How To Make Edwardian Cheese | Edwardian Farm EP10 | Absolute History
Vložit
- čas přidán 13. 07. 2024
- The team follows a flock of sheep up on to Dartmoor, where it was traditional for many shepherds to take their flocks for summer grazing. Alex and Peter get to grips with shearing, while Ruth takes the fleeces off to a wool mill to find out how it was processed and manufactured.
It's like Netflix for history... Sign up to History Hit, the world's best history documentary service and get 50% off using the code 'AbsoluteHistory' bit.ly/3vn5cSH
This channel is part of the History Hit Network. Any queries please contact: owned-enquiries@littledotstudios.com
For anyone wondering what they mean by "second cuts of wool", a second cut is when the shearer has miscut a lock of wool, usually further away from the skin than normal, and goes back to recut it a second time, leaving a small bit of short wool fibers. Those usually card into small balls much like how a sweater will "pill" up with use, causing any yarn or thread spun from that wool to have uneven bumps in the strand. I've been a sheep farmer, spinner, and weaver for 21 years so I really love episodes like this that show me how they did it with hand shears. I have a professional shearer come do my girls because a good, well practiced shearer can get the fleece off in one piece without nicking the sheep in less than 5 minutes. That reduces stress on the sheep immensely. My girls sure don't need me to try my inexperienced hand at it. My job is usually to "skirt" off the dirty bits from the belly, behind and under the tail, and along the legs, then bundle the good wool up for processing later. I double as the sprayer on of medication should they get nicked. That keeps flies from setting up shop and improves healing.
Also, Ruth would be better off with her wool if she put it in large laundry baskets (wicker baskets work very well) and let the creek or stream simply run through it. Thank God for the creek I have out back. I take some of my selected fleeces and process it very much like she's doing although I contain mine in big wicker baskets. It's a lovely thing to do on a hot summer day. If you don't have a creek, you can fake it in a washing machine over which you have full manual control. The new style machines will NOT work for this, only the old type. You fill your machine with the hottest water you can then pour 1 cup of Dawn detergent (or a cup of Orvis paste soap), swish gently, then VERY gently push your fleece into the water without agitating it. Let it sit for an hour, then put your machine on spin only to get the water out. Pull the fleece out, wipe out the machine, then refill with hot water again. Push your fleece in without agitating it (you get wool felt and matted bits that way) and let it soak 30 minutes before putting the machine on spin only. Repeat that bit once more and, presto, you have clean scoured wool.
Thanks so much for sharing your experience! It's really great to have that hands-on take to understand things better! That's a main reason people and videos like these are super helpful for understanding history. Researching and talking about how to do something is all well and good, but actually doing it illuminates any number of interesting facts and techniques we wouldn't know otherwise!
It's so fascinating! Love it!😁❤
@@LauraS1 thanks for sharing. I will do that soon as I get a sheep or two. the new premium machines do spin only, so new machines are good. I like maytag and my new magtag tells me on my cell phone when my machine will be done and I can even start it remotely. I'd love to process and card and spin my own wool, but no sheep near chicago, but maybe I'll check now on FB marketplace.
Thank you for your information. I am a knitter who is branching off into some landscape needle felting. I already have some beautiful raw wool to work with, from both goats and sheep. It smells sooooo good!
Ruth knows everything! When the apocalypse comes I'm planning to join whatever settlement she creates.
Same
Not if you need to repopulate the earth.
@@mitchellcorona8 i still would, cause she is amazing, full of energy and positive.
@@quigonjinn3567 besides, I suspect she’s a real “goer”. Gal knows her way around a good time. You could do worse in this world than a fun, smart, laid back lady.
I believe the apocolypse is well underway now
Ruth is the backbone of the trio, much like women throughout history - such a good series.
I like how everyone in these documentaries is wearing historical costumes. Especially Ruth looks so nice, with the haido and the hoods.
As I remember it, back when the series was made (by the BBC?) the whole thing was that they went back and lived as they did in victorian times for an amount of time (a year?), clothes including. Everything was done the old way, including doing laundry, making season food etc etc. Very interesting!
