Thieves sprout up at convent

Brussels sprouts don’t suit everyone’s palate but they’ve left a particularly bad taste with a community of nuns who had their field of greens raided by robbers during the night.

Thieves took about four large sackfuls of the festive vegetable after stripping them from stalks covering about an eighth of an acre at the Dominican Sisters farm at Ballyguile on the edge of Wicklow town.

Sr Julie Newman, who runs the farm, said the theft of the produce was a big blow to staff.

“They were only up the field yesterday and saying they were lovely big sprouts ready for picking so they were in good time for the Christmas market. And then they went up again this morning and they were gone.”

Sr Julie valued the stolen crop at about €250 but she hadn’t reported the theft as she felt it would be impossible to track down the culprits.

“I wouldn’t mind if it was someone taking a few for their own use, but these were obviously harvested for sale.”