A New Addition to the Family: Celebrating the Arrival of Little Sienna

You don't look as tired as I thought you would. Why? "Cause I'm what, I'm not drinking Berocca and Lucozade?" Yeah, I'll do this, a little mini announcement. Had a daughter. Well, I didn't, my wife did. Little Sienna has entered the world, and Austin now has a little sister. Yes, but more importantly, I've got a new kitchen gadget.

The guest in question is the proud father of two, who recently shared with us his experience welcoming a new addition to the family. As he sat down with us, he couldn't help but share his excitement about the arrival of Little Sienna, and how it has brought a new dynamic to their household. With a new baby comes new responsibilities, but this dad is ready for whatever comes next.

The New Addition: A Welcome Surprise

As the guest continued to chat with us, he shared his thoughts on the arrival of Little Sienna. "It's been a whirlwind few days," he said, "but I couldn't be happier." With two kids already in tow, this new addition has brought a fresh set of challenges, but also a wealth of new experiences for the whole family. As we talked with the guest, it was clear that he was relishing every moment of this new chapter.

A Little Story from Our Guest's Past

As our conversation continued, the guest decided to share a little story from his past. It was back in the early 2000s, and he was in his early teens, high school years, when they were having visitors for dinner at home. His mother had decided to make a fruit Charlotte, homemade creme pat, fresh fruit on top, and it was almond-flavored. She worked through it and added the almond extract, then asked all of them to smell the mixture. Unfortunately, it smelled a bit too floral and flowery, according to his mom.

A School Project Gone Wrong

As our guest shared this story, he couldn't help but chuckle at the memory. It seemed that he had done a school project that needed a unique bottle, so he took his perfume out of his perfume bottle and put it into an empty extract bottle, leaving it on a shelf in his room. Unfortunately, his father, who was quite clean, noticed the extract bottle and took it back downstairs to put it away where it belonged. This led to a bit of a mess.

A Half-And-Half Mix-Up

As our guest continued to share this story, he explained that his mom didn't remake the whole dessert but instead did a half-and-half mix to try and save on ingredients or dilute the flavor. The resulting dessert was quite an experience for all involved, especially when it came time to serve it.

A Lesson Learned: Perfume in Desserts

Our guest couldn't help but laugh at the memory of his mom's mistake. As he looked back on this experience, he realized that perfume can be quite potent and should not be used in desserts. He shared a few tips for those who might find themselves in a similar situation, including adding coconut milk or other ingredients to dilute the flavor.

A Conversation about Food

As our conversation came to a close, our guest decided to share something entirely different – his thoughts on food. With a background as a radio DJ and model, he has always had an interest in the culinary world. He shared with us one of his favorite stories about food-related mishaps that often don't go to plan.

A Friend from George Lamb's Past

Our guest went on to share a fascinating story about his friend, George Lamb. When they were growing up, he was iconic – appearing on all of their TV shows and radio stations. However, one day he had an epiphany mid-TV slot and decided to leave the world of entertainment behind to pursue something entirely different in the food industry.

A New Chapter for George

Our guest shared with us how George Lamb's decision to leave his former life behind was a remarkable story of transformation. From being a radio DJ to becoming a model, he had it all – but ultimately chose a path that allowed him to explore his true passion for food. It is clear that this new chapter has been a successful one for George.

The Conversation Continues

As our guest continued to chat with us, we couldn't help but feel drawn into his world of food and entertainment. He shared with us stories of his time on TV shows and radio stations, as well as his experiences in the kitchen. With a heart full of laughter and a mind full of wonder, he opened up about the power of food to bring people together.

The Guest's Thoughts on Food

As our conversation came to a close, our guest shared with us his thoughts on food-related mishaps that often don't go to plan. He laughed as he recalled the story of his mom's perfume-infused dessert and shared some words of wisdom for those who might find themselves in similar situations. With a quick wit and a sharp tongue, he regaled us with tales of culinary disasters and the lessons learned from them.

A New Addition to Our Podcast

As we wrapped up our conversation with our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

The Guest's Parting Words

As our conversation came to a close, our guest decided to leave us with one final thought – the power of food to bring people together. He shared with us the importance of embracing new experiences and the value of learning from our mistakes. As we said goodbye, we couldn't help but feel inspired by his words and grateful for the opportunity to have met him.

A New Chapter for Our Guest

As we wrapped up our conversation with our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A Conversation About Food

As our conversation came to a close, our guest decided to leave us with one final thought – the power of food to bring people together. He shared with us the importance of embracing new experiences and the value of learning from our mistakes. As we said goodbye, we couldn't help but feel inspired by his words and grateful for the opportunity to have met him.

A New Chapter for Our Podcast

As we wrapped up our conversation with our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A New Chapter for Our Guest

As we said goodbye to our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A Conversation About Food

As our conversation came to a close, our guest decided to leave us with one final thought – the power of food to bring people together. He shared with us the importance of embracing new experiences and the value of learning from our mistakes. As we said goodbye, we couldn't help but feel inspired by his words and grateful for the opportunity to have met him.

A New Chapter for Our Podcast

As we wrapped up our conversation with our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A New Chapter for Our Guest

As we said goodbye to our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A Conversation About Food

As our conversation came to a close, our guest decided to leave us with one final thought – the power of food to bring people together. He shared with us the importance of embracing new experiences and the value of learning from our mistakes. As we said goodbye, we couldn't help but feel inspired by his words and grateful for the opportunity to have met him.

A New Chapter for Our Podcast

As we wrapped up our conversation with our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A New Chapter for Our Guest

As we said goodbye to our guest, it was clear that he had been a perfect addition to our podcast. He brought with him a wealth of knowledge, a dash of humor, and a healthy dose of humility. As we locked in the details for his next appearance, we couldn't help but feel grateful for the opportunity to share his story with our audience.

A Conversation About Food

As our conversation came to a close, our guest decided to leave us with one final thought –

