Farming Today Folgen

A round up of seasonal offerings from Farming Today.The charity Farms for City Children turns 50 this year. Set up by writer Michael Morpurgo and his wife in 1976, the charity works to connect children with farming and the countryside. Fiona Clampin dons her wellies and joins the Morpurgos at their farm in Devon.Farming life is full of traditions, and we hear from Rathfriland Livestock Market in County Down about one of these: the luck penny. Farmers selling their animals hand money back to the buyer, to seal the deal. It's a way of wishing the customer success with the stock and building up a trustworthy business relationship. Kathleen Carragher visits Rathfriland to find out whether it's still practised today.Tradition also abounds at one brewery in Oxfordshire, which still uses heavy horses to deliver barrels of beer to local pubs. Vernon Harwood meets three of the shire horses delivering horse-powered pints.Work is being carried out in orchards to DNA fingerprint cider apple trees to identify varieties whose names died with the people who created them, or were never named. The aim: to secure the future of forgotten cider apple varieties. Sarah Swadling speaks to Keith Edwards, Professor of Crop Genetics at Bristol University and Devon cider-maker Barny Butterfield who have been working on the project.Historians in Cumbria are publishing extracts from the diary of an 18th century yeoman farmer. The writings of Isaac Fletcher, who farmed at Mosser near Cockermouth, are providing a window into rural life 250 years ago. Helen Millican has been for a tour of what would have been Isaac's farm. Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Jo Peacey. A BBC Audio Bristol production.

With a military pipe band and trumpet fanfares, Caz Graham joins pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea for their Ceremony of the Christmas Cheeses, a festive tradition where dairy processors and farmers present cheese for the Hospital’s Christmas celebrations. It dates back to the late 1600s when Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned by King Charles II to build a sanctuary for soldiers "broken by age and war". He asked the dairies of London to give cheese every Christmas to the veterans who became known as the Chelsea Pensioners.Caz meets the Hospital’s Governor to hear about the origins of this ancient ceremony, farmers whose milk goes into some of the cheeses, and some of the pensioners taking part, including Andy Kay, the Chelsea pensioner who cuts the first slice of a huge 25kg Montgomery cheddar with a ceremonial sword.There's also the latest news on the government's proposals for inheritance tax on farm businesses.Produced and presented by Caz Graham.

Village churches are as much a part of our rural landscape as trees and hedgerows. However according to a recent survey by the National Churches Trust, as many as nine hundred of Britain's countryside churches are in danger of closing in the next five years. We visit a church in North Cumbria where the farming community is determined to save it. We also speak to the National Churches Trust about their fears for the future of small rural churches.There's also discussion of the latest government changes to planning regulations.Producer: Rebecca Rooney