One of the things I love about Christmas is that it’s the very last hurrah of autumn — and the autumn larder is just incredible. It’s a time that lends itself to abundance, when the produce is simply divine. As the berries disappear and we say goodbye to the last quince and the last medlar, the great citrus harvest arrives. And with that — having made lots of red apple jelly, crab apple jelly and quince jelly — we get to use them as the sugarbased syrups for cooking redcurrants in a Cumberland sauce to grace all the birds as turkey comes into its own, or to make generous steamed sponge puddings with marmalade, only to be served with buckets of hot custard. One of the big, huge things that arrives in the winter are the bitter leaves I absolutely love and crave, and sing perfectly with a rich cut like pork, which you’ll find as you turn these pages, accompanied by sage and onions and garlic. As you’ll see in my accompanying sketches, just the colours alone are autumn personified, which is the joy we all need just before winter kicks in and Jack Frost boots everything out, finally — and all you’re left with are the wet, dark silhouettes of trees and old weeds. So go forth and enjoy my riff on the late autumn Christmas harvest with a glass and a loved one, or two.