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(upbeat music)(glass clangs)- You don't look as tiredas I thought you would.- Why?'Cause I'm what, I'm notdrinking Berocca and Lucozade?Yeah. I'll do this, alittle mini announcement.Had a daughter. Well,I didn't, my wife did.Little Sienna has entered the world,and Austin now has a little sister.Yeah, but more importantly,I've got a new kitchen gadget.(all laughing)- Does it warm breast milk?- I've got all the, I've gotall the baby gadgets alreadyfrom Austin.This is a new purchase, butactually a secondhand itemthat I've got off FacebookMarketplace, a chest freezer.(gasps)Like one you can keep a body in.- Yes.- I mean, don't put that on the internet.- You know, like in American films,they've all got chest freezers.- Stick the body in.- You've all seen Dexter.- Yeah, exactly. Andit's been a life changer.Like suddenly, like my,I have a little crappy little freezerat the bottom of my fridgethat you can't keep so much in.Now I have got a filingsystem in my freezer.Ebbers, you would love it.My frozen fruits, my frozen vegetables,breast milk, placentas, it's got it all.- So you've got a pa-pa-what?- No, no, no. We won'ttalk about that bit.- You got a placenta in the freezer?- No, no, no, he usedthe plural, placenta.- Placentas- No placenta.- Easy to define.- I was gonna say.- Hoarding.- You've taken your, you take the,you took the placenta with you?- It was weirdhaving the placenta inthe fridge in the house.Now it's in the garage.- We went fromdon't keep dead bodies in your freezer to.- What's happening?- Essentially, it is, yeah.I guess it's part of,yeah, we won't go there.That's for another podcast.- Is that a keepsake?- That's for a Pokerfaceepisode coming to you soon.- Did the doctor sign it?Like what is it, a keepsake?- No, it's there for benefits.I'm not gonna explain anymore.I wasn't gonna mention the placenta.- Well, you absolutely did.- I forgot.I was talking about the chestfreezer and it's brilliant.- So is this a normal freezerthat you just put on its side?- No, it's a proper chest freezer.But the one thing thatit's most useful foris I'm in that zone, which youguys have been there before.I'm in ready meal land.- Yes, prep.- Oh yeah.- And either ones I'vemade and stuck in there,or ones I have bought from that cook brandthat's everywhere, like,we're struggling for time.Therefore, ready meals,they do serve a purpose.And that purpose is now.- I survived off of stuffthat Kush had cooked here.- Mm.- And I took it home and froze it.Like genuinely. I waslike, I'll have that.Scrape that into a bag.Bosh, take it home, lovely.- Dog bags all round. Kush bags.- It's just one of those,there's just no routine at that.You are trying desperatelyto get baby into a routine,but it means that youhave no routine either.And like, you can only grabfood at any given pointwhen you get a chance.- It's because when youget that small windowwhere you're like, okay, they're sleeping.You have 50 million otherthings that need to be doneby the time they wake up.And feeding yourself isn't normallythe top of the prioritylist, so as I said.- Sleep when the babysleeps is the advice.- Oh, bollocks.- No, no, and the onetime you do get to cook,my aim is to cook as much as possible.So I can freeze it.- Batch cook it.- Yeah. Batch cook it.- Yeah.- We're going through thebatch cooking for weaning now.- Yeah. Nice.- So just do it all on a Sunday afternoon.Full meals, now. We're doing full meals.Get it into the freezer. Is this boring?It's probably boring for you, Ebbers.- No, this is real life.- You're not a Dad.- It's real life. I've, yeah.- You're off to boat every weekend.- I'm catching Latvia last weekend.(all laughing)- I've been to Lithuania.- I think you're doing well.Five between three of youI think is good going.- Oh, yeah.- Yeah, yeah, yeah. Itaverages out well, doesn't it?- Yeah.- Yeah.- Let's lock thatnumber in now.- I'm locking mine away.- Everyone happy to lock that number in?- Should we do a written link?- Yeah.- And go and get a.- All together?- Go and get itall tied together.- Vasectomy together.- Yeah, not tied together.- Tied together.- Whoa, whoa.Can you imagine this?That's a horror film thatdoesn't need to be made.I tell you what, I'm gonna segueto something far more interesting.I'd like to pull you back to.- No, no, Ebbers.- Something that we do on the podcast,which is your stories you send in.Food-related things thatoften don't go to planthat are worth sharing.And this is definitelyone of them. From Danny.He goes like this. It wasback in the early 2000s.I was in my early teens,high school years,and we were having visitors for dinner.My mother decided tomake a fruit Charlotte.We're talking homemade cremepat, fresh fruit on top,and it was almond flavoured.She worked through it andadded the almond extractand then asked us allto smell the mixture.She thought it smelt a bittoo floral and flowery.She just couldn't understand it.So we at being the fivekids, all gave it a sniff,and agreed it smelt like perfume.We asked my mom to showus what she'd put in,and then I panicked andrealised what had happened.The funny thing was, a whileback I had a school projectthat needed a unique bottle.So I took my perfumeout of my perfume bottleand put it into the empty extract bottleand left it on a shelf in my room.However, my father, very,very clean man that he was,had come into my room, we were chatting,and he must have noticedthe extract bottleand took it back downstairsand put it back where itshould be in the baking drawer.So now we had a completelyinedible dessert.My mom asked me to rush the storeand get more ingredients, which I did.And here's the worst part,my mom didn't remake the whole dessert.She just kind of did a half and half mixto try and save on ingredients.- Or just dilute it.- Yeah. Still don'tunderstand why she did that.So as dessert is being served,we're all looking at eachother, trying not to laugh.We ate it and said it was great.And my brother even took some homeand then promptly threw it outand vowed never to tell mom.Sorry, mom. Classic friends trifle.- Ooh.- Almond extract subbed out for perfume.- Can you dilute perfumeenough to make it edible?- Don't try this at home.- No, to be honest, likea sprinkling or a gratingof coconut or addingcoconut milk to dilute it.It could have been coconutChanel Charlotte, couldn't it?- It could have been.- Yep. Shut it, placenta boy.(all laughing)- Just to be clear, our guest Georgehasn't just been invitedbecause his surname is food.- No, but it is a wonderful segue.- Okay. He's doing amazing stuff, right.So George Lamb, I'd say iconic,when we were growing up.Like on all of the TV we used to watch.- Radio DJ.- Yeah, radio DJ, model.I mean, he's a good looking chap, still.- Very good looking chap.- But absolutely everywhere.Had an epiphany mid TV,like prime time TV slot.Just decided this ain't for me.And went off to do somethingcompletely differentin the world of food.Unbelievable story. Fascinating guy.As I said, I don't know if I've mentionedhow good looking he's still is.- He has great hair.- Intimidatingly, sorry.- Is the grey hair, is it real?'Cause it's like, it's,look, it's perfectly like a.- Like a silver fall in the front.- Salt and pepper type of a shimmer.- No, no, looked real to me.I didn't pull on it, but it did look real.- But let's not objectify him.But also recently appearedon an episode of \"Clarkson's Farm.\"- Yeah.- Which in its thirdseries have to be honest,is some of the best TVthat there has been in thelast five years, I would say.'Cause it puts farmingand serious conversationsinto entertaining formatsthat everyone wants to watch.- But I'm so glad that him and his,I think it was Andy, his business partner,who used to be part of Groove Armada,which was again, a band inlike the '90s and the '00sthat we would listen to.Now I feel having had thisinterview with George,I have more contextas to how they ended upon \"Clarkson's Farm.\"Because without this context,to me it just looked like.- Isn't that George Lamb?- Isn't that George Lamb?- 'Cause I used to know that,why do they know so much about soil?(all laughing)- Yeah, absolutely. Fascinating guy.Went to India to discover himself.Didn't discover himself untilhe was in a club in Ibiza.This is our amazing chat with George Lamb.(upbeat music)- George, thank you for joining us.- Thank you for having me.- In the pub. Make yourself at home.And we're gonna start thesame way we always start,which is we're desperatefor more ideas for our specials board.So what is your foodgasm?And by that we meanthat one moment in time,fictional, in the future, or the past,that's like the most perfectmeal you've ever had.What and why?- I think so my favourite kind of mealis a kind of long, boozylunch in the sunshine.- An afternoon boozing and a sleep.- A veranda or a terrace?- And more like,so my mate's got a reallylovely beach club in Ibiza.I actually just had onea couple of days ago.- Great.- And just those kind oflike lunches that just drag,you know, and then maybe likeyou, like other, you know,people kind of come in and out of themand other people maybecome and join later.And my dad has a house in France,and the kind of lunch just seemto go on forever basically.And so that's all my fondest memories.And for a dish, like anythingto do with clams, really,that's my jam.Like I like vongole's really,I suppose is the of zenith of all of it.He had like, particularly nowI've just started eatingmeat again for the first timein, I don't know, six or seven years.And he had a, he had like a Bellota ham,like the kind of toptop end of Serrano ham.And it was just bananas.