It's that time of year again, the dining room table of Jarman towers has been cleaned, dusted and purged of tins of Humbrol for the gathering of in-laws for a grand Turkey dinner.

A proper Christmas dinner would something of a festive non event without the star of the show, the humble yet mighty, meek yet magnificent sprout.

Bearing in mind we are in semi-rural Worcestershire the spout harvest is of course, a steam powered episode Brunellian in character:

The Chief Mechanical Engineer for this enterprise is a Mr Claus, ably assisted by chief elf and agricultural adviser, Isambard Firmly-Whippingtool, well versed in steam locomotive maintenance and vegetable husbandry mostly from paying close attention to the weekly Archers omnibus.

Our intrepid team, on board their contraption, edge their way gingerly through the weeds toward the sprout forest of Stourport on Severn...

Elf Isambard scales the tallest of the sprout trees to gauge the size of the sprouts, using a 50p piece for comparison.

Mr Claus observes progress from the safety of the sproutwagen..

The sproutwagen, bursting at the seams with its precious cargo, awaits propulsion to get the bounty back to the kitchen....

Isambard stokes the furnace of the trusty locomotive, ringing the bell in vague time to his rendition of 'Fire' by the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, delivered in hauntingly melodic yodelling shrieks.

Steam is raised slowly, in part due to Mr Claus diverting the hot water supply to brew up some festive tea..

All set to go!

And all is set for the long, uphill run over the hills and dales to the Jarman kitchen...

Merry Christmas to all on RMWeb from Will and Katie.

Hopefully the above hits the mark in a festive fashion.

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Festive Postscript...!

The above harvest was, in fact, recorded just before Christmas 2011, but never made it to RMWeb as the forum was resting over the Christmas period... this accounts for the scene basking in sunshine...

PS, what of the 2012 harvest, well, the sprouts (still home grown) are a fair bit bigger this time, reqiring double heading: