We finally made it to our first boot sale of the season, having missed the September and October events, and it was humming.

Given the time of year, with Christmas not too far away, we thought we should draw your attention to the seasonal ‘hard-to-get’ items offered by Brian and Ali who used to run the Village Garden in Nif.

Not only are they taking orders for real trees at 25TL, they have swedes and will also be selling parsnips at the Christmas Fair on December 5th.

Chrissie Clarke, who buys mountains of swedes for the ‘neeps’ element of the Calis Children's Charities Burns Night event assures us they freeze well. No need to blanch, just peel, chop and store in freezer.

We figure parsnips bought fresh on 5th December will keep in the fridge till the big day and then roast up well.

So be sure to get your seasonal veg on December 5th which looks like being yet another memorable event with over one hundred stalls already booked.

The next Boot Sale is 19th December – perfect for last minute stocking fillers.