- That, I mean, that is what they doso well on the continent.Those kind of, you know, stop for lunch.Don't grab a sandwich and eat at your deskwhile you're cracking on.- Yeah, just stop the day for lunch.- Just stop everything.- As we should.- To socialise and have good food.- Yeah. I think it'sreally important, man.I think it's really, really important.So we just started a business recentlyand trying to understandhow you build cultureand how you build team,and how information spreadsaround the business.You know, and I think a huge part of thatis about everybody being ableto take a bit of time at lunchand so, you know, we don't do it enough,but we try at least once a monthto make sure that weget some outside food inand everybody sits andspends a bit of time.Really, it should be, I meanreally it should be every day,but it should be at leastonce a week, I think.Anyway, we'll work towards it.- Yeah, absolutely.So having had that sort ofgrowing up as part of family,do you think that there'sa stark differencebetween those types of culturesand the British culturein terms of getting peopletogether around food?Do you think there's a big gap there or?- I definitely thinkthey prioritise it a lotmore on the continent.Food seems to be,I mean like Italians arethe only people I knowwho you can sit at a mealand they'll be talking aboutfood, about another meal.- Yeah. Planning the next meal ahead.- Which is amazing.It's a new thing to me.I was like, this is great.- We only do that on holidaywhen there's nothing else to think about.Like where you're sat havingbreakfast, planning lunch.- Yeah, yeah, exactly.So yeah, I definitelythink, I think it's a shameit's not as kind of ingrainedin our culture as it could be.But equally, even in mykind of like adulthood,which is now, I'm kind of20 odd years into that,the food literacy in this country is.- 100%.- Has, you know, jumped massively, so.- Yeah, we've seen a big, big changeeven since we starteddoing this 14 years ago.It's really nice to see that priorityof getting together as asocial event around foodand whether or not that'sjust in a restaurant,but also making its way intolike the family, the meals,the rainy barbecues, theSunday roast has always beena massive part of sortof our British culture,which is really nice.Every Sunday get together round a roast.We're certainly starting to see thatcome through a little bit more,which is really great to see.- And I mean, talking of big change,and this is what I find sofascinating about your storyis obviously earlier yearswas very much kind of media,show business, likecelebrity TV world and radio.And now very different from that.I wonder if you could just elaborate a bitand tell everyone howthat change happened,and sort of leading intosome of the stuff you do now.- A very kind of potted version of it.So I'd come out of school,or college or whatever,a mate of mine was like, I want to be DJ.I was like, great, I'll manage you.We ended up, it all endedup going really well,obviously, you know, there'slots of twists and turns.But anyway, it all went quite well.Had about five years travellingaround the world, young guys.It was great. And thenkind of stumbled into TV.Kind of followed my nose andfollowed the money really.'Cause I actually thought for a long timeI was just gonna be doingit as a bit of a stopgap.If you follow the money in television,you end up on what's called shiny floor.So that's like Saturdaynight TV, game shows,all the rest of it.I'd run this whole narrative aboutwhen I get to X I'll be really happy.So I got into this thing of like,when I get to prime time,everything'll be great.The reality of the situation isyou just work at slightlydifferent hours of the day,and there was no more meaning in itand there was no more depth to it.And by that pointI'd kind of got to like thetop of the middle basically.I wasn't in the top, top bracket,but I was like reasonably well-known.I was earning really good money.I had a very nice lifestyle.I'd had a peer behind thecurtain and seen what like,you know, kind of like nirvanasupposedly looked like,and I don't know, it justwasn't fulfilling me, basically.And I'd got on,I was doing this game showcalled \"The Bank Job.\"And I had a whole kind ofmoment in the middle of it,it was a live show,and I just found myselfall of a sudden, you know,someone was in my head, likeGeorge, George, George, George.And I'm looking at camera two.- Fill, fill, fill.You know, but no, there was a lot of that,but no, just more like alike come back, you know,I'd zoned out, you know.And I'd had this wholething where I was just like,\"What am I doing in my life?Like I know that my stardidn't get pulled downout of the ether to be a game show host.Like, it just can't be.That's not what I'm here for.Like, it just can't be.\"And I rang my dad thenext day, he's an actor.Rang him, I was like, \"Dad, I don't know,I feel really guilty'cause I've got this nicehouse and a nice life.\"And at that point, literallymy face was on the sideof the bus, you know?And I was just like, \"I'vekind of got everything.Everybody's telling mehow great my life is,and I feel totally empty.\"And he was like, \"Right, well.\"And I was like, \"Well, what?\"And he's like, \"Well, game show host.Not a very serious guy inthe big scheme of things,is it, you know?\"And I was like, I waslike, \"Right, cool, Dad.\"- You always need parentsto bring you back downto Earth, don't you?- Yeah. Real honest chap, thanks.- And I was like, I was like, cool.Didn't want to tell me that,kind of like, you know, for the light.And he was like, \"You're havingsuch a good run at it, boy.You know what I mean?\"And I was like, right, okay, cool.So I was fortunate enough thatI had had a good run at it.I put some money in the bank,and I was just like, if Iget rid of all my overhead,so if I get rid of my kind of teamand I get rid of my house,I'm gonna have some money.And like, I could just go offand I could go and figure out who I amand what I'm meant to be doing,and what the wholepoint of all of this is.And so I kind of had myeat, pray, love moment.I renounced all worldlygoods. Got rid of everything.Told my agent I wasn't comingback, you know, for a while.And I headed off to the East,and I did all the kind ofstereotypical one shanti om stuff.So lots of kind of sitting in the jungle.- Found myself.- Yeah, lots of plantmedicine, lots of meditation,lots of trying to, you know,lots of soul searching.And I found out a lot of like,really interesting stuff about myself,but I wasn't quite, I didn'tquite like hit the, you know,the whoosh, bit and transcend or whatever.And I thought, you knowwhat, can I swear on this?Or I can't swear on it.- Yeah, yeah, you can.- I just (beep) it, I'llgo to Ibiza. And so.- Polar opposite, great.- And so I went to Ibiza andI went into this nightcluband there was this hugeman, I'm quite a big guy,and there was a hugeman, he is like 6'10\".And he looked exhausted, andnot like Ibiza exhausted,like actually existentially exhausted.And I went over to him,we kind of loosely in the same group.And I was just like, \"Hey, you okay?\"And he was like, \"Not really.\"And I was like, \"What's going on?\"And he was kind of about to DJand he said he was one half ofa band called Groove Armada.And he said, \"I sold mypublishing rights to my musica couple of years ago,and I've bought a farm down in Gasconydown in the southwest of France.And the whole thing's a disaster.I'm basically trying to figure outhow you can do regenerative agricultureand it's not working.And I'm about to go bankrupt.And so I'm coming toIbiza to DJ to earn money,to get back to this whole nonsensethat's going up over in France.\"And I was like, wow.Like this is, if you'd havegiven me a thousand guessesat what we were gonna be talkingabout, like this wouldn't,I wouldn't have got close, you know.- I can hear the backchatter,da, da, da, da, da.- Yeah, yeah. All this(imitates record scratching).And I'm like, sorry, what,regenerative what mate? You know?And I was like, I didn't even knowwhat regenerative agriculturewas at this point, you know?And so I was like, \"That'sreally interesting.Like, do you want to hang out a bit?Like you're gonna be around?\"He said, \"Well, I'm comingback every week, you know.\"I said, \"Great.Like, can we go and havesome food or whatever.\"And so every week that summer, I'd go,and I'd go and have dinnerwith him or whatever,and he'd tell me moreabout what he was doingand why he was doing it.And basically he'd come, he'dhave his kind of aha moment.He was sitting in anairport in Germany, I think,he'd read, he's a voracious reader.He'd read everything hecould get his hands on.He'd got down to this magazineand there was an articleabout the perils of theindustrial food systemand the fact it's wrecking the planet.And it ended with the line,if you don't like the system,don't depend on it.He's a man of like incredible integrity.Went home, two young kids,says to his wife, \"Jo,I think we should startgrowing some vegetables.\"Vegetables became a polytunnel.Polytunnel became a stall, local market.Next thing, he's like, \"Jo,I wanna sell my publishingrights, I wanna buy a farm.\"Buys this farm.It works slightlydifferently down in France.So you don't get the, ifwe all wanna buy a farm,we have to sit in front of thelocal agricultural council.Local agricultural council'sbasically all the old boys in the village,you've got to prove to themwhy I should get the farmover you or whatever.He's got patchy, youknow, patchy agriculture.- How good was his French?- Well, his French was all right.His agricultural French was terrible.He's a first generation, you know, farmer.- He has to startfrom scratch.