Off Air... with Jane and Fi - I don't mean to immediately degrade the podcast (with Matt Baker)

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Jane and Fi are battling on despite technical difficulties to talk about longevity, whether you can ever really own a pet and when is the best day for a dawn chorus... They're joined by TV presenter Matt Baker, to hear about his new show Matt Baker's Travels in the Country: USA. Normal sound quality service will resume tomorrow. If you want to contact the show to ask a question and get involved in the conversation then please email us: [e-mail] Assistant Producer: Kate Lee Times Radio Producer: Rosie Cutler Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm definitely on this one. You're on that one. That's it. It was Jane's first time in the radio studio right are we good to go kate she doesn't know but let's just start okay hello and welcome everybody uh so i don't mean to immediately uh you know degrade the podcast but the first email i have is titled brian's balls yeah yeah it is important this because people missed out a little bit on your pet news uh because we'd built up to brian and

barbara your kittens having their vital operations and then you were off sick yes what's happened well they both had their operations and it just reveals you know quite a horrible divide between the sexes doesn't it because brian went in for his ball chopping operation i think uh known in the veterinary trade as neutering and he only needed a three-day recovery jane and of course he's just he's back on it now he's absolutely fine he's jigging along having a lovely time and barbara's still stuck in a cone yeah because she of course has to have a really proper operation with an incision and a general anaesthetic. And she's on a 10-day recovery plan.

And just there is jealousy between them because of Barbara's cone and Brian's relative freedom. And I think it says things about the world. Are they still as close as they were? They are even closer, actually. Well, now they can be close in safety, can't they? Well, I think it's crossed both of their minds now that they can be giddy with delight

and no sense of parental responsibility is coming around the corner at them. And Cool Cat, my great big fat old tomcat, he just hisses at both of them now. He's completely fed up with them. Loved them when they first arrived. Was really sweet and very protective of them. And now it's just like, oh, will you just stop doing that?

Well, it's a bit like all of us who are older children felt when the younger one turned up. Is that what happened? The novelty wore off and you just think, is this thing staying? Yeah. Because she's making a lot of noise. Okay. When in our podcasting career did you start to feel like that? Please, I wasn't talking about you.

Okay. I'm still sounding a bit odd, but I don't know why that is. And we should say we're in a different studio. It's of no interest to anybody because of the difficulties we're experiencing. So we're really sorry if this does sound a bit weird. Yeah, you are pulsing in and out a bit, which I'm a bit worried about.

Why don't you just do a lot of talking? Okay, so the reason why Brian's Balls is the top of an email, it comes from Amanda, who wants to make a very serious point. Listening to you both giggling over Brian's Balls, not long after your thoughtful discussion about whether people who claim to love horses should be forcing them to race over very high jumps, I wonder whether the time will come when we will question the routine castration

and spaying of dogs and cats to make them fit into our domestic lives. My animal-loving grandfather used to say, spaying of dogs and cats to make them fit into our domestic lives my animal loving grandfather used to say ask yourself if you'd like a more powerful species to do it to you and we wouldn't would we so discuss well i mean i think the reason that people have their pets neutered is because i wouldn't want my cat to be producing litters of kittens every, it would be twice a year or something, wouldn't it? Well, the whole country would be completely overrun with animals if they weren't spayed and neutered. So that's why there are so many charities who offer that service for you. Because it would be, it just wouldn't be great if that

was happening. But I suppose the wider point is just one of domestic animals, isn't it? You know, I think that I can't live without my domestic pets because I love them so much and I've anthropomorphised them and whatever. And actually, maybe there comes a time in the future where we just aren't quite so crazy about owning other animals for our own pleasure. I don't know. I don't really feel I do own my cat. No, well, Dora's different.

I don't think Dora ever really bought into the deal, did she? Well, she buys into some aspects of it. What really intrigues me about her is, you know, cats are supposed to be up with the lark at five o'clock or whatever. You go down in the morning, half seven, she's still asleep. And does she not even wake up for food? Not with any sense of urgency. I mean, she knows it will be there. She's just completely...

