Eating Seasonally In Winter

Meals, snacks, and other comforts

Contrary to its reputation as a subtropical zone, Coastal Virginia is occasionally snowed upon. We’ve had snow twice this month already, and both times experienced the rare event of it not immediately melting. The white blanket on the ground crisscrossed with blue shadows is something new to look at, and I’ve appreciated watching the growth of icicles off any overhanging bit of roofline, drainpipe, or gutter. I guess we’re so used to the yellow-grey of barren coastal meadows and grim pine woods that to see anything so clean as snow feels miraculous. Each time I step outside I snuffle great gulps of the white air. It smells immaculate.

As much as I love the snow, it does bring up obvious questions like, “what can one eat seasonally at this stage in the cold months?” We are far past gardens, and the few farmers markets that do crop up show nothing but carrots and wan, winter greens - whatever hasn’t frozen in the uncustomary plunge into frigid temperatures.

In our home we’ve been eating what I think of as medieval fare: slowly roasted beef served over smashed golden potatoes; a roast chicken with shallots tucked between its wings and thighs; soups and soup-adjacent meals. Anything that can be simmered on the stove or in the oven and scooped with a hearty piece of sourdough toast. More importantly, anything that can be reheated with the minimum of effort and eaten by someone who would prefer not to leave the overstuffed chair in which they’ve been curled like a shrimp for three to six hours, reading.

I have mainly given up trying to convince myself that now is the time to go full-bore at the gym. I show up only when I feel I have the spare energy, instead convincing myself to bundle up for a nice walk outside, or spend ages undoing all the shrimp-shaped contortions with some yoga. I seek sunlight like a cat and take Vitamin D capsules and try not to get ill and if January is the time I’m meant to be in the best shape of my life ever, it will not happen. I don’t think that’s what winter is meant for. Instead, I make efforts to feed us nourishing meals that keep my appetite interested, which is something easier said than done in the midwinter.

Squashes are rich in minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium and moreover they last absolute ages on the counter so they’re a fair buy for someone who has intended to make butternut squash soup for the past month but hasn’t (that someone is me).

Root veggies abound right now, and they aren’t as boring as over-use makes them seem. I love an in-season carrot - they are almost alarmingly sweet. Sweet potatoes are at their best in cold weather because they are still firm and heavy since they’re harvested late in the autumn season. Nothing will set you up like a beet (I swear I feel my iron levels increase tenfold when I eat a bowl of grains with lemony arugula, roasted beets, and some herbed goat cheese broken across the top). A few weeks ago we loaded roasted purple sweet potatoes like taco bowls, and honestly it was one of the most visually stunning meals I’ve had in months.

Dark, leafy greens are also in season and here is where I have to admit that I’m not the hugest fan of kale salad. In some contexts I enjoy it, but I find that it’s an awful lot of chewing for something not immensely filling. And in these cold days it is very hard for me to get amped up about a cold main course like a salad. Instead, I’ve been enjoying rainbow chard cooked like this: prepare the chard by removing the leaves from the stems; tear the leaves, then chop the stems. Thinly slice a fresh garlic clove. Heat a bit of olive oil in a cast iron skillet, then sauté the garlic till fragrant. Add a pinch of crushed red pepper and the chopped chard stems. When the stems are tender, add the chard leaves and salt well. When the leaves are wilted and tender, remove from the pan and sprinkle with a bit of sherry vinegar. I can eat nearly a whole bunch of Swiss chard this way, and it’s as nice for brunch as it is for dinner.

Of course I need to shout-out all the winter citrus that is both delicious and currently-affordable. What a miracle it is that just when the world is darkest and dimmest, pure balls of sunlight - full of vitamin C to protect our immune systems, full of color to lighten our hearts - are ripening! We have gone full-bore with the citrus in our kitchen. Florida tangerines, blood oranges (I like to supreme these to eat on yogurt or in salads or with seafood and admire the colors within the heap of cast-off peels), and grapefruit. I buy Sumo oranges to have as dessert many nights, and the ritual of peeling the fruit for each other and gently prizing apart the soft, supple segments and eating the juicy, aromatic oranges is an annual joy. Since citrus fruits are really the only fruit naturally in season in the winter (in most of the US), I get as many types as I can find. If you’ve juiced or zested them, save the hollowed-out fruits and toss them with sugar, then set this aside overnight to form a delicious, citrusy syrup perfect to use in mixed drinks or seltzer water, or to drizzle over cake.

