February: The Optimistic Month

In the media it's all about gloom.  The first Monday of February is the year's peak day for sick-leave, so they say.  But in our book, February is the moment for an outbreak of optimism.  The days really are longer, and soon the "weeds, in wheels" really will "shoot long and lovely and lush".  Here in our home herb garden, we spend the beginning of February clearing away frost-damaged leaves and tattered old stalks to allow the plants the maximum light and air as they grope skywards.

Tansy is poised to sprout and unfurl; the bees' favourite, verbena - now neatly cut back  - awaits its spring surge.  Artichokes have had their rich mulch of manure and we've added more to the rhubarb bed, where the sight of bright pink shoots so soon after a blanketing snow truly does raise an optimistic sigh.  While the heat-lovers, such as thyme and sage, take a back seat for the moment, our rosemary is standing proud and glorious, surrendering fragrant snippets for a Sunday feast of lamb.  Chives poke their green shoots tentatively up through the soil, encouraging our forward thoughts of the purple pom-poms that will be their creative flowering crescendo come summer.

Meanwhile, at the bakery our optimism is channelled through St. Valentine:  some of our moulded breads take heart-shaped forms in mid-February - Chocolate breads rich with chocolate chips, chewey bagels, sumptuous sweet brioches and our Sussx flutes  - are twisted into heart-shapes to celebrate the ultimate optimism that is romantic love!

Our customer, Helen Truman of Plenty Provisions on St. Leonards' airy seafront choses products that fit her model of local, eco, organic, and fair-trade.  "Quirkiness", she says, is both a flavour of St. Leonards and a feature of our Valentine's creations.  Her whole shop is a heartfelt enterprise: her policy is to sidestep the mass-production "practicality" of supermarkets, laying out - amongst the pots of violets and primroses - a range of products that evoke pure pleasure.  We love the way she handles and presents our bread - in white tissue and, just now, alongside some little vases of narcissi.

Back at Bodiam the papers used to line the baking trays bear the hart-shaped footprints of the loaves that are part of February's ever-optimistic fare.

Plenty is at 16 Grand Parade, St. Leonards on Sea TN37 6DN.  Tel 01424 439 736 www.plentyprovisions.co.uk