It’s the last instalment of the seasonal series! At the beginning of each season, I will release a guide to eating in that season. Throughout that season, I’ll release seasonal recipes, usually a savoury, a sweet and some sort of beverage or snack. I will be sticking to fruits and vegetables, but I’ll link a few websites that I’m grabbing this information from which also detail meat and fish if that’s something you’d like to know. Eating seasonally is another approach to eating that lowers your carbon footprint because you are reducing air miles and chemicals. When something is out of season, it means that it has either travelled from abroad or it is being grown here under manufactured conditions. Obviously, it’s pretty difficult to eat seasonally all the time, but hopefully these recipes will give you an idea as to how to incorporate more seasonal food into your diets!
This week, I’m going over what food is most available in the UK in Winter. Winter in the UK is from December to February. We get very cold and very short days, but we still get a lot of stormy weather that we saw in Autumn. We also get fog, frost and occasionally snow, which we’ve already had a little of this year. It’s not a shock that a lot of the foods that are in season around this time feature heavily in festive meals, so expect lots of festive recipes this season!
Vegetables
As I’ve said, the traditional Christmas dinner is heavily influenced by what was in season because people used to cook with what they had (ahem), whereas now we just pick from anything around the world. So, brussel sprouts, potatoes, red cabbage, parsnips, cauliflower and carrots are all in season at the moment, and are through most of winter. Mushrooms and horseradish (which I honestly didn’t know was a vegetable) are also in season at the moment.
Fruits
One of my favourite fruits ever is the humble cranberry. The main reason I love them is because you can use them in sweet and savoury recipes, like chutney or jam, or nut roasts and cake. Apples are amazingly still in season (but of course, only certain varieties), and so are some varieties of pears. That’s sort of it on the fruit front – you’ll have to to wait until spring to get some more variety!
Herbs
Herbs are also a bit sparse during winter. Bay leaves can be harvested throughout the year, and sage and thyme will survive cold weather. However, even these hardy herbs should be brought in during the winter if you want to harvest from them. A lot of the herbs I’ve mentioned throughout this series will live quite happily on a warm windowsill, meaning that they can stay in season all year round!
That’s all! And it’s the end of the series! Be sure to keep an eye out for some wintery recipes between now and the end of February, and let me know if I should do this again in 2022…
Links
Waste Makes Waste 