麻豆社

Hedgerow harvester, Wiz Clift visits Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, and joins head chef Noel McMeel and the castle owner, Sammy Leslie as they prepare the evening menu.

With its stunning lough-side location it was no surprise when Paul McCartney chose Castle Leslie as the venue for his wedding (2002). But it wasn't just the view that appealed- there was the stunning food, the ingredients grown and selected on the Leslie estate by Ireland's hottest young chef, Noel McMeel.

They tour the Castle's crumbling walled gardens which once employed twenty-six gardeners. Today the orchards, flower beds and glasshouses are abandoned but at the height of British rule they produced an extraordinary range of food for one of Ireland's richest families.

One smitten member of the Anglo-Irish gentry grew exotic fruits and orchids in the centrally heated glasshouses and sent them in a weekly basket to his soprano lover at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. Later generations brought cannabis plants back from their travels, convincing the locals that they were breeding a new species of edible thistle. Investigating a mysterious noise one night the gardener disturbed a policeman rooting around the cloches. Flush-faced, the embarrassed Guard admitted that he was in search of a few tomatoes for his sick grandmother.

Even among the thorns and bracken of the overgrown garden Wiz and Noel find inspiration- ancient gnarled apples for a tart tatin, rosemary and wild blewit mushrooms to flavour and accompany the Estate's venison and elderberries to turn beef stock into a rich emulsion fit to moisten the dark, marbled meat.

Presented by Wiz Clift

Produced by Alasdair Cross

First broadcast on 麻豆社 Radio 4 in 2003.