Episode 8 Landward

As we head into flaming June, there's nothing better than

hopping on a ferry and going doon the water to one of

the almost tropical islands on the Clyde coast.

Welcome to Landward, from Bute.

Hello, and a very warm welcome to Landward, from Bute

and its capital, Rothesay.

Now, later in the programme, I'll be spending time with a man

who spends his days collecting a whole range of seaweeds

to send to some of the country's top-end restaurants.

But I'll also be gathering some to take to Nick Nairn

in our own high-class eatery, the Landward food van.

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

Arlene's on the coast, finding out how difficult it can be

to send a parcel.

This used to be the village post office, and it may be called

Postcode Plumbers, but I don't think they can help me with this.

Delivering them's no picnic either.

He's a well-known postie, this.

Well-known to the police and others.

We're out with the postie providing more than just the mail.

There's people up here are 80, 90 years old, and if I get there,

then, they'll say, "Can you change a light bulb?" Or, "Can you change

the battery in my smoke detector?" Or whatever.

It's just what you do when you're a rural postman.

And the food van's in Anstruther, so Nick can rustle up

a tasty seaside treat.

Did you pick this?

-I did pick it, yes.

-Really?

-Yes.

But first, Kelsey Bennet is on the Cromarty Firth

to see how some big ships are having a big impact

on the north of Scotland.

It's 6am at the port of Invergordon, 20 miles or so north of Inverness.

An early start to catch up with some new arrivals to our shores.

I'm here to see not one but two of these incredible cruise liners

coming to port this morning.

Many will be here this season,

and I'm keen to find out how this big business is giving

the rural economy a much-needed boost.

So we've got two ships in today.

This one over here is the Caribbean Princess,

she's doing a round-Britain cruise.

This one over here is the MSC Preziosa.

She's just arrived overnight from Hamburg. She's never ever

been here before.

'Captain Iain Dunderdale from the Cromarty Firth Port Authority

'has watched the cruise business grow from the beginning.'

So, Iain, have you seen an increase in the amount of ships

that have been coming in to Invergordon?

Very much so. 45% this year.

We originally started with one ship in 1978.

But this year, there's going to be 91 ships

-and 142,000 passengers coming to Invergordon.

-Wow.

So, Invergordon port, why is it suitable for the ships?

It's such an easy place to get to, and it's big deep water, plenty

of room for these big ships to get turned round in, and then when

they get here, Invergordon is really the gateway

to the Scottish Highlands.

There's so many places you can go and see.

'Trips for the passengers are arranged and booked on ship.

'Iain introduces me to Charlotte Humphrey from the cruise line.'

Yes, let's go on board.

-Good morning, Charlotte.

-Hi. Welcome aboard.

-Hi.

-Thank you very much. This is Kelsey.

-Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you too. Do you want to come have a look around?

-I would love to.

-Absolutely.

-On you go.

-This is our first bus?

-Yep.

So this go to where?

This goes to Urquhart Castle, beside Loch Ness.

So how many people are on board today?

So we have just over 3,100 guests on board.

Wow. And what are they doing?

When they get to port, are they off on excursions?

Yeah, we have a number of different shore excursions.

Here, they're going to places like Dunrobin Castle,

Cawdor Castle and Inverness.

Oh, brilliant. So loads of activities for them?

Yeah, there's a lot of choice.

So where are you heading today?

We're going to Inverness and walk around, and then back to Invergordon

-and walk around, and...

-Brilliant.

-Just be a typical tourist.

-Yep.

-Going to the castle.

-That's afternoon.

-Caldorn...?

-Cawdor. Cawdor Castle.

Where the Macbeth murder took place.

That's the one!

-We're hoping to get to Loch Ness.

-Oh, brilliant.

Well, have a great day. I hope you see Nessie!

-OK, thank you. I hope so too!

-KELSEY LAUGHS

The economic benefits kick in

as soon as the passengers hit the quayside.

Local operators provide the fleet of 40 coaches

waiting to take them to spend their cash all over the north.