Ruth suits this style totally. The two guys are cute but Ruth really suits the clothes and the style totally.
it would be a great thing to get into if your a reenactor, like reenacting on a professional scale rather than just a hobby.
look at his straw hat tho its ripped so badly kinda funny
That would be cool if they let everybody with or without historical degree to do that. I'm from Texas I want to do it where I live but no experience I just want to try it out for a week or two.
These titles really undersell the amount of knowledge in these videos.
Ruth is such a hard worker, making her own potato spray and hauling that old sprayer about. She is such a good practical person. She is obviously a great mum it’s good when her daughters visit seeing how alike they are
So true. It's also especially notable when you consider that she is a fair bit older than Peter and Alex. She is 58 now (2022) and the boys are about 44, Fourteen years isn't really quite old enough to be their mum, unless you think about how young girls would marry in those days.
@@pattierotondo1108 it's a bit overblown, the whole young girls getting married back in the day thing. It happened, of course, but it was usually upper-class girls being married off politically, most working and middle class girls married at 18-20.
Which is obviously still young, but its generally much closer to modern ages than people think.
The job Ruth is doing I probably would have done it by myself too and the work the men are doing I would have done that too.😥
I'm independent
They didn't show enough about the cheese making 😢
Brings back such good memories. Spring time always meant a new pair of boots, and you'd get the fleeces compressed by walking on them. By the time you were done, the lanolin had seeped into the new leather and your new boots would water shed through the year. Thank you for show casing this and have a champion day.
If you want to learn more about it the BBC will originally made the programs as archived all the old websites associated with it
this whole show is just so wholesome, really makes me appreciate the regular things in life.
It makes me appreciate animals
The MEN are just doing the harder boring work. Single women back then had it hard without a man.
It makes me want to shed the regular things in life. 😂
It's a "wake-up" call for us ALL to gain some basic and in most cases, forgotten, survival skills!!! Way to go Ruth!!!
Ruth always captures my attention and her enthusiasm is infectious. She's a very good teacher. Of course I enjoy everyone on the show, as well.
While the air and the scenery in farming country can be lovely, much of the romance of farming evaporates once you actually hunker down and deal with the hours and the labour. A season spent in the fields will either toughen you up or break you down.
I want to be Ruth's friend so bad, she's incredible !
Join the club, don't we all? Tbh I kinda have a crush on Eve, her daughter. Because she is just Ruth but closer to my age.
I am going to return to the handcrafts of my own Mohawk Indian ancestors! I'm going to work with deerskin, beading traditional foods and food preparation! All thanks to this show!
The way we would proceed with the cheese is we would put a heavy stone on top of the cheese still in the mold. That would help get rid of the liquid (which is good drink actually) and it would stay firm after the mold is removed.
exactly. and I bet she could still scrape it up, but it in a draining spring form, weight on top, put it in the fridge and she'd fix it all. that's what I would do. just don't stop.
I’ve been a pet groomer for over a decade, and man, sheering them with sheers like that, that fast, that close, without slicing them...that’s skill. I was cringing 😭
Shears and shearing, but I agree, they are fantastically competent.
I was a child that watched my farmer father shepherding, keeping pigs, and growing crops all while hand milking cattle and keeping chickens for eggs, ducks and geese too for meat.
He and Mum preserved it all and life was lovely.
I wish I could do it all again.
It seems like that is how we are supposed to live.
so need a recipe book from all the foods ruth makes in this series!!!
Townsend have a cook book. There are some old cookbooks on Google books.
Every single time I am wasted and want to sleep and then .. Absolute history uploaded documentary !! F...k , I gotta see this one as well 😂😂
haha, me too
I think this should have been titled: "Sheep & Shearing in the Edwardian Age"
The shot at 57:00 looks so beautiful, the 3 of them sitting on the grass with the night sky behind them, being a historian sounds so fun
Very interesting to hear about the drink that they called mahogany. In Sweden there is something called mahognygrogg (mahogany grog) in the late 19th century, which was brandy mixed with soda water or sockerdricka (literally sugar drink, which was a first generation soft drink made with carbonated water, sugar and citric acid).
