January - before it's gone!

I'm returning to this blog after a long break, unforeseen circumstances keeping me away from a computer for most of January. We've also been away from Cambridge in North Staffordshire, where we both grew up - many years ago!

One thing that seems to have changed since we last spent much time there (again, a long time ago) is the number of farm shops dotted around the place. We were particularly impressed by Brookfields Farm Shop (Stone Road, Blackbrook, nr Newcastle-under-Lyme), a nice selection of veg, some very good sausages and a quite wonderful bacon joint which we baked yesterday.

Somewhat in contrast to Cambridge (weekly) and Huntingdon (fortnightly), there are various venues nearby with monthly markets. On the first Saturday of the month, one can be found in Stone and then another in Stafford on the second Saturday, Penkridge on the third (although this does not appear on the 'official' list) and Eccleshall on the last. We went to the Penkridge market, which was excellent - a large general market with the farmers market under cover. Amongst other things, a particularly good (and good value!) piece of brisket made a lovely pot roast and then red flannel hash - a mixture of beef, potato and beetroot. It's a recipe we first saw in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's great Meat book and is a great leftovers dish.

January does tend to be a quiet month and we've missed a few notable dates. On January the 13th, Christmas ended in Sweden on St Knut's Day; the day after saw the medieval festival of donkeys, the festum asinorum. The 17th of January was St Antony's day, the one who's always being persecuted by strange demons in the art of the Northern Renaissance, while the 20th is St Agnes' Eve and traditionally a day in England when love divinations were made. We polished off some of the excellent Bailie Nicol Jarvie blended Scotch whisky on Burns Night - but didn't go down the route of catching and eating a haggis.

And that brings us to February. A very early Lent this year, starting next Wednesday and so possibly a chance to cut down after the celebrations of December and the commiserations of a cold, wet January.