Farm Park and Apple Crisps Down on the Farm

SHEEP BAA

# Come join us down on the farm today

# Learn about nature along the way

# From seeds to crops and field to barn

# So much to do down on the farm

# Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring

# Ploughing, planting, harvesting

# With JB and Storm to lead the way

# Come join us down on the farm today. #

Cock-a-doodle-doo.

Hello, I'm JB and welcome to summer on Down On The Farm.

Today, we're visiting a farm in the middle of a city

and learning all about this vegetable,

broccoli.

Coming up, I discover what farmer Charlie makes with his apples.

We find out how flour is made from wheat.

-I meet some schoolchildren who help out at a city farm.

-Good job.

But first, Storm learns about broccoli.

So come join us down on the farm.

CHICKENS CLUCK, PIGS SQUEAK AND COCK CROWS

I'm going to find out all about what is harvested

this time of year in summer.

-Hi.

-ALL: Hi.

-And who do we have here?

-Jessica.

Isabel.

-Matt.

-Oh, you missed. Try it again.

So, Farmer Ross, what needs to be done today?

I'm ready to get stuck in.

Today, Storm, we're harvesting this vegetable.

-Do you know what this is? BOTH:

-Broccoli.

-That's right.

It's broccoli and it's one of my favourite vegetables.

-And what do you eat it with?

-Potatoes.

Broccoli soup.

Chicken.

-Shall we go see how broccoli is grown? ALL:

-Yeah!

Let's get to it.

This is a broccoli field and did you know broccoli comes from a plant?

Now, we all have our gloves on to keep our hand safe, don't we?

Fantastic. So, how many broccoli plants are in this whole field?

54.

100.

Five!

There's actually 500,000 broccoli plants.

500,000 broccoli plants.

Broccoli starts life as a tiny plant.

They can be planted by a machine in the ground

and take about two months to grow.

The plants need lots of sunlight and rain

and sometimes during dry summer months they need extra water

and this is called irrigation.

You will often see on farms machines spraying out water.

They are called irrigators.

So this broccoli head is now at the right size

and weight to be harvested.

We break the broccoli off

and take the leaves off

and all our picking is done by hand.

-And that's it ready to go to the pack house.

-Great.

-So can we see how it is packaged for the supermarket?

-Let's go.

Wow. So this is what happens next?

Yes, this is where the broccoli is brought in.

It's tipped onto the conveyor belt.

It's trimmed and weighed to make sure it's the right size and weight

ready to go to the supermarket.

Thank you very much, Ross, for showing us how to harvest broccoli.

Let's find out what else happens in summer.

Summer has the longest, lightest days of the year

and is our warmest season.

The sun rises earlier in the morning and sets later in the evening.

All those extra hours of sunshine provide the boost that many

plants need to help them grow and ripen.

That's good news for farmers

and for the creatures that rely on plants for food.

And heat from the sun, built up during the day,

even helps the night-time creatures, too.

For prickly hedgehogs,

the warm nights of summer are the perfect time to go hunting for food.

But summer can also bring sudden downpours and spectacular storms.

And like us,

wild animals have to put up with the changing weather, too.

When you're only small,

a heavy shower can make life very difficult indeed.

But some creatures, like snails, love the rain,

which is why we see so many during summer wet weather.

They move around with ease when it is wet and eat up lots of plants.

I have a question for you.

Where do you think you might find a farm?

What's that? In the countryside?

Well, of course, you're right.

But you can also find farms in cities just like this one.

This is Mudchute Farm in London.

Here, you can see over 100 different animals.

There are city farms like this one all over the country.

I'm here to meet a local school who often help out at the farm.

I'd better go and find them.

Hi, guys. What are you up to?

We're just mulching.

-Will you show me how to do it?

-Yes.

Mulching is when you cover the ground

with a mixture of things like bark from trees, grass clippings,

leaves and straw to stop the ground getting muddy.

This makes it easier for the goats to walk on.

We can start spreading it.

The goats find the mulch very tasty.

-Am I doing a good job, guys?

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

I'm off to see who's looking after the Shetland ponies.

Hello, girls, I'm here to help. What are we up to?

Erm, just cleaning the poo for the Shetland ponies.

Oh, will you show me how to do it?

It's important to keep the field clean,

so the ponies have lots of space to move around

and fresh grass to eat.

-So, can you tell me the names of the Shetland ponies?

-Flossie and Echo.

-Flossie and Echo. Which one's Flossie?

-The brown one.

-And which one's Echo?

-The black one.

-Ah.

What do you like about having a city farm, then?

-It's a nice place to be.

-That's very true.

I've got another job to do over at the geese enclosure.

Hello.