When I served in the British Army of the Rhine, I came across the 'Rumtopf'. This is an earthenware jar, started with a layer of seasonal fruit, then drowned in rum. Each season, more fruit was added, and (of course) more rum. On New Year's Eve, the fruit from that year's rumtopf was eaten, and the rum drunk. Happy days - (not so much 'happy mornings' though ;-)
We drank genmaicha brown rice tea throughout the day, but would add shochu after work in rural Japan. It's surprisingly good together 👍
That cheese might be out of shape but it still looks delicious!
Ruth is absolutely the best! You can tell she is loving every minute.
I wish they'd make a series like this about either before Roman occupation, after, or the Anglo Saxon period. I never seen anything on those eras and I would adore getting the chance to learn more.
I really enjoy your documentaries Absolute History. I really appreciate the work you folks do. Please take care of yourselves.
This series was actually originally made by BBC back in the early 2000s through 2012 (I think). The last I read licenses were bought and the current license holder seems perfectly happy to let CZcams channels pay a fee to show them.
just wait till they cut it up 100 times and upload it under different names
I do both spinning and weaving and it’s so incredible seeing how FAST the mill works the fleece into woven cloth. Although I imagine setting up the looms takes time. I know it’s not the point of Ruth’s hard work, but her Edwardian hairstyle is very attractive on her.
Because i'm not rich and don't live in the US, i tried to make an "navaho rug".
I spun the wool on a hand spindle and weaved it in simple rectangular loom.
Well, it didn't go well...
After the initial first 20 cm the fabric began to warp in every direction...
Soon i had to give up.
Well, i now know why these rugs are so expensive.
It takes really a lot of time, work and experience to make one!
I have high respect for all that do this for a living!
Another marvellous episode, expertly presented and without any attempt to glamourise the way of life of those days. Just like being there! Thank you.
There is never any missing about when Ruth is on deck.
The violin, music and the beauty of the country... The dialogue the camaraderie, just all of it is beyond words
I have watched all of their videos over and over and it never gets dull for me
LOVE this series! Its taught me loads! And it wasn't boring to learn it either!!
The most I love from this video is Ruth making a cheese. I have tried to make a cheese many times and it crumbles when I try to change the mold. This is mainly because the water didn't drain well. Often cheese makers place a heavy weight to help the water slowly give way. Greetings from the rainy and chilling city of Addis Ababa in 🇪🇹.
I could watch a full program of just the working dogs. This is a very good program all in all.
I love watching the dogs work too
Same. They're so smart!
there used to be a BBC series with shepherds & their dogs being timed to round up & pen a flock .. one man and his dog IIRC
whoever was behind the camera(s) in this series has extraordinary skill and talent!
The thing I've always loved about the Edwardian Rolls Royce car (featured here) is the fact that it was so QUIET! Efficient in running, yet beautifully constructed... First encountered it reading the mystery novels of Dorthothy Sayers as a young teen, and couldn't help contrasting it with how noisy the standard car engines were in our own era 😵 Love the fact that with electric vehicles coming in, we are finally getting back to the point where vehicular travel doesn't have to spread noise and smoke wherever it goes....
“If you get overexcited you don’t make terribly good cheese.” Love her :’)
Ruth, Peter and Alex are all so fun to watch, I love these videos!
the little girl in the edwardian dress just had me dying she is so adorable.
yeah.... her name is Florence and is the little girl from the first episode of Victorian Farm. In VF the trio have gone to meet their landlords throughout the filming of the VF series and when they have knocked on the door the young Acton had opened up the door and seconds later Florence had made her appearance.
@@brookelederer2054 would've been nice if her pimms turned into piss.
@@brookelederer2054 wow tell us how you really feel lol
@@brookelederer2054 that wasn’t very mystical and spiritual of you Sharon
The Boy do a fine job. But, Ruth is one tough, strong and hard working Gal! It would be joy sitting and talking with her. I enjoy the way she has passed on her knowledge to her daughter. My respect to the film crew and Director.
