I don’t know about you, but for me the exotic aromas of cinnamon and cloves are the smells of Christmas. This year, though, I’m going to mull my English wines and ciders with spices I’ve gathered from hedgerows and gardens: hogweed seeds will do as cardamom; wood avens – the pesky weed invading my flowerbeds – will substitute clove; instead of vanilla, dried fig leaves will fit the bill perfectly.  

Earlier this year in these pages I set myself the challenge of eating only British produce. As a food writer I thought it would be interesting to see how hard it would be and I wondered if only consuming what’s sustainably produced on my doorstep might be kinder on our countryside, communities and climate. Could it be fresher, tastier and more nutritious too?

It’s been an interesting journey. I won’t pretend foregoing the caffeine kick of a morning cuppa has been easy, but there have been pleasant surprises too: like discovering many British-grown grains (which I mostly buy from Suffolk-based wholefood retailer Hodmedods) are far tastier than imported methane-belching rice, and that there’s a dazzling array of British cheeses to grate on my risottos and bakes in the absence of parmesan. I’ve met incredible producers too, which has helped me feel more connected to my food. They include Bill from Essex who, after reading one of my previous articles, kindly offered me some of the harvest from his orange tree – just in time for my Christmas mulling.

As the festive season approaches, I’m pondering what to put on my Christmas Day table. A high-welfare, low-food-mile bird from a local family farm is an obvious choice, but I might be too late: panic buying following reports about a shortage of abattoir workers in the wake of Brexit means they are pretty much sold out. “November is usually when British turkey farmers see Christmas orders coming in, but this year orders began as early as August and many members were nearly sold out by the end of October,” says Kate Martin, chairwoman of the Traditional FarmFresh Turkey Association, which represents small family turkey farms. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”  With feed, fuel and labour prices spiralling, the pricetag is heftier than last year’s, too.

The meat I’m plumping for is miles more sustainable and, in my view, far tastier too: wild venison. In fact, you could argue that eating wild venison is something we should all be doing to save our countryside. With no natural predators, the deer population has rocketed over recent decades and now stands at an estimated two million. 

Wildlife film-maker Tim Martin, whose not-for-profit organisation Farm Wilder sells wildlife-friendly meat online, including venison culled by Forestry England, believes controlling the deer population – by eating it – is vital. “We now have more deer in the UK than we’ve had for 1,000 years,” he says. “Deer are causing untold damage to our woodlands which, as we know, are so vital for sequestering carbon. They’re also threatening the precious wildlife that lives within these woodlands, from dormice to silver-washed fritillary butterflies and nightingales.”