Our children are too fat, turkeys are too twizzled and fruit and veg are frozen on one corner of the world and thawed out on the other.

The Prime Minister tells us to stop wasting food and the supermarkets, piled high with half-rotting strawberries, say buy twice as much.

As food bills rocket, is it any wonder people are going back to the land to grow their own produce?

This quintessentially British pastime may have been going on for centuries, but it has rarely been more popular. Across Calderdale alone there is a lengthy waiting list for plots to become vacant.

"We've got more than 300 people on Calderdale waiting lists and all the sites are filled up," said Rod Mellor, chairman of Calderdale Allotments Federation and plot-holder at Cableform, Sowerby Bridge.

"Allotments are healthy, good exercise, you learn about the world around you and you get to eat food you can trust. It's not hard to see why they are so popular.

"I've had a plot for 60 years, growing cauliflowers, beetroot, grapes, cherries – absolutely everything."

Rod says when he started out it was just after the Second World War and with food scarce, people had little choice but to grow their own.

There were thousands of sites across Calderdale and seven-year-old Rod used to wander through them selling hens eggs from his family plot off Tuel Lane, Sowerby Bridge.

"It was a way of life then for everyone. It was how we got our fresh fruit and veg.

"But we all worked together, swapping food and helping each other out. A lot has changed since then but there is still a real sense of community.

"You still pop round to your neighbour's sheds with a flask of tea and sarnies and during the bad times we all rally together."

There are currently 669 council plots in Calderdale used by youth offending teams, businesses and learning-support groups.

Many schools are now also making their own sites such as Whitehill Primary School, Illingworth, Halifax, who last month cleared their own allotment.

With healthy-eating firmly fixed in people's minds, young and old are heading back to the soil. "The cloth-cap brigade has definitely gone out of the window", said Paul Barnes, a 62-year-old allotments officer at Calderdale Council for the past 20 years. "There are certainly more younger people joining up and more women. I think it's brilliant. Whether it is to grow fresh food, get some exercise or just for the sense of achievement, it seems folk want to get back to doing things for themselves."

The continuing appeal of allotments can be seen with Robin Clark, 65, who this year has been joined on the site at Godfrey Road, Halifax, by his 28-year-old son, Lawrence.

"I never thought he would be interested in something like this," said Robin, a retired accountant who shares the plot with his wife of 34 years, Marion. "But it is great to see. He got his first pepper the other day and was over the moon.

"For me it is something I have always loved. "But it is great to see. He got his first pepper the other day and was over the moon.

"For me it is something I have always loved. I come down three times a week for a couple of hours growing lettuces, carrots, sweetpeas, cabbage, everything.

"I've met a lot of people here and feel responsible for this bit of land.

"It is wonderful to take stuff you have grown at home as well.

"I see myself staying here for as long as I can. We have put a lot of love into this."

The holders on the Godfrey Road plot have set up a co-operative and sell produce every Saturday at the site between 10am and noon, with the money going back into the allotment association.

By all accounts it has been a difficult year for the Calderdale plots, with wet weather causing potato blight, foxes breaking into hen sheds and slugs and rabbits wreaking their fair share of havoc.

But back on the allotments nobody seems too bothered – there's next year's sprouts to be planted.