All sorts of destinations in the Highlands are now experiencing

a huge peak in visitor numbers, because of the cruises,

including right here at Cawdor Castle.

'Cawdor is privately owned and needs visitors to keep going.'

Beautiful castle.

-Hello.

-Hello, welcome to Cawdor Castle.

-Oh, thank you very much.

Picked a beautiful day.

'Alistair Gronbach, the manager here,

'welcomes the cash the cruise ship tours bring in.'

I actually saw two of the huge cruise liners come in at Invergordon

this morning. I feel like this might be some of them.

They've been arriving all day.

Started at nine o'clock this morning,

and they'll go on right till about four o'clock,

but then they have to get back to their ship.

Does it feel like an invading army sometimes?

It can do, but it's very organised and they're booked way in advance.

So we know when they're coming, we stagger them throughout the day,

so that everybody has a great experience.

Have you noticed a boost in the figures?

Yeah, the numbers are way up.

We get about 11,000 passengers

from cruise liners a year, which is about 15% of our total.

So it's very significant.

If you go to Invergordon, they tell you it's a £14 million

impact for the Highlands of Scotland.

So they're doing really well and we're very grateful to them,

and we work very closely with them in partnership.

-Get a little slice of that.

-Yeah, we do.

-Brilliant.

-We do.

'But it's not only Invergordon. Stornoway, Scrabster, Kirkwall

'and Lerwick are just some

'of the ports pulling in the cruise ship pounds.'

So this year, 810 cruises are bringing in over 600,000 passengers

to ports around Scotland, bringing a very welcome boost

to the rural economy.

And we're staying beside the sea now, as I begin the first of

three trips to find out about some of the best but unappreciated

food the sea has to offer.

Then I'll take it to the Landward food van to see what Chef Nairn

can cook up with it.

This week, finding what I'm looking for shouldn't be too difficult,

because it's everywhere round our shores - seaweed.

Traditionally, seaweed was collected on the north and west coasts

of Scotland and used as a fertiliser, but it was also

gathered as a food and found its way into various traditional dishes.

Now, though, it's back on the menu, renamed as a sea vegetable

and boasting a long list of superfood credentials.

And that's why I'm here on the Isle of Bute.

It's only 15 miles long and five miles wide,

but there's plenty of shoreline to harvest seaweed from.

Just the man to help me is Iain McKellar.

He's been harvesting and selling seaweeds here

since 2007.

-Iain, how you doing?

-Hello!

-Good to see you.

-Good to see you.

Now, tell me this, how did you get into seaweed in the first place?

Just loved the outdoors and wanted a different way of life,

so we found seaweed will do us.

What do we actually need to take with us to collect some today?

Well, we're going to need a bucket, some scissors

-and you're going to have to put on a pair of these.

-Oh, lovely.

'This is a far cry from Iain's previous job as an HGV driver.

'He decided to return to his native Bute after being made redundant,

'and turned childhood memories of harvesting seaweed with his mother

'into a full-time occupation.'

So what's the best time of the year to go collecting, Iain?

-March through to July.

-And what are you looking for now, then?

I'm looking for... This is sugar kelp.

-What I'll be looking for here is, I want no blemishes on it.

-Uh-huh.

I don't want any barnacles or anything on there,

-so then I know that it's nice, fresh...

-Right.

-..clean.

It'll have a nice sheen to it.

And you know it's fresh, cos later on this season it'll go dull.

So how many types of seaweed are here?

-It seems an awful lot.

-It's hundreds.

-Yeah?

-More than you could count. Honestly, literally hundreds.

-But I only do 13.

-Right.

-I stick to 13, try and keep it relatively

-simple.

-And why have you chosen 13?

Cos they're the easiest ones to get.

-Right, OK!

-Basically, yeah!

So when you're harvesting, are you harvesting to order?

I harvest to order, yeah. There's no point in taking it out

and just sitting and going off. So somebody orders,

-then I go out and get it.

-And also, I guess it means that this place

-will always replenish itself as well.

-Yeah.

-Sustainability's not an issue.

