River Cottage Spring

Hugh gets hands on with lambing, chomps through asparagus and teaches a veggie how to butcher meat

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall cooks and tastes his way through the crops on offer as spring reaches its peak. Hugh picks his favourite seasonal vegetables and foraged foods from the kitchen garden and hedgerow to make delicious recipes. Also, the Bristol holding experiment continues as the saddleback pigs arrive, Susan takes on the task of butchering a lamb carcass, and Hugh's country honey faces a taste off at Broadway market.

This week Hugh's cooking up some delicious early potatoes, welcoming goats to River Cottage and celebrating the graduation of his butcher's apprentice with a meaty spring barbecue. And, proving beyond all doubt that broad beans really are his very best, most favourite vegetable, he uses them in a whizzy new take on a classic snack with his broad beans on toast

Spring's drawing to a close and as Hugh prepares to say hello to summer, he's getting all excited about over wet garlic and gooseberries. Soon River Cottage will be on full harvest mode and to celebrate the best of the new season Hugh's throwing open the doors for a 'spring into summer' party. Before the guests arrive, Hugh sneaks off for some private pleasures with carrots. "Look at that one! It's an absolute clonker," he rhapsodises. "I don't know if that’s the last crunch of spring or the first crunch of summer."