Tales from the Green Valley

About a year ago, I watched a BBC series called Victorian Farm on youtube. It was totally awesome! 3 people went immersed themselves in Victorian Farm life. They lived on an old farm, raised period livestock, grew period crops, wore the clothes and did the chores in the manner and with the tools available at that time. Well, they also did the same thing in Tales of the Green Valley only this time they went further back in time to 1620. This series is now available on youtube as well. There is so much to learn from those time periods in farming, especially for the small family farmer like me. There are so many times around here where we have to use what we have and many times that includes basic tools and raw materials. In fact as my husband and watched the last episode of the show I told him how much I would love to do an experiment like that and totally immerse myself in a time period. He looked at me real funny and said, "Honey you already do most of that stuff, you just don't wear the clothes!" I guess he is right in many ways, things like cheesemaking haven't changed much in 400 years. My husband and I employ many of the same building practices using wattle fencing and raw wood fencing. The inside of the horse barn will be re-built with some trash trees that we need to be rid of in the pasture and the old shed needs to be rebuilt which will employ these same trash trees. I did learn a lot from the show though. One thing I learned was that I am very thankful for my washing machine. I certainly would not want to have to lug laundry down to the stream and then beat it on rocks to get it clean. With a 4 year old in the house we go through a lot of laundry! Anyway, I highly recommend the show. In fact I have seen all of them that they did...Tales from the Green Valley, Victorian Farm, and Edwardian Farm. They are great and it is very interesting to see the evolution of some farming methods and those that pretty much stay the same. It is also interesting to see how farming is different in different parts of Britain, just like here in the states it is different depending on where you live. Have fun and check them out. Blessings, Kat