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Kill it Cook it Eat it - Burgers

Saturday, March 20, 2010 at 01:02PM
Tags: animal species, beef calves, exmoor ponies, grass fed, lush pastures, mothers milk, pipers, red rubies, red ruby cattle
Filed in: Pipers Farm, BBC TV Series, Recipes

We start the journey with our 6 young people, all from different backgrounds, experiences and lifestyles, and introduce them to our Red Ruby cattle. Most of our cattle have been born and reared on Exmoor, where the landscape is stunning - wild beautiful, moody - but the land itself is only capable of growing heather and moorland grass: a perfect home for a vast variety of wildlife, including deer, sheep, Exmoor ponies and the Red Rubies, who all thrive on the poor vegetation. No need to buy in feed from across the world, an issue which concerns James, the vegan.

We meet John Richards whose family have farmed Ash Farm for 4 generations, drawing on a wealth of experience of stockmanship and how to manage that piece of Exmoor.

So our Red Rubies are grass-fed, hardy and live on their mothers' milk and moorland vegetation for the first 8 months of their lives. Compare this to many beef calves who spend at most 7 days with their mothers, more likely 2 - 3 days, and then are reared on artificial milk powder.

At one year old, the calves move down to the low-lying lush pastures of the Somerset Levels at Athelney. This is another amazing and ancient landscape, crossed by large drainage ditches. In King Alfred's time Athelney, where the farmhouse stands, was an island surrounded by marsh and was underwater for much of the year. Now the land still floods each winter, which naturally fertilizes the soil. Tim never spreads fertilizer or reseeds the pastures and yet the diversity of plant, bird and animal species is great. This is the natural way to manage the Somerset Levels, which means the only crops suitable for the landscape are willow for baskets and cattle. Once again we are working in close harmony with nature.

At about 3 years old the cattle come to Pipers Farm, with its small fields - home to a wide variety of plants, birds and animals - and wide hedges - natural corridors for wildlife to move safely from place to place. Like Exmoor and the Somerset Levels, Pipers Farm is more like a nature reserve, and there are no other crops we could grow without radically changing the landscape as it has been for centuries.

The fields are too small for growing cereals or commercial vegetables - the only way would be to remove these ancient hedges - and only 10% of the farm would be able to grow organic vegetables, because the land is too wet or too steep, which would lead to soil erosion.

The soil at Pipers Farm is naturally rich and the grasses in our pastures are deep rooted to draw nutrients from the soil and full of clover which is not only sweet to eat but naturally fertilizes the ground.

These landscapes which are only suitable to grow grass must be managed, or they would revert to a wilderness. Management could be by mowing, using fossil fuels, or by grazing with livestock, a system developed over centuries as the best way to manage these landscapes.

We feed a small amount of rolled barley and rolled oats to finish the cattle, all from our local feed mill, with whom we have worked closely for 20 years. We have complete confidence in them and trust them to deliver exactly what we want. We could not have the same trust in large feed mills, more of this later.

The 6 young people followed the journey of two bullocks from Pipers Farm to the abattoir, a small artisan family-run business. John and Richard are farmers themselves and craftsmen, which is clearly shown on camera. We have complete confidence and trust in their work to slaughter our livestock in the most humane way possible. That is important to us, because any stress at slaughter reduces the quality of the carcase. John and Richard show the whole process to the young people, and the cameras - not something they would be willing to do if there was anything to hide, and not something many other abattoirs would be prepared to entertain.

We then return with the carcases to Pipers Farm and meet Tubs, John and Garry in the cutting room. All three guys are highly skilled and experienced in their work and we have complete confidence and trust in them to deliver what our customers love about Pipers Farm meat - well hung, scrupulously trimmed, packed in convenient, easy to manage quantities.

Chrystella: I can't trust what's in meat anymore, that's the reason why I became vegetarian. . . . it's about welfare too.

Everything we sell we produce ourselves. We control every detail. The reason for this is we can give customers, who share Chrystella's concerns about what they are eating, the complete confidence that when they buy from Pipers Farm they know exactly what they are buying. These were our own concerns when we first started Pipers Farm, that not only did we not have confidence in what was available to buy, and we even felt unhappy feeding the chickens we were growing for a still highly reputable High Street chain to our two young children!

It goes back to the complete trust we have in our farmers, such as John Richards and Tim Morgan, to rear our stock in the best possible way and in total harmony with the landscapes, and associated wildlife, they are nurturing, as their families have done for generations.