Now, my dental hygienist yesterday pointed to the fact she was a bird lover. I mean, as a twitcher. And she said that the Dawn Chorus in the UK is coming up on May the 7th, day after the coronation. And I am in and out as I say this. But if you pop out apparently at five in the morning on May the 7th, you'll be greeted by the Dawn Chorus at its fullest and at its most sensational. And she said it was genuinely one of the highlights of her year. I had no idea that there was one day... I think so.

...where it was better than any other day. That's the day. Why would that be? Well, because everybody's arrived, the gang are all here, the birds who come and go are back for what passes for the british summer although i have to say there's no sign of it at the moment it was really quite cold today it was very chilly yeah anyway that's just i mean it may or may not be right and other people will know more tell us whether i've got that right or not here's my question on that topic i completely

understand all the migration and all of that so everybody's in the hood that's great party party but if it has been particularly cold why would the birds stick to one particular date in the calendar and not be guided by their senses look i'm not on the bird council um they will have come to a decision and they will have made i mean why is the coronation on the 6th why is eurovision on the fight on the final of it on the 13th i don't know fee well do you think that the birds have uh they've considered the i cal and they've looked at it and thought okay it's quite busy it's just quite a busy week to go over the monday we'll fit in with sunday go for the sunday we'll go for the sunday when there's nothing else happening on that day and also there's a bank holiday the next day so people can get over it so you know it

all makes sense in bird world it doesn't because if you were the bird organizer you go for the bank holiday it is true isn't it that older people become really quite interested in birds bordering on obsessed which is why the rspb is such a rich charity because they are left quite towering sums of money by wealthy older folk who should be living it to their heads, can I say, if you're listening, Mother. Because my mum's got a real thing about birds. She's always out and about. Oh, you've got to be very careful. Yeah, but she does.

She says knowingly things like, the tits have really made a play for your father's fat balls. Things like that. She knows what she's saying yeah it's all wrong um okay now we wanted to mention the very many emails we had on this suggestion from one of our listeners that her life had been a bit underwhelming and she was looking at her seventh decade she approaches her 60th birthday and feeling a bit as as though she was a bit of a flop so i can't really listen to myself in this funny way anymore.

So do you want to read this? I thought very good email from Dave. No, because I've done enough talking. So you come and sit on the microphone we know is working. Just swap places. I'm really generous. No, you're not. No, you're not.

Come on. You sit on there and I'll keep quiet for a bit. Shit. Not as much as this one. Sorry, everybody. There was a swear there. Do you know what? not as much as this one sorry everybody there was a swear there do you know what this is feeling quite like

and don't take offence at this because they're having a hard time anyway but it's like some of my first weeks of local radio it's got the same feeling of jeopardy jeopardy I just don't want to waste some research I did earlier because I hardly ever do any and I did today talking about Joe Biden running again and a lot of people saying oh don't want to waste some research I did earlier, because I hardly ever do any, and I did today, talking about Joe Biden running again. And a lot of people say, oh, don't be ageist. But, you know, we're just being practical. And when you consider the amount of guff thrown at older women, I mean, we've got to ask the question, is it sensible to go for quite a big job at the age of 80?

And I looked up Biden's parents and their longevity. His dad died at 87 and his mum at 92. So there is a good long life in the Biden family. So he may have thought about that. So do you think that if his parents had died younger, he would have a, I don't want to say better sense, he'd have a different sense of his own mortality? I think it's just as simple as that. It's possible, isn't it? I'm completely fine on this microphone. That's really weird. No, you sound odd to me. Oh,? It's possible, isn't it? I'm completely fine on this microphone. That's really weird.

