Chapter 1: Tractoring / Chapter 2: Sheeping / Chapter 3: Shopping / Chapter 4: Wilding / Chapter 5: Pan(dem)icking / Chapter 7: Fluffing / Chapter 8: Harvesting (Looking for my review? It’s here.)
Jeremy has already been faced with torrential rains for weeks, followed by long dry spells. He has planted sunflowers, pumpkins and sweetcorn, but they’re not growing properly because of lack of water. Jeremy has a 1000 gallon tank on the tractor and has to fill it from the stream, but the size of his tractor results in damaged trees and knocked-over fence post. Eventually kaleb takes over, but the round trip still takes five hours — and anyway, the sprayed water quickly evaporates.
Jeremy wants to join the Red Tractor food accreditation scheme, so he can sell for the best prices.Thanks to COVID, his test is done over Zoom, though there examiner still managers an in-depth look around the farm, barns, chemical store, etc with lots of probing questions around safety and best practice. Luckily despite a couple of issues that need addressing, the farm passes the test.
Jeremy’s wetland area has dried out. The pond has not, so Jeremy uses a solar powered pump to take water from it to water the rest of the wetland. it’s not that affective, so he buys a germinator and huge hose, but that is too powerful, washing the earth and seeds away, so it’s back to solar power.
Jeremy starts planting trees in return for a government subsidy. The land is very dry and solid so he decides to plant 20 established trees instead, using outside help.
Charlie shows him how stressed the crops are getting due to the lack of water.
In the hen field, the sheep are rubbing themselves on the henhouse catches and accidentally letting the hens out with some then killed by the family of foxes that live nearby.
It’s time to shear the sheep. Ellen and a friend get started, with Kevin assisting. Jeremy is given the task of picking sheep poo off the fleeces and rolling them up. He will get a minuscule 30-40p per fleece, so will only make £30.80 for all the wool. Ellen and her friend get £1.75 each per sheep sheared. In the 12th century there were half a million sheep in the Cotswolds, with the area’s huge churches paid for by wealthy sheep farmers wanting to give back.
Jeremy then moves the flock to a new field on the far side of the farm. They have to go on a road, but Jeremy is too far behind, and they end up trampling a crop field and jumping over a wall. Ellen’s sheepdog sorts them out and they make it to their new flower meadow.
It’s 1 June and Jeremy’s new trees are suffering with no water. In six week he should be harvesting his first crops but will they have grown?
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