My hero, Hugh

For those of you unsure of who Hugh might be, it's Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I have just watched the beginning of his new series on Channel Four, River Cottage Treatment, whereby he has five guests stay at River Cottage HQ to reform their eating habits from mass produced to, at the very least, free range (FR) or, at best, organic (O) produce.

Now, he is of course preaching to the converted with me. The vegetables I buy are locally produced and I walk to the farm shop to buy them. We also buy our beef from them, which may not be O, but is beautifully cared for and I know exactly where they have been living and our eggs, which are FR. I buy FR chicken from Tesco, when it is available.

At one point in the programme, Hugh was trying to illustrate that, while buying FR or O is initially expensive, if the carcas is then used to make stock, stripped and vegetables added, you have a minimum of two family meals per bird. One chap commented that this was an old fashioned way of living and the modern family couldn't and wouldn't live this way.

We do!

I've always thought I was old fashioned.

By the end of the programme, three out of the five were converted to buying chicken that had had a good quality life. Excellent!

Two had become vegetarian.

Still less mass produced chicken being consumed.

See, it's that positive thinking again...

(Don't think I could kill my own though.)