Yums the word!

To the editor:
    Right now, the turkeys are heading for a warm comfy place. Yep, it’s time to tuck into the giblets and gravy, heap a plate of spuds, drown the lot in gravy and enjoy. The Holiday season is about to begin. Of course, the waist bands and shirts will be de-tucked as the calorie enjoying types expand their world vision of dumplings as sugarplums dance across the stages of the mind and the eye.     Here in Stratford, the festivities are about to begin and it is an impressive effort to dress up the streets. For the past month the city workers have been hanging all sorts of lights and decorations all over the city. On Thursday night they will have a big celebration with the hoopla and banter that comes with the season making it a noisy time. While we have not had snow since the surprise storm of October, the air is getting colder and there are signs that it will soon be time to put the dog and cat to use warming the feet.
    Food here in the Midlands of England is intriguing. Lots and lots of sausages, game, and gammon. Gammon is a ham and unlike our version this ham is a lot smaller. That is probably the one thing that stands out when buying things here in the city: Small packages!
    The small packages are made up for with immense variety. Because the focus of agriculture is on the small farmer here, there is a willingness to look to new varieties of produce and product. Recently the European Union announced that it was rescinding some rules governing what could and could not be sold in the various European countries. Much like the concept behind the USDA number-one grade and Top Choice Meat cuts, the idea was to standardize the products people bought so the consumer could know what they were getting.
    This resulted in bananas that were curved not being sold while those that were straight could be. Nothing like trying to legislate nature. At the farmer’s markets you could find the odd size fruits. If you stood up to your fears about having to deal with something that was strange then you could enjoy terrific spuds, carrots, and similar products with little worry. Also, in farm country you get to see the dirt on the food. No trying to sell P.E.I. whites in a bag of Maine’s! Farmers must label where the produce is grown.
    In Shakespeare’s day, you used what you took out of the ground. Here in Stratford-upon-Avon the streets are named for the locations of the various markets. Long before there were malls there were towns for the purpose of selling.
    Thus we have Sheep Street, and Rother Street, (rother being an old English word for cattle), Featherbed Lane, and a host of others. So you can picture William out shopping around and traveling through the various streets looking for the ingredients for a meal. He may not have known about the first Thanksgiving in America but he would have appreciated a good meal. So pass the spuds, heap on a side of pie and pour the coffee! It’s holiday time.