No, you sound odd to me. Oh, okay. Then again, what's new? So let's read Dave's email, because this is in response to our thoughtful question from a listener. Dave is a self-proclaimed, he says, minion. So our listener was basically saying, you know, my life hasn't really, I don't know, I just don't feel I've done all that much. And Dave says was basically saying, you know, my life hasn't really, I don't know,

I just don't feel I've done all that much. And Dave says that he's a lab technician. And he points out without a team of dedicated but unknown lab technicians, there'd be no great scientific or medical breakthroughs that inevitably get attributed to a Nobel winning scientist. No great invention would ever be realised without the minions to make it. No railways, no canals, no trains, no roads, no planes, and all the other stuff that makes the human race the most successful mammal on the planet. Yeah, we need leaders and entrepreneurs

and politicians, but they can only ever be a minority. And in fact, it's me and my fellow minions that make the world go round, because I have the practical hand skills to make stuff. In fact, I feel quite sorry for the intellectuals with no practical skills who will never know that deep sense of joy that comes from completing something and being able to reflect, I made that. So until such time as I retire, I will continue in the manner that I've led my whole working life, happily skipping out the door of my workplace at 5pm every day, able to prioritise my enriching I think that's great. I loved that email. I found it reassuring to read it,

doubly reassuring to reread it, and of course he's completely right yeah completely right yep thank you dave i've thought a lot about that original email uh and quite a few people have emailed us to say actually why not just embrace a different spirit towards the end of your life this one's from denise uh who says hello jayden fee uh listening to your discussion regarding the email from the six-year-old woman who felt she hadn't accomplished much in her life made me realize that starting probably somewhere around your 60s we do get a feeling of the importance of what we will do with the time we have left in our lives not with a morbid doom

and gloom i'm going to die soon feeling but the realisation that we have the time to do just a few more big things. And what will those things be? And here comes fantastic analogy, a bit like having the time to ride just one or two more rides at the amusement park before the end of the day, which should we choose for the most fun and excitement? And our correspondent says, I'm 69 years old, healthy and still working most days in a pretty physical job but i do think now and then oh god you'll be 70 next winter is that what you want to keep doing is it too late to go back and do the things you rejected 20 or 30 years ago and i suppose what joe biden is proving is that he's going to ride every ride in the amusement park

before the end of the day and perhaps there is that sense too yes i'm very happy for joe biden to go to an amusement park i'm more concerned about him actually potentially holding my fate in his hands running the world yes there's just that really um this is nice too from james who says i'm 37 i'd like to tell your listener that i feel exactly the same way. Despite friends telling me otherwise and saying I compare myself too much to others, I have never really been able to truly think what I've done is enough. I spend most days thinking over and over about what I could be doing, what I should have done, and not grasping at the opportunities that I've had. And I think too

about life passing me by. I have recently slid into a major depression and that's happened to me at various times in my life. But, he says, and this is the good bit, when somebody else voices what I'm feeling, as your listener did, it releases moments of clarity. Despite all this, I do know what makes me happy. My partner, my friend, sunshine, being outdoors. So I want to tell her that all the stuff she thinks about is fluff.

There are important things in life and investing time and energy in them will make her happy or at least lift the gloom a bit. Whether you're in your 30s or your 60s, these feelings are quite natural, but they're not real. Your life is real. James, thank you. And yes, I think you're right.

And I'm sorry that you've had a tough time lately and i'm glad that our listeners honesty helped you to feel a bit better that's good isn't it yeah it is really good and of course you're absolutely right when you hear uh when you hear somebody say your truth out loud there's nothing quite like that feeling no it's true and it's liberating isn't it yeah a cloud a weight can lift we should also say we've had lots of people of emails too from people who uh wanted to talk about our listener who was imagining a more exciting life with a partner other than the one she had and it turns out everyone basically is dreaming about you know uh the alternative but you know i've said it before

if you've got a steak at home you don't need to pop out for a burger you can spend a lot of time with a very rich internal life just keep quiet about it when you're back in the house quiet about it and don't shout out their name right uh we need to get on to the guest we do so matt baker was our guest this afternoon you'd know him from country file if you're of a afternoon. You'd know him from Countryfile. If you're of a certain age, you'd know him from Blue Peter, also from The One Show. And he's now gone to Moore 4, to the other side, where he's been making a series about his parents' farm

in this country, a sheep farm. And also his latest one is all about travelling around America. So he came in to tell us about that and started by explaining exactly why he'd wanted to leave this country and take the cameras abroad. Hello, good afternoon to you both. Oh, you're so cheery. I tell you what, I thought you'd be jaunty, but this is off the scale, Matt. Oh, that's brilliant. That's woken us up. This has made quite chilled, actually. I'm just relaxing with a cup of tea. Yeah. Okay. That's good.