-No...

Not with a bucket and a pair of scissors.

Hundreds of tonnes of it.

'Iain collects here with the permission of the Crown Estate

'and sells his harvest online.'

Straightaway there, we've got sea lettuce.

Uh-huh. Self-explanatory, that looks like lettuce.

Here we have some carrageen.

That there, you'll have heard of that.

They make milk pudding out of that,

-cos that's used as a gelatine, used as a thickener.

-Ah, right, OK.

-This one?

-Pepper dulse.

Lovely, lovely, lovely little flavoured seaweed.

It's so small, it's hard to commercially do it,

-but beautiful, powerful flavours from it, though.

-Uh-huh.

-And what's your biggest seller?

-Sea sprigs.

-Right.

Biggest seller, restaurants love it cos it plates up lovely and green,

and it's ready in 30 seconds, and it has a nice long shelf life.

I would imagine doing what you're doing, Iain,

it's quite a good day today, but it's cold.

You love what you do, right? There's no doubt about it,

you'd have to love doing this, wouldn't you?

Oh, God, yeah. There's nothing better than coming out here

in the summer at five in the morning, put your wetsuit on,

and you can snorkel all the way up here, and there's dozens and dozens

of different colours jumping out at you.

It's beautiful.

Seaweed, we know, is good for us. Of course it's been labelled,

like many things, as a superfood.

What are the nutritional value, then?

The same nutritional value as vegetables, except you're getting it

all in the one place. You get all your trace elements,

56 trace elements and minerals, all your vitamins,

they're all in the one place.

Instead of having four vegetables on your plate,

you could just have one.

-Some of these kelps, they're almost a complete food.

-Right.

You can almost live off them.

'Well, I remain to be convinced about that.

'But I suppose I better try some.'

Chefs love this. This is called sea sprigs.

-There is a savouriness to it, isn't there?

-There is, yeah.

It's a nice savoury flavour.

It plates up lovely and green, that's why chefs like it.

Tom Kitchin's using that for a long time.

Where have we got...? What's pepper dulse?

-Pepper dulse, it's a lovely, tiny little seaweed.

-Yeah.

That is quite nice. That's very savoury.

This truly is delicious. Thank you very much, a real education today.

But now I have to go and collect some for Nick to use in our

Landward food van.

-Can I borrow your bucket?

-You certainly can.

-Top man.

Thank you very much. See you later.

'And you can see if cooking seaweed is any easier than collecting

'when I deliver it to Landward chef Nick Nairn in Anstruther

'later in the programme.'

But before that, Arlene is also on the coast to continue our series

on keeping rural communities connected.

This time she's in East Lothian and she's looking to post a parcel.

This is for my pal Susan in Finzean, and her birthday is tomorrow.

And if I don't get it in the post first class today,

I'm in big trouble.

'But finding somewhere to post it here in Gullane

'isn't as easy as I thought.

'Currently, it's one of eight communities across Scotland

'without a post office.'

This used to be the village post office, and it may be called

Postcode Plumbers, but I don't think they can help me with this.

'This place apparently used to have a post office in it,

'but they gave it up because it wasn't financially viable.'

So I can't post my parcel here either.

'However, a post office counter is available in Gullane,

'in the village hall on a Wednesday for two hours.

'But it's not a Wednesday.'

-Hello, Dorothy, how are you?

-Hello.

-Nice to meet you.

Oh, yes, nice to meet you, too.

-Shall we have a little wander?

-Oh, yes, yes.

'Also frustrated by this meagre postal service

'is Gullane resident Dorothy Arthur.'

We were told it would be a temporary closure.

And it's now been four, five months,

with no indication of another business being able to take it over.

Haven't other businesses shown interest in being able to offer

-this service?

-Yes, they have. Several businesses have offered,

but the Post Office have decided that these particular businesses

were not suitable.

'According to the Post Office, 99% of the population live within

'three miles of a branch.

'Gullane is no different,

'as there's one three miles along the coast in Aberlady.

'But that's not good enough for Dorothy.'

