Part of my weekly shopping trip today was getting all the ingredients together for our private Burns supper on Saturday. Well, the most important one – the haggis – is already “chilling” in our freezer, thanks to Kilts and More, general importer here in Germany of Macsween's finest and deserving of a shout-out for dependable and speedy service – I'm not affiliated with them other than as a happy customer. I picked up the haggis from the post office last week, and spending a night there in its space-blanket-and-styrofoam-noodle packaging didn't seem to have hurt it; it was still frozen quite solid when I brought it home.

What is a bit of an issue time and again, though, is sourcing the “neeps”, or turnips – Steckrüben, as we say here in Germany (Swedes if you're south of the turnip/swede language border in the UK, or rutabagas in the USA). This humble vegetable, Brassica napus sp., is widely considered animal food by Germans and comes into its own only as a fall-back for very bad times, like the notorious Steckrübenwinter (turnip winter) of 1916/17, or the immediate aftermath of the second World War in the 1940s. Declaring it the “vegetable of the year” in 2017 doesn't seem to have helped in the long run, either. Therefore even in our usually very diversely-stocked standard supermarket, turnip availability can be spotty at best. So I was not in the least surprised when my earlier visit led to the conclusion of “No neeps today!”

Well, not all is lost. There are a few other places in the vicinity that I can check, and if all else fails there's always the farmer's market in town.

(Update on 25 January: Marie has graciously consented to use her flat-rate public transport ticket and nip down to the FM to pick up some turnips, which are very nice.)