River Cottage Episode Rating Graph

Hugh begins his preparations for Christmas, making chocolate brownies to give as gifts and using his slaughtered steer to create canapes of biltong and pastrami for a party. He heads to an Exeter nightclub to continue his mission to get wild rabbits back onto the British menu, hunts for the blewitt mushroom, and tries to catch herring for the first time.

Hugh prepares a chilli and pumpkin party for 200 people. He joins Gill Mellow and Tim Maddams to resurrect a childhood favourite of crispy pancakes using smoked pollack, bacon, cheese and sweetcorn. He travels to Cornwall to meet fishermen who have found a sustainable and lucrative market in catching squid, and visits members of a community who are determined to grow and rear their own Christmas dinners.

Hugh deals with a rabbit invasion in his garden by bringing in two warreners, and takes his children to Devon to look for wild mussels with French teacher Nathalie Arnold and her family. He receives help from his local Women's Institute to get rabbits back on the British menu.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall returns to celebrate the selection of fare available over the autumn and winter seasons. After travelling to Gloucestershire for expert advice on making pear cider, he undergoes a crash course in free diving and takes to the open sea to find scallops. He also joins foraging guru John Wright to hunt for mushrooms in the woods, visits a mass tree planting day in the Peak District and uses the offal from his two-year-old steer to make a hearty stew.

Hugh is trying to change the opinion of veal, which has recently been avoided in Britain on the grounds of poor welfare. He visits a local farm that is producing welfare friendly veal animals to explore the problem further. Armed with culinary veal delights he then heads to Taunton farmers market to put the welfare friendly meat to the public vote.

In this first episode, Hugh makes peace with the pigs, and says goodbye to bacon sandwiches, and instead heads into the River Cottage vegetable garden to see what green summer vegetables he can get his hands on to set him on his way. A classic summer garden soup is a sure fire winner.

This time at River Cottage the theme is treats, with everything from sponge cake, lemon curd muffins, cheesy tarts and a vanilla and elderflower panna cotta.

Hugh shows that breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, with Swiss-style muesli soaked in fruit juice, pancakes, sausage-stuffed grilled mushroom and a 'full English' salad.

Hugh's challenge this time is to convert a house full of student girls to the delights of fresh fish with dishes ranging from marvellous mussels to tempting Thai fish curries.

Hugh believes the way to make organic free range meat fit your budget, is to eat and enjoy cheap cuts rather than cheap meat.

Hugh welcomes comedy actors Kathy Burke, Stephen Mangan and Mark Heap to River Cottage. What could possibly go wrong?

It's firework time at River Cottage and Hugh's preparing for a Bonfire Night shindig. But before any marshmallows can be toasted there's some hard graft needed, as the team bottle down for winter with some pickles, chutneys and preserves.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is joined at River Cottage by comedians Robert Webb, Lee Mack and Ruby Wax. Can two days of classes whip them into shape as serious chefs?

Hugh makes bread. Everything from simple white loaves to tangy sourdoughs, cheese and Guinness stuffed soda breads, an Italian bread salad, and his favourite summer sandwich.

Hugh uses the fat from a cow's 'kidney knob' to make a spectacular flaming jam roly poly, his road test for a Christmas pudding with a twist

Hugh is faced with a group of self-confessed ready meal addicts. Hugh struggles to cope with their laziness, food foibles and squeamish approach to fresh produce.

Hugh entertains a group of fast food addicted city folk. With busy lifestyles and no desire to cook, the only solution seems to be buying something from the chinese, kebab or curry houses, which is definitely not the River Cottage philosophy. First up, it’s a group of finger-lickin’ chicken-lovers who are living off takeaways and cheap chicken portions from the supermarket. Hugh’s not afraid to use shock tactics in his mission to change their ways.

Good friends and helpful neighbours are an essential part of the rural idyll. Hugh recalls his initiation into the rural Dorset community.

From putting in his first organic veg beds, running the gauntlet of pests, to harvesting bumper crops from his polytunnel. He also offer tips on how to triumph at the local Horticultural show.

