Tales from the Green Valley - April

Series in which five experts - archaeologists and historians - take on the challenge of running a Welsh hill farm for a year as it would have been in the reign of James I, in the year 1620. April marks their eighth month, so they give the farmhouse a thorough spring clean, sweeping out the chimney with a holly bush and dusting out indoors with a period brush, a goose wing. The textiles need a good airing and bashing, and the team must quite literally change the beds. With the seasons accelerating, they crack on preparing a piece of waste ground for spring sowing: digging up the roots, burning them in pyres, and then turning the fertile ash back in with a good helping of muck. It's also time to try their hand at 17th century dishes of veal and a peculiarly green omelette, at dry stonewalling, and in caring for a newborn calf.