5 Things To Know About Your Christmas Dinner

We’ve pulled the stats on our favourite festive ingredients.

Our five fun things to know about your Christmas dinner will tell you everything you need to know about the food on your plate. Turkey, carrots, sprouts and English fizz are all produced in the UK.  Accordingly a traditional Christmas dinner is likely the most local and sustainable meal we’ll have all year.  But what else do we know about the food on our plate and the wine in our glass?  We did a bit of digging and some of the results are surprising.

1 We don’t gobble turkey like we used to

We eat around 11 million turkeys in the UK every year.  But here’s a surprise. According to a YouGov poll only 54% of us are eating turkey for Christmas. 10% of us are serving chicken. As a result it’s the second most popular meat. 7% of us are opting for … wait for it … not beef or goose, but a vegetarian alternative.

2 We love potatoes

In a recent poll the potato was voted the UK’s favourite vegetable. And you can see this in our buying habits. We each roast, chip, mash, bake and airfry our way through 130kg of potatoes a year.  But are we peak potato? In 2013 the industry was worth over a billion pounds. Today it’s more in the region of £750 million.

3 Carrots: any time, any place

Carrots are the biggest root vegetable crop in the UK. We plant a staggering 22 billion seeds across Britain every year which produces about 100 carrots per person. According to Great British Carrots, freshly harvested carrots are washed, packed and distributed to nearly every food shop in the whole of Britain almost every day of the year. Subsequently, carrots are one of the most easily available British fresh ingredients you can buy.

4 Sprouts ARE just for Christmas

Supermarkets sell approximately 750million individual Brussels sprouts at Christmas time.  And 25% of the whole year’s sprout sales are in the two weeks before Christmas.  However, the National Office of Statistics suggests only half the sprouts we buy are actually eaten.

5 Only 1% of the wine we drink is from England

In England we drink on average 100 bottles a year per person. And 99% of the wine we’re drinking is imported. But why is that? England is the most exciting cool climate wine making region in the world.   The Marasby Club is our new wine subscription.  Get the inside track on the most exciting wines being made in the UK today and join the 1%.

And finally …

From all of us at Marasby: have a wonderful Christmas and here’s to health and happiness in the new year.