This Week On Movie Monday
It’s 1944, and a turning point for the Allies in WWII. Manor Farm’s flax field—a crop heavily used by the military—has suffered in the unusually wet summer of 2012. Alex and Peter try to reinvigorate it using Ammonium Nitrate, a chemical fertiliser, but the rain doesn’t let up. It remains so wet, in fact, that Alex has to re-waterproof his coat, using linseed oil, paraffin and beeswax from the colony he started in Episode 6. Ruth, meanwhile, has been constructing a willow basket to hold carrier pigeons—used to send messages throughout the war, and often trained by farmers. Alex and Peter train some pigeons by releasing them from a 1930s fishing boat which saw service in WWII in the English Channel—and within half an hour, the birds have completed the 30 mile journey back to their loft. Without a hint of irony, Ruth serves wood pigeon ‘salad’ for lunch, set in gelatine and accompanied by grated carrot, grated beetroot and small boiled fingerling potatoes.