- He's a musician.He's kind of known. He's an English guy.He's not getting the pick of the farmsdown in France, basically.So it turns out whathe got, very beautiful,but an absolutelyknackered farm, basically.So it had 80 years of conventional maize,which is really heavy-dutyindustrial agriculture.And the life in the soil,all the soil biology was knackered.And the genesis point of all life on Earthis functioning soil health, right?So if we don't havefunctioning soil biology,everything that we rely on can't happen.And so his focus is like,how do I bring this soil back to life?He was adamant he was gonna do itvia like organic methods basically.And he spent two years ina kind of war of attrition,building all sorts of mad contraptions,and fighting dock leaves andthistles and all the rest of itwas just about to throw the towel in.Went to buy a book for his daughter,mislabeled in the Enid Blyton sectionwas a book called \"AnAgricultural Testament\"by a guy called Sir Albert Howard.- This is mad.- I literally couldn't make it up.He's like, that's a bit weird, isn't it?I should probably have a look at that.Albert Howard's been dead 100 years.He was leader of thekind of organic movementand very good friends with Lady Balfourwho set the whole thing up.And his whole thesis was,plants and animals havedeveloped over millenniaworking in perfect symbiosis.And when you separate them,you create all sorts of problems.And so Andy's like, \"Oh god, right?\"So maybe, they'd agreed atthis point with his wifewho's gonna sell the farmand cut their losses.He's like, maybe we haveone last roll of the dice,and the last roll of the diceis we get a herd of cattle.- Yeah.- (sighs) What couldpossibly go wrong, anyway?- It's an incremental changeto the original plan, isn't it?- So they get 40 headof cattle onto the farm,and within a year, thebalance and the equilibrium'sback in the soil biology.The weed, you know, weedswe're told are the enemy.Actually if you understand weeds,it's nature giving youa signal to tell you,oh, this plant's gonna come up.If this plant comes up,that means you've got a lack of potassium.If this plant comes up, you'vegot a lack of magnesium.So if you know what you're looking for.- It's like flags.- Gives just a red flag.- The canary in the mines.- There you go. It's literallythe canary in the mines.And so managed to bringthe equilibrium back in.Set up what is the kindof like the kind of,the benchmark of a regenerative farm.So small, local foodnetwork, six families,all earning a living from it.On-site bakery on the farm,got a kiosk in the local town,first bread queues inthe village since 1945.- Even in France?- Even in France. Became aChevalier du Merit de l'Agricole.So he became a farming knight.(all laughing)He got.- I think that's your next one.- Yeah, yeah, yeah.- I'm still on the polytunnel version.- He took his wine course.- But it is addictive.Once you start growing yourown and seeing that nurture,it is addictive.- Andy always says like,\"Once you've grown somethingand you've sat and you've eaten itand you've shared it with your family,it's very hard to go back,\"you know what I mean?And so ended up winning theLaureate prize for innovationfor the best farm in France.And it's amazing whathe achieved down there.And Ed and I, the otherpartners in Wildfarmed,we went over there and we were helping,we were doing kind of busman's holidays,and we knew we wanted to be involved,but we weren't quitesure what we, you know,what we could do orwhatever, neither of us.- You would just rock up in your straw hatand dungarees and lend a hand?- Mainly putting out electricfences to be honest with you,because that's kind of like idiot's work.You know what I mean, so that was our,and cleaning the grainsilos, which is ideal.Oh, that's a lovely jobthat one in 40 degree heat.Anyway, but we don't speak French.And so we were only so helpful down there,and so we kept on trying to encourage himto come back to the UK,and basically you are abit further latitudinallydown on the map.And so if you take anaerial photo of those farm,of his farm, you've got akind of 200 acre green oasis.And if you look to the left and the right,well. you look in any other direction,you've got brownfield factories.And because you're that bit further down,you can see these big white patches.And I was like, \"Whatare the white patches?\"And he's like, \"That'sbedrock, that's literally rock.So all the soil is gone, andthere's rock coming throughwhere there should be a fieldwhere you're meant to be growing stuff.\"Hmm, that's not good, is it? Right, okay.So literally in the samearea, you've got this farmand it's glowing and it'sgreen and it's amazing,and it's verdant and it's full of life.And you've got these,you've got kind of Armageddongoing on next door.Okay, so then how do wefigure out how we scale this?You know, we could stay thereand we could do a great joband all the local familiesand you know, selling it to the schoolsand the local restaurants,and we could be a kindof hub for excellence,and we could run seminars andall of that stuff's great,but actually really like,or the question you have toask yourself, is that for me?Is that what I want to do?And really like, isthat gonna change thingsat pace at scale in the waythat evidently because of thisbedrock issue that we need.Encouraged him to come back to the UK,put him in for a kind of likea X factor for sustainabilitywith the National Trust.They were kind of, I don'twanna say it's not auctioning,but like kind of.- Judges houses.- They put, no, theyput like a 25-year leaseon one of their kind of marquee farms,basically in Oxfordshire, 800 acre farms,really beautiful farm thatwe're now, you know, tenants of,and the idea was that 3,500 applicantswould have to show that theway they were gonna farm,it was the best sustainable method.And then the idea beingthat whoever won out,once we've proved it, whichwe're in the course of doing,the National Trust wouldthen run that systemacross their whole portfolio.So obviously they own a lot of big farm,they own a lot of big buildings,but with big buildings comes lots of land.Anyway, he moved the family back,and so began kind of Wildfarmed in earnestbefore we were called The Real Food Fight.We're now called Wildfarmed.We're a regenerative food business.We're the biggest networkof regenerative arable farmers in the UKworking to a third party audit.We're about 100 farms or so now,a hundred-and-something in the UKplus the original guys in France.And we're selling thatinto a lot of amazing.So we're just about tolaunch our own branded lineinto Waitrose.We've been working with M&Sfor the last couple of years.We were in Franco Manca,we were in with Greggs,and GAIL's and also.- So this just produce?- We sell flour.- This is the flour, yeah.We sell flour for cake.- We sell flour.Yeah, we sell flour predominantly.We also sell you finished good as well.So you know, we can sellyour bread, rolls, whatever.We'll sell you pizza balls ifyou've got a pizza business.So yeah, anything to do withflour, we'll get involved.- And that is the whole network, right?So it's not just helpingthe 100 different farmscome together and learn the waythat has worked so well for you,but then providing they'regrowing that stuff,making sure there's a marketplace for it.How much of it are youdoing sort of front endin terms of the farming and the education?How much of it is the supportof making sure there's someone to buy it?- Sustainable, yeah.- So it's a fully vertical,fully vertically-integrated business.The issue with all farming is,is all of the risk burdenis put onto the farmer.And they're not cut in equitablyin the value chain, basically.And so these, so, you know,this is an American stat,but I know it reads acrossin Europe or in Britain,we were, so 50 years ago,the average farmer was getting70 cents in the dollar.They're now getting 10 cents,10 cents in the dollar.So they've been squeezedand squeezed and squeezed.And so then we tried to, then we tried to,we're like, all right,we're gonna mill it,we'll sell it into flour,we'll go a bit further up the value chain.Then you go to the bakersand the baker's like,\"Ah, yeah, well, it'sa bit difficult for usbecause we don't, that'snot the flour we like to usebecause\" baking is you know.- It's a science.- It's a science.- Baking science.If you change recipes inbaking, it's a headache.You've really gotta be committed.So like one of the biggest parts for uswas coming to the UK and going to, like,if you change even just fromlike two high street flours,it's still gonna changethe way you're baking.So for us coming to the UKand starting to make our wayinto the artisan communityand getting them tocome on board, you know,they had to be just as brave.They had to kind of matchthe ambition of these farmersand say, yeah, okay, we'regonna make it work, you know.- And are consumers prepared to paythat extra little bit for it?Or are we gonna absorb that cost?And you're battling with all of that.- And there's a bit of bothis the truth, you know,so yeah, we're a verticallyintegrated business.If you're controlling the whole thing,you can cut it up in a waythat everybody's getting a fair share.- A literally a fair slice.- A fair slice. Very good.I didn't see that one, yeah.- Sorry. Sorry.This is literally all I'm here for.But can I go back tothe nightclub in Ibiza?So you've heard, you know, Andytelling you the predicamentand that he was in, likewhat chain of eventsled you to going down the pathand the business from that point?And when did the pennydrop that you were like,this is the thing that I'm into.Was it through theassociation and, you know,helping him out and gettingmore involved in his journey?Or was there, you know,perhaps another, I don't know,like another aha moment,where you just went.this is the thing I'm gonna go do.