Back to the complete trust in the feed we are giving to our animals, because we will only use feed from our local feed mill, and not pursue sources of cheaper feed which may contain ingredients which compromise our standards, and mean we cannot give the assurance we feel is so important to our customers.

Back to the complete trust in John and Richard at the abattoir.

And back to the complete confidence in all the guys who work here at Pipers Farm, the butchers, the cutting room team, the chefs, the guys on the farm and in our Exeter shop.

As shown in the programmes, we hang all our meat in the traditional way on the bone, our Red Ruby beef for 4 weeks, our lamb, pork and turkeys for 3 weeks and our chickens for 2 weeks. This is pretty unique. Hanging develops flavour and tenderness and, as Peter describes in the programme, during the hanging process, the carcase loses about 10% of its weight. Compare this to some supermarket meat which is "matured" for 21 days - taken off the bone and matured in a vacuum pack - not the same process at all. And almost all chicken available on the market are killed and straight onto the shelf.

It means every piece of meat our customers buy from Pipers Farm is not full of water so goes further and feeds more people than its industrially produced equivalent that has not been hung. To compare the price of a kilo of meat from an industrial system with Pipers Farm is meaningless - much better to compare the price per portion .

When we met Harry Lansdown, commissioning editor for the BBC in June, it became clear that, to make the programme "Kill it Cook it Eat it", we needed the 6 young people to get close up to the animals, to understand how we rear them, to pick out two of these animals for slaughter, to watch them being slaughtered, then help the butchers to cut the meat, and Garry to create the fast food; to cook and then eat the meat from the animals they had chosen and watched being slaughtered.

We all agreed that it would be interesting to do this and compare the freshly killed burger, made to the Pipers Farm recipe, with a Pipers Farm steakburger made from mince that had been hung for 4 weeks. It would illustrate clearly the taste and texture difference between the fresh killed and 4 week hung. After our meeting with Harry we did some taste comparisons at home with friends and family, including a couple of the chefs from Lords Cricket Ground who were staying here to learn more about the meat we supply them. Everyone, even some youngish children, found the difference in both taste and texture was huge, just as the six young people discovered on camera.

Kerri: I would love to be able to buy food that is nicely produced and well looked after, but for me, at the moment, because I am on a really strict budget I cannot justify spending that much more.

This is the starting point for Kerri's journey and we follow her as she understands more about the meat she is buying and feeding to her 2 small children. When Helen Osborn shows the young people what ingredients go into an economy burger, to be honest it was an eye opener to me too.

Kerri: on smelling the ‘economy burger’ mix: . . . the garlic and the onion make it smell a bit nicer, but it's kinda there as a cover up.

Kerri: I have a husband and two children. They tend to eat a lot of things that are easy to hold and things like chicken nuggets and stuff

When we came to cook our freshly killed and well hung Pipers Farm steak burgers, although the recipe was identical and the look when raw was similar, the freshly hung burgers fell apart because of the higher water content. The economy burgers from a reputable High Street chain did not in any way resemble either of the burgers made at Pipers Farm - the time spent with Helen clearly explained to all six young people why.

Kerri: so much far and away better than a cheap rubbish burger on tasting the difference between Pipers Farm steakburgers (£1.30 each) (which is 85% beef and gives one portion) and economy supermarket burgers (40p each) (which would require 2 burgers for one portion and minimal nutritional value)

Which is better value? What do you think? Let us know in your comments.

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Kill it Cook it Eat it

Friday, January 8, 2010 at 05:14PM
Tags: calving, farm bbc program, julia bradbury, Kill it Cook it Eat it, lambing, meat farming
Filed in: Pipers Farm, BBC TV Series, Recipes

Charlotte first came to Pipers Farm in March 2009. The BBC had commissioned Dragonfly TV Productions to make a fourth series of Kill it Cook it Eat it, and Dragonfly chose Charlotte Winby, series producer of the successful third series on game (deer stalking, rabbits, wildfowl), to produce the fourth series. We were one of 9 companies that she was researching, and were sure, when she drove away that evening, that we would not see her again.

In early April, Charlotte telephoned to say she would like to make all six programmes based at Pipers Farm. Lambing and calving were in full swing by then, so she went up onto Exmoor, in glorious spring weather, to meet and film Pete Delbridge and his lambing ewes, and John Richards and his Red Ruby cows calving. Kill it Cook it Eat it series 4 was rolling.

