Tales From The Green Valley - January (part 5 of 12) 

It seems to me the team is working even harder than the average farm family because they're helping to bring abandoned fields back into productivity and are likely repairing or rebuilding more things than would have been normally necessary in a year. On top of having to learn how to do it!

I must have watched this series, as well as Tudor farm, Edwardian farm, victorian farm, and castle building about 10 times each. It's very helpful for modern homesteaders. That's what I am doing...learning about skills, researching them further and then implementing them in my own farm. It took me about a year to find a billhook for hedging ha ha, and about as long to learn how to do it efficiently on my own. I'm currently hedging a back field for my sheep, it's only about a 1/4 acre but it's great for the lambs when we wean them. My next project is a chicken coop, wattle and daub style. I don't have hazel but I planted a huge patch of basket willow, and second year whips look like the hazel pieces they're weaving weft wise. I personally enjoy the indoor pursuits most....I process, dye and spin wool from my sheep, angora rabbits, and goats, and then weave and knit it. My loom is a more modern version than what you see in the Tudor farm...the heddles are metal, and it has 10 shafts, but honestly it hasn't changed much. Same with my wheel, I use a castle style with a flyer assembly rather than a great wheel with a spike. My charka has a spike though, similar to a great wheel but it's very small with a very high ratio for spinning fine fiber. I also grow a lot of my dyes from natural plants and process them myself. I must say I really do identify with their hard labors lol, I have the same complaints but I do have electricity and modern amenities to relax with. One of the hardest things though is finding some of the tools....you may think oh well a modern tool would be easier but in a lot of ways it isn't. If you're building a shed out in the field you don't want to have to run a generator or 5electric cords to plug in your drill, or have your battery run out 5 hours into working....a hand tool is easier in those situations, plus a lot of the tools back then we're more specialized, like my billhook, or a hay knife, or even my good old antique singer machine that runs on treadle power, it can sew through anything and it quilts perfectly, I use it more than my modern serger or expensive quilting machine just because it's so convenient and I feel like I have so much more flexibility. I wish there were more shows like this, and that they went more in depth into day to day processes and household crafts more so than cooking....but I enjoy it all either way. I do like the way they show the butchering and processing of food for preservation. Sorry, I'll end my novel here lol. PS. Love love love this show obviously! BBC please make more like this!!!!

I'm amazed at the people at the time and their unwavering commitment to putting everything, EVERYTHING, in a pie.

I like having a real expert in a subject along with out heroes. I like the interaction. I don't need to believe that Peter, Ruth and Alex are the experts at everything I like the conversation between them and the experts. Plus it gives the experts their due rather then just standing about in the background waiting for the camera to stop shooting. I could say "expert" one more time if you ask me nicely.

I love these series from this to Full Steam Ahead. It has been my therapy since I discovered them. Wherever these presenters are, I wish them all the happiness as they have given it to me ❤

Really cool to see the roots of where so many permaculture techniques came from (coppice, rotating livestock to prep a plot of land for planting)!

What I love equally to discovering this show on the RU-vid is to read the informative comments from people all over the world.

I was glad to finally see a cat on one of these shows. I watched the Tudor, Victorian, Edwardian and War Farm series they had no cats and one dog. I've never been to a farm that didn't have a few working cats to take care of the rodents and birds, and a dog or two to protect the farm.

It's not bath night for 5 more nights... If he went the distance that is real dedication to your work! LMAO. What a good show.

Love these series! Have learned so much and have a new found respect for the history of agrarian life...

Cloie is such a trooper!

Poor people were meant to wear caps to stop the spread of lice I believe, not so the poor could make a living selling hats. Awesome series, one of my favorite ☝️

There's an ancient tradition in northern Germany where we eat kale stew in autumn and winter, while getting blackout drunk. Many people say it's "an acquired taste" because it is quite bitter, but if made properly it is one of the best things you can eat all year. Into it goes white pudding (both whole and a few scraped out) as well as boiled lean ham. Also, there's loads of mustard seed in there, as well as in the white pudding. I've always laughed at the idea of fancy Californians and New Yorkers eating kale as some sort of trendy food everybody else scoffs at.

