It’s amazing how rapidly and readily we humans adapt and adopt. Here’s an example: for centuries the idea that anyone could mess around with the names of months would have seemed crazy, but now we all seem to accept the concept with hardly the uplift of a raised hairy eyebrow - especially in January, or Januhairy, as women who have signed up to no longer shave their armpits now regard the first month of the year…

But these are the food pages and of course Veganuary is the big one at the moment. It is the subject of the half the food related emails I’ve received since Christmas - hundreds of them sent by official vegan organisations, movements and businesses.

Veganuary is closely followed by the number of Dry January emails - which have been knocking on my door, to little or no avail, for years.  

Also in the rename-the-month game there’s Janujuiceless (does what it says on the tin), something called Manuary (men officially celebrating masculinity) Januhairy (as mentioned above) - after that we move on to FebFast, Februhairy, Parched March, Maykadonation, Dry July, Souptember, Dogtober and, of course, Movember. 

I don’t do any of them. Yes, I know some represent good causes - but being a non-joiner type person, I’ll grow a moustache at any time of the year in the unlikely event I’d suddenly want one. And I am more than happy to eat non-animal-based food when, and if, I fancy it.

People like me are much happier with the idea of Tryanuary. My RAW Food and Drink PR colleague Kath Hope explains: “Tryanuary is a nationwide campaign, founded in 2015, to encourage support for the beer industry throughout January.  

“Our breweries definitely need our support with pubs shut again for the third time,” says Kath, who works on the Salcombe Brewery account and who wanted to tell me about their new beer, Sun Drop, a vegan and gluten-free ale. 

She adds: “There is a wider meaning to Tryanuary… Instead of giving something up in January (booze, meat etc) why not take a more positive stance (we could all do with some positivity) and TRY something new.”

Exactly the kind of New Year’s Resolution which wins approval in certain quarters, especially in these dark times when there’s not much to look forward to…

But to return to Veganuary, the fact is that many of us yearn fresh green salads and light veggie based foods right now - partly because of the grim grey weather, and also because fresh veg is difficult to find at the best of times in midwinter.

You could, however, find plant-life inspiration in a wonderful new book called Scandinavian Green, (Hardie Grant £26) by Trine Hahnemann - subtitled Simple Ways to Eat Vegetarian, Everyday. The author is a ‘flexitarian’ and she writes: “I try to live by the 80:20 rule. Eighty per cent of what I eat should come from fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, and 20 per cent from animals. On a regular diet you should eat about 2,500 calories a day, so about 350 calories of that should come from animals.”

Even lovers of good quality grass-fed West Country meat and dairy, can be happy to go along with such an equation - although as the cook in our house, I am not going to go to the lengths of actually measuring the quantities out as Trine suggests. 

She says: “When you look at your dinner plate, half of it should be vegetables, one-sixth should be pulses and lentils, one-sixth grains and the final one-sixth a mix of dairy, unsaturated fat and nuts.”

It’s all very well doing it with a one-pot dish like a soup, stew or casserole where - as the cook - you’ll know exactly what went into the pan in the first place. But many of us would much rather follow the Italian or French way of eating and have separate courses in which the diner can actually taste each ingredient. Take, for example, a prime grass-fed Red Devon beef steak - I’d much rather eat it with nothing more than a few homemade chips than see it submerged under a swamp of vegetables and pulses. 

However, such a meal would include a generous course of fresh salad with multiple raw ingredients, and perhaps some fruit to finish. 

So I’m happier to look at an entire day’s consumption than simply focus on a single plate. But let’s not be pedantic about this - the basic “flexitarian” concept is a sound one. I even know a leading West Country butcher who’s mantra is: “Eat less meat - but make it good meat.”

There is, of course, a really easy way to either go vegan, reduce your alcohol intake and whatever else it is that helps you feel more worthy - and that is to buy items which are made with exactly that job in mind. The good news is that there are many producers in this region who are able to help you with such a quest…

One prime example would be Chunk of Devon - two-time winners of the Britain’s Best Pasty Award. The Ottery St Mary based company has launched a new vegan selection box for Veganuary, consisting of three award-winning vegan pies and pasties and one new product, the Cheatin’ Cheeze Pasty.

Chunk’s Simon Bryon-Edmond told me: “We have been creating award-winning pies for nearly 15 years and our focus has always been on producing great tasting products, using locally sourced ingredients with no additives. This collection is no exception. It’s all about the taste, so whether you are vegetarian, vegan or just an all-round lover of pies, we are confident that you’ll adore our vegan range.”

The box includes the Chunki Roast Veg Pasty (Taste of the West Gold 2020), the Spicy Jack Pie (scored a gold award at the British Pie awards 2020), the Nips and Nuts Pie (another Taste of the West Gold 2020) and the aforementioned Cheatin' Cheeze Pasty. The Vegan Selection Box (£30 for a box of eight) is available for nationwide delivery from 1st January from chunkofdevon.co.uk

When it comes to Dry January I’ve got a bottle of gin, which I admit sounds as though I’ve misunderstood the whole idea. But Salcombe Distilling Company’s New London Light - known as NLL - really does taste and ‘feel’ like the real thing (by which I mean London Dry Gin), without containing a single drop of alcohol. 

“NLL is crafted by first distilling three botanicals - rich Macedonian juniper berries, ginger and habanero capsicum - into which 15 additional botanicals are blended,” said a spokesman for the region’s multi-award-winning distillery.  “In this way it delivers a complex spectrum of flavour with hints of citrus, orange and sage.”

Try one of Salcombe Gin’s alcohol-free cocktail recipes (like the one in our panel for Clear Sights) and you really will be able to close your eyes and imagine you’re in some fabulous bar enjoying a drop of the good stuff.

And, as we are experiencing in these strange times, that is half the battle in achieving  lockdown success. It’s not so much about what we’re actually doing - because we can’t do much - the main thing is about how we feel. If we can make ourselves feel good about our lives and our world, getting through these dark days will be a good deal easier.

As the renaming of the months, I’ve just come up with Flexibruary in honour of the diet I shall be pursuing all of next month…

Salcombe Gin’s ‘Clear Sights’

Swap your daily smoothie for something that adds a little sophistication and spice. ‘Clear Sights’ combines a careful balance of citrus, savoury and spice to highlight NLL’s flavours of habanero capsicum, zesty orange and herbaceous sage. 
Ingredients:  

50ml ‘New London Light’  

50ml fresh orange juice

50ml carrot juice

12.5ml lime juice

1 slice of jalapeño to garnish 

Soda water top

Method:  

Muddle the jalapeño slice in the Boston shaker. Add the NLL, orange, carrot and lime juices along with plenty of ice and shake vigorously for 10 seconds. Strain into a highball glass filled with ice, top up with soda water and garnish with a baby carrot.