Nuts about nuts

Available for over a year

For many of us, walnuts are something which only make an appearance at Christmas, but for farmers growing them it's a year-round business. In this programme Caz Graham visits a commercial nut farm in Warwickshire, where brothers David and Tom Tame grow walnuts, pecans and hickories. They show Caz how they harvest the crop - first using a tractor to shake the tree branches and then a "nut broom" to scoop the nuts up from the ground in the orchard. The brothers also have a cracking and shelling line at the farm, where they process the nuts, as well as a drier and a press for making oil. They still rear sheep as well, which graze in the orchards as part of agroforestry system. Meanwhile Tom is experimenting for the future, running trials with around 140 different varieties of trees at the farm – including heartnuts, black walnuts and butternuts. He tells Caz that in our changing climate, pecans - more usually grown in Southern Europe and the USA - can now bear fruit here in Warwickshire. Producer: Emma Campbell