- Yeah, there's lots of,there's lots of aha moments.I always think of Alan Partridgewhen I'm aha-ing, basically.So at the end of that summer,I stayed there for the summer,and at the end of the summer I was like,I'm gonna drive back through,drive back through Spain,and you go over the Pyreneesor through the Pyrenees,and you head up to the ferry basically.And so Andy's farm was very close.I'd been having this, you know,listening to this whole story.I was like, \"Dude, I wanna comeand see you on my way back.\"He's like, \"Yeah, noproblem.\" I went to the farm.I don't know how much timeyou spent on farms in natureor whatever, but like, youknow, when you go there,particularly if you've hadyour kind of eyes opened a bitor whatever, like, youknow, you've got thereand you can actuallyreally see it and smell itand taste it and feel it.And you're like, right,this thing's a real thing.And I'm like, I feel good here.Like, that's what, and really,I suppose that's what I was looking for,because in theory, when I hadthis whole kind of big lifethat looked like success toeverybody, the issue wasn'tthat I didn't have allthese kind of trappings.It was something was just empty.I was just like, I don't know,I don't really feel anything, you know?So then I went into this newenvironment on this farm,and I'm like, oh, okay,I feel something's good.This is good.Like I know energeticallythis is the right kind of vibe for me.Didn't totally understand it.So, and then came back tothe, came back to the UK,and I was getting involved a lotin working with disenfranchised,disengaged groups of,you know, young people usually.And I was helping a lot withthese guys' kids companythat's now disbanded,ended up getting introducedto a whole basketballoutfit down in South Londoncalled Suffolk Legends.They're now called London Legends.And started doing a lotof work with these kids.And what became apparentthrough doing all of this workwas that there's aseemingly never-ending flowof kind of like, metaphorically speaking,half-dead bodies coming down the riverthat you can pull out andyou can put a blanket onand you can give a cup of tea to,and kind of like make sure they're okay.And then you turn aroundand then there's anotherload flowing down behind it.And I'm someone who, you know,I'll stand there for a bitand I'll put the blankets on,but after a while when Iunderstand what's going on.- Why they were coming down.- And I wanna go upstreamand I wanna see what's happening.And so when you look atthe issues that we have,you've got a systems-level problem for me.So this is a structural problemthat's basically meaningthat a lot of peopleare not being looked afterby the system, you know,or just like a lot of people in societyare having a very tough timethe vast majority of them.I didn't actually, I kind ofglossed over it a little bit,but the real kind of like catalyst,the biggest aha moment that really made mewas me getting the kind of second seriesor whatever of the bigTV show in prime time,also hit at the same time thatwe had the riots in London.And that was the first big thingthat had happened sociallyin my city, in my lifetime.Or, you know, like youknow, I was very youngwhen Brixton riots happened.All of a sudden I was aware of this thing.And it became very apparent to methat there was two worlds going on.I'd managed to wangle myself into the kindof the tiny percentage ofpeople who were just, you know,smashing it basically.And everybody else ishaving a really tough time.And it started to jar with me a bit.And so in my opinion, a lotof the television I was makingis basically distraction for poor people.It's not like, if I'd go into a room fullof like big decision makers in the world,wealthy people, none of themhad ever seen me before.If I went into a room fullof working class people,everybody knew everything about me.They knew my old man, they knew, you know,and they were like, thatjust started to really like,weigh on my conscience.And I found it difficultto square that off.And I was just like, I don'twanna be complicit in selling,you know, brain damageto poor people basically.And like, if you're fortunateenough that you've got a voiceand you can get people to listen to you,which I've always been in my life,you've gotta use that for good.And you've got a, you know, you've got a,like, that's a forcethat you've been givenand you've gotta try and do good with itand not just line yourown pockets, basically.I don't wanna judge otherpeople who are doing it.Like it's everybody at you.We all have our own reckoning.We're all accountableto, you know, like other,I was also in a very unique positionwhere I didn't have any dependents.You know, I didn't have afamily, once you lock in with,you know, with kids andschools and you know,this and that and you have a life.- You have a trajectory that.- Yeah, exactly. You know,like it's very difficult.And people get caught up in that.So I was in a very fortunate positionwhere I could just kind ofjust say, right, I'm out.I decided I was gonna go off. I met Andy.He made me realise thatactually maybe I need to get,you know, kind of returnto Earth a little bit.Came back, started working withall of these kind ofyouth groups basically,realised that I didn't wanna be that guyjust putting the blankets on, again,it's great that there arepeople putting the blankets on.You know, what's the issue?We've got a systemslevel, you know, problem.How do you change any system?For me, the way forwardwith that is education.Like, that's how we'rereally gonna change stuff.Another TV presenter, aguy called Rick Edwards.His best mate is a guycalled Chris Fairbairn.And Chris had just become a head teacherup at a school in North Londoncalled the Totteridge Academy.Totteridge Academy had previouslybeen called Ravenscroft.It was really struggling with reputation.It was down to about480 kids or something,when it should have close to 1,200.They had had several head teachersover the course of like three years.And I think pretty muchthey were the, you know,Chris and his SLT teamwho came in with himwere the last roll of the dice.And the tough thing abouttrying to completely, you know,switch any kind of institution aroundis that it's really hard work.The good thing is you, you'vekind of got carte blancheto do whatever you like because.- It's the last chance.- It's the last chance saloon.And so I kept on going up to the school,trying to figure out like why,I knew I wanted to bethere again, energetically.I was like, this is the right thing.What am I meant to be doing?Thought I'd try and maybeget some of my mateswho are artists and creativesto come in and we could make the school,'cause the school was built in 1955,and it was falling thebits, it was built cheaply.And it was in the secondarymodern back in 1955,falling into bits by this point.But something didn't feelquite right about that.It was getting to the pointwhere it was getting a bit weird.People, the kind of joke was like,why is George Lambwalking around, you know.- Show offer the services.- Looking at the playground again.- And I was like, I was like, right.What am I meant to be doing here?And then mate of mine called me up,he'd written, a kind of guycalled Daniel Pinchbeck.He'd written a seminalbook on plant medicineabout ayahuasca and all the rest of it.And he said, \"I've written another book.I'm coming to London.Will you do the interviewwith me, you know,for the launch or whatever.\"I said, \"Yeah, no problem.Send the book through.\"Publishers send the book through.I just assume it's anotherplant medicine book.I opened this book, it'scalled \"How Soon Is Now.\"And it's about the ecologicalmegacrisis that we're facing.Right, of course, today withGreta and everything we knowand, you know, like,it's absolutely theforefront of our minds.This is, I don't know,eight years ago or something like that.So it's still, you know,page 37 in the newspaper,I read this, I open the book.I'm like, all right,Christ, woo, ah, going for,I never, I'm not like,I'm not the most voracious reader.I love an audiobook, you know?- Yeah.- Same.- And anyway, I'm there.I've got this book, I'm just going for it.I sat and I did the whole thing in a day.I've never done it before.Never done it since.Sitting at the end of theday, I was like, oh, Christ.Like it was really.- It joins the dots of all thelittle information you have,but puts it into like a logical sense.Or a worrying sense.- And at that pointwhere I hadn't seen thekind of urgency of it.What he actually said to me was,\"All the stuff that you aredoing with all of these kids,all the stuff you're tryingto sort out with all these,you know, like kind of taking,looking at things from asocioeconomic kind of perspective,it's all arbitrary.If we don't have a planet,like nothing else matters.So actually this is the only thingwe need to be focusing on.And then actually maybe theonly kind of universal thingthat ties everybody inhowever much we think we'vegot differences between usis our mutual interdependenceon the wellbeing of theplanet, you know what I mean?\"So I'm like, ah, maybe that's the answer.Maybe this is what weare meant to be doing.And I went to school, andas we were leaving one day,there was this big green fence.And I'd always looked at it,I thought, what is behind that fence?And Chris said to me,\"Oh, we got a six acrekind of like unused field.We were gonna do an AstroTurf,but we don't have any money.They've got loads offootball pitches anyway.