There's something about the snow that seems to make our hens more willing to share their food.  They seem less obsessed with the pecking order and no longer force the new comers to wait their turn.  This change of mood may evapourate once the snow melts, but maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere.  If we were to share more, we would undoubtedly consume less and given today's report on the global environmental threat in today's Guardian that says the average American consumes more than his or her weight in products each day, this can't come soon enough.

When you're busy, busy, busy there's nothing like a hoar frost and clear blue skies to keep your spirits up.  It is visually stunning, but it does mean the birds will be running low of options for food.  If you need tips for feeding garden birds, check out the RSPB.  They're advice sheets are excellent.

For years I have gloated about my handsome winter salad which seems to thrive in the greenhouse despite very little attention from me.  This year I have been plagued by more chickweed than usual though, which is tricky to distinguish from the salad leaves when I pop out there in the dark to grab a handful.

However, now that we are the proud owners of a budgie, this chickweed has become a valuable crop.  My sister reminded me that as children we regularly raided the veg patch for chickweed to feed our father's budgies, so now I am able to do the same.  The budgie is taking time to get used to this new delicacy, but hopefully it will grow to like it as there is plenty more.  Let's hope he likes as much as the garden birds like the peanuts in our peanut feeder for garden birds, which this autumn have proved more popular than ever.

Going green is all very well, but how does Santa get down the chimney now that a wood burning stove fills our fireplace? A few years ago when our children were young enough to believe in Father Christmas this would have been a dilemma, but now that they realise that visiting millions of children in a single night is beyond even the fastest of sleighs (although they secretly wish it were true), we no longer have to leave space for Santa’s landing. This is fortunate as we have recently undertaken an eco audit as part of our commitment to the 10:10 campaign, and installing a wood burning stove came high up the list.

A good eco audit is invaluable and need not dampen your spirits before Christmas, so don’t be scared off by the reporting of Adair Turner’s which bandies about £15,000.  What every household needs is a simple list of things to do to be more eco friendly, ranked by cost/impact, which is specific to each situation.  The eco expert who did our report charged £300, which we feel is good value.  We’re on priority two at present, which for a draughty Victorian farmhouse means draught-proofing the sash windows and doors.  When this is done, Christmas should be even cosier than normal.

The next dilemma is choosing an environmentally friendly Christmas tree.  The ones to avoid are those which have been shipped over from the continent.  They will have been cut weeks ago so won’t last long indoors and the fuel used for transportation cannot be insignificant.  Locally grown trees are better, or an eco friendly Christmas tree made from recycled cardboard, which has the benefit of not dropping any needles.  A scented Christmas candle with a cinnamon and clove fragrance will soon put paid to any longing you may have for the Christmassy aroma of pine needles.

The biggest dilemma has to be eco friendly Christmas gifts and undoubtedly the best rule is less is more.  Buy only those gifts that you can’t make yourself, that are from sustainable sources and that will give long term pleasure.  Wool is a good place to start for ethical Christmas gifts.  A warm, soft alpaca scarf and fingerless gloves will put a smile on anyone’s face, especially if the items are handmade by a cooperative.  Gardening gift ideas are a safe bet too, like Gardeners friends plant labels or an allotment kit for those new to the pleasures of growing vegetables.

But what about the kids?  Surely they’ll want the latest electronic wizardry that has been mercilessly plugged on TV?  Call me old fashioned, but I don’t believe that a traditional Christmas gift of a toboggan is ever going to be spurned.  Owning a real wooden sledge that will outpace and outlive its plastic impersonators should be a source of pride to any child.  And recycled Christmas gifts can work well too.  A reindeer swing made from a recycled tyre will be popular with girls and boys alike, until they hit that awkward teenage stage when swings are as cool as Dads dancing at the disco.

At least there should be no dilemma about how to spend Christmas night.  Santa may not be able to get down the chimney any more, but with a wood burning stove its still possible to use a chestnut roaster and toasting fork to rustle up that quintessential Christmas snack.  Better get foraging for some local chestnuts.

For many years I have afforded myself a little pat on the back when I‘ve served up Christmas dinner. Not because the turkey was moist (true most of the time) or because the sprouts weren’t soggy (true some of the time), but because the vegetables were mine. Mine I say, all mine! They were grown with my own fair hands and nurtured so that they came good in late December, which as every vegetable grower knows is not as easy as it sounds. A cold snap can leave the sprouts pea sized and a warm spell can have them explode. More often than not though our Christmas feast has been of home grown veg.

This year and in years to come I think we could do better and its figs that have made me think this. We have a sprawling fig tree on the front of our house and each autumn the crop of soft fragrant fruits has increased making we wonder if we could make our very own figgy pudding. And if so, what else could we make in future?. It may not be possible to attribute the fecundity of our fig tree to climate change, but it does seem likely that in years to come we will be able to grow many foodstuffs that previously wouldn’t have survived here. A locally grown Christmas dinner may not be so far off.

I am not of course seeking to promote the benefits of a warmer globe. The consequences will be catastrophic. We take our responsibility for minimising our impact on the environment very seriously and won’t consider selling a product before careful scrutiny of its provenance and eco credentials. And we will be in London in force on the 5th December to join the Campaign Against Climate Change march. But nevertheless one of the consequences of the UK getting wetter and warmer is that some crops will do better. Already it is a mystery to me why its not possible to buy locally grown figs in the supermarket, which taste far superior to those flown in from the Med. But just imagine what else will be possible in 10 years time? Will we be able to have our cake and eat it?

