Jane Rea’s Bloomin’ Wild: New BBC NI farming series celebrates rural Ulster life

Jane Rea on the family farm in Shilnavogy in the Antrim hills. (All Images: BBC NI / Below The Radar TV)

Jane Rea’s Bloomin’ Wild, a new four-part farming series set on a family farm in Shilnavogy, County Antrim, begins this week on BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer.

The series follows the changing seasons in the Antrim Hills, exploring food, craft and Ulster-Scots culture woven into everyday rural life.

Filmed on Jane Rea’s family farm in the small townland of Shilnavogy, nestled in the Antrim Hills, the programme offers viewers an insight into the realities of working farm life — from lambing and shearing to harvest, Halloween traditions and winter preparations.

A working farm in the Antrim Hills

Jane with husband Peter.

Made with support from Northern Ireland Screen’s Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund and produced by Below the Radar TV, the series documents the rhythm of the agricultural year while reflecting on the cultural traditions rooted in rural Ulster.

Episode one begins in spring during the busy lambing season, as Jane helps her father tend to the sheep while wet weather creates challenges for ewes and newborn lambs. She also travels to Ballycastle to meet writer and baker Ciara O’Hart, where they forage for wild garlic.

As the year unfolds, summer focuses on sowing, growing and harvesting; autumn marks the return of cattle from the surrounding hills; and winter centres on the ‘reddin up’ — the daily routine of feeding animals and maintaining the farm.

Family: Jane with daughter Betsy

The series concludes with a family gathering in a polytunnel, where Jane prepares festive pizzas using Christmas leftovers.

Balancing heritage and creativity

Alongside the demands of farm work, the programme charts Jane’s own journey as a farmer’s daughter and mother, balancing tradition with creativity and contemporary rural life.

Jane happy at work in the polytunnel.

Jane has developed a niche growing fruit, vegetables and flowers in a restored polytunnel on the farm. Throughout the series, she shares recipes using homegrown produce and demonstrates how to create floral displays and wreaths inspired by the surrounding landscape.

Special guests feature across the four episodes, including an award-winning orchardist from County Armagh who assists in restoring a neglected family orchard, one of Northern Ireland’s leading willow weavers who guides Jane in making a traditional basket, and Ulster-Scots writer and poet Anne McMaster.

Generations on the land

Jane’s family, who have farmed the land for generations, also feature in the series. From restoring an orchard and foraging in hedgerows to learning traditional crafts, the programme reflects seasonal living shaped by the landscape of the Antrim Hills.

A family at home in nature

(L-R): Jane’s dad Jim, mum Annie, and brother James. (Tap to enlarge)

Speaking to Love Ballymena, Jane who is also the founder of Forage&Faff said:

“I’ve always loved this place I get to call home. It’s got a kind of magic to it, and though you can’t really put your finger on it, growing up on the family farm learning the stories of the land, the people who came before us and dug peats in the moss or made bottles of still by the burn, it’s all part of why I’ve never really wanted to leave.

“Forage and Faff is my excuse to have a place on the farm, and write another little side note in the story of Shilnavogie.

Always at it: Jim

“My siblings and I grew up hugely privileged to be able to eat our own beef reared on the hills we played in, with parents who instilled a love for simple, seasonal food and hospitality.

“Everything about the ethos of Forage and Faff comes from a childhood on a hill farm, from the food we ate, the people we gathered with and the places we turned to for seasonal nourishment, style and joy.

“It’s the simple act of intentionally creating with and gathering around whatever is growing in the hedgerows or out on the hill this month.

“There’s a sweetness in every season, and it’s my joy to help you find the space to share in it.”

Speaking about the experience of filming, Jane added:

“Filming Bloomin’ Wild has been the most wonderful whirlwind through the seasons, something of a childhood dream and, now that we’re out the other side, a bit of a blur! hope people enjoy watching it half as much as I enjoyed making it and can escape to the wilds with us for some floral ‘faffery’ on the farm.”

When and where to watch

Jane Rea’s Bloomin’ Wild starts on Monday 16 February at 8pm on BBC iPlayer and BBC One Northern Ireland.