The Edwardian Farm Faces A Potato Blight | Edwardian Farm EP11

The team's year on the farm is coming to an end. First, they have to bring in the wheat harvest, the most crucial part of the Victorian Farm calendar. Ruth explores the craft of straw plaiting and discovers the art of printing. Alex and Peter try their hand at homebrew. The team brings in the wheat harvest with the help of some extra labor, and celebrates with a harvest festival.

In this episode, the team embarks on a trip by steam train, Ruth begins a tough task in the dairy, Alex tries his hand at beekeeping, the sheep are sheared using the latest time-saving technology, and the lengthening summer days allow Alex and Peter to try out the new Victorian sport of cricket. It is also time for the hay harvest, weather permitting.

The team follows a flock of sheep up on to Dartmoor, where it was traditional for many shepherds to take their flocks for summer grazing. Alex and Peter get to grips with shearing, while Ruth takes the fleeces off to a wool mill to find out how it was processed and manufactured.

It is April and the fishing season has arrived - a time when Devon's 'fisherman-farmers' went to sea. Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn go to sea in an Edwardian trawler, hastily finishing repairs before setting sail. They master the singing of sea shanties as well as steering a wind-powered vessel and casting a net the old-fashioned way - but will they catch any fish? Women were considered bad luck at sea, so Ruth Goodman stays ashore. She forages on the se shore and prepares potted shrimp. She also builds a smokehouse and smokes some mackerel.

Ruth's daughter, Eve, arrives on the train to spend Mothering Sunday - an important occasion in the Edwardian calendar - on the farm. For the many daughters who worked away in service, it was the only time in the year when they could get time off to return home. Alex and Peter fertilise the potato crop - which requires ten tonnes of well-rotted horse dung. They also go up to Dartmoor for the annual pony trek - a time when wild ponies on the moor were rounded up. They select a new pony for the farm.

Six months into their year, Ruth, Alex and Peter explore the daily lives of Edwardian farmers. This episode has a slightly different format to the rest of the series; instead of covering a whole month's changes it uses a framing device of Ruth writing a letter describing the events of a single day on the farm.