lemon zest in it.

-A lot of lemon zest in it. It's going to be lemony!

And garlicky and salt and peppery!

So, in we go, little bit of oil, not much.

And we're just going to pan-fry that, so it's a mouthful,

a nice little nibbly...bit.

Are these a bit too small for you?

-You don't want them a bit bigger, no?

-I'm fine.

And we're going to cook them for about 20 seconds on each side.

Really hardly any at all.

-You just let them get a little bit of colour.

-Yeah.

-But we mustn't overcook them, cos they'll just get rubbery.

-Yeah.

OK? So that's it.

That's them cooked.

OK? And then, straight away,

-you have to get into the pan with butter.

-Yeah.

The garlic, in that goes.

Oh, immediately that's amazing.

-So, garlic butter.

-Yes.

-And now, in we go with the parsley

and the lemon.

Seasoning, salt, plenty of pepper in there,

and a good squeeze of lemon juice, in that goes.

We're just going to put the livers back into it, and any of the juices that come out.

So the garlic butter completely coats all of the livers.

Goodness gracious. When are we tasting?

-Bon appetit.

-Buon appetito!

-The monkfish liver.

That's actually not bad!

That's really nice, actually.

I was really worried about eating that. The texture is odd.

-Yeah.

-The flavour is incredible, but the texture is odd.

And it's, yeah, it is nice and light, isn't it?

You can bite into it and it kind of disappears.

It's de-lish!

-Now that we've sold it to the great people of Kelso...

-Yeah!

OK, let's do it now!

To be honest, it wasn't that bad.

But what will the brave Borderers make of it?

There we go.

-Oh, it's gorgeous!

-Thank goodness!

-Far lighter than what I was expecting.

-Yeah.

-Delicious, the flavours are coming together.

-Zingin' and...

-Absolutely beautiful.

-You want to give it a go, see what you think?

-No, I won't.

-OK!

I didn't fancy it in the first place, either, but I did actually like it.

-Do you think it's all right?

-If you don't like it, Nick Nairn cooked it.

That's absolutely amazing!

It really is nice.

They're good, very nice.

-No, that's really nice.

-You like it?

Brilliant!

What do you think?

-Mm...

-Uh-huh. Jury's out.

Let's say you're going to the fishmonger this afternoon,

is it something you'd say to them,

-"Have you got any monkfish livers? I'm going to give that a go."

-No.

It's all right.

Nick, I had one refusal, but generally people were very happy

and gave it a go and liked what they tasted.

I was really surprised.

Everybody that I gave it to really liked it.

They were surprised they liked it.

Monkfish livers have become a very sort of modern, cheffy ingredient,

but you should never write off the old recipes.

Definitely not. A lot to be learned from the past.

And that's almost it from this week's programme.

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

Euan hears the tragic result of dogs running out of control.

I got over here to see two dogs disappearing out of the bottom of the field,

and a complete massacre.

Just sheep lying everywhere.

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a BIG surprise.

Landward new face Jean Johansson

discovers why there are half-naked men in kilts in the forest.

And Nick tries his hand at traditional cheese.

OK, so what we're going to do is we're going to leave this milk to split and separate.

And it'll do it on its own.

I don't know, I've never done it before!

Let's hope so!

So until next time, Friday night, 7.30, BBC One Scotland...

From all the Landward team here in Kelso,

-thanks so much for your company. Bye for now.

-Goodbye.