Liquorice and Olives Down on the Farm

# Come join us down on the farm today

# Learn about nature along the way

# From seeds to crops and fields to barns

# 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... #

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

Now it's autumn, it's time for farmers to harvest all the things

they've worked hard to grow in the spring and summer.

So while I carry on working on my farm,

let's find out what Storm's up to.

DUCKS QUACK

I'm here in Pontefract in Yorkshire which is famous for its liquorice.

This is liquorice.

It's a type of sweet that's black, sweet, and chewy.

Today I've come to meet Heather who grows liquorice on her farm.

-Hi, farmer Heather.

-Hi, Storm.

Now, I've been looking absolutely everywhere

and I can't find anything that looks like liquorice.

That's because it's the root we're interested in.

-So it's growing right under our feet?

-It is.

Liquorice means sweet root and it's 50 times sweeter than sugar.

-Well, no wonder they use it for sweets.

-Yes.

They also use it for asthma, cough mixture and fevers.

Can anybody grow liquorice in a garden?

If they've got space, because the roots will grow

-up to six metres long. The length of a bus.

-That's huge.

How long does it take to grow? How long have these plants

-been growing?

-It's taken five years to get to this stage.

That's a long time. Are they ready to be harvested?

At last they are, so I've got some ready if you'd like to help.

I'd love to.

-So is this the right spot?

-Yes, it is indeed.

-And here's the root that we want.

-Wow. It's deep.

-Would you like to harvest some?

-I would love to.

It still doesn't look quite like liquorice.

No, but if we pop down to the farmhouse

-we can make it into some sweets.

-Yes, please.

So this is the liquorice root that you kindly harvested

from the field for us. Now, to use that for sweets we need to dry it.

Takes ten months. So from, that we then need to grind it into powder

and then we need to pop that in the pan and we need to add flour

-and the black treacle.

-Sounds easy enough to me.

-Do you think I should have a go?

-I think so, yeah.

First I put in the liquorice which has been ground into powder,

then the flour,

and finally the gloopy black treacle.

And then once you've got all of that out,

just mix it up and then we'll pop it on the heat.

We heat it on the cooker

and then we need to leave it to cool down.

Well, it's certainly beginning to look like liquorice now, isn't it?

Now it's cooled down we can actually roll it out

-and start making some sweets.

-We need to roll it out like a sausage,

cut it into pieces

and then make the pieces into penny shapes.

Now, our Pontefract liquorice is ready to eat,

-would you like to try some?

-I certainly would.

Well, that is absolutely delicious.

And while we finish tidying up,

why don't you find out what else happens in autumn?

In autumn we sometimes wake up to misty mornings.

Places look very different when wrapped in a cloak of white.

The days can be sunny and bright

but there is often a gusty wind blowing around us.

Autumn storms whip up huge waves in the ocean

which pull lots of food up to the surface from deep down below.

Massive shoals of fish are attracted by this food which in turn attracts

many fish-eating creatures.

Hungry sea birds compete to catch as many fish as they can,

making an incredible noise.

BIRDS SQUAWK

Dolphins make these sounds to communicate

as they travel in groups looking for food.

DOLPHINS CLICK

Even enormous fin whales visit our deeper waters.

They are the world's second biggest animal, as long as two buses.

Autumn can be the rainiest season of the year.

Heavy rainfall can cause flooding.

But rising water is just what this salmon has been waiting for.

Now, he can set off from the sea,

swimming upriver to the place where he was born

to meet a female.

It will take all of his energy to swim against the rushing water

but he was born to make this incredible autumn journey.

I'm in Staffordshire to meet some children

who are helping look after the animals on this farm.

But they haven't told me which animals yet.

All they said was, they have four legs, they look a bit like horses,

they go "Eeh-oh, eeh-oh!" and have big ears like this.

I wonder what they could be.

Of course, they're donkeys!

Hi, everyone. CHILDREN: Hi, JB.

So today we are going to take the donkeys for a walk.

So, do you want to help me put their collars on?

CHILDREN: Yeah!

Donkeys are related to horses and zebras.

Their ears are a lot bigger than horses, which means they can hear

things that are far away.

Their coats are not waterproof, so they get wet like us in the rain.

Good job brushing.

-Well done.

-There's loads of dust on him.

I know. We've got to get it all off.

Henry, what do the donkeys like to eat?

-Grass and hay.

-Grass and hay?

-Look.

Now the donkeys have been fed, we've got more hungry animals to visit.

OK, boys, if you all take a bucket each.

I want you to take one big scoop of this cow corn into your bucket

and then we're going to go over and feed the calves. Is that OK?

And we're going to pour it into here, OK?

Well done. These calves are very hungry.

A full grown cow spends six hours a day eating.

So calves need a lot of food to grow big and strong.

Well done, Dylan. Well done, Josh. Well done, Shane.

High-fives all round. One, two, three!

We fed the calves but there are more animals waiting to be fed.

