The Plodcast

It's a warm summer's evening and after a tiring day you relax by the crackling campfire. The damp wood from the previous day's storm sizzles from the heat and the popping of twigs fills the peaceful space. You look up at the bat fluttering around plucking insects from the air. With a warm drink in hand you stop and reflect. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from...

Film-maker Peter Byck (left) reveals how cattle can be farmed to enhance the soil and biodiversity – and offer solutions to climate change. Annabel Ross interviewed him at a special screening of his films Roots So Deep at The Lost Gardens of Heligan with environmentalist Tim Smit. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: editor@countryfile.com Visit the Count...

The two-day spell of rain is reaching its conclusion. You've settled in your tent for the night listening to the final drops of rain bounce off the top of the canvas. The gentle rumble of late-night traffic accompanies the flourishes of water falling from the trees, drumming onto the fabric above you. All is quiet. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the count...

In this extraordinary episode, we head to the edge of the New Forest to meet Debs 'Totty' Cruttenden – a self taught beekeeper who rescues wild swarms of honeybees. She’s a quite magical person and her deep knowledge of the lives and behaviour of honeybees. We begin in the garden of neighbour who has spotted a swarm in a conifer tree. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the...

High above the summertime bustle of Pembrokeshire’s south coast, the lanes are quiet. No people here, just wind and hedge and crops for miles. It’s now noon, and after several hours of walking you look for a place to rest a while. A corn field beside a reef of yellow and white chamomile catches your eye. Here you sit, the corn stems crowding around you, their leaves rustling against themselves. BB...

Wilfred Emmanuel Jones shares his gripping story of his life's journey – from arriving from Jamaica and living in inner city Birmingham to owning a farm on the Devon-Cornwall border. His brand – The Black Farmer – has been a huge success and now he wants to encourage other children from ethnic minority or deprived backgrounds into finding careers in the countryside: The New Face of Farming. Listen...

It's a welcome cool, overcast day by the River Usk – there is rain in the air. The water is clear and bubbling through a small set of rapids in a gently calming series of swirls and eddies. A dipper flies upstream low over the water. BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen...

Head to the sleepy hamlet of Shepton Montague in Somerset to meet Oliver Dowding – dairy-farmer-turned-cider-maestro. Discover the magic of apple trees and their different characters and learn the lore of Somerset cider making. Plus, Oliver reveals a novel – and natural – method of rodent control. Annabel Ross is your host. Later the Plodcast team discuss cider vs beer, taste a Dowdings tipple and...

It’s summer, yet the bruised skies and pulsing winds don’t seem to know it. As if blown over by the squalls; a farm gate clunks. After walking the fields, you drop into a deep sunken lane and a version of quiet hits you, the wind no longer on your skin, in your ears. You sit on the grassy, furrowed lane and take breath. Around you now are tall hedgerows of hawthorn and blackberry. A wren sings fro...

Is it possible to farm profitably and have abundant wildlife on your land? George and Elaine Morris take us on a tour of their mixed farm in Buckinghamshire where they raise cattle, Wiltshire horned sheep as well as oats and barley but where over 10 per cent of the land is devoted to wildflowers, insects, birds and other creatures. Due to a deal with Jordans Cereals, the Morris's are, essentially,...

Boarding a small passenger ferry at Tenby, you set sail for Caldey Island through a swell that rocks the boat like a toy in the bath. Before long, you reach the holy island. A 1,000-year-old Catholic monastery sits hidden within its wooded heart, but your first instinct is to walk the beach that stretches east from the tiny harbour wall. The sand is soft, warmed by the summer sun, and the breeze g...

It's a glorious summer's day in Dorset and Plodcast regular Kevin Parr heads to the village of Cerne Abbas to visit the local brewery. Meet Vic, Jodie and Matt who run the brewery hear their wonderful tales. Kevin also meets local farmer Will who grows barley for the brewing process and shares his deep love of the wildlife that thrives on his farm. Later, Kevin joins the Plodcast team in the studi...

You're climbing an oak tree and its rough, weathered branches reach down like the arms of an aiding grandfather to pull you up. The coarse, lichen-dusted bark coats your hands, your nostrils fill with the subtle scent of decay and before you know it you’ve emerged through the dark-leaved canopy to a scene of wind and light. Carmarthenshire’s pastoral hills fold out to the west. Cattle on the move....

Could hydroponics be the future of farming? Ex-chef Antonio Paladino welcomes Annabel Ross onto Bioaqua Farm, his smallholding in the Somerset Levels, where he farms trout and vegetables within a mutually supportive system that has very few costs, produces no pollution and creates delicious nutritious food. Is this a blueprint for more sustainable farming or an unattainable dream? Listen on for a...

You hear the waves on Eigg’s rocky shores, a distant breeze, perhaps. But lazing silently on one of the tiny island’s floating in the tiny harbour there a seals; two eiders rise and fall on the turquoise swell, so loyal to one another it’s as if they’re tethered by an invisible thread. A cloud drifts by; a fishing boat nods. All is silent, save the lapping waves that meet the rocks. BBC Countryfil...

Explore a magical wildlife haven tucked in a fold on the edge of Dartmoor. Meet Tony Bayliss of the Langaford Farm Charitable Trust who manages the site; soil scientist Tim Harrod (pictured) and Hannah Bowley of the British Society of Soils Science – and hear how the more we understand about soil, the better we can plan farming to be both profitable and sensitive to wildlife. Plus we hunt for the...

You're in a canoe, paddling slowly upstream against a gentle current. The sounds of the oars dipping and sweeping is mesmeric – while birds sing from the tangles of scrub, willow and reeds that flank the waterway. Recorded by Annabel Ross, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Every year, the British Pie Awards judges meet for one day in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire to taste hundreds of pies in order to crown a supreme pie champion. The Plodcast's Maria Hodson was invited to be a judge in 2022 and in this episode she meets the judges, tastes the pies and discovers the long and rather marvellous history of what has now become a staple of British cuisine. The Plodcast...

Enjoy an audio escape into the British countryside, wherever you are. It's a summer evening in a Dorset coomb near the coast. The shadows are long but the dusky sun will be short-lived as clouds threaten. For several days the earth has baked and leaves have sagged. But behind the plume of heat is a wall of electricity – a mighty storm. Building over the English Channel to the south, a distant rumb...

Smell the hay, meets the cows and hear the skylarks on Quicke's farm in Devon where they produce award-winning cheddar cheese using traditional methods. Tanya Jackson meets farmer and cheesemaker Mary Quicke and discovers that some of the secrets to producing great-tasting cheese lie in the way Mary works with nature and her landscape. Image from Getty. Later in the Plodcast, the team test whether...

Wandering deep into the oak wood, you find yourself serenaded by a magical trinity of birds. First a wood warbler, then a redstart and finally a pied flycatcher. All three have migrated here from Africa for a brief season of courtship and nesting among the ancient trees. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informa...

The Plodcast team head to Assynt in Sutherland in the far north of Scotland to fish for brown trout on remote lochs and forage for edible treats on wild beaches. To a backdrop of cuckoos and black-throated divers, Plodcast host Fergus Collins tries his hand at flyfishing and, with friends, enjoys a feast of wild trout before a few less palatable food samples from the nearby coast. Back in the stud...

Be transported to the wild cliffs of Handa, off the coast of Sutherland, and the swirling whirling city of seabirds. It's the beginning of the breeding season and guillemots, razorbills and fulmars jostle for the best spots to nest while puffins makes themselves at home in borrows at the top of the sea stacks. The noise is constant as birds constantly commute between cliffs and the wider ocean to...

Introducing a new season of plodcasts exploring food and farming across the countryside. We'll be foraging in northern Scotland, meeting farmers who work alongside nature to produce fabulous cheese, honey, wine and wheat. We'll be learning about the importance of soil, learning how gin is made and even discovering the winner of the Great British Pie awards. The team will also be sharing their own...

Mid May in Wales largest ancient woodland – Wentwood in Gwent – and the birds are singing in the morning sunshine. Enjoy the excitable song flight of the male tree pipit as he flies from his perch at the top of a tree high into the air before circling down like a paper aeroplane, singing all the while. Recorded by Fergus Collins, presented by Hannah Tribe Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...