You need celebrations in an English winter. The weather this year has been relentlessly damp, dreary, dark and drizzly. we managed a joyful Christmas tea just before Christmas – a more festive version of our usual Tuesday tea, with mulled wine, mince pies and a range of sweet treats, including chocolate covered dates and peanuts brought back from Egypt.

We also managed a sort-of harvest supper this year – a joyous occasion of a dinner made (in principle) from our produce. I say ‘sort of’ because by the time we managed to get together at the end of November, the ‘harvest’ was well and truly over.

It wasn’t a great year for produce anyway. But the spinach and chard at the harvest supper were from my garden, the starter was based on veg from Lynda’s garden, the crumble was made with frozen apple purée from our mini-orchard trees with Ditchling Rise plum compote, there were a few home-grown tomatoes and herbs, and the tiny bright red crab apples from the station garden provided colour for the table centrepiece.

The main thing was to have a really enjoyable evening together – and that was certainly achieved.