For some people this is the time of year to wrap gifts, write cards and recover from parties. For me — seasonally challenged — I chose to clean out the fridge. Out with the old, in with the new. It’s a shame but the following partially filled jars did not make the cut: Dynamite dill pickles, Mezzetta sweet cherry pickles, butternut squash pickles, Polk’s bread and butter pickles, Mt. Olive dill relish. It’s a theme of pickles, no?

Then there’s the sweet theme: Sarah’s spiced peaches, strawberry jam, spicey bite Jack-O-Lantern butter, calamondin marmalade and orange jam.

Very satisfying.

Fridge detritus

It’s not too late, especially if you’re anywhere near Ithaca, N.Y. It’s the 15th annual International Rutabaga Curling Championship Saturday, Dec. 22 at the last farmers market of the season. It sounds like a cross between bocce, bowling and shuffleboard except it’s played with a rutabaga, that turnip-like veggie the Europeans like to call “swedes.”   It’s the t-shirt I covet, the one quoting Albert Einstein (“getting to the root of the matter”). Zac Moore, a clerk at Savannah’s Brighter Day health food store, was wearing one. He came in fourth a few years ago. “Alas, I didn’t get a medal,” he said.

Next year in Ithaca.

Zac Moore and his rutabaga curling contest t-shirt