This depends of course on what you consider the essential ingredients are for a five star Christmas dinner. For me, the further I get into the meal the more difficulty I have sticking to local. A starter of smoked salmon and quails eggs is a doddle and we are awash with great local meat, root veg and brassicas, but where we start to come a bit unstuck is the cranberry sauce, although I am told there are varieties of cranberry which thrive here. The Christmas pudding though is made almost exclusively from imported ingredients. The dried fruit could be locally sourced at a push (surely it is only a matter of time before we see British raisins, sultanas and dried apricots in the shops) but the climate required for cinnamon and cloves is not, I’m pleased to say, forecast for the UK. If it were ever that warm, there would be no one left to eat the dinner!

On a cheerier note, we can already enjoy plenty of good local booze. We have stout for making the Christmas pud, excellent sparkling wine to kick things off and then decent still white wine to wash down the turkey. Natural fig candles too will help set the scene. But alas a warmer climate means the prospect of snow at Christmas is increasingly remote, so make the most of it while you can. Buy a toboggan and if there is any snow, reduce your carbon footprint by getting out there rather than sitting in front of the telly. Then give yourself another pat on the back.

A curious thing about panama hats is that they are not from Panama at all.  They are from Ecuador. And equally curious is that when I visited Ecuador recently no one was wearing a panama hat.  Lots of Ecuadorians wear hats, either to protect their heads from the powerful sun (Ecuador is on the Equator) or to keep their heads warm (much of Ecuador is above 3,000m so the nights are very cool).  But for some reason the hat of choice for Ecuadorians is a felt trilby, and not a panama.

I have given a lot of thought to this and the best analogy I can think of is a gold mine.  In the villages around a gold mine you don’t see anyone wearing gold jewellery.  The occasional gold tooth maybe, but locals don’t adorn themselves with gold bracelets and rings.  This is because all the gold is exported.  It’s too valuable for local consumption.  In the same way, if you visit a British fishing village and try to buy fish you’re unlikely to have any luck. All fish are whipped straight up to the fish markets in the big cities, with the locals hardly getting a look in.

And yet panama hats are a really important part of Ecuador’s identity and their manufacture provides 1000s of much needed jobs.  They are immensely proud of their panama hats and their long tradition of weaving.  But after many attempts to agree a quality classification system that ensures you get what you pay for, much the like the French AOC wine classification, there is still no consensus.  No two weavers can agree on the same system for grading hats, so as a consequence buying a panama hat can be fraught.

Some weavers judge the quality by holding the hat up to the light and counting the rings in the crown.  This does give an indication of quality, and shows the considerable skill involved in making a panama hat, but it doesn’t provide a definitive grade. Similarly,  a high price is an indication of high quality, but it doesn’t guarantee it.  If that hat is under £40, it is not going to be a genuine high quality panama hat, but if it is over £40 it may not be either.

Maybe the best solution is to get the United Nations involved.  Not as a fighting force to keep the peace, but to provide an incentive to put aside differences.  This is what happened recently with the tango, South America’s much loved dance.  After decades of feuding, Argentina and Uruguay agreed to bury their differences about where the dance originated so that the tango could be added to the UNESCO world heritage list.  Being on the list brings with it considerable kudos and financial assistance, that would benefit all genuine panama makers.  Maybe if the weavers of Ecuador could agree to disagree, then UNESCO would recognise the cultural importance of the panama hat, but to Ecuador of course not to Panama.

For more information about Panama hats, please watch the following videos:

Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (1/3)

Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (2/3)

Weaving life - The Story of Ecuador's "Panama Hat" (3/3)

Further reading:

The Panama Hat Trail by Tom Miller

Apparently King James I encouraged his subjects to plant mulberry trees in an attempt to cash in on the booming silk trade.  However, it turned out that silk worms were fussier than he had realised.  They eat only the leaves of the white mulberry tree, and not the black mulberry which is the only one which can survive in our climate.

Thankfully alpacas, which were also imported for their silky soft alpaca wool, have adapted better.  They also have very cute faces.

In my experience, whatever the weather there are always winners and losers in the vegetable garden.  The rains in July brought the return of the dreaded potato blight, but the sunnier than average August has meant plump, ripe sweetcorn and squashes.  All too much for a traditional Sussex trug!

Like many people this autumn, we have had an abundance of apples.  Cookers will store, but our Katy and Discovery dessert apples will not.  So, we filled one of our vintage crates and left it by the gate with a Help Yourself sign.  They soon vanished.  The children then used a friend's apple press to make a dozen or so bottles of juice.  But there were still more apples.

So this weekend, we had an archery tournament.  Hitting the conventional target was easy enough, but hitting the apples proved more difficult.  I guess William Tell must have been more practised!

You know sometimes you get free seed packets with your magazine or newspaper.  I don't usually get round to sowing them as I invariably have more than enough seeds of my own.  This summer though I was seduced into trying these small reddish brown fellas.

They have been ok, but I realise now that our farmyard really needs the blaze of late summer yellow that traditional sunflowers bring.  These would look grand in a luxurious border at Great Dixter, but next year I think I will return to the more familiar yellow flowers, which is what our favourite garden bird food is made from.