There's a lot of less able and elderly people in the village.

Not all of them own cars and some of them have not the mobility

to get on a bus.

'It's a simple fact that fewer people are using bricks-and-mortar

'post offices.

'Many tasks that used to need a visit can now be done online.

'So the ideal solution for Gullane would be a post office counter

'in an existing shop.'

-Good afternoon.

-Hello, I have a parcel to go to Finzean

for tomorrow. Is that possible?

It certainly is.

-Could you just pop it on the scales for me, please?

-Yes.

'Like this one, in Jonathan Nicholson's shop in Longniddry.

'It's open eight until six, six days a week - much longer

'than a traditional post office - and brings in some extra cash

'for Jonathan.'

How do you make the post office aspect fit in

with the rest of your business?

That's, in the nicest possible way, a challenge.

But, as you can see, it's quite a large shop.

It's got convenience products, it's got everything, really.

So post office products sit very well with it,

but there's a huge learning curve to bring them together to make it work.

'This model is becoming increasingly common and the Post Office

'claim that by doing this

'they've added 200,000 extra opening hours to their network.

'But, it requires commitment from both sides of the counter.'

Does the community support you?

Cos I get the sense that that is absolutely vital.

I've been, I think the word is "assertive," with regard to getting

that message out, so, the answer is yes,

I have been supported and I am being supported, but the post office

cannot survive on its own and coming in here to buy

a first-class stamp and a second-class stamp and then

going to a corporate competitor doesn't work.

You know, that would ultimately, being blunt,

close the post office.

So, "use it or lose it" seems to be the message,

but, back in Gullane, where they have virtually no service,

the Post Office say they are working hard to find a permanent solution.

For Dorothy Arthur and the rest of the community,

that can't come soon enough.

Now, whether you've used a postbox or that new-fangled

internet, we like to hear from you.

So, if you have any thoughts about something you have seen on

the programme or there is anything you think we should know,

please get in touch.

Back in the spring, we asked you to tell us what your favourite

picnic spot was and why, and the villagers of Evanton

suggested we come here to their award-winning community woodland.

With an emphasis on outdoor learning,

the wood just north of Dingwall and east of Ross has

a fantastic outdoor classroom and an array of other woodland attractions.

This adventure playground is absolutely wonderful.

It could keep adults and children occupied for hours on end.

One of my particular favourites,

the Loch Ness Monster made out of old tyres.

Now, you can picnic here if you want but if you're willing to walk

up the track just a wee bitty, there is something pretty special.

This is Black Rock Gorge, where the River Glass

drops 120 feet rather dramatically to the valley floor.

Now, back in 2004 a scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

was filmed right here.

But there's more.

And here it is. The dipping pond.

A brilliant place to sit around and do not very much at all.

If you have any suggestions of your favourite place to picnic in

Scotland, send them to our Facebook page or e-mail [email protected]

Before my picnic pit stop, Arlene discovered the difficulties

of posting a parcel in rural Scotland.

We're in Angus now.

Delving into a day in the life of a rural postie

delivering those precious packages.

There's worse places you can be a postman.

Walking about carrying a bag on wet days, even on wet days,

it's nice up here.

Kevin Breen's route covers the hills and lanes of Glenisla.

I don't know why we're seeing you today. Trouble? No, lad.

His first country stop in the glen is at Danny's.

Danny used to be a postie too but he's retired now.

Easy work, easy work for them considering what I was used to.

I was used to village work, you see, so we better not tease him too much,

but he's a great postie, actually, you ken?

-Have a nice day, see you later.

-See you later.

Do you know where you're going now?

Kevin covers around 90 miles each day, crisscrossing the winding

roads and tracks that keep the people of Glenisla connected.

The postman delivers the newspapers, the mail, news from about the glen.

How's the postie this morning?

Living the dream, Ian, living the dream. You can have that.

I'll go and empty this box and then I'll come back and see you.

Very good.

He's a well-known postie, this, well known to police and others.

That's not very nice, Ian.

He's a gentleman I call a postie plus.

