Prepare to be Charmed!

I want to introduce you to 2 extraordinary people, Ruth Mott and Harry Dodson. By some happy accident I have been able to spend some lovely hours in their company learning from them about long lost kitchen and gardening arts while being charmed by their gentle humor and competent manner. That is the best word to use, they are charming and the TV show that features them is charming. This post will take you back in time to the grand country houses of the Victorian era in "The Victorian Kitchen Garden" and "The Victorian Kitchen".

These were made back in the late 80s for the BBC. The host was a horticultural lecturer named Peter Thoday and his love of the subject is clear in every episode. He, Ruth, and Harry love every minute of what they were doing. The Victorian Kitchen Garden was the first show and it featured Harry who wasn't Victorian but trained under those who were and we follow him as he brings a long neglected walled garden back to glorious life. The show is slow paced much like life was during those times and the work was hard and the days were long. I kept wanting to taste all the delicious produce that the garden brought forth in such abundance. No dangerous pesticides or GMO's here just wonderful foods the way nature intended. Below is the introductory episode.

In the Victorian Kitchen, a long abandoned kitchen of a manor house was allowed again to function the way it was intended and the heart of it was Ruth. She had worked in many a country manor house from the time she was 14.  At 70, she was brought in to be the head cook with one lowly scullery named Alison. I fell in love with Ruth. Her gentle manner and sharp wit make her easy to adore. She was the last of a dying breed and much irreplaceable knowledge passes with her. Ruth introduces us to the way foods were prepared for the gentry in kitchens before we had all of our fancy time saving devices. I can imagine a little better now how time-consuming this was. Breakfast, luncheon, tea, supper, dinners, and picnics, it barely seemed one meal was finished before the next meal was being worked on. The one thing I think this show lacked was a full kitchen assembly, so that we don't quite get the hustle and bustle these great kitchens invariably had at this time. Many times I found my mouth agape at what went into certain dishes, it seems incredible to modern eyes. 

Both of these shows are part gardening/cookery show and part history lesson and all enjoyment. Every time the opening music would play and the camera panned over the lovely table I feel peaceful. I don't know why but it is a bit like meditation, it allows you to slow down too and just enjoy. Unfortunately, both Harry and Ruth have passed on. Ruth just this year in July at the age of 95. She enjoyed a second career from this show including another series that branched from this called the Wartime Kitchen, a cookbook and many television appearances over the years. I was also sad to hear that the beautiful garden that Harry revived has fallen into disuse and been allowed to decay. I think that they lost a golden opportunity. Many people both amateur and professional would probably of jumped at the chance to learn under Harry's tutelage and work in this living bit of the past. It would probably also of been a tourist attraction for the whole family and during the growing season provided a thriving farmers market. The thought of it sitting and moldering alone and neglected seems just such a waste and a loss. At least we have these wonderful programs as well as "The Victorian Flower Garden" to help us recapture in some small way what has been lost. All of the episodes are available in full on youtube.