One of the best aspects of the year was the chance to “join the dots”. Most of the skills and processes that we used in the year I had at least tried out before but never as one continuous whole. It was so satisfying and extremely useful to be able to put all the processes together. For example to be able to raise the pig, slaughter the pig, take off it’s hair, butcher it, make the sausages, salt the bacon and eat the produce. To be able to do all that alongside, and as part of, all the other daily rhythms puts it in it’s context and highlights how interconnected every aspect of daily life was.

The five of us where made very aware of how much we depended upon each other both for physical and emotional help throughout the year. The boundaries between men’s work and woman’s work, whilst technically separate, in practice where frequently blurred. Shouts for an extra pair of hands were frequently heard across the farmyard as sheep needed moving, poultry needed chasing out of the garden, fires needed tending and that post needed holding while someone else hammered it in. It was a communal way of life, a communal way of living and a communal way of working.

Reviews for the Green Valley:

"This is the best period lifestyle reconstruction I've seen on British television..." - The Observer

"delightful...the stresses of the week will dissolve while watching this beguiling little series...the trivia comes thick and fast ...There is a genuine sense of watching history brought to life here" - Daily Mail

"quietly absorbing...watching them at work makes you feel like you are actually learning something" - The Times

"an admirably wholehearted attempted to reconnect with life on the land...these lovingly filmed programmes revel in the changing seasons" - The Independent