Now we've got some hungry chickens to feed.

Looks like the chickens are enjoying their corn.

A good diet will help them lay lots of lovely eggs.

OK, boys, shall we see if there's any eggs in here?

BOYS: Yeah.

All right. Lift that one up. Perfect. Oh, look.

-How many have we got?

-Loads.

-Well done, boys.

The animals here today certainly made us smile.

Now here's something to make you smile. Our autumn poem.

Let's go walking in the woods,

jackets on, welly boots.

There's lots to see in autumn time.

So many treasures we can find.

Fairy toadstools from stories old,

leafy carpets, red and gold,

conkers in their prickly shell,

sycamore seeds that fly so well.

Feel the crunching underfoot.

Smell the damp and rotting wood.

Listen to the noisy geese flying high above the trees.

Pick some brambles, poke some sticks.

Leaves to catch, leaves to kick.

Their colours shimmer as we run,

homewards in the autumn sun.

CHICKENS CLUCK

Autumn is a great time of year.

It's one of the busiest times for

farmers too because they harvest their crops.

Today, I'm in Kent to find out what it's like

being an olive farmer in Britain.

Olives are a small green fruit with a stone in the centre.

They grow on trees, normally in hot countries in the Mediterranean,

Asia and Africa.

Olives can be eaten as a fruit or pressed to make olive oil

which is used for cooking or as a dressing on salads.

A field of olive trees is called a grove.

-Hi, Neil.

-Hi, JB, how are you?

-I'm well, thank you.

Your olive grove looks very impressive.

Thank you. Well, we've got 200 trees here that we planted about four

-years ago.

-Well, it's autumn time and that means harvest time,

-so I'm here to help you harvest your olives.

-Ah, there's a problem, JB.

-What's the problem?

-We're not harvesting this year.

-Why, what happened?

-Olive trees love warm, dry,

hot summers and this year,

the summer was a bit short and not very hot,

so the olives aren't as big as other years,

-so we're not harvesting.

-I'm sorry to hear we won't

harvest olives today. Is there anything I can help with?

-Yes, you can help with the pruning.

-Fantastic. Let's do it.

OK, Farmer Neil, how do we prune an olive tree?

Well, we use these, which are secateurs,

which are like really sharp scissors,

to cut off the branches you don't want or any dead ones in the tree.

Pruning gets rid of any dead branches and lets the light get to

the centre of the tree. Secateurs are very sharp.

You should never play with garden tools.

Well, Farmer Neil, we've done the pruning.

Is there anything else I can help with?

-I need a hand with a couple of stakes.

-I love steak.

-Not that kind of steaks, JB.

-Wooden stakes, for the trees. Ah.

JB LAUGHS

OK.

We put the stakes in the ground and tie the trees to them.

This means they can grow tall and straight.

Thank you for helping with these important jobs, JB.

-Pleasure.

-I've got some olives here from Greece

and some olive oil from Spain.

-Well, Farmer Neil, thank you and good luck.

-Thank you.

I hope the weather is kinder to Farmer Neil

and his olives and that he has a good harvest next year.

Now, let's find out what else happens on the farm in autumn.

PIGS OINK

Today, we've come to the Isle of Wight to meet Amy,

who grows beetroot on her farm.

You might have seen beetroot in the supermarket.

It's been cooked, peeled and packaged.

When it comes out of the ground, it looks like this.

We're going to pick some beetroot today.

There's a lot to pick, so I need to find some helpers.

Annabel, Max, George and Charlie are going to help.

Beetroot is a root vegetable.

That means the main part that we eat grows underground

and is called the root. Green leaves grow above the ground.

Amy doesn't use machinery to pick the vegetables on her farm.

Everything is picked by hand.

To pick beetroot, you need to hold the leaves at the bottom

near the soil, then pull hard.

There you go.

So, we planted this beetroot about three months ago,

didn't we, children?

And now they're ready for us to harvest.

And how big are they? What is the best size beetroot to pick?

-Tennis ball sized.

-About that big.

-Yeah.

The beetroot is packed into boxes with

other vegetables grown on the farm.

So, I've washed the beetroot that we picked earlier.

Amy is peeling and chopping the beetroot to make some tasty food.

It can be eaten in lots of ways.

In salads, soups and even sweet treats.

-I know something we can make with these.

-Beetroot brownies!

Beetroot brownies!

Amy is making brownies using flour, chocolate, eggs and beetroot.

Look at that lovely red colour.

-That's Max's.

-Beetroot and chocolate?

-Is it tasty?

-Mm, lovely.

Oh, look at George!

CHILDREN LAUGH

CHILDREN: Bye!

Storm and I had a brilliant time

and we hope you've enjoyed it too.

There's even more great things from Down On The Farm

on the CBeebies website. See you next time. Bye.

# Come join us down on the farm today

# Learn about nature along the way

# From seeds to crops and fields to barns

# 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! #