Don't get too excited then. Was this country just not big enough for you? Why go to America? Oh, do you know, I've spent my life obviously touring the UK and the countryside of it and what have you. And to be honest, I was due to film a show in the depths of winter and it was all very muddy and what have you. And more for just incredible. And to be honest with you, we thought,

why not take viewers to sunnier climes and give them a countryside holiday? But the way that I holiday when I go abroad is that I often find myself in the far reaches of the middle of nowhere, talking to farmers, discovering how they like to work the land and so basically we've turned that concept into a new tv series and um yeah and and that's it it's it's funny i was just hearing your introduction there um harking back to the days of blue peter and that's the thing that i used to love most about blue peter whenever we would do our foreign trips and all of the producers

would kind of team us up with different stories that suited us and I would always end up with farmers and you know whether or not that was you know farming rice in paddy fields or up in the heights of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco living with nomadic tribes that was where I was always happiest and you know for me there was no language barrier when you got working with the stock, with animals. And so, yeah, so now I run a production company and I make the kind of programmes that I love making. And it seems that rural community is something that people really love to watch and be in tune with as a viewer.

Well, I think now more so than ever, don't you? I think we like being taken to what we imagine to be a kind of safe wilderness where the world is still working and the climate hasn't killed everybody and all of the other stuff that we are genuinely trying to deal with. Yeah, well, I think it's been in tune with Mother Nature and it's as simple as that and it's the pace of nature and it's something that i've grown up with really and i never knew any different and when i again going back to those days of blue peter when i when i came down to london for the first time i couldn't believe how different that energy was and how how i just found it quite unsettling actually and so you know i'd be always back at our farm and just kind of

recharging and now the life that I live is very rural and it's just what makes me feel happy and it makes me feel safest and you know viewers may know that a series that I did a couple of years ago called Our Farm in the Dales where my mum had this nasty accident and we needed to reversion the farm to make it more sustainable for life going forward for my parents as they get older because they don't want to leave that life it's not a job it's a it's a way of life and so we you know we adjusted things so that you know the sheep would be easier to manage and you know here my mum is now just having gone through lambing and it's been the easiest lambing that she's gone through but she's still doing it she still loves it and that's that's the concept really and so with this series I've just gone and met like-minded people in a very kind of obstock

style but just in a real rural community way and it's it's the kind of america that people won't see as america they'll just see it as people who love to work they love the land they you know grow everything from artichokes to abalone in the ocean. And it's it's a passion and it's something often that is handed on from generation to generation. And that's what I'm getting to the heart of. We will definitely talk about your farming experiences and your families in this country. But let's just stick with the programme for a moment. Jane and I have both watched the episode when you're in Florida with the cowboys. Why why don't we have cowboys in

this country, Matt? Well, I think we do. We have cow families. We have sheep families. It's just the way that they do it with their cowboy hats and their boots and what have you. And the fact that they are, because to be honest with you, they have vast swathes of land, you know, four and a half thousand acres of land to get around. And so instead of just whistling a dog to go off for four and a half thousand acres, they'll go out on horseback, which I did. And, you know, and I loved it. And but to be honest with you, those techniques are really similar. And actually, the stock that they're breeding and rearing all descend from stock that we have in the uk and again it's just going back to those similarities of how you know when you're working with stock you get them from

a bigger area to a smaller area in a smaller area and when they know that you know how it works it's it's incredible how open they'll be with their techniques and showing you you know the how they like to get the animals through the penning systems and through the race systems and these narrow corridors and the work that you can do with these huge bulls that will run at 25 miles an hour um but yeah it's it's funny how similar things are and you know you'll do your work and you'll sit down and you'll eat swamp cabbage soup which no doubt i did wonder about did you like that though the look on your face suggested that you were doing a smile for the cameras to be honest it was lovely it was warm and it was cozy but everything i'm trying i'm trying for the first times i'm not sure if these people are trying to say oh yeah he's the english bloke

