Controversial!

Sprouts.

As important to Christmas as the Christmas tree!

Discuss!

The above statement elicited a snort of disbelief from glamorous eldest teen and absolute agreement from me. Love them or hate them, they are part of Christmas. Half the population will now be overjoyed that the sprout moment has passed for another year and the other half will be wondering, as I do every year, why we don't eat more of them. I am a sprout lover, my teens are split between both camps and my husband prefers to remain on the fence so I feel we are probably quite representative.

Last weekend we threw a party, a 'keep Christmas going' party.

When planning the food we decided on Christmas ham, Stilton (in fact cheese in huge amounts generally), sausages, mince pies, Lebkuken (German Christmas cookies), all things that are quintessentially Christmas. It was meant to be a bit like using up all the leftovers from the festive season, but we were away for the festive season so didn't really have any!!!

How could we consider such an entertainment without sprouts?

It would just be wrong - unfestive, unthinkable.

So here is my low impact (for the sprout hater) solution.

Can you spot them?

How beautiful do they look? 

     

My rehabilitation of the sprout is complete - delicious, healthy food, and beautiful decorations - what more could you wish for!

And as if that wasn't enough, the fabulous Sprout has been crossed with Kale to create a whole new vegetable - the Flowersprout! These have been grown in Cornwall for a year or so by Padstow Kitchen Gardens (as seen on Countryfile just before Christmas) but seeds are now available to the home grower - I spotted them in the Sarah Raven Catalogue. So there's another thing to add onto your list planning your spring planting. 

How pretty! Might have to give those a try myself, I can feel a lovely posy coming on! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL
:-)