'I once judged a 'cooking with pumpkin' contest here," I told the licensees of the Plough at Finstock after the delicious Sunday lunch there. What I had forgotten was that the occasion - as long ago as October 1976 - is preserved on film. That's me on the left, with my fellow judge Mollie Harris - famous in those days for playing Martha Woodford on Radio 4's The Archers, when she wasn't introducing my colleague Helen Peacocke to another of her seemingly endless catalogue of recipes for lethal home-made wine. Between us is Jayne Moss, the winner of the competition.

Before that memorable night, I had been no fan of pumpkins. Rather pompously I said before the tasting: "I loathe them. I just wish some good fairy could wave a magic wand and turn the whole lot into carriages and that the process, unlike that in the fairy tale, could be irreversible."

But the range of flans, tarts, trifles, cakes and crumbles offered to Mollie and me quite altered my opinion. I instantly became (and have remained) a fan of pumpkins. What I pity, though, that they are inextricably associated with Halloween - which, after Guy Fawkes Night, is the second most annoying event in the calendar.