Farms: Wartime Farm Part 6 of 8
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The Wartime Farm team tackle the conditions faced by British farmers in 1943, when food imports slumped to their lowest level during the war. The government feared a crisis and after four long years at war, Britain's farmers were challenged with somehow increasing food production yet again. There were renewed shortages of animal feed so Alex and Peter resort to producing a hay crop from grass in the church yard and use some clever 1940s technology to get the job done. With tasks mounting up on the farm, the team turn to a popular source of additional wartime labour - children. Children's harvest camps were set up by the Ministry of Agriculture to release kids from school during periods of urgent need on farms, and over 70,000 pupils took part, paid six pence an hour to avoid accusations of exploitation. Ruth enlists eager child labour to collect herbs that were desperately needed by the pharmaceutical industry to make medicines during the war. But once the job's done, she has to feed them. A rat catcher helps Alex deal with the farm's rodent problem, a job which usually fell to Land Girls. It is estimated that rats destroyed two million tons of crops during the war, costing the country £60 million a year. Alex also tries his hand at making a much needed sugar substitute - honey. Ruth discovers the methods women used to look good despite the restrictions of rationing. After making a new dress from old flour sacks, she gets a makeover from a pair of wartime hair and beauty experts. While Peter is getting to grips with a vintage hay baling machine, Ruth and Alex attend a party at the village hall, where they experience a new dance phenomenon brought to Britain by African-American GIs, the jive. Wartime Farm was produced by the BBC in partnership with The Open University.
Comments
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3 people I want to be with during a zombie apocalypse.
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Did anyone else notice the modern US flag at the dance? At that point, there were only 48 states, not 50; the arrangement of stars is different. Also, no serviceman would wear - or be permitted to wear - a hat whilst indoors unless part of a colour/honour guard, security, MP, or other special exception. 😊
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Haha, "cottoned on". Puns, FTW.
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44:07 the way he says buttons....makes me giggle. hehehehe
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Rats have bladders.
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All this government interference makes me happy I wasn't born until the early 50's, yet my mother was still stuck in the war years so most of my clothes were hand made. lol
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Eve doesn't really need much makeup!
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FACT: rats have bladders. Herp derp.
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You know I love watching this. I did some thinking and figured out what life would have been like if instead of being born in 1987 what if I had been born in the past. I found I would have been born after the first war of course. I figured that my mother's first husband would have died at war and she would have got everything. In real life he was well off thus in the past he would have been too. But instead of them just divorcing, badly mind you, he would have died, mom got everything, then she would have married my father who would have been a factory worker I would be born and then she would have thrown him out. So my guess is that my late mother and I would have lived in the country more or less with a nice property, maybe even a farm, so either we would have used our land for farm during the war or as a farm we would have done it from the start. Though if this year was WW2 and life was different I would be married with a few kids and my Husband would be working the farm with our young children helping some what, they would be young. I'm not married in reality but more then likely I would have been in a different era. So only thinking about this stuff is fascinating.
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Ruth is just adorable. Such great energy!
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Did they have farm cats?
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I owned an allansythe
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I don't think I have ever seen farmers wearing a shirt and tie doing farm work...
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Skilled hairdressers were exempt from conscription? Ha ha! That's one way to keep gays out of the military. It seems discrimination isn't always a bad thing.
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''patate pillés au saumon'' smashed patatoes with can saulmon was one of my favorite my mom did. Her father served in canadian navy. To this day I love it.
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Ruth is so sweet and always seems to be having such a good time!
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"They often met with a stony response from the British people." Except those British people that wouldn't allow the black women as land girls. What hypocrisy.
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I remember my great grandparents moving out the living room furniture to swing dance. I always loved watching them. Especially Granny she just glowed!
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That is BS Mice and rats do have bladders. I seen their bladders when cutting them.open.