This such an interesting show, I find it fascinating that they are able to find all these people who have their own special skill trade that go back hundreds of years and they have kept those skills alive.
I was impressed with all of them, but the crabpot weaver really impressed me. The basket was made as he spoke about crabpot weaving was beautifully made.
In my opinion the three each equally bring something to show and participate whole heartily in task brought before them.
I love the series and the Trio.
Thank you from Austin Texas
ahhh someone finally mended Peters jacket! haha
oh, he ripped it again hahaha I spoke too soon
Watching this during pandemic where more than 410,000 people have died in US, alone while drop spinning alpaca fleece and remembering when I kept goats , chickens and made farmer's cheese. We couldn't be gone long without someone to feed and milk and I was always racing to get laundry on the line before going to work or homeschooling kids. Such a great series, so calming this year.
These are just wonderful programs, you learn so much about a time past. I am very thankful for you to put this content up. It is just so interesting to dive into the past in such great detail.
Pay attention. Their past may well be our future if things keep going like they are!
@@melindaphillips5724
I agree 100 per cent
35:58- small children were ideal for being able to reach between the narrow machines and do what's needed.
Oh how indulging this is… A true pleasure for ears, eyes and senses.. Thank you, thank you, thank you from a Russian admirer ♥️
I came for cheese, but there is more silage talk 😂😂 they are getting damn good at it though.
And I feel bad for Ruth. They are always ditching her. She is left to do A LOT of really hardwork all by herself.... guess that's the life of a woman. Ruth is a damn role model.
I think they are trying to represent gender rolls of the time period, and It seems her expertise is more on the household, that being said Ruth runs circles around Alex and Peter!
Ya I think Ruth deserved to get to do more of the fun stuff. Like it's a show who cares about the traditional gender roles. Oh well this all happened like ten years ago so rip
What a pile. The guys are doing serious manual labor, not that she isn't. Shovel rocks for a day and then tell us again how lazy that is.
I agree that they are trying to represent gender roles. Frankly Ruth does a lot of quick little jobs, while the boys do fewer, longer tasks. I also think they let the team members showcase the things that they enjoy most, because it makes it so much more enjoyable for them and us.
They’re being authentic to the time period.
I wouldn’t want to have to wrestle sheep in order to set a blade close to their skin, but that’s me!
Blessed are the cheesemakers.
What's so special about the cheesemakers?
Have you ever had macaroni my guy
Obviously it's not meant to be taken literally.
It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.
Then why doesn't it say blessed are the manufacturers of dairy products lol.
Life of brian lol
Next on Absolute History: Ruth, Alex, and Peter live as humans for an entire calendar year
I love anything with Ruth. She was born in the wrong period. I appreciate all that the trio does to help us have a better understanding of how we once lived.
You all are working so hard! I love seeing all these old ways of doing things! Great job! I love these videos, thank you so much for uploading!
I love listening to Alex Peter and Ruth talk about any subject, they're really interested and interesting. Of course Alex and Peter aren't hard to look at either ;)
Especially Peter!
To watch these episodes is therapeutic for me. I love the time travel.
30:20 *Shes carrying those heavy ass bags* “Wow their surprisingly heavy. Even when dry, hah.”
*Ol dude who’s done plenty enough wool liftin in his life*
“Oh yes lots of grease, lots of wool, wools light, very important, wool is precious, nice wool.”
all that wooooork
I so appreciate all the work these guy's have put into making these series. ❤ from 🇦🇺
My favorite scene was the picnic setting. So relaxing and sweet. Little girl hugging her mamma. Man sipping tea and another munching bread… Ruth being perfect as usual lol. The Rolls purrs…
Absulutley loved watching this series! I remember when it was broadcasted on i think bbc! These 3 are really dedicated to what they love to do and its really reflected through this series just brilliant!
I guess "Letterboxing" is, in a way, the forerunner for today's Geocaching?
At the 10:00 minute mark, it looks like Peter needs new shoes.
Peters lil sheep was clearly tramatized during her shearing lol, love this video ❤
I am so looking forward to the next episode!