It amazes me how they worked out these different things....... eg the "Oak Apples" (??). and ending up making dye and ink... WOW!!

These are my most favourite programmes I’ve watched most of these series Victorian farm, Edwardian farm ect but not for some time so re watching them all as I’m on bed rest anyway

I make a salve from plantain, a ‘weed’ that grows everywhere. Plantain, olive oil and beeswax makes a great skin soother especially for sunburn, bug bites and chapped hands.

Peter is so handsome. ❤

I'm developing an appreciation for how much the colonists in New England and south had to change their yearly schedules and tactics to survive. This was a new world in _lots_ of ways. Shouldn't Ruth have strained those berries out of the pig's fat salve?

Life was busy and hard back then especially in Winter.They said the woolen clothes they had on that they still got cold.You could see their breath when they was spit roasting the beef.Enjoyed watching this

22:03 I remember when we went back to my mum's old farm (decades after she left) most of the yard was completely overgrown but there was too much metal and scrap in the grass that you couldn't use a mower, so the neighbour lended five sheep!

This series is most interesting and a joy.

"This ink is poisonous", proceeds to grab with his hand.

I read about a ‘ willow house’ you planted several little willow saplings around the perimeter of your house and then as they grow you thread the shoots around the main stems. Continue on till you have a house. It actually takes far, far less time than you would think!

The cow looks into her shed and sees the Chambermaids are still working.

FYI... the word "plaster" is the Danish word for bandage. Our Vikings clearly left an impression on "the Green Valley"!

If this was made today it would have stupid celebs trying to live like this while having drama and beef with each other. So glad there are real historians and archeologists who were unknwon at the time. I love these shows!

SO funny to hear Stewart say "As the saying goes: Pease pudding hot, Pease pudding cold, Pease pudding in the pot etc" I never heard that until now. I learned it as "Pease PORRIDGE hot, Pease porridge cold, Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old". Also quite enlightening to realise that "pease" must be an older spelling of "peas". Again, it was written that way in my book (which was quite ancient) that I learned that rhyme from....

My mum used to make Frumenty from creed wheat. She also used milk, egg, honey and sultanas. It was so delicious. We had it for breakfast in winter. Apparently she heard about it from a Look & Learn magazine in the late 70s.

I've been re-watching these BBC farm docs and it always gives me a chuckle when they get to winter. I'm a Canadian and there's usually a couple of feet of snow on the ground at this point! Last winter, it started in late October and snowed clear into mid-April. I considered it milder than usual however, as there were only a couple of days that were colder than -30 C with the wind chill, it didn't really stray colder than -25 C. XD

To think that kale used to be associated with the poor while these days it's overpriced and everyone is buying it.

I would love to live like this but I think I would wear pants to help me get around better.Those skirts would soak up water and snow.I love the cooking they did, good natural food

Around 10:30time spot they talk about timber dwindling in England and the govt restrictions. The English also helped the dwindling of lumber here in USA too. England bought as much lumber as we used here. If u look at maps of American lumber spots from back then and compare them to the current maps, you'll see an 85% of the forrest has been used without being replaced

Cedar is the medicine for a cough, boil leaf and twig till it becomes half the water then put into a bottle you can add honey and ginger, they help too and make it more tastey, it tastes quite nice

First time watching Tales From The Green Valley. Seen the other series featuring Ruth, Alex, and Fonz.

Ohhhhh....wow for all my life growing up in Guyana, South America, a British Sovereignty .. we all thought it to be piece porridge hot, piece cold....now I know it's peas porridge...lolllll

I honestly would love to live like this. yes it's hard but can u imagine a world without electronics. And the fulfillment you would feel that your grew and built and reared everything.

