Home grown feast for the festive season

Now that all the garden plant-related elements are together, we can shout it out loud - Merry Christmas!

- TOM PATTINSON

In the kitchen you can find the large Brussels sprouts 'Trafalgar', sown way back in April, planted out in May, that survived the attention of cabbage white butterfly and hungry pigeons.

Yuletide dining is the better for their presence and that of Parsnip 'White Gem' dug from the vegetable bed in the absence of frost.

Add the lovely flavour of second early potato 'Charlotte', grown in large pots over three months especially for this occasion, and what's not to like?

Fruit is also part of the feast - stored apples from the bumper 2025 crop, frozen packs of 'Victoria' plum and soft fruits offering choice for desserts.