It is always fascinating to see how professional presenters, particularly those used to live programmes, are so at ease on the stage of the King’s Hall. Like Clare Balding last year, Kate Humble finds chatting to a packed venue effortless. She really didn’t need an interviewer.
‘My root is having mud under my fingernails’ she explained as she told how she had grown up in the countryside before heading to London, living in a squat and ‘doing things that I couldn’t possibly tell my mother about, or you for that matter.’
But Kate wanted to be back in the countryside. She had married a BBC producer when she was 23. The BBC’s policy to move out to the regions gave them a chance to fulfil their dream. They sold up in London and bought a small holding in Wales as they couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
Once they had moved into their small holding Kate at an epiphany moment as she suddenly realised that no-one is ever really a land owner. She was a caretaker, entrusted with using the land wisely until the next custodians took over. She decided to keep animals on their four acres of land. She kept hens. She described with such enthusiasm the joy of breakfasting on a ‘golden orb’ produced by a hen she had corn fed by hand. The hens were joined by ‘Roger the Cock’. Kate clearly has a wickedly mischievous sense of humour.
Having established the small holding, Humble went on to explain the path that led her and her husband to buy a 117 acre farm. ‘Lambing Live changed my life’ she said. She absorbed herself into becoming a shepherdess with a Welsh farm. At the end of the week’s programme she came home with a desire for more land and to keep sheep. Filming the programme was ‘like falling in love again’. ‘I loved the testicle tickling, of the rams’, she said.
Through her farming connections Kate and her husband found out about recently retired tenant farmers on land owned by the council. There were heartbroken that after 33 years of working the soil the council proposed to break up the farm into units to be sold off for development. Kate took on the cause and after years of argument and passion found herself the owner of the farm. They took on tenants themselves to work the land for them. They found a couple willing to take on the project; a farm that they wanted to run as environmentally as possible. The four of them wanted to encourage people to come to the farm, to run workshops, experience ‘lambing live’ encounters, learn how to hedge lay and draw people to the countryside.
Kate cries ‘at least twice a week’ due to the difficulties running the farm brings. It’s clear that her zest, her drive and her strong relationship will ensure the venture thrives. Her passion for people and animals has secured her successful TV career and will deliver the success of the farm I’m sure. She will soon be returning to our screens with a three part series on the rains of Zambia. She flies there on Friday.
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