- Just go for it. - I'm really scared.
Oh God, it's so big.
It's quite big.
I'm Hanna, and I'm obsessed with everything outdoors.
In this series I'm going to be finding the best walks
you can do within 90 minutes of Manchester
and I'll be joined by some very special guests.
We're in the Holme Valley
on a walk that will take us around some stunning reservoirs
up the Yorkshire Moorlands
and we'll finish up at England's highest vineyard
for some wine tasting and some epic views.
We'll be starting at Digley Reservoir, and I'll be joined by Anna Søgaard,
sous chef at the rave reviewed Erst in Ancoats
and one half of Suppher, a female powered food and wine supper club,
which raises money for charities supporting women.
- Hiya, how are you? - Hey, how's it going?
Good to meet you.
Are you excited for today's walk?
So excited. Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, so we're at Digley Reservoir,
and we're going to follow some of the Kirklees Way.
That is actually a 72 mile route,
but we're not doing the full thing, so don't worry.
It takes about six days for that.
So we're going to do about seven and a half miles today.
- Let's do it - We've got a beautiful day.
Amazing.
So, Anna, Erst, I heard that Jay Rayner
rated it as one of his best meals of the year
that is amazing.
How did that make you feel?
I mean, it was honestly crazy.
We had no idea he was coming in.
It was a surprise like it is with all his reviews.
So we recognised him the minute he walked in.
Yeah, you were like 'oh my gosh'
Yep, really 'oh my God'
We were just really excited
and anticipating what he was going to say.
And obviously, we're all really happy that he rated it so highly.
So it's been incredible.
It was a really big deal for us.
That's incredible.
Oh, wow.
It's really beautiful out here.
It's lovely isn't it?
Gorgeous, I just want to jump in.
So that's Digley Reservoir
and then just to the left here, this is Bilberry Reservoir.
Oh, wow.
Can you imagine like back in the 1800s,
there was 81 people down in Holme died
because this overflowed and it burst its banks
and washed away cottages.
Even ripped out like graveyards.
- Oh, my gosh, that's crazy. - Isn't it?
It's really interesting.
You wouldn't imagine it because it's so pretty now.
I know, it's gorgeous.
Also, so remote.
So peaceful.
Oh, my God. Look at this tree swing.
Oh I love a tree swing.
- You're getting on it. - OK
You go pretty far.
Weeeeeeeeee.
It literally sounds like it's going to break.
This is so nice.
So Anna, you're originally from Denmark.
Yeah.
Tell me about why you moved from Denmark
and why Manchester?
Yeah, I mean, I moved here in 2019
to join the opening team at Erst.
And it's been amazing.
It's been an incredible experience being part of the team.
So have you brought, like, any Danish food
or Danish cooking techniques to the restaurant?
Not really.
I mean, our whole concept is that we are just really simple
back to basics, kind of.
We do a lot of cooking over fire.
We just really like to just showcase
the seasonal produce in the simplest form,
and just kind of enhance it with flavour as much as we can.
But we do have a lot of fish and shellfish on the menu,
which we definitely eat a lot of in Denmark.
I actually brought some with me,
I brought some oysters. Do you want to try one?
Oh my god. OK, yeah, let's try it.
- I've never tried an oyster before. - Have you not?
No.
Well, I love giving people their first oyster tasting experience.
So these are Carlingford oysters.
They're from Carlingford in Ireland.
They're huge.
They are huge, but sometimes they trick you.
Sometimes they can be quite small inside.
So we're just going to shuck these open.
It's kind of like a key and lock,
and it just pops open.
That was smooth.
And there it is.
Oh, my God. Look at it.
It's a big one. I don't know if it's a good one for your first one.
- See, you eat the whole thing? - Yeah. So this is the muscle.
This is what you eat.
It's kind of connected to the shell by a little muscle.
So we're going to release that
and then turn it over just so it's a little bit more aesthetic.
It looks really weird.
It does look really weird, doesn't it?
But I promise you, it's delicious.
And then if you want to hold that, I brought some toppings.
So I brought some Tabasco sauce, which you typically eat on oysters
or some lemon wedges.
Oh my God, what do I do?
Just squirt some lemon juice on it and then it's not attached to the shell.
So you can just kind of take it like a shot
is, I think, the best way to describe it.
The whole thing?
Yeah, yeah. Just dump it in your mouth and --
just go for it.
I'm really scared.
Oh, god, it's so big.
It's quite big.
Oh, God, I'm really scared now.
Sorry.
- Do you want me to eat one with you? - It's just like chicken!
- Yeah you eat one as well.
Cheers.
Oh, God. I can't do it.
That was really good.
You can definitely not tell it was your first oyster.
Most people pull a face.
What do you think?
It tastes like the ocean, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, I think we should move on.
Getting a little bit steeper now, isn't it.
Look how cute the little lambs are.
Oh, so small.
Oh my God, check out this house. It's a bit creepy, don't you think?
It kinda is. Do you think someone actually lives here?
I don't know. It looks a bit derelict, but there is a teapot, so.
There could be some squatters.
Do you think there's any ghosts?
Definitely.
Do you believe in ghosts?
No. But if I did, this is where they'd be.
