It might seem odd to a modern observer that 1925 the UK’s ministry of labour classed the following foods as seasonal: fish, milk, butter eggs and potatoes. The fact that prices and availability might change quite widely across the seasons is the argument advanced for ignoring such basic foods when calculating a retail price index, putting the cart before the horse.
Early on in the Royal Commission report there is a footnote (1) to some government calculations for a cost of living index. This particular nugget concerns the exclusion of seasonal foods from weekly shopping data.
In 1925, seasonal foods included eggs, milk, butter, potatoes, fish and meat. With the exception of eggs and possibly potatoes, the widespread use of refrigeration makes all the other categories available all round the year. If we are ever going to curb our carbon emissions, we may need to take refrigeration capacity out of the chill chain and rethink how we manage some product families.
You are most unlikely to find industrial grade refrigeration kit in a wild bird’s nest, since nature has made the interiors of eggs inaccessible to germs, so long as the shell is not cracked. Refrigeration is not advisable for eggs, since moisture condensing on a cold shell could penetrate the porous exterior and allow bacteria to get a hold.
In the middle ages, the bishop of Rouen funded a complete tower from the sale of indulgences for rich parishioners to eat butter during lent. Once the warm weather returned after Easter, the production of butter was put on hold until the following winter, when the cold weather made transporting butter feasible again. Known as “le tour au beurre” or the butter tower, this monument to indulgent living is still standing over one of Normandy’s outstanding monuments.
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