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Over the past 30 years, our changing climate has seen the British crop-growing season extend by an incredible 29 days. Despite advances in farming techniques, it seems the weather still has the final say on how well our crops will fare.  The temperamental weather that’s typical of spring can add to a farmer’s woe. In the oil seed rape fields, there’s a battle going on between farmer and the pollen beetle.  Keeley meets one farmer for whom the timing of the arrival of the pollen beetle can make or break his crop.  She also investigates how science is using the weather to control the pests, which threaten his crops.

John Craven investigates what it really means to eat seasonally in the spring - and looks at the environmental costs of eating food that is out of season. He asks the question ‘is it better to eat food grown in heated greenhouses or to eat food flown in from abroad’?  Find out how he got on when he took to the streets of London with one of a new breed of grocers who supply the best seasonal produce.

A seasonal springtime menu often includes lamb but there’s one meat  which three quarters of the world’s population eat, which we’re only just taking to in Britain - and that’s goat. Jules Hudson visits retired teachers, Anne and Mike Roberts, on their mixed livestock farm on the edge of New Forest to find out more about a breed of goat that’s been developed for its lean and healthy meat.

Springtime is when new life begins.  For the livestock industry it is a vital time.  Margherita Taylor visits rare breed turkey farmers, Ian and Brenda Waterman, who are on a mission to bring the traditional turkey back to the dinner table. Their smallholding is home to all fifteen-heritage varieties of turkey.  Preparations for the festive season begin now as new chicks hatch and many of Ian’s poults will be sold to smallholders wanting to rear their own birds for the table this Christmas.

The sun’s made a welcome return and the smell of freshly cut grass hangs thick in the air. It can only mean one thing – barbeque weather. Anita Rani visits Cambridgeshire food-fanatic Tim Hayward who believes that spring lamb is old news and the new kid on the block is goat. The demand for goat dairy produce is increasing and Tim shows us how we can make more of one of the industry's most valuable by-products - in his own unique style.    

While Paul has been busy planting a traditional orchard, his wife Charlotte has been taking lessons in an increasingly popular British hobby – Bee keeping. There are an estimated 274,000 beehives in the UK, kept by around 44,000 amateur keepers. Today, Paul and Charlotte invest in their very own bees, just in time to pollenate their new orchard. With careful guidance from local Master Bee-keeper Sally Wadsworth, they don their bee suits and introduce a nucleus colony to their new hive. The whole family enjoy tasting Sally’s local honey – something they can look forward to, later in the summer.

Spring is a time of abundance both above and below the water and one seasonal delicacy from beneath the waves is cuttlefish. The arrival of the cuttlefish marks a lucrative springtime harvest lasting up to six weeks.  Jules Hudson on Mudeford Quay, one of the oldest fishing ports on the south coast, to meet fisherman, Pete Dadds to find out why cuttlefish is the catch of the day.

Beyond the New Forest National Park’s ancient woodlands, is its twenty-six miles of spectacular coast. Between surf and turf, springtime here offers an abundance of food from the shoreline. Keeley’s out foraging with local expert Gary Eveleigh, learning what she should she be looking out for this spring. Keeley and Gary team up with Jules Hudson and James Golding, a local chef and master of seasonal cooking, to create a springtime feast using Keeley’s seasonal leaves to complement the cuttlefish which Jules sourced locally from Mudeford Quay earlier in the day.