Paul West’s turning point for his River Cottage Australia dream

‘DO I make a full-time TV show or do I become a full-time farmer?’ Paul West on the challenges of River Cottage Australia.

EMBARGOED to MAY 24, 2015, Sunday TV Guide MAGAZINES FIRST USE. Paul West for River Cottage Australia season 3. Picture: Nick Wilson for Foxtel

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THE third season of River Cottage Australia premieres on Foxtel’s Lifestyle Food on Tuesday. Co-host Paul West — who can forget the dog Digger — talks about being a full-time farmer or making a full-time TV show.

“THE challenge last year (season two) of River Cottage was to turn it from an experiment into seeing if it could be a sustainable paying venture.

In season three is it paying yet? Well, I wouldn’t say it’s a full-time income, but we are definitely much closer.

It’s one of those things … when does it stop becoming a TV show and when does it start becoming a full-time farm and what do I do? Do I make a full-time TV show or do I become a full-time farmer? Because it’s very difficult to both.

We shot for the bulk of last year and had a little time off over Christmas - then it was back into shooting and finishing the (River Cottage Australia) the cook book.

Then I finally got time to take stock for first time in 18 months. Oh (grins) ... and welcome a baby (baby Otto was born to West and partner Alicia Cordia in late April).

Special delivery ... Paul West with partner Alicia Cordia and their baby boy Otto. Picture: Supplied

I think it happened (Alicia fell pregnant) in the UK actually - if we do the maths - clearly it was something they put in the food, but we also stayed in a beautiful place off the Isle of Skye with beautiful clear Scottish Loch water, so maybe it was that ... or maybe it was just that we were in the middle of nowhere and in a beautiful cabin and we were so happy to be there with each other.

It was quite surreal watching Alicia’s belly grow. When it comes kicking and screaming into the world the real love really starts.

We’ve been together six years. The wedding plans are on the back-burner. We don’t want to rush it, we don’t want it to be a stress, neither of us are going anywhere - in terms of without each other - so there’s no race to get down the aisle.

You won’t see the pregnancy in the series. It’s something that goes back to TV happening in a bubble. So much of what happens here is real, but through an editorial lens.

Because Leesh and the baby are two totally rock-solid real things I don’t want them to be interpreted through an editorial lens. We want to keep a bit of us to ourselves.

Top of the crops ... West has now got a consistent supply of fruit and vegies at the farm. Picture: Supplied.

Some bad shit has happened on the farm this season, but not on the same scale it did in season two (when crops were lost).

The big success has been getting more consistent supply out of the vegetable garden, being able to sell some vegetable boxes into the people in Tilba - being able to put four or five different things into those boxes on a regular basis.

To be able to now do that brings this from the spectrum of ‘unreal’ lifestyle television into the real world.

First season it’s like ‘one zucchini – yeah’. The second season it’s like ‘oh shit, a tonne of zucchinis’, now it’s – ‘enough zucchinis’ - we’ve refined the process.”

RIVER COTTAGE AUSTRALIA, LIFESTYLE FOOD, TUESDAY, 8.30PM

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Originally published as Paul West’s turning point for his River Cottage Australia dream