\"And I was like, hang on aminute, hang on a minute.And it just kind of sprung to me.I was like, we need to setup a Jedi training campfor ecowarriors, basically.So all kids who were coming throughlike raise their environmental literacy,they don't even know they'regonna be ecowarriors.It will just be that, it'llbe their default setting.And whilst we're at it,why don't we figure out if wecan sort their EQ out as well,their emotional, youknow, intelligence, right?Because all of our focusin modern, you know,in modern education is aroundIQ and none of it's about EQ.And so we've got all these hyperbright,hyperintelligent people whoaren't in touch with their heartand aren't in touch with their soul.And so they're making reallyquestionable decisions,you know?And so it's like, how canwe do a one-stop shop?Anyway, pitched it to Chris,bless him, he said yes.He was like, he was like,\"I'm totally up for it.I'm not giving you any money,and I can't give you loads of time,but I will allow you todo whatever you need to doand like, you know, andintegrate it into the school.\"And that was the mostimportant bit about it.And so we set this thing up called Grow.It is still running up there in Barnet.And the idea at the beginningwas we were gonna do akind of holistic, you know,approach to the wellbeing of the child.So a kind of 360 education.And we split it into three modules.We started off with grounds.So we turned the 60 acre fieldinto an agroecological farm.So we're growing foodout there with the kids.We are then putting it into the kitchensand they're eating it at lunchtime.- That's amazing.- So they're involvedin the whole process.Then we've got Flow, which is abouthow do you get intoyour optimum condition.So a lot of breathwork, mindfulness, yoga,meditation, all that good stuff.And then the other one was Think.So unfortunately, a lot of,so I don't know what kindof school you went to.- We went to, well, we allgrew up in Potter's Barit's right next door to Barnet.- Right. Okay, cool.So but like, if you go to a decent school.- We were fortunate, wewent to a decent school.- So if you go to a decentschool, they try and pullthe creative, expansive,critical thinking out of you.If you go to a school that's, you know,perhaps struggling a bit more,they're literally tryingto keep the wheels on.And they're actually just there kind ofbasically kind of screamingat you till you're quiet.And they just want you to learn by rote.And in order for them toget more money next year,they have to hit a set of data points.And for you to hit the data points,it's just easier if youjust learn it by repetitionand you're not thinking.And there's no expansion there. And so.- How did you manage to get the kidsinvolved in the growing your own?'Cause you said that likeyou weren't given the time necessarily,it's not on the curriculum.Was this all extra curriculum by choice?- No, we did actuallyget, what he, when, sorry.When I said time as in like,he's like, I can't dothis for you basically,and I can't give you team.But what he did do,which basically was the cruxof why it was a success,was he gave us curriculum time.With all sevens, eights,and nines basically,which is the first three yearsof high school basically.And it was predominantly sevensand eights at the beginning.And then one of the thingsthat we noticed though that,you know, school works the same nowas when we were at school,which is if you canget the inverted commascool kids into something,then a lot of otherpeople will fall into lineand they want to do it.As you would imagine, when Iwent to a lot of the older kidsand I said, you fancy doingsome breath work or some yoga?Or do you wanna come andgrow some vegetables?I got fairly short thrift.So then I was like, how canI get this lot involved?And so I was like, again,the good thing about having a schoolthat's really strugglingis there's endless roomsthat are empty, basically.So I found like a massiveroom as big as this,which was just, oh, what's this?Oh, nothing really.It's kind of on the side ofanother building, you know,it's like a store,everywhere's a storeroomfor stuff that doesn't need storing.And so we built a boxing gym.It turned out as, youknow, again, you know,fortune favours the bold,a guy called Darren Barker,who used to be middleweightchampion of the world,had grown up on the estate next door.He'd gone to that school. I gotin touch with Darren Barker.He was like, \"I'll put youin touch with Everlast,we'll send you all the kit,\" you know,just that boom, boom, boom,boom, boom, boom, boom.Anyway, and then got him tocome down at the beginning.And so then I went back toa load of 15-year-old ladsand said, \"Hey, does anyonewant to come to a boxing club?\"Absolutely. Do you know what I mean?- It is amazing whatcommunity boxing gyms doin terms of instillingrespect and discipline.But because it's boxing, it'sof course I want go to that.You know?- No, no. They're remarkable places.I've you know, boxed and kickboxedall my kind of adult life.I see the difference it's made in meand the other guys in the gym.And so I knew that wasa really great way in,obviously then the kind ofmanoeuvre when they come in wasa big part of what we're doinghere is about marginal gains.And so we need to getyour nutrition right.So part of thatis you're gonna be comingout onto the field.- Look up on the carrot, yeah.- We're gonna be growing some food.Big part of that is about how do we getinto our kind of optimum condition?Here's LeBron James for example,talking about doing meditationso that he can visualisebefore he does a game.He's the most successful playerin the history of the NBA.You know, or you know.- It's wonderful manipulation.- Nailed it.- It's great manipulation.- But for the greater good.- Conor McGregor was the kindof the fighter of the day.He, at that point was workingwith a guy called Ido Portal,who was the main movementexpert in the world.So doing all that kindof monkey movement stuff.So the next thing you know,I had everybody going arounddoing all the animal flow,you know, and you'vejust gotta find a hook.That's the reality, you know.Like you've got to lookat what you, you know,look at what you're dealing with,see what's gonna motivatethem, find the angle,and then get them, you know,get them to do the thingyou want them to doby showing them that that's a trajectoryto get to their goal as well,- Which is such a challenge.But that's the kind ofplace we're in is that,so we find the same with food and cooking,and even, you know, studentswho go through food technology.It's not learning how to cook at homeon a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night.And just get through in abasic, easy, accessible way.But the moment, if it everdid make it to curriculum,it's a textbook, it's more rote learning.It's not delivered in a practical waythat the music, drama,grow your own, sport,and food, cooking should be.- Yeah, food tech, you know,and I don't want to cast, youknow, disparaging remarks.I'm sure there's somepeople who are doing it,but, you know, doing a great job of it.But by and large, it's a shambles.And I don't understandhow we've got to a placewhere like, really key life skills,like learning how to look after yourself,learning how your body works,learning how your mental health worksor how to manage your mental health,how they have become soft skills.Like it's crazy. And it's a nonsense.And it's something thatI'm going to spend my lifetrying to unravel and tryingto see if we can figure it out.What I would do next timeround is start in food tech.And I would've started in the kitchenbecause that's whereyou can hook people in.- All they need to do is one simple thing.- And plays to all the senses.Things start to smell good,and then at the end they touch and touchand feel of fruits and vegetables.And having a hand in thesoil makes such a difference.- With like the simple, youknow, one of my aha momentsright at the beginning ofthis was, oh, burger sauce.You just make your own burgersauce. What do you mean?Like it's just ketchup,mayo, bit of mustard,in these ratios.You taste it, and like,that's what I'm familiar with.All I did was squeezesome bits into, you know,a bowl and mix it, but I'vemade something different.Wow, and that's the penny drop moment.- You mic drop.- Then you just go furtherdown the line, don't you?- The \"Ratatouille\" moment's real boys.You know what I mean?- It really is.And we did some work withan academy a few years agoand I think the academiesare the advantage'cause they're perhapsless bound by curriculumin that sense.- Yeah, true story.- And we managed to drag 20 kidsinto this home economics room to do,and it was extracurricular.So they all wanted to be outdoing something much more funthan putting on an apron, and we did soup.And we just demonstratedhow to make one simplevegetable soup, A plus B plus C.Like super easy, 15minutes. Everyone tasted it.Everyone's still a little bit like,why am I here, why am I here?They break off into pairs,10 pairs in the kitchen.And they all made their own soup.They could pick their own vegetable,they could pick their own flavouringand they could blend it all up.And you know, maybe 45 minutes laterthey all brought it back andthey had 10 different coloured,10 different flavouredsoups around the table,and just big french sticks.And everyone was dipping andsharing and try mine, try this.And they'd suddenly the penny droppedthat we hadn't just taught them a recipe,we'd empowered them to cook anyvegetable soup in the world.And they all went homeand taught their parents.And we got feedback the week afterthat they were like, theirparents were excited,and it just, because they'd had a chance.And it's just providingthat chance that matters.- Agree, yeah.