He's the life and soul of the party every day.

KEVIN LAUGHS

-Any word about the pitter patter of feet?

-No, she's not dropped yet.

As well as deliveries of all types, there are mailboxes to be emptied.

And some other customer services.

There's people up here who are 80,

90 years old and they'll say, "Can you change a light bulb?" or

"Can you change the battery in my smoke detector or whatever?"

It's just things you do.

But, sometimes, you just need to be a bit cheeky.

Do you want to read about the Celtic?

-No, no.

-You sure?

-No, no.

-Are you sure?

-No, no, no.

-I'll just leave it there like that.

-I look at football.

-The Celtic?

-Are you comfy?

-Of course I'm comfy, I'm going away to cut grass.

-You can come over and cut mine if you want.

-And your...

-You're late today.

-Why do you think I'm late, William? For a Tuesday?

-Why do you think I'm late? I'll give you a rough guess.

-I just thought...

Oops, I think that might be our fault. Time to move on.

-Is it Landward or Countryfile?

-Landward!

-Landward.

This is Lou. This is Lou Hackney.

-Morning, young lady.

-Morning.

-How are we doing? You take your time.

-My leg's sore today.

-That's as fast as you can go, dinnae worry. We've got all day.

-Hello.

-Are you shy?

-Yes.

-Are you shy?!

-Yes.

-After a few years on this earth you're still shy? Surely not.

-Hiya.

-Hello.

-You're surely not still shy.

-Of course I am.

-Like myself, though, I'm very shy.

-Yeah.

-Very shy.

It's a good thing Kevin's not shy -

he's a vital member of this community.

He watered all my plants when I was on holiday, in the house.

And, when Lou had a cataract operation, Kevin was on hand again.

You did my drops for a week.

KEVIN CHUCKLES

So, I had to do them for a month, four times a day,

but he did it once a day to try and keep me right and

-he got more drops for me when I ran out.

-Yeah, on prescription.

-I've got to have the other one done.

-When?

-I don't know yet.

-No, I've got to go in...

-Eventually.

-Eventually, yes. Uh-huh.

-Eventually.

I couldn't do without him because when you've no family, you've nobody.

You've got to have somebody to speak to.

Well, I'll see you tomorrow anyway. All right? Bye-bye!

Bye, thank you, bye.

Well, that's another very satisfied customer.

You see them every day so, and you speak to them every day,

so you're going to get close to them.

Earlier in the programme,

I waded into the Firth of Clyde to grab some seaweed.

I've taken it to the ancient fishing village of Anstruther in

the East Neuk of Fife to see what chef Nick Nairn can make of

it in the Landward food van.

Can he create a treat tasty enough to persuade the good people of

Anstruther to put down their award-winning fish and chips

and make seaweed a regular on the menu?

So, Nick, I was over in Bute foraging around the seashore

and I discovered all these seaweeds that are all delicious in their own

way and, we've been eating this for quite some time, haven't we?

Seaweed is very trendy at the moment.

It gets used in the high-end restaurants.

I was over in Northern Ireland and they sell it in paper shops in

little bags, pepper dulse, for... As a snack, a sort of salty snack.

So, I've been trying to think, what can I do to use as many different

kinds of seaweed as possible? And it's got to be seaweed soup.

Now, this is going to be one of your favourite things we have ever

done, really, isn't it? It's got all the stuff you like.

It'll be interesting because I tasted this one when I was

-over there and I wasn't a lover of it, I have to say.

-This is kombu.

So, kombu is very high in umami, this savoury kind of thing.

So we're going to make a stock using two kinds of kombu.

We've got sweet kombu and ordinary kombu.

I've based this on Japanese miso soup.

So, we'll make a stock or a dashi using the two kombu seaweeds

and this is shaved bonito tuna.

-OK.

-OK.

That smells a bit of tuna, that does.

So, to make this stock,

we need a pan of water which has just come to the boil

but not quite and then we're going to take some of the kombu and we

are just going to chop it up like so and we're going to pop it in.

It's as simple as that.