I've watched the whole series on TVO a few years back, but it's nice to revisit.
54:13 - actually it is an ingredient. It becomes one when you cook something on an open fire. The particles of burned peat and whatever it consists of that the food is cooked on infuse the meal with the smoke. Whatever you smell is what you also ingest and the other way around. That's why you lose the sense of taste when your nose is clogged. It's the same spray of chemicals in the same particles that go into your nose as much as into your mouth. It's also of the reasons to not keep your toothbrush in the open in the same room you use the toilet...
It's a bit amusing to think of having gone from making actual fine castles in France to roughly hewing rocks for English walls. I wonder how much their experiences counted for when returning to barbarity?
I live in rural Virginia. This is all VERY familiar. It's not just Edwardian, or English. It's Western farming 100 years ago. Granted, it's a fascinating study, and I'd probably volunteer to live thus way for a given period myself, but many of these traditional practices are used, with minimal and practical modernisation,by the farms surrounding my house today. I will,however,suggest traditional silaging to my neighbor who raises beef cattle and pork using largely traditional methods. They'd likely be very interested....
I was thinking the same thing. My family is from the Appalachian region in Virginia, and there's quite a bit that reminds me of the older generations. I'm sure it's partly because that area is primarily populated with people of English/British descent.
A part in me wishes I could experience this life for a few months out of the year. I wish we had something like that in the US.
There are living re-enactments museums. You can volunteer at one.
There are many people, mostly young people, who live "off the grid" in the US (no utility service, power is created on site by wind, water or solar). They have active web sites. Some of them: Off Grid With Doug and Stacy; Raspberry Rock, The Crockers. I am learning so much from the Absolute History program; additional information to use when I go off grid.
My hubby wants to do this off grid. But when we talked it over he had it in his head that we'd work the farm side by side and yet somehow I'd still have plenty of time for the inside tasks like dairying, preserving, cooking in a wood fire, keeping house etc. He had no idea it would effectively take one day a week just to do our laundry.
The reason he wanted me working alongside is because I'm the one with the experience, he's got zero knowledge and I'm willing to teach him but I can't do everything.
What I've suggested is building upto it as he learns some of these skills.
Some of the Amish, or Mennonite brethren will take help.
Amish .. good for getting rid of crappy materialism and vanity - also for not wasting money on pointless stuff also for being an adult and not dumb stuff like Instagram and Facebook and tiktok - also good to humble yourself as you realise everything is pointless
Lord if this is Heaven I'm not scared anymore 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Anyone else thrilled at seeing the barn cat at 17:01? 🤣
I love the process of making the wool to thread to yarn.
Coming form the Rocky Mtn in the States sitting around in the sunshine in the middle of summer is something you just can't do. It is so hot it would be miserable. If you want to picnic you look for someplace high in the mountains with lots of trees for shade and a fast moving cold river to help it cool down. Sitting in the sun is just not done unless you take off you cloths for a tan. Look at 46:41 and Peter is in a coat in he middle of summer. In the summer where I live it's over 90 degrees (32 C)every day, and over 100 in the high of summer
yeah average for summer here is about 20 C
I love the stone walls. What a fantastic use of an otherwise pesky item. I’ve picked plenty of roots as a child, but Dad’s homestead choice of land is an ancient flood plain. Black soil, reckless, cleared bush land. My large family hopefully will never allow the land to fall into a different clan.
Oh I love this team.
“They are surprisingly heavy arnt they” ...”yes I shall just watch you load them”.
Methinks the farmer has taken a shine to Ms. Ruth's shoes...
Fresh curds look indistinguishable from fresh tofu. Lovely. Very different flavor profiles, I bet. 😃
i just cant get enough of this series!
this video series gets me through the work day, god bless!!!!