- But it's also like, Iused to work in a school.It's that moment where you actually takea kid or a group of kids aside and go,you know, you're good at this.And they, what? Like, you'regood, you're good at this.And them being able todemonstrate them going,well, hang on, I didthat, maybe I can do it.And maybe I foundsomething that I'm good at,and I've experienced it as well.So even just trying the soupwas, well, you made this,and look how simple it was.Imagine what you could doif you applied that toother things or, you know,move along in that journey.Like think about whatelse you could cook up,or it really sometimes is that simpleof just being told you can dothis and look you've done it,and suddenly it can completely transformtheir entire outlook, it is unbelievable.- And with all that groundworkin place at the school,like how did it evolve?What were the results of that?You say the school's still sortof running that same system.The Grow.- So the number, whenkids come to the schoolto sign up to come to the school,it's now, so Totteridgeis now, if it's not the,it's one of the top fivemost improved schools in the country.I think probably five years ago won the,the big awards are called in education,are called the TESTS, theTimes Educational Supplement.So it won the TEST forbest maths departments.Kind of unheard of for kind of, you know,fairly rough comprehensiveschool basically.And then two years agoit won best secondaryschool in the country.So like, it's massive.- Amazing.- And the vast majorityof kids who would listin their kind of top fivereasons for coming to the schoolwere putting Grow as one or two basically.- Wow. That is awesome.- So that's massive.And that really shows you,you know, you feel vindicated,you're like, this thing works.I'd gone and talked to kind of likea lot of the top restaurants in London.We were gonna do a similarthing, you know, at Christmaswhen they do a pound on thebill for homeless charity.So we were gonna do a pound on the billto go towards Grow and other organisationswho were helping kids connect with food.I had \"Evening Standard\" wasgonna be the media partner.Chabuddy G, Asim was gonna comeand be the face of the whole campaign.- And is this where your previous lifeand kind of, I guess mediacontacts and production and,is that where this suddenlybegins to unlock and lever.- For sure, then you got it exactly.Well, then again, if you're in a positionof influence or whatever,and you know people,and you can get things to happen,like do some good with it, basically.So called everybody up, goteverything kind of rolling.Literally we had the shootbooked for like a Wednesday,Monday we got this telephonecall saying, \"Hey listen,there's some kind of virus thingkicking around or somethingand we are not sure what it is,and we're gonna have to cancel the shoot,but we'll be back in a coupleof weeks or whatever it is.\"- Three weeks, wasn't it?- Always in three weeks.- Always, yes.Yeah, so, you know how that unfolded.At that point we were kind offledgling charity, you know,the school then became thekind of like, you know,kind of local, you know, central pointfor like literally keeping the wheels onfor that whole community.Like, it taught me a lot about myself.It showed me how amazing a school can be,how a group of committedpeople all coming togetherand trying to like,trying to sort stuff outfor people who are in a tough, tough spot.Having a beautiful market gardenthat was producing loads offresh food, that was great.We were able to get that out to everybody.What the real problem at that pointthough was a lot of the bigger,and it's fine because of theway the system is set up,a lot of the bigger charitiesare actually doing the workthat the government should be doing.And so they're kind ofkeeping the wheels onon not just the community,but actually society,you know, as a whole.And so a lot of those guyswere going to their big patronsand saying, listen, we don'tknow what's gonna happenand we need you to commit to us, you know,you know, your finances.And like then these businessguys are going like,I don't even know if I'm gonnahave a business in a minute.Everything just tightens up,and if you are a small-scalecharity going round,going like, can I wet my beak, please?They're like, hey listen,I'm sorry I'm gonna sortcancer research out after you,or you know, before you or Childlineor whatever it is that they're supporting.And so all of a suddenthe money really dried up,and so it became more and more difficultfor us to do it at thescale we were doing.So what we have now is aslightly reduced version.There's less kids goingthrough in curriculum time.It's more out of hours,and we get a lot of, youknow, pupil referralsfor kids coming through.But yeah, the kind of wholesaleit being part of the curriculum,we hit a bit of a kind of barrier on that,and just like, you know,being totally candid,I had also got to thepoint where I was like,I spent every day of my lifegoing around beggingrich people for money,and I was a bit fed up with it.And I was like, that's notreally why I got into do this.You know, what I got into this for.The whole Wildfarmed thinghad been bubbling for a long time.I was just like, like, this thing's here.I know it makes me feel good.It's kind of an extensionof what I'm doing over here with the kids.Why don't I go overhere and do Wildfarmed,and why don't we make it a success?And then once it is a success,I'll circle back round,and we can get going with Grow again.Which is essentially my plan.- Going to flour.And now where you're at interms of providing the seeds,the flour, the productsthemselves, the breads,how did you get to landing on that grain?- So the biggest, in thekind of Western world,the biggest arable crop by far is wheat.So if you want to have the most impactfrom an environmental perspective,then wheat's the one you want to go after.That's how we got there.- So that's how you decided.- It's no more complicated.You know, our whole thing since we decidedto take this out of beinga kind of pin up, you know,regen farm in the southwest of France,was we wanna do landscapechange at scale, at pace.- And obviously, you've mentionedregenerative quite a lotand it's something wetalk about on the channel,and sustainable, which is great,but we're already at a placewhere sustaining not great.- It's not gonna cut it.- Is brilliant. So we kindahave to start to regen.But there also feels likethere's lots of definitionsand approaches to regen floating around.Have you got like a snapshot.- A definition.- Of like a, can you give us some clarity?'Cause we always talk about it,and we know it's a thing weshould all be aspiring to,but what actually doesthat mean on the ground?What does it look like?- Yeah, I mean, so theissue with regenerativeas like as a kind of, as a titleis there is no actual definition.And there is also, thereisn't an organisationwho's come out and said,here's what regenerative is- Or how to measure it?Or is it measurable?- It is measurable definitely.To regenerate is to, youknow, is to bring back to lifeor to put more or toincrease life year on year.And so ultimately whatwe wanna be doing is,is getting more soil biology year on yearwhilst also making better-quality crops.That's the crux of what we're doing.And there'll be levels in that.We were very clear aboutthe fact that we came outand we set our own likethird-party audited standardsbecause everybody's gonnago around now saying,regens this, regens that,it's gonna get co-opted,it will turn into healthyor natural or whatever.and it will be kind of meaningless.So whilst we are aregenerative food brand,we're also Wildfarmed, andwe're brand first, you know,there's 436 or somethingkind of ecolabels.People don't buy stuffbecause of ecolabels.Like, you know, en masse,people buy stuff because brandsand they feel affiliatedand they trust brands.And so we're buildingWildfarmed as a brand.It will be, we hope, thegold standard of regen.Essentially what you're tryingto do is is mimic nature.Everything that happens in natureis what you want to be going on.Conventional, which you can read acrossfor just chemical farming,heavy industrial chemical,you know, farmingis basically trying tosubdue and subjugate natureand you're in a warwith it the whole time.We're moving back to biology.We're doing observation-based farming.So first thing is youcan't do monocultures.Yeah, monocultures don't exist.If you go into thewoods, you don't just seeone type of tree or one typeof plant in there basically.So it's about bringing diversity back.So we insist on companion planting.So I don't know if you've everheard of this kind of notionof the Three Sisters,which was the whole thingthey used to do down inSouth America forever,which was the maize and the beansand the squash or whatever.And so the same principle,you've got to getdifferent plant groups in.So you might do a pea and abarley, or a wheat and a bean,or something like that in the field.Every single farm 200 yearsago used to have like sieves,basically, like sorters.So you just make sure whateverplants you're putting in,they've got different shaped seeds.So, or in different size seeds.So you put a couple ofdifferent gauzes in there.You can separate it out very quickly.You can't have bare earth.Again, bare earth is another kind of,you know, manmade thing.If you leave bare earthin nature, what happens,it will cover it up, justlike very rudimentary stuff.But I think it's important'cause I've finally justgot my head round itafter sitting in, you know,in biology for five yearsand not really listening to anything.But so if you just think of leavesas they are the, what doyou call it, like for the?- The solar panels?