{"id":6827,"date":"2014-10-06T11:07:12","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T10:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/?p=6827"},"modified":"2015-01-12T12:03:52","modified_gmt":"2015-01-12T11:03:52","slug":"amazing-autumn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameswhelanbutchers.com\/info\/6827\/amazing-autumn\/","title":{"rendered":"James Whelan Butchers: Amazing Autumn"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reared in the business of food and farms and therefore acquired an easy knowledge of the natural world, seasons, soil, animals and the roles that man plays within nature\u2019s boundaries.\u00a0 I also have a great passion for food but sometimes though, when one is immersed in a world it\u2019s easy to forget that not everyone shares your passion or knowledge.\u00a0 Our increased busy-ness and technological advances have meant that simple knowledge about nature is often lost.\u00a0 Add to this trade agreements, modern food processes and fast transport and suddenly most foods are available all year round and the natural seasons and what they yield become irrelevant.\u00a0 It\u2019s always \u201csummer somewhere\u201d and so everything appears to be available all year round.\u00a0 Many people just don\u2019t know what is \u201cin season\u201d at any given time and therefore cannot operate within nature\u2019s laws even if they wanted to.\u00a0 By the same token we don\u2019t want to go overboard.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t about adopting a bad attitude to anything imported, processed or not grown within a ten mile radius.\u00a0 \u00a0It is, however, about adjusting the balance.\u00a0 If we increase the amount of local and fresh food that we consume we are positively impacting nutrition and the local economy.\"Beef<\/a><\/p>\n

Each season brings with it a glut of fresh ingredients and nature is clever in that it provides appropriate food for the time of year.\u00a0 When produce is abundant and grown locally or at least somewhere in Ireland, it should be less expensive.\u00a0 Autumn is all about chunky root vegetables and Irish apples and pears from local orchards.\u00a0 It\u2019s the time of year that meat displays offer braising and stewing cuts for the colder days.\u00a0 The lighter breakfasts of summer give way to warm buns, toasted breads and porridge.\u00a0 A walk in the country will yield great free bramble fruits that make excellent jams, preserves and additions to homemade tarts.\u00a0 I had the rare opportunity of watching Nigel Slater on TV last Saturday.\u00a0 He did an amazing pork and blackberry dish.\u00a0 He half filled a large bowl with blackberries, squelched them with his hands, then scored the skin on a shoulder of pork, placed it in the blackberries and left it overnight in the fridge.\u00a0 The next day he put the whole lot into a roasting dish and cooked it slowly.\u00a0 It looked terrific and I intend trying it before the blackberries disappear completely.\u00a0 Of course if you really know what you are doing the fields are full of wild mushrooms just crying out to be picked and put in a soup or fried with some good bacon. Indeed those wild mushrooms would be fantastic slow cooked with some stewing beef in red wine<\/p>\n

If you look at what\u2019s in season from a nutritional point of view you will also marvel at nature\u2019s ability to know exactly what we need.\u00a0 The colourful root vegetables are full of nutrients that are super cold and flu fighters.\u00a0 They also work really well when cooked slowly in stews which demand certain cuts of meat.\u00a0\u00a0 Meats suitable for braising and stewing are packed with good fats and proteins that demand long slow cooking to extract them.\u00a0 Apples and pears are full of antioxidants and are also essential to stabilise the PH balance of the body which impacts the ability of the immune system to fight invasion.\u00a0 We really need apples, pears and other alkali foods to provide a balance today more than ever as many of the processed foods that we consume are very acidic.\u00a0\u00a0 I could go on but you just need to know that autumn is all about gearing the body to cope with the harsher months of winter.<\/p>\n

\"Recipe<\/a>Naturally, winter is about hibernation.\u00a0 Shorter days and colder nights call for food that provides inner warmth.\u00a0\u00a0 This season also gives us a natural yearning for healing and restorative foods.\u00a0 The body is recovering from a spring, summer and autumn of sowing, growing and harvesting and should now be resting in the winter and rejuvenating in anticipation of doing it all over again come the spring.\u00a0 Of course our modern world has abandoned such idyllic living and we work all year round, but isn\u2019t it so easy to see how modern day burn-out and stress would be such an alien concept to our ancestors who, classically, abided by nature and avoided such ills and rested at least one day a week?\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why in winter we love the comfort of pies, fruit or meat; thick, steaming broths, smoked meats and the odd hot whiskey!\u00a0 Goose is a traditional poultry choice of winter; its dark fatty flesh goes well with rich wine gravies and tangy fruit sauces.\u00a0 Full flavoured casseroles, sometimes using all types of offal, are also on the winter menu.\u00a0 Again offal is full of iron and we need it.<\/p>\n

I think we are slowly changing and I\u2019m always delighted when people seem to be waking up to the over industrialisation of food.\u00a0 \u00a0Today we have greater access to local and fresh food and it seems to be a growing sector.\u00a0 People are definitely more conscious of what they are eating and where it is coming from and more people are making an attempt to grow their own.\u00a0 We\u2019re seeing small local producers create new and interesting products to sell and by all accounts, between local markets and shops stocking local and fresh produce, I think things are looking good.\u00a0\u00a0 Personally I think every schoolchild in the land should be taught about Ireland, its food and how the seasons impact that cycle.\u00a0 As individuals we may never go to the countryside to physically pick our own wild berries or even grow our own food in an urban setting.\u00a0 We may never want to bend over and actually pluck a mushroom or a root vegetable but if we know when they\u2019re in season and a have a basic knowledge, then we can make better balanced choices for the rest of our lives.\u00a0 Surely that\u2019s not too much to ask of an \u2018education\u2019 system, is it?<\/p>\n

We hope you enjoyed reading this post by Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers. Pat is a 5th generation butcher, cook book author and the director of \u00a0James Whelan Butchers with shops in Clonmel, the Avoca Handweavers Rathcoole and Kilmacanogue, Dunnes Stores Cornelscourt, Rathmines and Swords in Dublin.\u00a0Sign up to our newsletter for more updates from James Whelan Butchers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was reared in the business of food and farms and therefore acquired an easy knowledge of the natural world, seasons, soil, animals and the roles that man plays within nature\u2019s boundaries.\u00a0 I also have a great passion for food but sometimes though, when one is immersed in a world it\u2019s easy to forget that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25],"tags":[838,826,837,186,566,835,587,831,841,840,833,839,827,48,832,842,47,464,834,830,459,28,589,836,104,829,828],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n