Monty Don: 'I often eat cakes while my fingers are caked in
soil'  The gardener and broadcaster on his formative food
experiences Monty Don photographed at Emlyn Road allotmen Monty
Don photographed at Emlyn Road allotments. Photograph: Suki
Dhanda  When I was five, mother would have a picnic ready after
school. She would take just me and my twin sister up the lane
and spread out a rug and we'd have sandwiches and fairy cakes.
And it was just the best meal and fun ever. Because mother was a
terribly overwrought woman it was the only time she'd be really
carefree. I remember it happening often, but in reality probably
twice.  I have a memory, from age nine about, of seeing my
father walking across the frosty lawn at eight o'clock on a
December morning with three geese draped over his arm, necks
broken, like he was carrying an umbrella.  I still use the
knives and forks that I used as a child and my mother,
grandfather and great-grandfather used. My children would say
I'm prone to be tyrannical about food and l