- Solar panels.Let's say I was gonnacall them photovoltaic,but I think that's highly technical.- Very technic.- Keep it basic for us.- Yeah, I know, exactly.So the solar panels are the leaves, right?And if you don't have green over the top,the green then takes theenergy off the sunlightand puts it into the soil.Like that's literally what it's doing.So soil will always try andcover itself with somethingso that it can get theenergy to go down into it.So when you go past in thewinters, you'll see the,if you go past the farm,most of them, you see these,you know, kind of beautifulbrown furrowed fields basicallywith all these little kind of ridges,and there's not a bit ofgreenery on it, right.It's a nonsense. So we use cover crops.So cover crops will be,there'll be a mix of, you know,vetch and clover and all sortsof other little, you know,kind of, you know, flowers andplants that will be able to,you know, not only giveyou that green cover,but also bring pollinatorsinto the field as well.You know, so you're notallowed to do monocultures.You have to keep yourground covered at all times.And we do a thing calledfeeding according to needs.So we allow farmers whoare trying to transition,what Andy found was, he got this farm,it had had 80 years of conventional maize.As I told you, it had 0.5% organic matter.So it had no soil biology.You can't will the microbes back to life.You can go out every morning,be as positive if you like,and just say, come on guys, like get back.It's not gonna happen, right.And then so the other alternative isif you go into a kindof full organic system,then you've gotta take asubstantial amount of timein order to let nature take its courseand all the rest of it.- Have to replenish, yeah.- And unfortunately, whilstfundamentally, you know,you can't get a more soundargument than organic.Like, you know, do youwant a plate of foodlaced with chemicals or one without,I'll take the onewithout thanks very much.The kind of structural parameterswith which that the organisation is run,has meant that a lot of farmershave found it challengingand don't wanna take therisk to go towards it.And so what we effectivelyenable the farmers to dois we pay for them to dowhat are called SAP tests,like a blood test of the plant.So we pay for that, andthen you'll find outthat actually in orderto get the nitrogen,which usually is in the ground,it's just not bioavailable,they need to add a bitof manganese or cobaltor they might need toadd a bit of nitrogen,but not as much as a kind ofstandard conventional systemwould permit basically.So we allow you, whilstyou're transitioningto use some chemistryto get yourself off the meds basically.It's actually the differencebetween kind of methadone.- Methadone, I was gonna say- And going cold turkey.And then we allow you also,or rather we encourage youto get livestock on there atleast once every three years.Going back to that originalstory I told you with Andy.- The cows, yeah.- I think what's amazingabout all of that is,and it sounds so obvious when you say it,is that the future of food and farmingis basically what happenedhundreds of years agobefore we messed it all up,but with an added bit of science,which is what we have learntin the last couple hundred years.So you've got the science to justifywhat they were already doing correctly.And it's just like a.- It's ancient wisdom plus,you know, GPS basically.- And all found in a book thatwas in the children's sectionin a charity shop.- Are you happy now?You said you were working,you know, to this point.I've had a similar thing iswhen I get to this point,there'll be a freedom, thehappiness, it'll all be unlocked.And then actually you start thinking aboutenjoying the journey for what it is,and trying to be contentregardless of the situation.How is what you're doing versuswhat you were doing changed?And do you feel that senseof happiness or contentment?- I'm a lot more content, definitely.It was interesting, we met a month ago,I was doing a talk somewhere,and a lot of the questionsafterwards were quite technicaland how does this workand how does that work?And then this lady just totallylike, you know, like just.- Curveballed you.- Curveballed me and was just like,what are you doing tonourish yourself, George,this all sounds like quite heavy lifting.- Doing a lot of nourishing for the soil.But what about George?- And I was like, I waslike, ah, like you've got me,you know, and like I'd been to see,I love going to meet healers basically,like it's my favourite thing.And I'd been to see threedifferent kind of mysticsor healers or whateverover the course of the last few months.None of whom know each other,none of whom know anything about me.All of them said to me,you need to get more joy into your life.You need to find more joy.You've gotta be nourishingyourself a bit more.They said it in a varietyof different ways.One lady told me, she hadslightly broken English,and she was just like, more(vocalises) in the morning,you know, and I was like,I was like, you're right.- Spot on, you're right. Idon't have enough of that.- And in my kind of like my go-to guy Jed,who I've been seeing foryears, he was just like,you need to get the gratitude back in.Like you've gotta feel thegratitude for this thing.'Cause it like just, beingreal, running your own business.Trying to effectively kindof go against the system.We are now a team of, you know, 45 people.We've got 100 farms around the place,we've got two bakeries,there's a lot of moving parts.You've never got enough money,you've never got enough time.- There's so much pressure.- It's quite stressful. Well,no, it's very stressful.And sometimes you're justlike, (groans), you know,and you really got to,I was saying to my guys,Andy and Ned the otherday, I was just like,boys, we've gotta get somemore gratitude into this.You know, like we've just gotta remember.And actually I've been, Ifeel quite, I felt quite good.I've been lucky. I've had acouple of little short breaks.I just went through.- Some of those long lunches in Ibiza.- Yeah, just and I've come back,and I feel really kind ofcalm and in a good placeand I'm just gonna approach it allwith a load more gratitude and like,and like, we're just sorting outall the kind of out of homecampaign for our new launchthat we're doing at the moment.And that falls under mykind of jurisdiction.And there was a moment whereI was just like, you know,like you're just tryingto get all these messages,and everybody's gottheir ideas, and you're.- Deadlines and budgets and.- deadlines and ah, and youknow, and the whole thing.I was just like, ah, youknow, getting kind of blinkyand like, ah, what's happening?Like I can't deal with it.And then just the last fewdays I've just sat backand I'm like, right, like this is great.Like what a lovely thing to be making,to be able to make a billboard.- I know.- To talk about thething that you're doing,that you've been tryingto get off the groundand like, you're doing the, you know,sorting the voiceoverout on the TV commercialthat's gonna go on in thebreak in \"Clarkson's Farm\"that you're now starring in, you know,that Wildfarmed's a big partof in season three and all.And I'm like, life's good, life's good.- It's so important to to remember that.And I think, you know,we both sort of circlearound the world of food,and I think sometimes necessarilyit can get incredibly politicaland heavy and deep and darkand big system changes and all this.But ultimately if we can justbring a little bit of joy.And a little bit of community,whether that's, you know,schoolkids, farmers, whatever, butcommunity together.- Or circle back tothe original, your original point.Get people round thetable eating some foodand chilling out.It's exactly that, isn'tit? It is exactly that.- And we can all talk about it,and it's just amazingto hear you're doing it,you're doing it on the ground,it's making a difference.It's really, really awesome.One question we ask everyonebefore we kind of wrapthis conversation upis if there is one dish or mealthat you think everyoneshould cook in their lifetime.So not quite so sincere,but sort of before they pop their clogs,but that kind of, andit's not a death row meal,but that one thing thateveryone should give a go.And it could be as simpleor as elaborate as you want.What should everyone try at least once?- I mean, you could even slightlytake a bit of a diversionand say something they've got to growor maybe they need to grow something for.- Yeah, right, thank you for like,you've arrived at a much better answerthan I was gonna give you anyway.- It just dawned on me, like.- No, no, no. You know what.- Actually that.- Like we all need to grow some stuff.Like that's, you know,and you can literally.- It's so therapeutic.- Dot therapeutic.- If you like do acourgette, it's a doddle.- And they keep coming.You pick it, it comes back.- Yeah, yeah, yeah, likeyou can't stop them.Basically it's \"Day ofthe Triffids,\" so yeah.Just grow some stuff andthen put it in your mouth.That will just bring you alittle bit closer to nature.And I think ultimatelythat's really what we've all gotta try,and where we've gotta try and get.You know, like the bit whereit all went a bit wonkywas when we separated from natureand we decided we were bigger than it,and we decided we were gonnatry and kind of dominate it.And we all know how that's gonna work out.So yeah, realise you'repart of a bigger ecosystemthrough growing a bit of food.- Get your hands in the soil.- I'm definitely inspired.- Well, thank you.- George, thank you so much.- It's been incredible.- Thank you very much, guys.Really appreciate it.- Best of luck.- Wicked, thank you for the support.- No, not at all.(upbeat music)\n"