Beyond River Cottage is a British cooking documentary series created by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as part of his "River Cottage" series of documentaries, which include Escape to River Cottage, Return to River Cottage and River Cottage Forever.
The series originally aired in the UK on Channel 4 in 2004. There are 10 half-hour episodes in the series.
Beyond River Cottage premiered in South Africa on DStv's BBC Food channel on Sunday 10 February 2008, at 14h00. Episodes air one after the other in a block of five, spread over two weekends.
Synopsis
It has been five years since Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall escaped the city sprawl and all its stresses and downshifted into rural Dorset.
Over three River Cottage series’, we followed his experiment in surviving life as a smallholder, living off the fat of the land and the sweat of his brow involved a steep learning curve ... and a lot of fun.
Now Hugh is committed to the rural life, and so he and his growing family are moving from the cottage to a small 44 acre farm nearby. More land means more livestock, and Hugh’s looking for a way to make he family farm financially viable.
So he takes the tenancy on a ramshackle collection of old dairy buildings which he plans to develop as a new venture – River Cottage HQ.
This series, Beyond River Cottage, follows Hugh and his family as they move on to the farm, expanding the River Cottage lifestyle and developing a new culinary enterprise.
Episodes
Episode 1
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.
Episode 2
A few weeks later, Hugh's farm is still filled with mud and muck. He sets himself a ludicrous two-week deadline to create a working kitchen and a charming dining room out of the filth, after which he hopes to kick off his themed seasonal nights.
Episode 3
Hugh's sow Maggie is due to give birth to piglets. While he waits for Maggie to give birth, he must install proper plumbing and loos before he can welcome members of the public to The River Cottage HQ.
Episode 4
It's the opening night of The River Cottage HQ. For the first time Hugh hopes to serve food to 40 paying guests and he wants to cook them something spectacular. He chooses lobster.
There's been a report of a three-foot lobster living on a wreck off the Dorset coast, and Hugh and his diving pal Tim Rudkin set off with a giant home-made metal trap to try and catch it.
Episode 5
Hugh has been invited to an Easter Blossom Picnic Party, where the stakes are high in a competition for the best picnic. Hugh gets into the swing of things and, with mushroom-hunter John Wright, goes to great lengths to find one of the most prized seasonal mushrooms around - morells - for his picnic terrine.
Episode 6
Hugh is tempted into installing beehives at The River Cottage HQ in order to reap the harvest of the bees' hard work. The only problem is his fear of being stung. He also takes on his biggest event yet, a wedding party. The newly-weds want food that is not only local and fresh but either wild or home-grown.
Episode 7
Hugh teams up with Lyme Regis fisherman John Wason to catch, cook and flog John's favourite fruit of the sea - whelks. Spiced up with some exotic ingredients from the polytunnel, they sell them on the beaches on Carnival day.
Episode 8
At River Cottage HQ, with the help of bee-keeper Ken Bishop, Hugh carefully extracts a healthy 25lbs of glowing golden sweetness. To prove the quality of the harvest, and his skills with honey in the kitchen, Hugh enters the bee-keeping classes at the Melplash Country Show.
Episode 9
Hugh's going with the seasonal flow and planning a menu for a special Autumn feast at River Cottage HQ. His hens have produced almost 30 chicks over the summer, and Hugh's looking to the young cockerels to provide the main course for the feast.
Episode 10
It's Christmas and Hugh is preparing for River Cottage HQ's final event of the year. The plan is to shoot, harvest, gather and cook enough food to furnish the tables for a magnificent medieval festive banquet.