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Lions, lambs and daffodils...
Hooray, it’s finally March! This month the clocks will go forward, putting an end to the darkest of the evenings and, even more so than in our February newsletter, there is a distinct whiff of Springiness in the air. 1st March kicks of the Well Seasoned Spring season and so it's all-change to our green Spring regalia.
The Anglo-Saxons called March ‘Hlyd’ or the "stormy month". Certainly the March weather is never predictable and the only guarantee is that we’ll have some good and some bad. They say that if it comes in as a lion it will go out as a lamb. With some pretty dry and bright weather recently there’s probably more lamb than lion about this one so far, and so we might have to hold on to our hats for the rest of the month!
Alongside February, March is perhaps one of the less bountiful months in terms of fruit and veg. But that’s not to say there’s nothing to try in the kitchen. If you’re looking for something new on the veg front, nettles are perhaps the easiest March crop to get hold of (but before you do this literally, make sure you’re wearing gloves). They are a rich source of iron and go well in place of spinach in most things. Nettle soup is delicious. You can find a good recipe here and we promise it’s well worth the odd sting.
The season for most game birds has now finished so any that you buy are likely to be from frozen stocks. Interesting alternatives are available; after a very cold winter rabbit is not at its best right now but you could maybe branch out and try some hare. With hare you need to be a little careful where you buy from - some parts of the country (Norfolk and other eastern counties) have healthy stocks but in other areas (notably the south west) numbers are reportedly getting low. Venison is always a safe bet and it is increasingly easy to buy. It has a reputation for having a strong flavour but that definitely does not have to be the case; if you ask you butcher for some young, fresh meat it will be tender and full of flavour but definitely not ‘gamey’. Finally, if game really isn't your thing there's always lots of great British fish. See our feature below on some of the inventive renaming that's taken place in recent years.
In terms of events, Spring was traditionally a time to be preparing the ground for the next sowing season so there aren't that many festivities on the seasonal calendar – the hard work of ploughing the fields clearly left little time for party planning. That said, we have both St. David’s Day (1st) and St. Patrick’s Day (17th) to celebrate. Wales and Ireland both have unique food and drink heritage so we’ll be cooking up laverbread and a beef and stout pie in due course. Of course, there's also pancake day, which we mentioned last month, and more details on the great Olney Pancake Race below. In the garden, March is a good time to plant peas and broad beans. You’ll want to harvest both of these in the height of summer so think about getting them in the ground half way through the month (traditionally St Patrick’s Day is the first day of pea planting) providing it doesn’t look like a late frost.
So, there’s gardening to be done and some celebrations to be had. We previously debated whether the first day of Spring should be the 1st March or the vernal equinox on the 20th/21st. Either way, the countdown to Spring starts here and we’re in the blocks with our shiny new trainers (or perhaps wellies) on…
Well Seasoned News in Brief
Patrick finally worked out how to use Facebook. Alex discovered the meaning of "wedmin". The Twig's bike got stolen :(
So hot right now...
Super Spring Sustenance:
Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Cabbages
Cauliflower
Spinach
Crab (if you haven't already, check out our blog on How to Dress a Crab)
Pollock
Spring chicken
As ever, you can find more in-season goodies with the Well Seasoned Seasonality Charts.
Events
7th March: Olney Pancake Race
Competitors in this world famous Shrove Tuesday race must a) have lived in Olney for at least three months and b) dress as a traditional housewife with skirt, apron and head covering. For some reason noon is no good and it kicks off at 11.55am sharp
Producer of the month
Our producer of the month is Orchard View Farm, Buckinghamshire, breeders of fine free range pigs and lambs. Click here to read Helen Mackeller's guest blog on how her porky pals make it from being a twinkle in their mother's eye to a meltingly tender piece of pork belly on your plate!
A fish by any other name...
What March lacks in the fruit and veg department, it more than makes up for on the fishy side of things. As you know, the Well Seasoned team are big fans of fish and we've always tried to encourage everyone to try something other than the usual cod and haddock. The potential plight of those species has been well publicised recently and we've been supporting, along with many of you, the FishFight campaign (if you havent already, do sign up).
The usual cry of the supermarkets, who continue to focus on these over-fished species, is that they are only meeting consumer demand and yet, the conservationists insist, if only people were offered more varieties they would readily eat them. Fishermen have, though, for many years been aware of the opportunities that other, less commonly-eaten fish provide. One way in which they have tried to get people to try a few different things, is by re-naming them. There was, unsurprisingly, a bit of resistance to eating Slimeheads (not a UK fish). But rename them as Orange Roughy and you might have a chance. Witch and Megrim are today sold as Torbay or Cornish Sole and the distinctly unappetising Patagonian toothfish has morphed into the altogether more palatable Chilean seabass. The real success story though is the pilchard. A casualty of 70's mass food production and a reputation for being tinned with fairly revolting tomato sauce meant demand was in freefall. But rename them as Cornish Sardines and sell them on the wet slab "perfect for the BBQ" and you have a virtual overnight success, revitalising a nealry-dead Cornish fishery and taking pressure of other species at the same time.
You could argue things might get a little confusing if we don't know what we're eating, and it's certainly fair to demand that the public aren't mislead , but at Well Seasoned we can really see the benefit of re-branding these species if it's just the name that is putting people off. Personally, we don't care too much what it's called as long as it tastes good but there's only one way to find that out.
Competition news
Hopefully you got yesterday's competition update email but, in case you missed it, we've teamed up with our friends at Jimmy's Farm to offer an absolutely corking prize for our Spring competition. Click here for details of how to win a Living off the Land course for two at Jimmy's.
We had hundreds of entries for our Real Boar salami competition and the winner was Steve McLay. Congratulations Steve and a tube of Dorset's finest boar salami will be oinking it's way through your letter box very soon.
News of our Winter competiton winner will be announced on the website shortly and there's just 25 days left to send in your seasonal snaps for our photo competition.
Until April, keep it seasonal and Springy!
Patrick, Alex and the Twig
Well Seasoned
  
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We're well out of the game season now but never fear, some of the freshest most tender chicken is waiting to take its place. Always buy free range for the happiest, tastiest birds
Purple Sprouting Broccoli: The fresher the better as far as this spring veg is concerned. Treat it exactly the same way as normal broccoli but reduce cooking time slightly. Each every part of the plant above ground is edible and it goes with pretty much anything.
Pollock: Still seen by many as the poor man's cod this delicious white fish can be a brilliant substitute for its endangered cousin. Get yourself a gold star for sustainability - pester your fishmonger to sell it.
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