We're going to chuck a fair old pile in there and some of this stuff too.

This looks amazing, this type. Did you pick this?

-I did pick it, yes.

-Really?

-Yes, I did. And it was interesting.

My feet were absolutely freezing.

-My wellies weren't as good as they could have been.

-Right, OK.

So we're just going to let that infuse, not boiling,

-just under the boil for about two minutes.

-Only two minutes?

Two minutes. Do you want to try this?

I mean, that's literally been in there for 30 seconds.

-Wow. That's amazing.

-Yeah, yeah.

-That's quite pungent, actually.

So, it picks up the flavour of the kombu very quickly and then

we're going to add the shaved bonito tuna.

It's a very carefully measured...

THEY CHUCKLE

Well, actually, there are people taking cover...

It's a bit windy, sorry. It's a bit windy here in Anstruther.

This takes about seven or eight minutes.

We used to eat a lot of seaweed in the Scots' diet, did we not?

We did, we used to refer to them as sea vegetables and if you

lived by the coast, it was a very cheap source of good, healthy food.

Of course, the other thing we used it for is fertiliser to grow

other food as well, so it was an important part of people's diet.

Absolutely. Right, what's next?

OK, so we're going to layer all that stock out into

a pan and to the pan we're going to add all of the other sea vegetables.

I need you to dice up the tofu quite small.

Back here, at the stock, I'm going to whisk in the miso paste.

So, that characteristic cloudy miso soup base...

Then Nick adds a variety of different seaweeds.

This is sea lettuce, this is the wrack.

So, these are going to be quite sort of hard to eat, then - I mean,

they're not going to be soft, or are they?

Well, they do soften a bit. You'll see the colour changes,

they come up quite nice, you get some lovely green colour.

This is called sea sprigs.

This is a pepper dulse which is delicious.

It's probably my favourite of them all. And then,

last but not least, your tofu.

-And that's it.

-And that's it done.

You can almost feel it doing you good.

Oh, that's really good. I wasn't...

-I have to say, I wasn't looking forward to this.

-No, you weren't.

Because, you know, the idea of lots of seaweed,

-I wasn't so sure about, but that is actually really nice, isn't it? It's lovely.

-Yes, it's delicious.

Right, let's find out what the good folk of Anstruther,

or "Ain-ster" make of our seaweed soup. It's cold out there.

-I think it's time for the jackets.

-They're going to love it, I'm sure.

-Nice, really nice.

-Do you want to finish it?

-Yeah, go for it.

-What do you think?

-It's lovely.

-Are you surprised by that?

-It's like...

Yeah.

Oh, it's a whole family of seaweed soup eaters.

Well, it certainly tastes better than it looks.

Yeah, it does look funny, doesn't it? Nope?

-Like it?

-Are you sure? If you don't like it you can say it.

It's really nice, I really like it.

HE LAUGHS

-What does it taste like, honey?

-Sticky sauce.

-Does it taste like sticky sauce?

-It's great,

it's really like the miso soup we have in Asia but it tastes

a little different, but I like everything in there, it's great.

-What did you think?

-Good.

-Fantastic.

The texture and stuff is great, yeah, yeah, yeah. I loved it.

-Good, excellent, I'm delighted.

-Yeah, great, thank you.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you so much.

-I'll tell the chef.

So, Nick, a generally good response to just

a few of the many edible seaweeds available round our coastline.

I think people were surprised that it wasn't unpleasant and,

actually, a couple of them really liked it.

-Uh-huh.

-It's an amazingly easy thing to cook as well.

It really is, and it's delicious as well.

And that's all we have time for this time around.

Here's what's coming up next week.

Ewan visits the dairy farm doing things differently.

The calves stay in here in a wee get-together and let their mums

get on and be milked, it's lovely.

COW MOOS

-And oysters are on the menu but not for me.

-Would you like to try some?

I once had a bad experience with a raw oyster and I don't

really want to try it again, especially not on the television.

So, join us again next Friday night at 7:30 on BBC One Scotland.

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

thanks for your company. Bye for now.