The stamp of the month for October is plain and simple. It comes from Belgium and is part of a stamp booklet with vegetables that grow in Belgium. Courgette, radishes, peas, red cabbage, onion, cauliflower, tomato, leek and carrot can also be found in this stamp booklet.
But why did I not choose a winter vegetable for the month of October, but the “spring vegetable” itself: asparagus? This had a very topical reason. I wanted to cook a menu with different dishes for my family. When I was putting it together, I noticed that no matter which magazine I looked at, the menus were often very appealing and inviting, but: there were often dishes with ingredients that were definitely no longer in season.
This stamp is therefore also intended to point out that – if you are preparing an autumn menu or perhaps already thinking about the Christmas menu – you should rather use seasonal vegetables. Because: firstly, regional vegetables taste better and secondly, they don’t have to be imported from the other end of the world, like asparagus in winter from Peru or Asia. That is actually no longer opportune in the current energy crisis.
Why not use salsify instead: an almost forgotten native vegetable. These are even called winter asparagus or “poor man’s asparagus”. And they taste devilishly good. As a child I loved salsify, asparagus not………. What’s more, if you grow them in the garden, they also flower beautifully. So salsify instead of asparagus! Even if they don’t have a place on a stamp yet.
A simple recipe for black salsify as a side dish – as I have loved and still love them – can be found here.
Stamp of the month data:
- Country: Belgium
- Series: Vegetables from Belgium – stamp booklet
- Date of issue: 2022-10-24
- Size: 25 x 30 mm
- Colours: Multicolor
- Designers: Marijke Meersman
- Printer: BPost Philately & Stamps Printing
- Format: Commemorative
- Perforation: Die Cut 10
- Printing: Offset Lithography
- Gum: Self-adhesive
- Value class No. 1
Literature: Wikipedia, copy right creative commons