Wartime Farm

The team begins by reclaiming badlands to grow new crops and learns about Auxiliary Units, a resistance force trained to use guerrilla tactics against German invasion.

The team tackle the conditions faced by British farmers in 1940, when the full impact of rationing took hold and when Britain faced Nazi bombing in the Blitz.

To make outbuildings habitable as refugee shelters for city dwellers fleeing the Blitz, Alex and Peter resort to the age-old craft of making tiles by hand.

The team face a WWII-style government inspection to judge their productivity; as part of a mechanization trend, they grapple with a new tractor and milking machine.

Moving forward to 1942, when Hitler’s U-boats bombarded British ships and slashed imports, the team confront shortages of wood, fuel, and animal feed. 

Facing 1943’s dire conditions, Alex and Peter produce a hay crop from grass in the churchyard, and Ruth enlists eager children to collect herbs for medicine.

The farmers contribute to the D-Day invasion by growing flax, which was used to make parachute webbing, fighter aircraft fuselages, tents, and ropes.

Even as the war draws to a close, the need for homegrown food grows greater than ever and lasts far after the conflict ends. The team struggle to harvest the wheat crop.