Steven's Blog - May 2008

Steven Lamb is our resident host at River Cottage HQ (Park Farm), and is involved in our whole range of courses and events on a daily basis.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to River Cottage. I packed a sack and prepared to head off to the beginning, but I got stuck at the first hurdle. I thought I was the favourite in a one horse race. Turns out I was a donkey pulling a dust cart, following a stick without a carrot. I wanted to visit the source but River Cottage got in the way. It was just too busy – I’d swapped horses for courses.

The full event programme is one excuse but there has been a bigger reason – the television camera. Now generally what happens when the camera crew turn up, through no real fault of their own, is it all tends to get a bit chaotic. As I’m sure you are aware, there are events or courses on at HQ almost on a daily basis - and when there aren’t any events, there is very likely to be a photo shoot. In the past during filming, there is a general sense of 'let the camera crew find their feet, and we will try to work around what they are doing'. This is often helped by the fact that the footage they are shooting doesn’t have to be in 'real time', or reflect the actual time it will be broadcast. Not so anymore...

This next series is being shot down at HQ, with several strands or 'back stories' going on at the same time, all of which will focus on seasonality.  Each episode will be broadcast within weeks of it being shot. This adds to the chaos tenfold, but adds a huge amount of fun too.

So far we have built a duck house for our new ducklings, which were hatched in two batches over the last three weeks. They were incubated for 28 days up in the garden shed, and kept in pens with a heat lamp until they were strong enough to venture out for the first time today. It’s really satisfying seeing animals showing natural behavior so quickly. I know that probably sounds a bit daft stating it positive when ducks act like ducks, but there is a sensible point to make.

When you create the correct environment for your animals with enough grass and shade, or a fresh running stream in the case of our ducklings, it really shows in their behavior. They dig for grubs in the grass, chase each other around and have boisterous rough and tumble sessions just like they would in a wild habitat.

We have never had ducks at HQ and so it was a real surprise to see how fast they grow.  As is the norm here at River Cottage, all our animals are kept with the best husbandry in mind, which means that environmental enrichment is uppermost. It’s not uncommon to see toys for them to play with or shaded ramps and bridges for them to cross. It’s bit like Alton Towers for poultry. Truth of the matter is that they go mad for pecking at old DVDs which we hang on string – although we don’t tell Hugh that they are from his early episodes (we tell him they are from The F-Word).

We’ve also been on a surf-and-turf forage, where Hugh, Gill, John Wright and myself set out competitively to gather as much wild food as we could, meeting back at the shoreline to cook up the ingredients. I won’t give too much away, but it was taken very seriously. We had to turn in all our keys, wallets and phones so that there could be no cheating. I had secretly stashed away a hip flask of something 'medicinal' to help John and I focus, but we were rumbled by Hugh and he confiscated it just as we were about to head off. That put John in a bit of a bad mood and he didn’t seem to have much luck through the day...

First he snapped the blade on his favourite foraging knife. Then he misplaced his glasses and had to continue almost mole-like for a while. He then broke the handle on his basket, and to top it all off: accidentally knelt in a fresh cow pat, all on camera. The new show has a working title of River Cottage Everyday but after that sequence could be called Carry On at River Cottage.

Earlier today, just before I sat down to post this blog entry, we hosted a very successful press day to promote the new series. I’m not allowed to spoil confidentiality, but over the next week or so you should see articles and features popping up all over the place. I was involved in doing a tour around Park Farm with a camera crew from MSN’s lifestyle channel. Apparently they get 15 million users but that didn’t affect me (because what usually happens is that I always end up on the cutting room floor anyway). It wouldn’t surprise me if I get replaced and upstaged by a duckling. You never know, one day I might turn out to be a swan.

So back to the journey back. I’m off for sure, and no excuses. A big journey starts with one small step - but this time in the right direction.