On Saturday, I spent a happy evening at the Icklingham Harvest Supper.

It was my first such occasion because, as I explained to those at the harvest home, I had always imagined that the food provided was the produce of the harvest (shoe) boxes of the sort I took to school/church as a child.

It was later distributed to the poor and frail of the parish.

I thought they used any leftovers for the harvest supper.

The general approach to this charitable giving was that we would go through the pantry at home and assemble produce that we didn’t like.

For example, a tin of baked beans of a brand we didn’t eat; a tin of extra-pink Spam; a packet of boring biscuits approaching their recommended date; plus a large potato and a cooking apple. The most appetising thing in the box was the crepe paper.

I am now reassured this is not the case with harvest suppers. But, had I been presented with a bowl of Spam, beans and mash, followed by a baked apple presented on a slightly stale plain biscuit, it would have been no more than I deserved.

lynne.mortimer@eadt.co.uk