“This series is a love letter to the North”
After filming many ˿ series abroad, Simon King and Dave Myers, aka the Hairy Bikers, have travelled through northern England, delving into the food scene, for their new ˿ Two series The Hairy Bikers Go North. On a huge road trip, or as they call it, “a joyous romp”, around Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, The Peak District and Newcastle, and they reconnect with their roots and the people championing and changing up traditional foods.
“The series is a love letter to the North”, says Dave, “a celebration of the food and the people that produce it”. They visit their home towns – “mine was Barrow-in-Furness… I’ve been away for a number of years”, says Dave. Si is from County Durham, and says it is “the most personal, emotional and enlightening journey we’ve undertaken”, visiting “the places and culture that formed who we are”.
“We wanted to be a bit more personal” in this series, agrees Dave, and “that was an opportunity for us to let the viewers into our lives and our madness, and reflect a bit more”.
Supportive communities
The Bikers find the food scene in the North is thriving, “and as multicultural as we hoped it would be”, says Dave. “It was always a struggle to find much beyond mince and mash in our house, if I’m honest, [but] today Barrow is very different… a new generation of foodies are putting this place on the map”, he continues. For example, the community in Barrow crowdfunded thousands of pounds in just four days to help Caroline, Lucas and daughter Molly open their bakery Peace and Loaf. “That’s what communities should be”, says Si, “they’re invested in the business and know the people who are running it”.
In Cumbria, the Bikers stop at the Growing Well community farm, where volunteers “who have had some mental health issues in the past, go… to convalesce and rehabilitate”, says Dave, “but it is a profit-producing farm”. They speak to the volunteers about what brought them to the community farm, and Dave and Si open up about their own experiences with mental health.
Traditional produce with a twist
Riding through the Yorkshire Dales to Skipton, the Bikers head to a traditional dairy farm, Hesper Farm. Having once struggled due to declining milk prices, it now thrives by producing the traditional Icelandic thick-set, high-protein, low-fat yoghurt, skyr. The farmers were initially “sceptical” about making the switch, but now they’re “having to expand to keep up with the demand”, says Dave, who puts their skyr to the test in some muffins.
Lancashire cheesemaking dates back to Viking communities in the 12th Century, and the Bikers visit a dairy farm, Carron Lodge, making Lancashire-styles cheeses using milk from its herd of buffalo (more commonly associated with mozzarella). Dave puts three types of the cheese to good use in a cheese and potato lasagne, which he says he is “especially proud of”.
The Bikers also sample some of the finest cheese in Sowerby Bridge, and learn the history behind award-winning Yorkshire cheese business Dama Cheese. “The circumstances of setting up this business are nothing short of remarkable”, says Dave, “life or death”, adds Si, as the family who own it fled Syria in 2012. Founder Razan Alsous used her background in microbiology, and her husband’s engineering experience, to make halloumi-style cheese from high-quality milk from Yorkshire. “It’s quintessentially a Yorkshire produce via Syria”, says Si.
The North of England is home to some of the UK’s most famous pies. The Bikers meet chef Stosie Madi, who is of Lebanese heritage, born in Senegal and raised in Gambia. She runs the busy kitchen of award-winning gastropub The Parker’s Arms in Newton-in-Bowland. She’s “like a backbone of this Lancashire pub… people travel for miles for her world-class spiced ram pie”, says Dave. Stosie says the pastry is just as important as the filling, and her secret is using fat from the same animal as the meat in the filling to make the crust. Business partner and Lancashire local Kath’s secret to the perfect pastry? Her grandmother's 100-year-old rolling pin.
A new harvest
While seaweed is a staple in Japanese cooking, the Bikers discover a “pioneering” Scarborough-based company, SeaGrown, that wants to make it Britain’s next super crop. Founded by food scientist Jamie, SeaGrown is set to be the first off-shore seaweed farm in the UK. They already hand-pick seaweed to make their own spices and salt alternative, and have partnered with a local brewery, but in the future they hope to grow over 100 tonnes of seaweed a year, which will go towards biofuels, bioplastics, pharmaceuticals and animal feed.
“People are pushing the envelope up here in the North, and I’m very proud of them, because they’re our people”, says Si.
The Hairy Bikers Go North starts on the 23 September at 8pm on ˿ Two or catch up on iPlayer.
