Ep 1. Episode 1

During the onset of World War II, British farmers were called to produce enough food to feed Great Britain in the event of a supply disruption due to the war. Episode one of the show Wartime Farm, titled "Episode 1," navigates through the challenges and opportunities of farming at the beginning of World War II in England.

The show’s hosts Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands, and Peter Ginn each bring different skill sets to the farm and apply them to reimagine a traditional farm operation to produce food at wartime level. In this introductory episode, the trio starts by locating a suitable farm and sets out to establish areas of focus: a resourceful vegetable patch, a thriving pigpen, and a busy blacksmith forge.

The episode starts off with Ruth Goodman following British government procurement policies for a wartime farmer to secure a fertile land. She stumbles upon a well-equipped farm with usable tools and buildings but learns that it had been abandoned for over a year. The team begins by reinstating the resourceful vegetable patch in a section of the farm that was once used for vegetable farming. Ruth, with her expertise in food preservation, demonstrates how each of the vegetables the team chooses to plant will help supplement the piggery and feed on fallow winter months.

In parallel, Alex Langlands leads the blacksmith forge, which is critical for farm maintenance as the work entails repairing broken equipment and tools. The forge gets busy immediately as the team learns of the different uses for the various farming tools. Alex highlights the importance of maintenance, and how done properly, can increase tool lifespan by several years. The forging crew fixes and makes anew some tools that would have been discarded, saving the farm valuable resources.

Peter Ginn, a capable heavy machinery operator, guides the team through a difficult decision of whether to change the traditional farming techniques and use heavy machinery instead of the traditional horse-drawn plow. While Ruth and Alex highlight some significant drawbacks of using heavy machinery, the decision ultimately rests on production capability, profit margins, and practicality. Peter’s contribution allows the team to get more work done compared to using traditional labor-intensive techniques, which would have relied on a limited workforce.

As the episode progresses, the team gets their first pig, which becomes a key feature of the farm’s provision. The farming divas have to improvise with provisions as winter sets in, with little to no food for the hogs. The situation forces the team to look for alternative food supplies, which prompt Ruth to create a necessary substitute from forage crops.

Throughout the episode, the team learns that during wartime, farmers had to be innovative and resourceful, learning how to make the best use of all materials available, all the while making the most significant return out of their investment.

Overall, Wartime Farm, Episode 1, gives a quick primer on the challenges that wartime farming had to contend with. Through the use of trial-and-error experimentation, resourceful adaptation of farming techniques, and expert guidance, the team attempts to bring the farm back into production, making it not just a sustainable food source, but also offering useful guidelines to future wartime farmers.