So, girls, what are we up to now?

We're going to clean this so they don't get germs.

You've got to take all the food out.

We're cleaning the geese feeder, which is also called a hopper.

-Good job.

-Thank you.

Here at the farm, the hens lay about ten eggs every day

and we're going on an egg hunt.

Keep looking. Keep looking.

-Found one.

-Well done.

Well done.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, guys, for showing me your city farm.

I've had a great time. Who wants to be a farmer when they grow up?

ALL: Me!

Good. You'll make fantastic farmers.

Coming up next is our summer poem.

My garden is a lively place,

There's always something happening.

There's this constant search for food,

And then there's all that flowering.

When you have a garden, you'll never be alone.

And I believe we all deserve

a garden of our own.

Look at all these beautiful, juicy apples that are grown

here on this farm in Kent.

The farm does something very special with these apples

and I'm here to find out just what that is.

This is Farmer Charlie.

His family have been growing apples for a very long time.

Lots of apple trees growing together are called an orchard.

Helping today is Hector, Farmer Charlie's nephew.

Hi, guys. Good to see you.

-Hi, JB.

-You look busy.

-Yeah, we are.

-We're thinning out.

-OK, and what exactly is thinning out?

Thinning out is when we've had a really good apple year

and there are too many apples for the tree

to make them all perfect.

What we have to do is help the tree out.

We take off the small ones and the damaged ones

in the hope that we'll get a really good crop.

-Would you like to help?

-Yeah, of course.

Just drop them on the floor for the birds.

-Hector, do you like apples?

-Yes.

-And which are your favourite, red apples or green apples?

-Red.

My favourite apples are probably Bramley

-because they go into apple pies.

-Yeah.

Charlie, how many trees are in this orchard?

-In this orchard there's about 1,000 trees.

-Wow.

And how many apples to each tree?

Well, I'd say about 200 apples on the tree.

-That's a lot of apples, isn't it, Hector?

-Yeah.

Way more than I can count.

I'm told that you guys do something really special with these apples.

-What is it you do?

-Turn them into apple crisps.

-Will you and Uncle Charlie show me how?

-Yeah.

-Come on.

-OK.

First, we all have to dress up in white coats, wear hairnets,

wash our hands and put on gloves.

Don't we look good?

Farmer Charlie pours the apples into the machine where they are washed.

The apples are collected

and taken to another section of the machine

where the cores of the apples are removed.

The apples are then sliced up very thinly.

They move up the belt and fall into a tray.

It's mine and Hector's job to spread the slices out

ready for them to be heated.

The slices are put into a huge machine that blows hot air over them

and after a full day they come out as crisps.

They go on to another belt and this takes the crisps up into a machine

that weighs them and puts them into packets, ready to go to the shops.

I'm really looking forward to trying these.

-I can see you've already started. Shall I have one?

-Yeah.

-Mm. Those are seriously good, Farmer Charlie.

-Thank you.

And I love the fact that none of the apples in your orchard get wasted.

Thanks.

Now, while we enjoy these apple crisps,

let's find out what else is harvested in the summer.

Today, we're finding out how wheat is harvested

and how the grains of wheat are turned into flour.

Flour is an ingredient in bread, biscuits and cakes.

This is Farmer Tom. He's in one of his wheat fields on his farm.

Wheat starts life as a tiny seed

and is often planted in winter by a machine called a drill

attached to a tractor.

The seeds are stored in a box at the back called a hopper.

We drop the seed into the top of the hopper.

The seed is then blown down these pipes here

and as it comes down these pipes

the tine at the front here makes a groove.

The seeds are then dropped into the grooves ready to grow.

Shoots first appear and start to spring up,

which turn into green fields that look a little bit like grass.

The plants need sunlight and water throughout spring to help them grow.

The stalks of wheat grow heads that contain the wheat grains

and turn from green to yellow as it becomes ready

to be harvested during summer months.

A machine called a combine harvester cuts the wheat down

and separates out the wheat grains from the stalks.

And it's the wheat grains that are collected.

They are transferred into a truck and sent off to the mill.

Look at all the wheat grains that have been collected

from Farmer Tom's fields.

At the mill, the grains are cleaned and sorted

and they are ground down in these huge machines into flour.

The flour is put into bags ready to be sold in shops.

Storm and I had an excellent day down on the farm

and we hope you've enjoyed it, too.

There's more fantastic things to see and do on the CBeebies website

so check it out.

See you next time. Bye.

# Come join us down on the farm today

# Learn about nature along the way

# From seeds to crops and field to barn

# So much to do down on the farm

# Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring

# Ploughing, planting, harvesting

# With JB and Storm to lead the way

# Come join us down on the farm today. #