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Happy New Year!
We hope you had a great Christmas and New Year's Eve. As you can imagine, the Well Seasoned team made the most of the festive season. Unfortunately this has resulted in larger than usual waistlines and a shorter than usual newsletter.
One of the great things about our seasonal road trip is that, as we go along, we discover the origins of so many traditions that are engrained in our culture but which we don't usually give much thought to. Take New Year's Eve for example. Many of us will have cracked open a bottle of champagne but have you considered how old the tradition is? In medieval times yule logs were blessed with wine and various alcoholic drinks were added to animal feed to ensure a prosperous new year. The local churches also got in on the act by ringing the church bells at midnight and selling ales from the churchyard!
Well Seasoned News in Brief
Patrick and the Twig went to Ireland. Alex completed a foodie tour of Suffolk (read his trip report here.) Everyone ate too many mince pies.
So hot right now...
Our favourite foods for New Year nibbles:
- Winter greens
- Snipe
- Gurnard
- Razor clams
- Brown crab
You can find more in-season goodies with the Well Seasoned Seasonality Charts.
Producer of the month
Secrett's Farm in Milford, Surrey are our producer of the month for January, mostly because they seem to grow the biggest January King cabbages the WS team have ever seen. We were down at Winchester Farmers' Market a few weekends ago and they only had space on the table for about three of these green, sprawling, mid-winter monsters. Needless to say, we stuffed one in our sack and spent the next week dreaming up recipes for it. We like our January King finely shredded with a good helping of butter or, to accompany a quick mid-week meal, with soy and ginger. Secrett's are relied upon by a good proportion of the restaurant trade for premium vegetables throughout the year, but us ordinary folk can also benefit from their veg-growing expertise at farmers' markets throughout Surrey and Hampshire, at Secrett's own farm shop and through their veg-box scheme. And if you do decide to pop down to Milford, you might even see old pudding face himself - Secrett's is part-owned by Gregg Wallace.
Resolutions and solutions
Apparently Monday the 17th of January will be the most depressing day of the year. We've usually broken most of our resolutions, have a mountain of credit cards to pay off from December and it seems there is still an age to go until the lighter days of Spring. It can all be a bit soul destroying. BUT, if you've embraced the seasonal way of life you don’t have to join the miserable hordes. Every month (yep, even January) has it’s plus points and it’s own personality that we can work with, welcome and plan for. Granted, January is a little less approachable than the bright, optimistic March, or the warm, endless June but that’s not to say we can’t still be friends with it. January suggests, in fact, almost insists that you don’t bother doing any work (there’s very little you can usefully do in the garden other than a bit of tidying up) so your time is your own. Go for a long walk in the woods then come home, cosy up in front of a fire and enjoy some of the delicious seasonal produce that is still around in the shape of game (have you really had your fill of partridge, woodcock, pheasant, venison and duck yet?) root vegetables (parsnips, artichokes, carrots, chicory are all great right now) or fish (ditto – crabs, cockles, rock oysters, whiting). Anyone who suggests January is a barren month really isn’t looking hard enough.
And while you're at it, how about a new resolution that you will actually have a chance of keeping? Here are some of ours, each of which will be a small but important step towards the seasonal, sustainable way of life:
1. Try eating a new species of fish
2. Plan a seashore forage or mushroom hunting expedition
3. Have a meat free day each week
4. Get a window box
5. Buy more locally-produced food
6. Put your name on an allotment waiting list
If none of that helps, you may be interested to know that the commonly-held view of when Spring starts isn't quite right. Astronomically (and also as far as the Met Office is concerned) 1st March, not 21st, is the first day of Spring. On that basis, there are fewer than 55 days to go!
Coronation Pheasant
If you've still got some leftovers lying around or if you've resolved to buy some game in the New Year, you might like this gamey twist on a festive favourite:
500g shredded roast pheasant
100g mayonnaise
1 teaspoon curry powder (as hot as you like it)
50g fruit chutney
black pepper and salt to taste
Simply mix together all the ingredients and fold in the pheasant. Enjoy with a baked potato or with warm crusty bread.
Events
25th January, Up Helly Aa
Lerwick, Shetland islands hosts the ancient festival of Up Helly Aa on the last Tuesday of January every year. Processions of torches through the streets followed by torching of a Viking longship keep the town's fire department on their toes during an otherwise quiet spell.
Competition news
The answer to our Autumn competition was, of course, A: Bog Snorkelling. The winner was Sarah R from Andover. Many congratulations and the Well Seasoned Ultimate Cookbook Collection is on its way to you. This great set of books includes our favourite titles from Valentine Warner, Gordon Ramsay, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Rick Stein, Mark Hix and more.
If you didn't win this time, there are plenty more opportunities to get your hands on some Well Seasoned goodies. You can enter our Winter competiton to win a seasonal cookery course or send us your seasonal snaps to enter our photography competition.
That's all for now. Wishing you a successful, seasonal 2011!
Patrick, Alex and the Twig
Well Seasoned
  
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Having spent the winter months resting up in deep, cold waters the delicious brown crab is a great way to start the new year when you've had enough of the turkey and trimmings.
Along with the woodcock the snipe is still relatively tricky to get hold of. But it's well worth the effort. Roasted whole and covered in strips of bacon these little game birds make a great starter to a January feast.
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