Vegetable supplier Barfoots is set to star in the new series of BBC Two’s Harvest, which returns to screens next month.
Fronted by Gregg Wallace, along with Philippa Forrester and new presenter and dairy farmer James Manning, the three-part series will follow several British food producers during the harvest period.
The trio will meet Peter Barfoot in Sussex and Hampshire, and hear about how the company has “spent decades turning exotic veg into regular British fridge fillers”.
Cider makers Thatchers feature in another episode, where the team discovers why the Somerset climate and landscape is so beneficial to cider-making.
Finally, the programme visits the Hay family, potato farmers in Scotland who are diversifying into oat production and other cereals
Executive producer Tim Martin said: “What makes the British harvest so fascinating is how different it is every year. In this series, we focus on the crops Britain grows best, exploring the areas of British farming where we punch above our weight to deliver world-class produce.”
Manning said his favourite part of filming was meeting other farmers and seeing their pride during harvest. “It’s been fantastic to see British farmers trying new things and innovating the way they work to farm smarter, bigger and better than the year before,” he said.
Wallace said: “Being a city boy and a former greengrocer, getting out in the countryside watching vegetables being grown and harvested is an absolute joy.
“Some little boys never grow up - I’m one of them. Driving the harvesters has been a pure delight. What the country eats is a huge subject at harvest time, not just for farmers, but the whole food industry and us at home feeding our families. What amazes me is how tight the margins are and how one mistake could put generations of farming families out of business. You have to be big or go bust.”
Forrester said the ingenuity and innovation in farming “never ceases to amaze”. “I secretly always wanted to live on a farm when I was little, so spending time on a farm and watching the process of growing our nation’s food is a dream come true.”
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