I think so too.
At one of the hotels I used to work at
someone called me the day after their stay,
and they said 'I stayed in this room like overnight'
'and at 1am, I woke up to a boy at the end of my bed'
and I was on the phone, like, 'OK, yeah. Errr'
I was like 'OK, thank you.'
I've heard some desperate attempts for a refund,
but that definitely takes the cake. - She didn't even want a refund.
She just said 'I thought I'd let you know'.
Oh, my gosh, look at the baby behind her.
Aaahh, it's so cute.
How beautiful is this moorland.
So beautiful.
That's Black Hill up there.
So that's the highest moor that we can see.
And it's actually a conservation area for moorland and peats.
Right. So this is the next stop.
This is Blackpool Bridge.
Oh cool.
It's pretty cool, ey?
So pretty.
Let's go.
So why is it called Blackpool Bridge?
I don't actually know,
but our producer's brought something to make it feel more like Blackpool.
Thank you.
Oh my gosh.
These are great.
It actually looks great on you.
- Does it look natural on me? - Yeah, it does.
You could be a cowgirl!
Tell me about Suppher, your female powered supper club.
So it's a supper club that Kim McBride, who's a sommelier
she used to be our somm at Erst when we first opened.
It really started as a charity dinner.
When we first opened, Kim was volunteering for Trafford Rape Crisis
and we decided to put on a charity dinner to support them
and that kind of turned into a supper club.
And then we had a huge outpour of women from hospitality
that got in touch through social media and really wanted to get involved.
So we decided to kind of make it a collaborative event
where each dinner we collaborate with different women
from some of Manchester's best restaurants.
So we've got different chefs and sommeliers from around Manchester
that are so incredible and so talented.
And so it's really just such a privilege to be able to have a platform
to kind of showcase
how much female talent the industry has, especially in Manchester.
And so Kim does the wine side of it.
She's actually given me a bottle to bring for you to try today.
So this is a wine from our web shop.
We have a website suppher.co.uk
Proceeds go to different charities that we work with and support.
So this is one of our favourite bottles at the moment.
I love the label.
I'm such a sucker for labels.
It's a really cool story actually.
It's these four women in Paris who come from different diverse backgrounds.
One works in theatre, one's a tattoo artist, one I think is a cook,
and their common ground is they love natural wine and they're huge feminists.
So they kind of made a wine.
They're basically producing wines by borrowing grapes
from their different friends, from different vineyards surrounding.
So this one is from Alsace it's a rosé, but technically
it's actually an orange because it's made with all white grape varieties.
It's really delicious, it's super bold and it's one of my favourites.
- So should we have a taste? - Yes please.
It wouldn't be Blackpool without a drink would it.
Exactly.
Let's have a little taste.
It looks like a rosé.
OK, yeah, give it a go.
Yeah, definitely.
That's actually really nice.
It's pretty refreshing, isn't it?
Yeah.
I could just stay out here and just drink all day in the sun.
Cheers.
So, I bet you get asked, like, what your favourite food is
but what food don't you like?
So there's really only one thing that I won't eat
and that's bananas.
- Bananas? - Yeah.
I really hate the texture.
I hate how they taste.
I just hate everything about them.
What about you?
What don't you eat?
Errrrmmmm.
Probably seafood.
Look at the waterfalls.
- Oh so beautiful. - Looks so refreshing.
I know I kinda want to jump in.
Me too, shall we stick our head under?
Boy, this is a long road.
Right, so this is the little village of Holme.
So quaint and small.
Everyone seems really friendly.
There's no place like Holme.
Exactly. We'll head off to the winery.
Cool. Let's go.
Oh, my God. Look at these views.
Wow, it's so gorgeous.
They're proper epic aren't they.
They are. You can see so far.
Is that where we were? Over there?
- Yeah, that's where we came from. - That's so cool.
Shall we go walk through the vines?
Yeah. Lets do it.
So, have you ever been to a vineyard before?
I've never been to one in the UK.
I didn't actually realise that there were any this far north.
Neither did I.
Well, I didn't even know there was any in the UK.
Yeah, it's not really the climate that you'd expect
for producing wine, but it is beautiful here.
It's stunning.
Holmfirth Vineyard was established, or planted in 2008.
They started making wine up here in 2010.
Obviously, with the climate we have in Holmfirth
it wasn't a dead cert that they could grow
Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc or Cabernet Sauvignon
or any of the popular wines you'll find in the shops.
So they seeked out these hybrid vines that would thrive in a cooler climate.
It's 800 feet above sea level here as well.
So the air is a bit thinner, a bit cooler in the winter
and also cooler in the summer apart from today.
OK, it's quite warm today.
These grapes are made basically to ripen
in limited amounts of sun, which is ideal for Holmfirth.
It's such a nice way to end a walk for sure.
It really is.
And we've tried some new things today.
- We have, a lot. - Oysters.
Natural wine.
There you go.
Yes, oysters. Mmmm I'll try again.
Natural wine. I actually like that one.
How did you find the walk.
It was so much fun. Thank you so much for bringing me along.
I'll definitely be hiking this trail again.
Oh, well thank you so much for joining me today.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah, lets cheers to our walk.