麻豆约拍

It's Christmas day - and across the food and farming sector, a lot of hard work has gone into making the season special and the food abundant! But the festive season can also bring pressures of a different kind: loneliness, isolation, depression - issues that can particularly affect people in rural communities. This makes for a busy festive season for rural churches and those who work for them, in terms of offering not only spiritual guidance but also more practical and emotional support for people who might be alone over the Christmas period. Sybil Ruscoe speaks to Reverend Claire Maxim, a rector in the Diocese of Salisbury and the incoming head of the church's rural resource centre.

Farming Today heads off to Leicestershire, where the Duffin family have been farming in the village of Mountsorrel since the 1950s. They have plenty of Christmas business, growing everything from potatoes for roasting to trees for decorating. But the highlight of their festive farm is the nativity scene, as Ben Jackson finds out.

For many farmers Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year, as they fight to get the festive goodies to the shops in time. This year, the December snow caused one or two seasonal headaches for vegetable growers. Anna Hill visits organic grower Taylorgrown in Norfolk, to witness the harvest of six thousand tonnes of Christmas carrots.

Presented by Sybil Ruscoe and produced by Lucy Taylor.