Fantastic!!

I am enjoying your series. I would like to let you know that people still make herbal oils, salves, plasters and poultices as well as many other types of herbal products. They are not placebo, they actually work. However, they have to be made correctly to work. For example the mustard poultice should have been very warm. Although honey can be used, it is usually better to use whatever flour you have around that is older. Make a pot of hot water, mix it with your 3 parts flour with 1 part freshly ground mustard seed. Then you add enough hot water to make a paste. You take a thin tea towel and place enough paste on it on it to fit over the main part of the chest. Then you pull the tea towel over the mustard paste or place another on top. (This can also be done with multiple layers of thick paper towel.) This protects the skin from being burned by the mustard. Then you place it on the chest for only 20 minutes. More can cause the skin to burn. You also generally place a hot water bottle or another heating element on top and wrap the person in a blanket or towels. There is more I could say about it but his is the basics of a mustard plaster. There should always be a thin cloth between the skin and the mustard paste. Never use on abraded or open skin. The skin should always be protected from "heating" herbs.

Thank you so much for uploading these. Love to watch, especially when recovering from a nasty cold. Thanks again! Cheers

Thanks again.

Great series

So interesting serie. Thanks. And seeing Alex's torso... At last...

Besides the series themselves.....the different comments are also quite informative

Watching videos likes this makes me wonder how on earth people survived the Canadian winters before modern times. I've learned bits and pieces, but as a Northern Canadian myself there is no way we could do things the same here. Even just because my winters now are from November to April on average, and the snow and ice cover is complete. You wouldn't be getting any veggies, berries, etc at all. Not to mention this January got down to -40 Celsius. I understand that England is a damp cold and that makes a huge difference than our usual dry colds, but believe me -40 C is a whole different beast.

Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Mayor of Castorbridge’ has a character get drunk on fromentry sp? It’s spiked with rum I think. At a fair.

That was a mean looking blister on the knuckle as she was decanting her oils.

The honey mustard plaister would make you think more than once about complaining chest congestion…

I don't know why nobody is commenting on Alex looks. He is really easy on the eyes.

♥️

It strikes me how much knowledge has been lost and how removed we are now from the basics of life. People keep SAYING life is better now but I wonder. IS it better that children do not even know where bacon comes from? Or how to sew a simple garment? Remembering the popularity of the apocalyptic theme 10 years ago, I almost wonder if it was brought about from a collective urge to go back to the basics of living. Simple as it was, it must have also been very satisfying to know how to do so many things. And these were all taught at home, by your parents.

January and still harvesting greens?! We have 2-3 feet of snow already by then!

At about 3:47 and after

Love these documentaries with Ruth Goodman and the gang. I'm just confused as to why they are calling Peter Ginn, Fonz??? Weird.

The tree nearly hitting the camera tho

Don't let Stuart touch food anymore. He cross contaminates everything.

It's Peas porridge hot,Peas porridge cold,Peas porridge in the pot,nine days old, Some like it hot,Some like it cold,some like it in the pot nine days old.

Thank god they eventually drop that nickname,,The Fonz,,NOT,,lol

Great series but it's funny to see a bunch of soft academics doing this- we did a lot of this kind of work as kids and it was much much colder here in Canada. Had to laugh seeing him hack away at that tree-- Dad would have cut those little trees with a few strokes using an antique axe he kept sharp. I like how Ruth turns "pl-ass-ter" into "place-ter"- it's a word used to mean 'sticking to' as in plaster on walls.

Do they keep bees? They should….

Is it me or does the narrator sound an awful lot like Liam Neason?

I hope their chopping technique was compromised by having to talk at the same time. :^)

what month did they make the cheesecake ?

Holy crap, Alex is built!

what is the flute music that is played in the series?

I always peas pudding called peas porridge.

Did they really stay there for a year? Or did they just show up to film a few days a month?

