Christmas can be crazy when you're a brussels sprout farmer

Love them or hate them, they are the vegetable of the season and so for a brussels sprout farmer, Christmas is even more crazy than for the rest of us says Deirdre Reynolds

As Santa was busy in the North Pole workshop in early December, in Co Meath, brussels sprout farmer Cathal Lenehan was busy checking his own list twice.

One of just four growers left in the land, two weeks ago ‘Sprout Claus’ — as his children have dubbed him — and his team of not-so-little helpers were on course to churn out a staggering 140 tonnes of sprouts by today.