look watch him eat this oh i mean it was funny i went in texas i ended up eating a bit of cap rock canyon because this woman this geologist that i was with who was like she was majorly passionate about the rocks in texas and she was like here eat this rock and i was like are you serious and she's like no honestly try it and you eat it and she said does it taste salty to you and i was like yeah and she's like well this is gypsum this is an old ocean and i was like oh wow so i was sort of eating my way around around America as well. Abalone. I don't know if you know, have you ever tried abalone like a sea snail? No. Well, I was in California in Monterey Bay.

And this guy, it's amazing. He farms abalone in these huge cages underneath the pier on the wharf. And and I wasn't sure how this was going to taste at all. You know, snails or seafood this kind of weird mixture and yet it tastes like nothing you could ever taste before and it's it's sort of the texture of mushrooms but it's like a really kind of like meaty taste and again i look like i watched myself back in the edit and i'm like look at my face but it's you know i'm just sort of really getting in tune with my palate while i'm out there as well but no swamp cabbage is good i love that description it was warm i don't think

that's something you should put in a review no you need to go one further than that it did strike me matt that the sort of people you were meeting and talking to they're not the kind of people frankly i expected you to come across in florida because if i'm honest, I think of, I don't know, gun-toting, right-wing, some people with really quite, to my ears, quite abhorrent views on certain things. The people you met seem rather a thoughtful bunch. Do you know, these are the quiet folk. Yeah. Those that don't make a song and dance, the ones that don't make a noise.

You know, there's a great term, isn't there? And I don't know if you've heard this one. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and the other wheel often doesn't make a noise. You know, there's a great term, isn't there? And I don't know if you've heard this one. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and the other wheel often doesn't get the oil. But these are the people that I am meeting. And none of them really are that political. They didn't really want to get into any of that. They weren't interested in putting their views across.

I was more, they were fascinated that I was interested in their life because they are so quiet. And often those are the ones that never get heard. And I was like, you know, more in they were fascinated that i was interested in their life because they are so quiet and often those are the ones that never get heard and i was like you know and i'll be i'd be facetiming my mom and dad and facetiming my friends and stuff like that back home and showing them all the techniques and the tractors and the machinery and they loved that and because because i turned up with no script at all i mean i lit it was so obstaculistic in that respect i literally got out the car and

we just started filming what happened and suddenly they realized that i was it was so obstaculistic in that respect i literally got out the car and we just started filming what happened and suddenly they realized that i was i was interested in the way that they lived and what they were after and so they showed me stuff and they were so open with it and and i think that's when television is at its best actually when you don't turn up with a preconceived agenda or with a hit list of questions that you want to get out of them and it's very much like program making on on their terms and it it was like they they opened up their world for all of us to watch and that's what was fascinating and we do you know we set out to make four programs and we came back with six that's how open people were always a good sign uh just to do a bit of

translating obs docs sorry yes Observational documentary style. Matt, back home, you did mention your family's farm and the difficulties that your parents have had over the last couple of years. I know it's been documented on television. Tell us where they're at at the moment and whether or not you will be able to keep that farm in your family in future? Very much so. I think all of the stuff that we did and all the changes that we made to make it more sustainable going forward have worked brilliantly. You know, my mum was, she was obsessed with, those who know sheep breeds will be aware of a Hampshire down. It's a massive sheep from the rolling downs of Hampshire. And'm just going to you know paint the picture

of a thousand foot up in in the Durham Dales it's tough terrain up there it's wild and my mum was adamant in you know rearing organic hamsters for years and years and years and yeah I mentioned earlier on that she'd had this nasty accident and those hamsters which are big and heavy just became so difficult for her to manage. So now we've got much more higher ground breeds, if you like. So we've got herdwicks, we've got Black Welsh Mountains, we've got Hebrideans and what have you. So they're much hardier and much easier, easier care. I mean, there's no such thing as easy care sheep, but easier to manage.

And my mum is in a great place now. She's loving it. Dad, too, is over the moon because obviously with all of that taken off my mum, then responsibility becomes just a little bit lighter. And so, yeah, so things are great. Thanks for asking. So that's all good. But obviously, you know that the situation for so many other farmers across the UK is really bleak and dire at the moment, Matt, isn't it?

I mean, there's a massive, massive post Brexit labour shortage. Four out of 10 farmers are over 65. I think the NFU had done a survey saying about six in 10 farmers have thought of just quitting the industry altogether. I mean, it's incredibly, incredibly difficult. I mean, it's incredibly, incredibly difficult. It's very, very difficult. And it's very uncertain times as well as we kind of rewrite this agricultural policy. And, yeah, we're finding our way forward in very difficult times. Interestingly, we've just been filming a new series, actually, where we're finding a new farm tenant for the National Trust. And so we've been digging into all of the details

in how difficult it is, certainly for tenant farmers who don't actually own their farms but rent their farms, and how important it is to be able to get young people into the industry and for folk to know that actually there's so many areas of agriculture as a young person that these days, with modern agriculture, that you can bring all of your expertise to it doesn't have to be just you know stockmanship if you like there's so many

different areas and with technology and all of the advances and so I think you know it's our British landscape looks the way that it does because of brilliant farmers and I think you know we need to sing it from the rooftops how brilliant our farmers are how much they just want to produce for everybody um and and show support and and show support with what we're buying and appreciate that yes you know food prices are it's very difficult for some families to cope um but I think when you understand what's going into it from a farmer's perspective you can you can understand why those prices need to be where they are. Because, you know, animal welfare is huge. You know, the work ethic is unbelievable.

And so, you know, we just need to open our eyes and understand why the quality costs. Do you have any thoughts about the way that Jeremy Clarkson has joined in that debate? Do you have any thoughts about the way that Jeremy Clarkson has joined in that debate? Well, I think it's very important. Any kind of rural television, any sort of shining a spotlight on difficult times and showing what certain sectors of society and business and how difficult it can be at times. Absolutely. And so, you know, in that respect, you've got to be incredibly thankful for Jeremy Clarkson for doing it and for putting it out there. And I think for the first time in a long time, farmers have really felt like somebody is telling it as it is. And, you know, it's not a rose-tinted way of living on a farm. It's hard work. It's tough. And when you come at it from a perspective where you are a first-time farmer first generation farmer you

see all of this stuff you know for a lot of farmers they're doing what generations before them have done and there's a huge pressure there to keep it going because of you know all of all of that family history and and it's difficult to sort of step back and go do you know what this is this isn't how it should be and so when you get somebody like Clarkson going, hang on a minute, what's this? What's that? What's the other? It raises those points and it makes farmers feel like, yes, there's somebody out there telling it as it is, if you like. There is quite a chasm between the locals around his farm and himself and the people who work on the farm.

I mean, it makes for very good television that, doesn't it? But I think it also does reveal something about the way that we don't necessarily understand the really important place that farmers might have in that chain of, you know, bringing us food and looking after the land. At the the end of the day that's what farmers what all the all all we are as a community of providers you know and you know we'll we'll grow what people want you know do you ever get a little bit of that though you know people who who kind of say well you're not actually on the farm you're telling us about farming from you know through my through my tv but you're not actually doing the farming bit yourself. Well, I think what's important to know is that when you have a sheep farm, you can put jobs

into a weekend. So it's not like dairy farming where you have to be milking the cows morning and night. When you run a sheep farm, they're grazing on the hills. And again, like I say, it's a hands-off approach that we're now doing so we're grazing our stock in a way that is low maintenance so you know if i didn't do what i do then who knows where our family where our family farm would be so the support that i've put in in that respect allows me and our family farm to continue because these days you can't you cannot farm i mean we're 100 acres right you can't you can't have a family supported on 100 acres without diversifying in some way shape

