Heligmonath – the holy month
It’s December and that means we’ve put the central heating on, taken our warmest coats out of the cupboard and decided that, however fashionable we think we are, it’s OK to wear mittens. The last of the leaves will lose their fight against gravity this month and we’ll see countrywide frosts biting hard.
So, the mellow fruitfulness of autumn has definitely given way to the numb-fingerness of winter, and you might be tempted to think that means a lack of good food. But fear not, seasonal-food friends, there’s more than enough to go around.
While the icy weather does mean that there’s no point trying to do much in the garden or on the vegetable patch, the flip side is that many of those vegetables that have made it this far will quite happily sit tight, fresh and flavoursome, for the rest of the season. There’s a giant natural larder of frost-resistant turnips, swedes, parsnips, cabbages, chicory, carrots, artichokes and sprouts (who could forget the sprouts?) just waiting to be eaten.
To accompany the vegetables there’s plenty of good meat, and December is one of the best-value months for pheasant, duck and goose. And, as always, there’s plenty of fish to choose from, with cod, oysters, scallops and prawns all excellent quality at this time of year.
Is all this really any surprise? For centuries now, even in the bleak midwinter, as the year draws to a close and near to the shortest day, families across the country have been managing to put together one of the biggest seasonal feasts of them all.