A PICKLE producer with a vigour for vegetables has appeared on television after reaching the finals of a Christmas tree decorating competition.

Sarah Puckett, owner of York-based Puckett's Pickles, featured on Channel 4's Kirstie's Handmade Christmas with property guru Kirstie Allsop, after impressing competition judges with her vegetable-based festive decorations.

From her home in Heworth, Miss Puckett has made a successful business out of her fondness for eating and pickling vegetables, but her love of cruciferous vegetables also extends to Christmas decorations with a difference.

She said: "I grew up in a household where food was revered and I have always loved pickled vegetables, both for their taste and their beauty.

"Mum and I always made garlands made from vegetables, herbs and flowers to decorate the house at Christmas, so when I saw a competition to decorate a Christmas tree that would be judged on TV, I had to enter with a vegetable inspired creation!"

Miss Puckett was one of more than 6,000 applicants in the competition and was delighted to reach the final four and win a trip to Blenheim Palace to dress a five foot tree that had been grown on the estate.

She dressed the tree with sprout garlands, tomato baubles, purple cauliflowers, bright green romanescos, artichokes, January red cabbage, pheasant feathers, sea holly, spray roses and Yorkshire Wolds lavender, with the decorations surviving the tree toppling over half way through dressing it.

Miss Puckett said: "It was a heart stopping moment, but the other contestants rallied round to help and we managed to start again.

"Although my tree did not win the competition, I had a fabulous time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

"I was really pleased that I held my own against the other ladies, who were stylists and designers, but I couldn't have done it without the support of my superb suppliers; Busy Lizzies Flowers, Loves Greengrocers, Wolds Way Lavender and ‘Christmas Minion' Jennie Palmer from Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil."

It's been a manic couple of months for Miss Puckett and Puckett's Pickles, with the normal Christmas rush combined with filming for the programme, and winning the Taste of Yorkshire category in the White Rose Awards in the same week.