CHRISTMAS dinner is probably the most important meal of the year – and everyone has their own method for cooking and enjoying the festive feast.
So for our last National Trust In Season column of 2011, we decided to talk turkey with Andrea Wealleans, retail manager at Wallington, to find out what makes her perfect Christmas dinner (even if it doesn’t always turn out that way).
Andrea Wealleans, 38, from Bothal, near Morpeth, Northumberland, has been retail manager at the National Trust’s Wallington property in Cambo for the past six years, and runs the farm and gift shops.
Christmas is one of her busiest times and she will be working in the farm shop – which provides an outlet for lamb and beef from Wallington’s tenant farmers as well as championing other local producers – until noon on Christmas Eve to fulfil last-minute orders.
Where will you be spending Christmas Day?
With my family, as always – husband Tim, my parents and my brother – at mum and dad’s house in Morpeth.
Whose turn is it to cook this Christmas?
Dear mother’s, as it has been since the year dot. We do our best to help, hinder and rescue some of her small disasters. Every year something goes wrong.
Do you prefer turkey or something more gamey for Christmas dinner?
Turkey; we are very traditional. Christmas is about turkey in the same way that Easter is about lamb. Some things are just made to be.
What’s the best turkey in your opinion for flavour?
Norfolk Bronze; we sell them here in the farm shop. Our best-sellers are the free-range white turkeys we get from Cumbria, the white being the feathers, not the colour of the meat! People come back to us year after year for one of those.
They are of a very high quality, but my personal taste happens to be for the Norfolk Bronze which I think has more depth and a richer flavour.
Usually there are five or six of us for lunch so we get a 14-16lb turkey. You need to have plenty for left-overs.
Do you plan your Christmas dinner in advance or is it a last-minute mission?
Plan ahead as in knowing what we are going to be eating and who is doing what, but last minute for the shopping. Obviously, being in the farm shop I can leave my groceries to the last minute and still beat the crowds!
I think it is important to get the freshest vegetables you can. Ours in the farm shop come from George Jennings of the Mill Nursery at Otterburn.
Any tips on where you can save cash/should splash out?
Cut corners on the trimmings and use ready-made where you can; don’t be embarrassed to use your microwave – that’s what it is there for but always spend your money on top-quality meat.