Will’s World: All the right ingredients for a happy new year
© Lee Boswell Photography We all know you have to be an eternal optimist to be a farmer, and a quick look back at my first column of 2025 reminds me that I had fanciful dreams of record profits, perfect weather, sensible government policy and a Six Nations Grand Slam for Wales.
I think we can safely say my hopes were well and truly dashed in all four of those regards.
So, on the off chance it was me that jinxed them, I’ll play it safe and won’t be expressing any hopes for 2026.
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About the author
But I do have a new year’s resolution. Just one, because I’ve previously made the mistake of creating a long list of them, only to be left feeling like the most miserable of failures by the end of January.
This year, I’m going to do more cooking. The beauty of saying this publicly is that the present Mrs Evans can now stick this page on the fridge door and point to it if I start to falter as the weeks go by.
Nothing like making a rod for your own back, is there?
Sticky situation
Saying that, I do enjoy cooking, and I used to do quite a bit at one time, with moderate levels of success.
There was the memorable occasion where, on a whim, I decided to try my hand at making orange and whisky marmalade as Christmas presents for friends and family, and ended up with a substance so extraordinarily thick and sticky that Nasa is still running tests on it.
I should clarify that cooking is a team effort in the Evans household, with the eldest of our numerous daughters, in particular, becoming quite proficient in the kitchen.
It does tend to come down to whoever’s home first, though, and that isn’t usually me.
There’s also the fact that the present Mrs Evans loves her slow cooker more than she loves me.
Being a healthy, home-cooked meals enthusiast, as well as the only remotely organised one in our marriage, she does tend to take firm charge of the evening catering, barking out her orders to the rest of us like a slightly less angry and sweary version of Gordon Ramsay.
Nevertheless, I intend to do my fair share this year.
I’ve already started, conclusively stealing all the Christmas lunch glory with my garlic sprouts with crispy bacon lardons and parmesan crumb combo, not to mention the perfectly cooked roast potatoes that I presented to our appreciative guests with a Nigella-like flourish.
Not-so-super market
Of course the real stars of the show, as any good cook will tell you, were the ingredients themselves, and I always feel a great deal of pride in my fellow farmers that we play such a central part in these occasions.
There’s nothing that brings families together like good food and drink, after all.
It’s in this spirit that the second part of my resolution comes into play, and that’s to try to cook as much as possible with as food bought from independent retailers and farmers who are direct-selling.
The supermarket-dominated food system being so horribly extractive these days, it feels like an act of rebellion to buy and support local – and the older and grumpier I get, the more I want to stick it to the system.
That, and the fact that the produce is usually far fresher and tastier, too.
Perhaps I should start filming myself cooking, start a YouTube channel, and become a high-powered influencer.
I’ll call it Food Revolution and promote as many farm shops as possible through it. Power to the people, comrades.