or form and so my diversification has been television and opening up that rural world to people and educating them in that way and you know from from that respect i think it's a good diversification the one I've chosen. No, for sure, for sure. Actually, it makes you wonder why anybody would go into dairy farming, because that just sounds really, really hard graft with very little reward. But this is the point, you see, that people these days have to understand the work, the effort,

and everything that goes into that. And therefore, you look at the price of milk and you think, actually, do what i'm gonna i'm happy to pay another 5p on top of the pint of milk that i've got because if that means that the animal welfare is going to go up and farmers are going to be supported and you know then then so be it it's it that's that's the point that's educating people to show them so when you've got a mouth and a voice and a mouthpiece to say look at look at what's going on then people people can be helpful in that way to the community. And do you think that the government has offered enough to the farming community? I mean, I know it's been quite a long time coming, hasn't it, since Brexit for farmers to actually be able to identify what they can apply to the government for?

Yes. Well, I mean, we're still in this kind of period where we're working out the best way forward and it's still very much up in the air. There's nothing set in stone. And this is the conversation that needs to be happening. What we want is that government come and understand and work alongside us so that you go, right, this is the way forward.

This is the best way forward. Listen to the people who know, the people on the ground, and hear what people in the farming community really want and need at the moment. Tell us a little bit more about the USA Travels thing. After Florida, where do you head to? So I do Florida, then I go to Texas, which is actually the programme that's on tomorrow night, on Wednesday night on Morpho. And then, yes, I go to a big, a massive stock show and rodeo.

I meet one of Texas' newest farmers and a brilliant couple. You may think it's Pekin, but it's actually Pekan, as I find out, with this lovely couple. No, it isn't. It's Pekan. It is. but it's actually pecan as i find out with this lovely couple it is you've got to you've got to say what they say where listen the the pecan tree is the state tree of texas so they will know well they will but they're wrong so i'm just gonna carry on with pecan if that's all right honestly gene is 81 years old this guy's he's acan, if you want me to call it that. He's a pecan farmer. And Eileen, she cooks up all these unbelievable homemade recipes for all these pecans.

And honestly, they're a brilliant, lovely couple. I go to ML Leddy's with this cowboy hat and cowboy bootmakers and what have you. But from there, I go to Arizona, go down the Colorado River and see how they're irrigating and growing crops in the desert, which is unbelievable. And then California, artichoke farming. I do a lot of wildlife as well

and bighorn stuff, the bighorn sheep I go in search of. But honestly, it was a massive eye-opener for me. One of the best things I've ever filmed. And I hope people will join me in that adventure that I take and that adventure across those southern states. I'm sure they will. I mean, apart from anything else, it's one of those TV programmes, isn't it, Matt,

that's benefited hugely from drone use, and I mean that really properly, actually, because you can just get these incredible shots of this vast, vast landscape that you're talking about. And it is one of those programmes that really takes you out of yourself. So thank you very much indeed for joining us this afternoon. No, thank you. Thanks for your company. TV presenter Matt Baker, who was our guest this afternoon. If you want to catch more of that series, it's called Matt Baker's Travels in the Country USA.

And it's on Morpho on Wednesday evenings. Or I think you can get it all, can't you? Yes, you can. Subscribe to the channel. Yeah. We're sorry if some of this podcast hasn't been the best quality. We do have a few technical issues here today

and Kate's doing her best. So bear with. And we'll be back tomorrow sounding loud and clear with our guest, a memoirist, an ace smash hit and Q magazine journalist, Sylvia Patterson. And I want to talk about school reunions. So if you've emailed in on that topic, then do brighten up your ear holes tomorrow. That's what we will start discussing then.

Yeah. Jane and V at Times.Radio. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, thank you. You're right well done for getting to the end of another episode of Off Air

with Jane Garvey and Fee Glover our Times Radio producer is Rosie Cutler and the podcast executive producer is Henry Tribe. And don't forget, there is even more of us every afternoon on Times Radio. It's Monday to Thursday, three till five.

You can pop us on when you're pottering around the house or heading out in the car on the school run or running a bank. Thank you for joining us and we hope you can join us again on Off Air very soon. Don't be so silly. Running a Bank? I know, ladies. A lady listener. I'm sorry.