I have been feeling rather grumpy about kale. Don’t get me wrong, I love eating kale – mixed in with mashed potato or stir fried in olive oil with a few raisins to offset the bitterness. No, it’s the fact that every year it gets systematically destroyed by cabbage white caterpillars. So what’s the point, I grumble? A salutary response from one of our number at London Road Station community garden: ‘I think this is the true function of the home grower vs commercial growing …. to provide a free all-you-can-eat buffet for caterpillars and other insects thus supporting the vital local biodiversity!

So, no more grumbling at aphids and caterpillars. However, I think I draw the line at slugs and snails.