A toast (Okay, really just bread, but you can toast it if you want) to December!

December means it's almost time to say goodbye to our seasonal book of 2024: The Political Palate (The Bloodroot Collective (Betsey Beaven, Noel Giordano, Selma Miriam, and Pat Shea), 1980). Most of the month is classified as Late Autumn (which I already covered in November). The Early Winter section begins at winter solstice, but I already covered that in January. The book does offer a bread chapter that's not tied to any specific season, though, and we're now into the time of the year when people might want to turn on their ovens to warm up the house. I think it's time to cover bread!

I will admit a serious fondness for homemade bread, especially the kind with nuts and seeds and various types of grain. The bread chapter has me covered. There's a Four Grain Walnut Bread packed with oats, rye, various wheat products, cornmeal, and, of course, walnuts.

Or there's Oatmeal Sunflower Seed Bread, full of oats plus sunflower and sesame seeds. (I'm not sure why the sunflower seeds get top billing. I hope the sesame seeds aren't pissed off.)

The first rise is for a long time in a cool place, too-- perfect for winter days when you just want to stay inside. I'm half-tempted to try making one when I'm on winter break.

If you want something more celebratory (as long as you don't plan to celebrate a patriarchal holiday), there's also a Cheese Babka. 

This might be a little on the health-foody side of things, with its raisins and dry cottage cheese, but it's still got plenty of butter, eggs, and sugar! It's a nice little celebration to end the year.

And fine, if you need something seasonally-appropriate, here's a quick bread from the Late Autumn section to end our exploration of Bloodroot Collective's dishes: Chenopodium Gems.

I thought chenopods were just plants that pumped out pollen so my pollen tracker would have something to warn me about, but apparently they have edible seeds, too. In true Political Palate fashion, this recipe entreats readers to collect wild ingredients and then warns, "Be sure you know your wild plants before you eat them." That note seems like the appropriate ending for this book. Eat some wild plants! Be sure you know what you're doing, though. We're not going to help much on that front. Good luck!

The new year will bring a new book with some tie to the calendar and/or seasons-- probably one that expects readers to be a little less skilled in identifying what is (and is not) safe to rip out of the ground and stuff into one's mouth.... Until then, happy late autumn/ early winter!