From cake to compost...

After all the festive noshing, we should all be burning off the calories with some good old gardening, says Toby

- Toby

AFTER all of the feasting Chez Buckland, a diet would probably be a good idea, but who would finish the unwanted stollen and orange cream Quality Street still rattling round in the tin?

‘Waste not, want not’ is what I say, and going without may not be necessary. Science has shown that Christmas cake intake can be offset by activity, and reaching this ‘excess equilibrium’ isn’t hard. All that’s required is a few hours of vigorous gardening.

Clearing through borders and bagging up spent leaves burns between 350-450 calories per hour – that’s the equivalent of two modest mince pies! Not only that, bending and stretching wakes up muscles that could be completely redundant – if it wasn’t for reaching into the back of the fridge for the cheese, that is.

“This is great for recycling panettone boxes”