No mud for us!

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy New Year!

New Year’s Day has always been the same at my house, from the time I was born until now.  Well, in terms of food, anyway.  Our family tradition revolves around pork, sauerkraut, and mashed potatoes.  My grandmother once told me that pork is eaten so you don’t wallow in the mud like a pig in the coming year (I’ve also heard that the tradition has something to do with the belief that pigs root backwards) and the kraut has something to do with money luck.  The potatoes, well...they just taste good with the pork and kraut.

I grew up in upstate Pennsylvania, but the main tradition in the Philadelphia area seems to be eating either lentils or black-eyed peas with some sort of greens.  The lentils, peas, and greens all represent money.  Whatever the case, it’s no coincidence that typical New Years Day traditions involve food that can easily be harvested locally right now - it only makes sense that traditions passed down generation to generation would have roots during a time when the only food you could get was what was seasonal.  I’ve never heard of a New Years Day tradition that involved strawberries and asparagus.

Our New Years Day traditional food is, unsurprisingly, all locally grown.  Our potatoes are from Landisdale Farm Fresh, mashed with some local milk and butter.  The pork roast is from Country Time Farm (it was fantastic!) that we roasted overnight in a crockpot.  And the sauerkraut is the fantastic kraut that I made this Summer from the cabbage in my CSA share.  My husband picked up rolls from Le Bus to serve with it.

We’d love to hear about your own family food traditions on New Years Day!