Somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, I realised a while back that I'd never actually seen the original series of River Cottage. I also recently had a birthday – cue a very unsubtle hint to Mr C for a birthday present.
Escape To River Cottage covers Hugh's original move to Dorset and his first attempts at self-suficiency. It's amusing looking back and seeing him tackle things in a slightly naive manner when he would do exactly the same things today very confidently. In a way I found that there was actually a lack of information about some of the things that he was doing. When this series first went out people weren't necessarily interested in becoming self sufficient themselves in the way that people are now, hence the series wasn't aiming to show people how to do it themselves in the way that current series do.
It is good being able to see how it all started though and to realise how far Hugh and his River Cottage lifestyle has moved on since. After plenty of time where I've been preoccupied with other things it was also quite motivational to get outside and do my own bit of self sufficiency in the back garden. I've also been prompted to buy the following two series Return To River Cottage
and River Cottage Forever and I'm looking forward to catching up further with developments at River Cottage.
Yes, a fascinating journey and I must say he remains the main source of inspiration here. A rare programme where we are both encouraged to do more!