Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3324 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-12-26
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 360 minutes

Synopsis
Five archaeologists and historians work on a farm for a year on the precept that they run it according to life four hundred years ago when King James I was ruler. There is no electricity, refrigeration, mains water, tractors or chemical pesticides. They have to literally live off the land by growing their own food and making their own clothes, with only four hundred-year-old manuals for point of reference.

Customer Reviews

something for everyone...
This superb series deserves to do well on DVD after the shoddy way it was treated by the BBC TV schedulers, particularly (and surprisingly) BBC Wales. There is much to enjoy especially for allotment holders, permaculture enthusiasts and smallholders. Plenty of green-woodworking projects are demonstrated, albeit briefly. Herbal remedies, traditional food preservation, brewing,harvesting and preparing grain crops, growing medlars, clearing land with the aid of animals, cooking with wood fired ovens, charcoal making and traditional uses of charcoal, drystone walling, hedging, an abundance of long forgotten recipes, and best of all, a reminder that it wasn't all hard graft; festivals and fun are well represented. In a world addicted to cheap oil, fast food and shiny gadgets, we could (re)learn a lot from our resourceful ancestors. They managed admirably without fridges, fossil fuels and supermarkets.

valiant valley
The Tales From The Green Valley was the very best 'past living' venture that I have seen.So Refreshing to see the participants getting stuck in and enjoying every minute regardless of the possible struggles... always drives me nuts when people agree to take part and then spend the whole series whining about the things they 'can't live without'. Everyone was so knowledgeable and interested in all areas of Hill Farm living.As someone who is not generally thrilled by cooking, I thought the recipes and food preparation/storage/cooking was particularly good. The information and detail of all aspects was fascinating, and well presented.The series showed both how hard life was,and how rewarding and the importance of pulling together. It was also beautifully filmed.I would LOVE to have had the opportunity to do what the team did. I was disappointed and suprised that a BBC book was not published to go with series,but the DVD will do nicely.

From the Producer/Director
It was a great pleasure and honour making this series for the BBC. Unfortunately the BBC has not created a website to accompany the series, but I have posted a couple of articles I have written about the series for various UK magazines to give some background and further information. If you would like to read about how the series was made etc. you can take a look at http://www.petersommer.com/tv_tales.html