THATS MY MAN - everyone else is going after the bread or fruits etc, and there's my favorite guy hitting up the lobster at a picnic - never let a good thing go to waste!
awwwwww little florrie
Am I the only person who watches these only to see Ruth? I got hocked to this just because of her🤓
I feel historically click baited, I was promised cheese. We got two segments of cheese and a whole bunch of sheep. XD
😂
I was actually more interested in the sheep lol. It should probably be called sheep and shearing in the edwardian age tho
The part of the sheep dogs was just tender ❤ the absolute best of humanity
13:01 am I the only one who hears George Mudge say that his father was good at shearing sheep. George's the son of Francis Mudge (hobbit man) who appeared in earlier series.... don't know if it's true or not but I found a notice of death posted for Francis Sydney Mudge of Devon England, dated 2007...
If that is the same Francis Mudge who was on the show, at least that would explain why he was not in Wartime farming which was filmed after this even though he lived through the war...
Correction the death notice I found must be for one of his relatives. Since this was filmed in 2010 and the series premiered in 2011
Edwardian Farm was filmed in 2011. The only Farm series filmed before 2007 is Tales of the Green Valley.
@@microsoftpainenthusiast8096 yep I posted this a while ago. I had found that out also but couldn't find this to delete it. There must be a lot of people named Francis Mudge in Devon....
@@angelwhispers2060 and yet you still haven’t deleted it
These days, the Ricotta remains in their serve baskets until sold.
Peter getting scared of Alex’s tale at the end was hilarious!
Recall visiting Devon in the spring as a 20yr old & going on a steamtrain which had just been reinstated as a tourist attraction so we'd be going slowly along the track and one would see the spring flowers such as daffodils in their natural habitat, beautiful! I'm now going on 73 so am really enjoying this program.😉😊
how are those sheep so content with being sheered i've sheered sheep and they become hell spawns
I feel your pain I own a farm with 40 sheets and they turn into a little Hills bombs when they're when you try to she rim Im lucky I don't have to sell any of the stuff I get from them i can just spinet for my own clothes .
well be more gentle
@@ajrwilde14 Have you shorn sheep before?
My show lambs tolerated it because they were handled daily as prep for the ring, but the breeders that were mostly only handled for health checks went bonkers (I don't mean a pat on the head at feeding as handling, but rather running hands all around the body or positioning the animal to look beneath it, etc.). They yelled, wiggled and tried to bolt off if not held tightly, and I swear I spent as much time stopping to calm the ewe down as I did shearing.
Imagine if someone came up and started turning you upside down and messing with your hair without warning. If someone did it gently on a regular basis from the time you were a kid you probably wouldn't react, but if you were unaccustomed to it you'd probably turn into a squirming tornado.
I will grant that quiet hand shears would probably provoke them much less than noisy electric clippers, but at least I wasn't likely to accidentally cause a dangerous injury with the electric ones if they bucked.
Depends on the breed and the sheep
They probably gave the novices the most docile sheep and those specific sheep were raised using traditional methods so maybe they're handled more often than modern sheep.
the actons... these are the landlords of Ruth, Peter, and Alex's home in the Victorian Farm series. That's a pleasant surprise :)
Narrator: making cheese could make an Edwardian farmstead a steady income
Ruth: by the Edwardian period the farmhouse dairy industry was DEAD.
It was a good thing, farm wise, for ladies to know how to read. They learned from written word, how to and do it yourself style of book/magazines, which was what these books were homemakers magazines.
Until the map was shown through this entire series I have been hearing Darkmoor.
I’m Italian-American, but I love this show and everything it’s teaching us.
Once upon a time in the fantasy land called Britain...
My mother was born in 1925 in the UK. She loved picnics.
40 minutes in an old man explains why tetris is so hard.
Best series ever. And I love Ruth! Such fun.
Feels like I'm watching the opening of the Hobbit :)
I love watching dogs work with sheep.
Moors of England are so magical and beautiful, would like to have cozy dinner like the crew did.
Ruth is amazing with her knowledge and she works incredibly hard. So do the boys.
I have ancestors who left Devon for America. It's really interesting to see where they once lived.
Love this series, esp their Wartime Farm series too. Informative and entertaining. Currently darning socks while watching and listening
Watching from South Africa ❤🇿🇦
This is my idea of a heaven of a life! The scenes of the landscape are breathtaking!
Fascinating!