Add
Private Notes
With 44 acres the farm has 10 times more land than he had at River Cottage, which allows for a lot more veg and livestock than his family needs. With this in mind Hugh is unable to resist the opportunity to expand further. He plans to set up a culinary headquarters, or food outlet, where he can sell his home-grown and home-reared produce direct to the public. Having found a collection of muck ridden and ramshackle barns in which to base his venture however he wonders if this time he's bitten off more than he can chew.
Hugh has taken a lease on some barns near his new farm in Dorset. He plans to turn them into a culinary HQ – a place he can use as an outlet for his home-grown food and for hosting dinners for customers.
But the place is still filled with mud and muck.
He sets himself a two-week deadline to create a working kitchen and a charming dining room, after which he hopes to kick off with an opening Valentine's Night Special for some of the people who have helped him.
To stock up his kitchen he visits Auction houses, ala Bargain Hunt
Hugh's sow, Maggie, is about to give birth to piglets. While he waits for the birth, he must install proper plumbing and loos before he can welcome members of the public to The River Cottage HQ.
Hugh decides its time to start making from this venture and so after selling waffles at the morning market (and doing some Morris dancing) he sets an opening date for River Cottage HQ and starts putting together the 4 course menu.
For the starter he arranges for local asparagus to be picked minutes before serving.
For the meat course he chooses beef instead of piglet.
For the fish course Hugh sets a lobster pot for a monster lobster rumoured to be near a wreck near Lyme Regis but ends up with a Conger Eel instead.
Needless to say, this ends up in the pot
Hugh is invited to an Easter Blossom picnic. He has to take something along and for his dish he needs morel mushrooms to make a mushroom and chicken mousse.
He also tries his hand at baking bread and helps out at a cider festival.
Back at HQ he starts a miniature orchard where all the apple trees are in pots. His tunnels are also up and this should guarantee his supply of fresh veg during the year
Hugh is catering for friends Mark and Candida's wedding.
Mark and the boys catch trout and the girls pick gooseberries for their contribution to the feast.
Hugh goes hunting for the main course and also starts up his own bee hives.
Hugh has had a bumper tomato crop thanks to his poly tunnels and plans a Tomato Festival. He takes time off from the preparations to go fishing for whelks to see at the Lyme Regis Carnival.
There are some new arrivals at HQ - ducks and geese. To keep the foxes away Hugh has to mark his territory!
The Tomato festival is a success but Hugh doesn't win the Ketchup competition
Hugh has extracted 11kg of honey from his hive. To prove the quality of the harvest and his skills in the kitchen he enters the bee keeping classes at the Melplash Country Show. Despite burning his fudge and not cooking his cake properly he wins first prize for his honey. Also in the show, he tries to persuade the people of Bridgeport to eat tripe.
Nine months after opening River Cottage HQ Autumn is approaching and Hugh prepares an Autumn Feast. He is fattening up 10 cockerels for main course and for canapes decides on mushrooms. However to find enough mushrooms he takes to the air on a paraglider for a good vantage point. To cook the chicken he has special pots made and fired by a potter.
In this hour-long special "A River Cottage Christmas Feast", Hugh prepares a gluttonous ten-bird roast: a woodcock in a partridge in a pidgeon in a pheasant in a guineafowl in a mallard in a chicken in an Aylesbury duck in a goose in a turkey. Hugh also learns how to build a smoker and makes sausage baubles for the Christmas tree. Then he joins the cider circle for some mulled cider and wassailing in the orchard. The River Cottage H.Q. team is treated to a day of squid fishing. Finally, all of Hugh's friends join him in the medieval-themed feast.