Another overlooked place to amp up warmth and flavor (and anti-inflammatory properties) is within your spices. When you can’t feel warm on the outside, it helps to feel warm on the inside! I keep a jar of smoked paprika and cayenne around at all times and liberally use it in tomato-based dishes. Chili powders (a variety) are in constant use, as are curry paste, gochujang (Korean chili paste), kimchi, sambal, and other spicy condiments. Garam masala on roasted cauliflower with a lemony tahini sauce. Turmeric-spiced rice speckled with olives and tomatoes and parsley, chicken thighs nested in the hollows. We are heavy-handed with ginger and garlic and leeks and shallots, the more the merrier, so that we may feel something through the numb cold.

We drink tea. So much tea. Peppermint tea with honey, raspberry-hibiscus tea, spearmint tea, genmaicha with lemon, Yorkshire gold with a pinch of vanilla sugar and hit of cream. When I have an unhappy tummy Andrew simmers together gingerroot and sliced lemon and serves it to me on the couch. It is hot and sour and sets my teeth on edge, but my tummy troubles go away.

We make cookies too - something with a nice heft to hold in a little stack while you watch a movie together, or dip into a cup of milk or coffee. Sometimes oatmeal, usually chocolate chip, never more than two or three because it’s Winter and we have nothing better to do than eat cookies so we’ve got to pace ourselves. 'I’ve also been randomly obsessed with bold Chex Mix, particularly the rye chips, so I bought a whole bag of the rye chips without all the other road blocks and I’m happier than a clam whenever I eat a small saucer of these while reading John Muir’s My First Summer In The Sierra. I clean the house and (since we’re not spending extra and therefore not going out as much) clean it again. I look at seed catalogs and decide between planting vegetables or flowers this year. I think I’ll plant flowers, and a few cherry tomatoes. I can buy vegetables cheaper than I can afford to grow them (here, in an urban space where I must purchase any soil I’m planting, and provide a pot as well), and I do simply love flowers. They are not practical but they are joyous, and something I literally never have enough of looking at.

In this way, the winter passes. Each day the sunlight lasts a while longer, and I’m looking forward to within a few weeks - maybe mid February - when we will have enough light to go walking after work. I’m feeling a lot of things in my heart and mind lately and it mainly comes down to this: we have to prioritize honoring the image of God in other people. I have a lot to say about this, about cultivating a practice of kindness and honor in our lives and how that alone can change a nation, but I think it matters a lot that you invite people (and their stories) in. Not without boundaries or wisdom, but wholeheartedly and with the intent to understand something new. This can be one on one or it can be actually inviting folks into your home that you’ve been thinking “I like them, I’d like to deepen that friendship” about.

I read something yesterday that suggested that in 2023 only 4.1% Americans attended or hosted a social event on an average weekend. I love a gathering, which I don’t think has to be the same energetic output as a party. In keeping with my goal to be someone who gathers others, I’m having a handful of women over this weekend. I’ve baked bread, and we’ll have grilled cheese and tomato soup, made the easy way. I’m planning on turning some tangerines into Claudia Roden’s orange cake, and offering tea which (predictably) I will probably consume several rounds of. The itinerary for this gathering is nothing but artistic time - each guest will bring something to occupy their hands, and we’re simply be together, creating for a while. I don’t like the idea that having people over has to be high energy. I like the idea that gathering is, mainly, an excuse to not be alone too much.

Not Being Alone Too Much is as good a focus as any while wintering! I hope you will find something to Not Be Alone with this weekend too. I hope you’re keeping the wolf from the door in whatever way you know how, and I hope that if ever you feel downtrodden, you’ll do your best to lift someone else up. In this way, we’ll see the spring before too long. On Wednesday after it had snowed, I bundled up and took a walk. As I passed one house a little girl asked her mother something (evidently about me).

“Who?” the mother replied, then looked up as I continued down the sidewalk. “Oh, the woman, walking? Well, it’s a beautiful day for a walk with all this snow.”

I guess that’s who I am these days. It made me feel like I’ve passed some threshold and am firmly rooted in my own life, something that is visible to toddlers and their mothers alike. I am not “that girl” or “that lady.” No! I am that woman, walking. There are far worse things to be.

Love,

Rachel