You have to be built of stern stuff and, frankly, be slightly unhinged. But winter growing can be worthwhile.

The window of opportunity to get out on the plot is inevitably hampered by icy blasts.

You play Russian roulette with the rude sleet showers and make frequent bolts for the shelter of the hedgerow (I can’t afford a shed, who do you think I am... Titchmarsh?).

However, on the rare crisp, fresh afternoons, there is nothing better than being outside before bolting to The Rusty Bicycle for a warming pint.

I’ve been clearing the pale and exhausted plants and turning the soil before the frosts turn the ground into a brown paving slab.

Barbara and I are reaping the benefits of a summer of work, with kale, sprouts and lettuce, all still edible. Just.

We feel pretty lucky. It has been a pretty torrid summer. I do feel sorry for people who have tried to start an allotment this year.

Even our potatoes avoided blight despite the dank and dreary conditions . . . and the slugs — man alive, the slugs!

I have spent hours sifting through green leaves piled in the kitchen sink, picking slimy dwellers off my soon-to-be salad.

Now the community is stacking bonfires and hauling tarpaulin over empty plots.

But sometimes the winter gets the better of all of us.

Luckily, East Oxford is a place where people like to grow things . . . be it in a heat-proved attic, or on a patch of scrubland.

And the love for fresh fruit and veg tumbles on to the local streets.

The area’s farmers’ market is testament to local people’s taste for produce not wrapped in cellophane and sold with 100 extra bonus Nectar points.

The car park is not littered with the 4x4s parked by the Chipping Norton set, instead families with bicycles perilously towing trailers loaded with kids.

Meanwhile, there are a host of grocers and the new People’s Supermarket dotted along the road.

So, if you really can’t handle the outdoor life for your food fix, there is a tasty alternative.

But you will never beat the flavour of home-grown, or the sense of achievement. Whatever the weather.