‘It was isolating’ Our Yorkshire Farm’s Amanda Owen addresses Ravenseat challenges

Amanda Owen struggles to walk a pig at farm show

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Amanda Owen, who is perhaps best known as the Yorkshire Shepherdess, lives and works on Ravenseat Farm, in North Yorkshire, with her nine children. Her rural life has been part of the Channel 5 series Our Yorkshire Farm for several years, which has given viewers an insight into shepherding. While the 47-year-old often speaks fondly of farm life, she revealed to chef James Martin why it has also been “isolating”. 

During an appearance on James Martin’s Saturday Morning Kitchen late last year, Yorkshireman James quipped: “We get criticised for promoting Yorkshire, don’t we?

“People say we talk about it too much, but there’s Yorkshire, then there’s everywhere else.”

The mother-of-nine agreed with the chef as he was serving her an oven-baked lunch on the programme. 

Amanda explained her children got “really into” baking during the coronavirus lockdown and they enjoyed making Chelsea buns. 

James told Amanda he did not think the pandemic would have impacted her life on Ravenseat Farm, but she quickly corrected him. 

She explained: “Well, it has and it hasn’t. It didn’t when it first kicked off because of course we were lambing.

“At that time of year, it’s all you think about and eat, sleep and breath. 

“But of course, we then see the sheep go back to the moor and it’s all about tourism. 

“We’ve had to diversify and they didn’t come back and that was quite strange, even for us. 

“It was kind of like isolation upon isolation.” 

James tried to reassure Amanda tourists would come back to the farm and cheekily said she should put his freshly baked bread at the bottom of her driveway to lure them to Ravenseat Farm. 

Practically salivating over the cheese and ham toastie James had rustled up, she said: “That is food for the soul. It looks more than magic.” 

Following the pandemic, Amanda announced she and husband Clive Owen were getting divorced. 

She made the announcement last month and while they did not go into the reason for their spilt, Amanda has previously spoken of how hard it has been to deal with their fame. 

The couple rose to fame through Our Yorkshire Farm which landed on Channel 5 in 2018. 

There were married for 21 years and share children Raven, 21, Reuben, 18, Miles, 15, Edith, 13, Violet, 11, Sidney, ten, Annas, eight, Clemmie, six, and Nancy, five.

She told her thousands of social media followers in June: “This hasn’t been easy, but we both believe it’s the right choice for the future of our family.”

Despite their break-up, Amanda and Owen have assured fans they would still work together on their shared land. 

They have about 1,000 sheep, 40 cows, six dogs and four ponies on their North Yorkshire farm to tend to. 

Our Yorkshire Farm episodes are available to watch on My5. 

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