Mum-of-nine Amanda Owen reveals her parenting secret: ‘I lower the standards’

The star of Our Yorkshire Farm says lockdown left her brood looking like ‘a peasant family’ (Picture: Metro.co.uk/ Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Yorkshire Shepherdess Amanda Owen, 47, on the trials and tribulations of life on the moors, her hit Channel 5 series Our Yorkshire Farm, having nine kids and two haircuts.

How would you describe your new book?

It’s a bit like my life – slightly disorderly! Its part photography book, part recipe book and part memoir. It feels quite intimate – I’m letting people in. But it’s not one of those smug books that tells people how they should do things. I hope it’s fun and enjoyable.

It features old-fashioned hearty recipes…

I have to cook practically, I can’t do little twee dishes. I’m not going to do pan-fried seared scallops, am I?

Having nine kids, it ain’t going to cut it if I give them a tiny scallop on a plate with a bit of watercress. They need to eat well and they need to eat heartily.

Just Eat doesn’t deliver as far as your farm…

Unfortunately not. There’s nothing better than a takeaway but it’s not so clever when you’ve got to drive miles for it.

How do you cope with nine children and a thousand sheep to look after?

I lower the standards! Things could be a lot tidier and far more orderly. But are the kids happy? Are they well-fed? Are they smiling?

Yes. That will do. When I had my first child, Raven, I was very much into matching socks but by the time you get to number five, you’ve given up on that. I’m a realist.

The pair’s nine children are involved in the running of the farm (Picture: Channel 5)

Your book is called Celebrating The Seasons. What prompted you to write it?

So many people asked me why I hadn’t done a photographic book. I enjoy taking pictures so I thought, why not?

I wanted a book that looked beautiful, that might inspire people to try it themselves, because at the end of the day I don’t call myself a photographer.

Where’s the title from?

The book covers what’s happening on the farm, linked with what food is available during the seasons. After the 18 months we’ve just had, there is more of an awareness of what the countryside has to offer us.

Both on a practical level, in terms of what we’re eating, but also on a holistic level, to do with mental health and the bigger picture of the environment.

What’s the appeal of living in such a wild and remote place?

There isn’t a typical day and you feel more at the mercy of the seasons. And the weather is something you live with constantly. You wake up and you can hear the windows rattling or you can see that strange glaring light that tells you it’s snowed.

You grew up in an industrial town. What on earth made you want to be a shepherdess?

I read the James Herriot books and decided I wanted to be a vet. But it was pointed out that I wasn’t up to that and that was fine. It was cruel but it was true. So it was back to the drawing board.

I picked up a photographic book called Hill Shepherd, which took you through a shepherd’s year. It was an epiphany. And it felt like fate. My husband, Clive, was actually in one of the pictures in that book.

Amanda was inspired to become a vet after reading James Herriot’s books (Picture: RDImages/Epics/Getty Images)

When it’s a freezing day on the moors, do you ever wish you lived in a warm townhouse?

Of course. Between Christmas and February 2, we had snow up to our waists. Then we lost our water supply that comes from a spring at the moor. It froze solid – we had three nights when it was below -12C.

You try 10 days during lockdown with nine kids and no water. The kids were cleaning their teeth in the river in the show. We looked like some sort of peasant family. It was a nightmare. But it moulds character.

Tell us about the latest series of Our Yorkshire Farm…

The children are growing up and every year brings its own trials and tribulations but in many respects nothing changes, which I think is what people enjoy. If it morphed into I’m A Celebrity… I think viewers would be pretty peeved!

Amanda’s daughter Raven has left the farm to go to university (Picture: Renegade Pictures)

When they get to their teens, do your kids get fed up with living somewhere so remote?

It’s not like I’m saying, right, this is it forever, you must stay here, like some sort of commune. This is just a grounding and it hopefully gives them strength, a sense of independence and common sense.

Raven has gone to university. She was like, ‘Oh my God, my phone’s going to work, I’m going to be able to have a takeaway that’s not cold!’

What do you enjoy when not working?

I like riding my horse but I tend to combine that with work. I’ll end up finding a gap in a fence or shifting some sheep. I’m not very good at doing things which aren’t work because I actually enjoy what I do.

Do you ever miss just being able to nip out to the hairdressers?

I’ve had two haircuts in my life so I think that answers that one!

Amanda Owen’s Celebrating The Seasons With The Yorkshire Shepherdess (Pan Macmillan, £20) is out tomorrow

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