The only unrealistic thing here and what is missing is they have no children and farm families would definitely have had children.

Stuart seems quite out of place in this series, lol. Like he's just off doing whatever the heck he wants to do because he read about it once - and then seems to do it badly. 😂 Interesting stuff - but feels so oddly out of place with what the rest are trying to do to keep the farm going.

Alex is cute but Peter is so hot! I will date both of them, but I will marry Peter. 😍😍😍

I wonder if anyone lives there anymore.

Q: when building a waddle and daub structure, I know hazel is used. What I want to know is the hazel witch hazel or the nut producing hazel. I'd really appreciate a response. Thank you, Terri

what was the pie crust made of? looks pretty brown

Ok what about they pay to the church and gentry......I wish they talked about that..... can't believe that roof never caught on fire.....

Why was Peter being called Fonz or Fonzie?

That is not the right way to make an infused herbal oil though...

Some comments seem to think these people gave up a year of their lives for a year to work all day long on hedge rows, building fires, killing hogs, cooking all day, and getting up at five in the morning, so someone can come in and film them. A production as complicated as this film would have a huge crew to do everything just to set a scene to be filmed. Ruth wouldn't be putting all that stuff together to show you how you made medicine. Some set decorator would get all the stuff needed for the shoot, who would have a staff under them, someone would write the script of what they were going to tell you, there would be a historian to make sure it's accurate. they would show Ruth what she has to do and she would step into the scene, do the task, and explain everything that the historian told her. They do it all so well that people think that it is all real. It's a fantastic effort with high marks all around for everyone that worked on this. It's mind blowing that the effort would be made in creating these little jewels of history.

Really enjoying this series, though I am disappointed that in this day and age the woman of the house is still referred to as "the farmer's wife". She is a person of her own right, and an invaluable asset to the farm. How about the phrase, "the woman of the house" or "the womenfolk" or "the women of the farm"?

You know, I can hunt, I am aware of the meat that I buy in the store. It is really hard for me to eat anything I just pet in the barnyard. It is even harder when you ask "how are you enjoying Arthur." Really? Salad and an apple please, Love your cooking Ruth, but I have to ask. What's in it? I'll have apples. Bye

Stewart looked absolutely ridiculous "breaking" up that REALLY thick layer of ice on the livestock pond! I live in west-central Wisconsin and know (what and when) ice needs to be broken up so live-stock can drink. That glazing of ice on the pond definitely DIDN'T need to be bashed. Heck, the glaze of ice would have melted by late morning!

Oh, come on Stewart! There is barely a thin crust of ice on the pond......you certainly don't need to break up the thin ice with a pole! The ice will melt by mid to late morning! Trust me....I live in central Wisconsin, so I think I can write about ice with a fair amount of knowledge and experience.

do they spend the night there ?

That's a pretty nice manicure she's maintaining 11:57, considering the hard work she's supposedly doing. (Although it does seem like the other woman always ends up doing the bulk of the grunt labor.)

Did they not wash their clothes 400 years ago?!!!!!!!!!!

Why they don't act in period drams

Ruth: you can make a MUCH better elderberry salve by using just the berries! Mash the berries up after simmering them for a short time then strain the juice into the melted wax and pig fat. By the way, how were you going to make sure that the salve stayed on the wound long enough to get the best healing? You didn't even try to wrap the wound with a strip of linen to keep the salve on the wound! Wow....

As much as I adore this series, I do hope they all had a proper bath after filming each day.

Stuart strikes me as quite an odd character, fair enough. But an absolutely shocking cook, unforgivable.

I get high on weed and watch

It looks as if Ruth is pregnant somewhere around 4 minutes or a little after. If she is, Congratulations Ruth!

HIS NAME IS NOT FONZ!

Look like a Dracula , K-9 teeth

Why is it that Alex, with the most irritating voice, does the most jabbering, not that he says anything of import !! Alex is such a whimp!! Whines about any kind of physical labor.