News Beat
Our Yorkshire Farm’s Amanda Owen: Christmas on the farm
The Yorkshire Shepherdess is busy on the remote farm, high up in the Dales, when we catch up with her. Any finer details of the festivities must play second fiddle to the demands of her four-legged family on moorland and farmyard.
Mum-of-nine Amanda, whose family life at Ravenseat – the 2,000-acre working farm in Swaledale – has been chronicled through Our Yorkshire Farm and its spin-offs, is refreshingly honest when questioned about Christmas.
And it sounds gloriously chaotic in a world of Instagram-perfect ideals.
‘Last year, there wasn’t enough room at the table, so there were two tables, there was a complete to-ing and fro-ing, people sat on upturned washing up baskets, dogs circling looking for bits being dropped on the floor, wine out of cups, that kind of thing,’ Amanda, 51, tells Yorkshire Life.
‘As the children get older, people will be like, ‘It’s going to be terrible when you get an empty nest, you’re going to feel so lonely’.
‘Well, as they’ve got bigger, my nest has become fuller because they tend to gravitate back here, and I feel like that’s because it’s kind of an open house.’
I ask Amanda for three words to describe her family Christmas at Ravenseat.
‘Conviviality, unscripted, untidy,’ she tells me.
‘We are who we are, and sometimes in an effort to fit in and do the right thing – buy the cheese that nobody likes, make mince pies that nobody’s going to eat – you do what you’re supposed to do and then you think, ‘Why did I do that?’ Amanda says.
‘Just do your thing. You know what? I won’t look like Nigella neither whilst I’m doing all this.
‘I’ll probably still have my wellies on, I’ll probably still have bits all over me, I’ll be trying to make sure that I don’t drop any bits of hay out of my hair into the gravy or into any of the food, but I’ll be happy with it.
‘I certainly won’t be dressed up and looking lush, looking longingly towards a camera or anything like that. It’s probably more like trying to fend off a dog that’s trying to run off with a giblet.’
She says: ‘We’re all bombarded with this perfection. The most memorable Christmases that we have are the ones where it goes totally and utterly wrong.’
Of course, life on the farm doesn’t stop just because it’s Christmas, so turkey and the trimmings are served up once the all-important work has been seen to.
‘We’ve got all the animals and the jobs to do, so anyone who hasn’t had their fill of having Christmas dinner at dinnertime can come and have a second helping,’ says Amanda.
‘Usually, because I don’t know how many people there are, there’s plenty of food to go around.’
She adds: ‘I love that at Christmas, nothing changes. I love the normality of Christmas Day on the farm.
‘It’s a day like any other, but one where you take joy in being a shepherd, you’re doing a job that has stood the test of time and has been around for millennia.
‘Being in the stables with the animals over the Christmas period gives you time to be grateful and to think about the year that’s been.
‘In the past, I tried to make Christmas perfect for everyone, but these days, it’s more important to bring everyone together and have lots of good food, so we can all enjoy each other’s company.’
It’s that real look at the realities of life on the farm – the joy, the chaos, and everything in between – that has endeared audiences to the Owen family.
‘I spend my time, I say, spinning plates, but let’s be honest, firefighting,’ says Amanda.
‘Who, or what, is literally most critical? What am I going to get most in bother about soonest is pretty much how my days go, which is why I think that people love watching the television programmes and reading the books, because it’s relatable.
‘In this day and age, when we talk about reality, there’s reality and reality isn’t there?
‘That’s reality, we’re all just juggling stuff. That’s like our byline, really, that’s what I write about, that’s what we show. It is as it is.’
Amanda wasn’t short of anecdotes when it came to writing her first children’s book, Christmas Tales from the Farm, a collection of festive short stories inspired by her real-life family adventures at Ravenseat.
Featuring all the animals living at the farm, from sheep to goats and horses to chickens, stories include the runaway reindeer who caused mischief on the moors, chickens who needed a kind new home, and a clever sheepdog who found something lost in the snow.
Amanda says: ‘Winter, and Christmas in particular, is a special time of joy and adventure at Ravenseat.
‘Whether that’s discovering animals who have come to the farm to shelter from the weather, like the barn owls, or the festive family traditions we’ve followed for years.’
Amanda says her children played a huge role in shaping the book, as they feature in all the stories.
‘From the year they asked for two spotted sheep for Christmas who ate the Christmas tree, to the year our pet goats decided to go ice skating with the kids,’ she says.
‘I love getting the kids’ perspective on what their favourite stories from past Christmases were.
‘The story might stop on the page of the book, but we’re always sharing stories on the farm, talking about what happened with the animals, remembering.
‘With a book like Christmas Tales from the Farm, it’s a comforting read for my kids because it’s a world that they know, love, and understand.’
No two days are the same, providing Amanda with story after story to share with those who love following the family’s adventures.
‘You’ve just got so much going on, and there’s no such thing as a typical day,’ she says.
‘In a way, that’s the absolute joy of it, and that’s what gives me the material to write the books about, that’s what gives me the things to talk about.
‘It’s chaos – but it’s good.’
Christmas Tales from the Farm is in bookshops now
This article first appeared in Yorkshire Life magazine. The latest edition of Yorkshire Life is out now, available from newsagents and supermarkets across Yorkshire and magsdirect.co.uk. Subscribe at greatbritishlife.co.uk/subscribe/yorkshire/
