HOMEGROWN CHRISTMAS
THE JOY OF SITTING DOWN TO A FESTIVE FEAST YOU GREW YOURSELF, FROM THE BIRD TO THE BRASSICAS, IS HARD TO BEAT, SAYS KATE TURNER
We decided a few years back, in our quest for a truly home-grown Christmas, to rear and eat our own organic turkey. We bought four turkey chicks from our local biodynamic farm and set about raising them with some friends – there was to be one each come Christmas time. Our turkey seemed to have a happy, free range life on our friends’ plot before taking pride of place on the Christmas table, surrounded by the abundant colours and flavours of our allotment veggies. It was a celebration and a feast that we still look back on with pride.
Knowing the provenance of your food is a great reason for rearing your own meat, but growing veg is a far easier option for most. We’ve had an allotment for ten years, where we grow fruit and veg and collect eggs from our little flock of hens. We don’t have the land to be completely self sufficient, but we grow enough to harvest and eat fresh veg every day of the year. It’s so satisfying and most importantly, great fun.
Our children love to get involved with growing, harvesting and eating and we’ve always encouraged their interest and help. This year, our youngest took on the root beds and now every carrot is lovingly admired before being eaten, every celeriac carefully prepared. There is a sense of wonder in nurturing a plant from a seed – it just makes it taste ridiculously good.
Colder weather and shorter days make growing vegetables a little more challenging but no less rewarding. In fact, I think we take more pride in our winter veg than anything else. Gone is the heady abundance of summer and here to stay are the hardy stalwarts of winter – cabbage, spinach, parsnips, chard, celeriac, swede, leeks and sprouts. It makes you feel good to gather an armful of kale on a frosty morning, likewise heading down to the allotment with a torch to find some parsnips for dinner. The store cupboard is packed with beetroots, potatoes, carrots, apples, foraged nuts, berries and various experimental chutneys and pickles that we’ve squirrelled away and every home-grown mouthful is doubly appreciated.
This year we’re planning another abundant festive feast with family and friends. We’ll be squeezing 12 people around our table for a late lunch and it’ll be laden with flavour-filled veggie side dishes – sticky red cabbage and cobnuts, sprouts with pancetta and almonds, crispy roast potatoes, beetroots, honeyed carrots and parsnips. There will of course be another beautiful bird, foraged chestnuts for the stuffing, pigs-in-blankets, cranberry sauce and a secretfamily-recipe bread sauce, all topped off with a flaming homemade Christmas pudding. And Boxing Day? Leftovers with an awesome celeriac and garlic mash. I can practically taste it already.
“It makes you feel good to gather an armful of kale on a frosty morning”