³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

It’s that time of year again. Farmers up and down the country are harvesting the results of all their hard work, just like they have done for thousands of years. Matt Baker takes a step back in time to learn about how the crops we grow and the way we harvest them has evolved since ancient times. He meets archaeological botanist John Letts in the Buckinghamshire countryside and joins him in a field of wheat not often seen these days. Scythe in hand, Matt joins John and his team to gather the wheat for their daily bread.

John Craven is at Stowe House in Buckinghamshire to harvest the fruits of your labour. The theme for this year’s Countryfile Photographic Competition was ‘Colours of the Countryside’ and you sent in more than 33,000 pictures. First, former finalists and winners have the job of creating a shortlist of 3000 photographs in the beautiful surroundings of the Temple of Virtue. Then it's the job of judges, John Craven, Bill Bailey and Naomi Wilkinson to pick the final 12, which will appear in the Countryfile Calendar for 2016. With so many beautiful images from the British countryside it's a tough task, but eventually they agree on their delightful dozen. Then you have the chance to help select the overall winner, the calendar cover star, through an audience vote. 

Ellie Harrison heads to the West Country to find out about another, less public, harvest. In fields at a secret location they are growing a crop with an altogether different use – pain relief. Surrounded by opium poppies Ellie meets with Jonathan Gibbs from the pharmaceutical company Macfarlan Smith. He’s responsible for growing the crop that will go on to treat people in dire need of pain relief. Before that however she joins herbalist Jane Wallwork-Gush to discover the early roots of how we came to use plants for medicinal purposes.

Having laboured in the fields to gather the wheat for their harvest supper, Matt and John have to go about the process of separating the wheat from the chaff. Using methods that have evolved through the ages - from flailing the ears of corn with a hazel rod to a Victorian winnower - they produce flour with a difference. The wheat used to produce this flour is the same variety found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. It will go into a fantastic harvest supper – just like mummy used to make! 

The UK’s smallest rodent, the harvest mouse, calls farmers’ fields and their margins home. Ellie heads to an animal rescue centre to meet Pauline Kidner who has been doing her bit to ensure the species doesn’t fall any further into decline. At Secret World in Somerset they breed these tiny mice in order to release them into the wild. Ellie helps Sam A’Court prepare six intrepid mice to head off and populate a very special new site. Their new home has been created by wildlife filmmaker Simon King who will be on hand to keep an eye on them but only if the rain holds off.

Matt has been helping farmer John Letts turn his ancient wheat varieties into medieval flour – something not often seen these days. With the help of Italian chef Giuliana Cortese, Matt turns the wheat grown by John into traditional British pasta. Combined with pizzas, handcrafted by John, the whole team - from reapers in the field to the chefs in the kitchen - sit down for a hard earned harvest feast.