Escape to River Cottage

Hugh goes off to Peggy's pig farm and buys 2 pigs from her, then uses Peggy's trailer to transport them back to River Cottage into a shady copse near the cottage that he has prepared for them.

After that, he meets up with Gary, a diving and fishing expert who instructs Hugh on the use of a speargun. Hugh fails to catch anything, but Gary manages to catch 1 mullet and 2 bass, which they promptly cook and eat.

Hugh then visits Michael and Joy Michaud, who are organic gardeners. Michael goes back to River Cottage with Hugh to help him with his vegetable plot in return for a ham from one of Hugh's pigs in late autumn.

Next, Hugh arrives at the mansion belonging to Antony and Serena Hitchens, who have a severe pigeon problem. Every morning, more than 80 pigeons line up on the roof of their stables. Anthony then teaches Hugh how to cull the birds, and promises Hugh the meat of any bird he culls in exchange for his help. Hugh treats them to Pastilla, a North African treat using the meat of the pigeons he got.

After River Cottage's first blackcurrant crop yields a mere seven berries, Hugh travels to a berry farm and works in exchange for fruit. Hugh joins a group of Eastern European students harvesting raspberries. He eats all the berries that are deemed overripe for supermarket shelves. Later, Hugh prepares a dessert of coffee-flavoured floating islands with blackcurrant syrup for the commune.

Hugh builds a chicken enclosure and buys six egg-laying hens from Frank, a local farmer. Hugh uses his first egg to prepare a single-serving soufflé, which he then eats while reclining in his hammock.

Next, Hugh goes diving for spider crabs and prepares linguine with crab for his diving companions.

At the vegetable show, Hugh's raspberry jam and Victoria sponge win first prize. He also presents a selection of six vegetables which wins third prize. Roy once again wins in the category of "longest bean" but narrowly misses winning the challenge cup.

Hugh's cottage is infested by mice, so he enlists the help of vegan spiritualists who—using crystals and meditation—politely ask the mice to relocate to Hugh's shed. Later, Hugh invites the mouse-busters back for a lunch of vegetable risotto with hazelnuts from a tree he discovered on his property. Hugh claims that he hasn't seen a mouse they were banished.

Hugh takes a sentimental journey back to the Dorset shore, where he's reunited with Dennis Cheeseman, a man whom he met on holiday at nine years old. Just as he'd done as a child, Hugh helps Dennis harvest prawn pots. Then he prepares tempura-battered prawn with foraged sea lettuce.

After trapping and skinning two eels from his river, Hugh prepares eels in green herb sauce. Then, Hugh works as a beater on a pheasant shoot and takes home several birds as payment. He cooks a pheasant, pigeon, and rabbit terrine.

Hugh decides to host a pork feast for his friends. But first, he learns how to catch razor fish, a type of clam, and prepares a clam dish with pork loin and sausage. He serves this and all the other pork dishes to his guests, which include Michael and Joy Michaud, Roy and Barbara Gunning, the Hitches, and all the others who helped him in the past months.

As the series draws to an end, Hugh prepares his garden for next spring and decides to stay in Dorset permanently.

Hugh feeds Christmas carol singers visiting the Hitches' mansion with a fish cake of smoked cod. Later, Hugh prepares a stuffed goose neck, a confit, and a roasted goose breast. Then, Hugh searches the woods for a yule log with Star, a local hedgewitch.

Five members of the cider circle visit Hugh's cottage, and they feast on ham and stuffed goose neck. Hugh wins a year's supply of cider on a wager on a game a table skittles, a victory he attributes to the magical power of his yule log. Finally, as Hugh settles in to sleep, he leaves a mince pie by the fireside for you-know-who.