It's late May, the vet calls and it's bad news: Marge the cow is not as pregnant as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall once thought, there'll be no more lambs and the first batch of eggs are all addled.

Hugh explains how the river and sea offer the free food - from crabs and cuttlefish to eels and pike.

Hugh concludes his trip by heading to the Lake District and Yorkshire in search of the finest northern tea experience. On his return to Dorset, he stops off in Birmingham, where he looks for the definitive recipe for curried goat. Back at base, he rustles up a Caribbean-flavoured feast for local lifeboat men, including salted pollock, rum cake and a beach bar of tropical drinks.

Hugh's journey towards self-sufficiency started out with a modest vegetable patch and a handful of animals, but he soon realised the importance of growing your own fruit, vegetables and meat.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall heads off to Dumfriesshire and Cumbria in search of culinary inspiration and some regional recipes that he can take back home. Hugh throws himself into haggis-hunting in the Borders and char-fishing on Lake Coniston, tirelessly pursues the finest Cumbrian damsons, as well as cooking up all sorts of delicious dishes with the talented regional cooks he meets on his travels.

Hugh arrives at River Cottage, a former Gamekeeper's cottage in west Dorset. He sets about removing the plants from the garden and starts planting his vegetables.

In this episode Hugh has to deal with impending birth of piglets. He solve the problem of no toilets for the new restaurant and finally tests some new soup receipts at the Bristol Farmers market.

The year has moved to April. With the seasonal spring vegetables coming into their own, Hugh decides to set up a special seasonal dinner for 40 paying customers.

The year is moving to late spring and the lambing has gone very well. Hugh attempts to win the Blossom Picnic Festival. Finally he decides to learn a bit about traditional English bread making.

River Cottage HQ restaurant has been open for a month and things are going well. Hugh agrees to host a wedding feast for over a 100 guests, using nothing but produce grown on his farm.

Summer is now if full swing. Hugh inspired by an excellent crop of tomatoes decides to conduct a tomato festival at River Cottage HQ in an attempt to make money from the over-supply of produce.

Moving into Autumn Hugh decides to enter competitions promoted by the local bee keeping society. He also decides to try and reignite interest in offal by preparing tripe for the local farmers market.

Hugh takes up pottery skills to learn how to make clay pots designed for cooking chickens. He also goes in search of mushrooms from the air and finally he arranges for his ewes to be serviced.

Hugh ends the year with a medieval feast including 10 birds within a bird. He also takes his staff to a Christmas party hunting and then cooking squid freshly caught that day.

Hugh decides that the river that give the cottage its name should contribute to his larder. So he has an eel trap made and puts it to use in the river. He also spends the day as a pheasant beater being paid with pheasant not money for his day's work. Then it's a lesson in cider making with the Chiddick Cider Circle. He tests the theory that the cider's purity will never result in a hangover.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back on the part that wild food has played over his six years of Dorset downshifting.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back on his experiences of bagging 'one for the pot' from the rabbits that are eating his lettuces.

Hugh heads to the Channel Islands to cast his fishing rod into the ocean. What he catches, he cooks, either on board his boat or on the beach.

Hugh visits the Hebrides in Scotland where he learns about how the sea and the food it provides have shaped life on the islands. He also sources shellfish and sustainable salmon, and takes over Skye's chippy with only eco-friendly fish he has caught himself.

Hugh has discovered that he is not alone at River Cottage, there are mice at the cottage and he wants rid of them - by humane means. There's an early start to try and bag a roebuck and a nostalgic reunion with a childhood hero as he goes in search of prawns.

After several days and sleepless nights, Hugh's first ewe finally gives birth to twins - the perfect Easter present.

Hugh's been at the cottage a month, his vegetables have been planted and they are growing nicely. Pike is on the menu today, but he'll have to catch one first. There's also a trip to the local fruit farm for a day's fruit picking with the transient eastern European workforce.

Continuing his retrospective assessment of the vital elements of rural life, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall looks back on his ever-increasing commitment to sourcing his food locally.