In August, Paul Durgan, producer of the pig/sausage programme, and his assistant Eva, came to film us at home working Chip and describing the history behind, and what led us to start, Pipers Farm. Talking to camera answering Paul's questions, again in glorious sunshine, was a lot easier than getting Chip to perform! Mostly she feels she is Peter's working partner so, as a result, she and I underwent a period of intensive training together. Our sheep were endlessly patient and good humoured, and all the time Chip and I were developing a closer working relationship. I loved it, in fact I think we both did.

In mid September the farm became a film set. We had about 40 crew on site, from producers, directors, camera guys, sound guys, lighting guys, as well as the six volunteers, Julia Bradbury, Professor John Webster, Helen Osborn, our food consultant from the Duchy College, and Mandy, our lovely nurse, to make sure Luke was fine at the abattoir. Alice transformed our kitchen into the sitting room where the volunteers and Julia watched video footage and discussed what they were seeing, feeling and about to experience. Our sitting room became the dining room, all laid for dinner, and the 'playroom' (latterly, our son Ed's office 'Tech Suite 1') became Julia's room.

It felt really strange living on a film set, and on the first night we cooked supper and then looked around for somewhere to sit and eat. We perched precariously with supper on our knees on the dining room chairs, thinking two weeks might start to feel a very long time!

The next day the mobile canteen and the guys from Red Chutney were up and running, serving breakfast for us all from 7am. They cooked amazing food, using Pipers Farm meat, and life certainly picked up! Charlotte believes a well fed crew is a happy crew and we all looked forward to the next meal. When the Red Chutney van drove away two weeks later, we felt totally bewildered - we would have to shop for food, work out meals, cook. . . . it was a shock!

Filming started with the cattle on the hill behind the house. It was not until we arrived in the field that I realised that the one heifer in the group, with 8 bullocks, was bulling (in season). Filming them was quite a challenge as the bullocks could not leave her alone, and she became quite frustrated by their amorous advances One moment they were all grouped around Phoebe, Luke and James quietly eating, and the next moment the heifer was off at speed down the hill with the bullocks in hot pursuit.

Working Chip for the lamb kebab programme went like a dream - all the training had paid off. She worked brilliantly for James and Luke, and it was a treat to see the pleasure that gave them both. Again it was amazing weather - if the summer was poor, it certainly came good for the filming.

The days developed a rhythm, with everyone arriving and parking in the field behind the house at 7am, and head for a hearty breakfast, followed by a planning meeting for the day ahead. A full day's filming, either here at Pipers Farm, or at the abattoir, or with Mike and Mary, or in the cider orchard with the pigs, or with family Pring, and then everyone left at 7pm and the farm was quiet and ours again.

All the team at Pipers Farm found the experience interesting and rewarding. We all feel passionate about our work and the food we are producing, and it was great to share our passion with all the guys here. The crew were a great team, all pulling together and fun, yet understanding. We loved watching them at work, and watching as the programmes were being shot and directed by Nick, Charlotte and Fred, sitting in front of their screens in the large mobile camera van parked in the yard. Also loved watching Guy and Sarah with the jib camera, getting those amazing high shots of the house, cattle barn and surrounding landscapes.

We much enjoyed meeting all the volunteers, each bringing their own very different experiences to the farm at the start of their Pipers Farm journey. For 5 of them, it was their first time on a farm and their first opportunity to talk to farmers. For us it was most interesting, having time to discuss all sorts of issues involved in farming, food production, budgets, health, and nutrition.

We were also fascinated with the added dimension Helen Osborn brought - we knew a bit about the make-up of economy ranges of burgers, sausages, etc but the table full of pretty shocking ingredients and the inconsistency in what is allowable in labelling was an eye-opener. That was definitely a journey that we took.

On the last night the Dragonfly team organised a wrap party here at the farm. Everyone in Pipers Farm team and their families was here. It made a very memorable end to the filming - a moonlit night, barrels of fabulous beer from Otter Brewery, cider, a folk band from Bradninch with 20 month old Tamar dancing to their music, Lorraine, a key member of the Pipers Farm team, and her husband roasted a Pipers Farm pig and crazy dancing on the yard at Pipers Farm late into the night. At the end of the party, everyone signed our visitors book and I think all of them felt that they had travelled a journey in their two weeks at Pipers Farm.

Alice returned and transformed the film set back to our home. When the last Landrover drove out of the drive, we felt a huge feeling of achievement that we had all pulled together to create something special. We hope you will think so too.