Morsels from the editor's desk, November 28

It's possible the death of a pig is one of the most confronting deaths for the human table, given the strange humanity of this animal. But if you can negotiate that hurdle, there's no doubt pigs are one of the most efficient animals in terms of the uses they can be put to in food.

This time of year, it's all about hams, and while pork is something I have always tried to avoid (on the spurious basis that we shouldn't eat meat that eats meat, spurious since it's illegal to feed meat to pigs), the Christmas ham is a big thing in our home. We bake it, as I've written before, with star anise, palm sugar, kaffir lime, garlic and five-spice, and assuming you've bought the right ham, this is great. The right ham can be expensive (the one we've ordered is $80 for a four-kilogram half leg), but the taste is incomparably delicious when set alongside bog-standard ham. This week, Larissa Nicholson talks to some of the growers of organic and free-range ham sold in Canberra. So the puddings are made and the ham is ordered. Bring on the feast.

Look out next week for our Food and Wine Annual edition, published on Friday, December 7. This is the edition where we name our top 20 restaurants and our restaurant of the year. Chris Shanahan picks his top 10 white and red wines this year. We review our favourite books (which make an easy idea for Christmas), and publish special recipes from our columnists.

Also from December 1, you'll find us on a new website: goodfood.com.au, and it's pretty whizzbang. It's a national site; click on the pull-down menu for Canberra.

Christmas hampers

Food gifts are an excellent plan for Christmas, mainly because they don’t create a storage headache for the recipient. You eat them and you’re done. We’ll have suggestions for food gifts you can make yourself next week, but if you’re buying, here’s one idea. Maggie Beer sells hampers online. For $40, verjuice, extra virgin olive oil, quince paste and spiced pear paste. For $120, a basket of celebratory foods, including a non-alcoholic sparkling ruby cabernet, as well as verjuice, vino cotto, extra virgin olive oil, dukkah and more, maggiebeer.com.au

Snappy seafood

Having just released his new book Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals in which he helps you get dinner on the table with phenomenal speed, Jamie Oliver, pictured, is now lending his name to fast fish. This month, he launched his new range of frozen-fish products in Australia, his first grocery release here. The fish fingers and fish cakes are made with Alaska pollock and smoked whiting, with flavours of herbs, cheese, spinach and corn. A Woolworths product and cheap. The fish might be sustainable, but oh the food miles.

Keep up with the Joneses

Me and Mrs Jones has opened on a corner spot in Kingston, and you get the feeling this place is destined to be as busy as the string of other relaxed eateries with inter-related ownership – Urban Pantry, and Public at Manuka, Belluci’s at Manuka, Dickson and Woden, and Cream in the city, all owned in various combinations by the trio of Omar Muscat, Socrates Kochinos and Michael Nager. Mrs Jones (also with Daniel McConnell from Urban Pantry as chef and Simon Spence front of house) occupies a corner spot on Giles and Kennedy in Kingston – and corner real estate is clearly what these guys are after. An accessible menu, loads of burgers before 6pm, and after that, pastas ($26-$27) and cafe-style mains such as za’atar crusted lamb rump, with eggplant, harissa chickpeas ($35); and duck confit, sweet and sour ($36). On the breakfast menu, a dish of smashed avocado, persian feta and poached egg on toast ($16) – all the rage, says Jill Dupleix on page 12. A succinct, appealing wine list, with good variety by the glass. Open 7.30am Monday to Friday, until late, and 8am on weekends (closed Sunday nights), 6162 3355, mmjones.com.au

Santa’s little helpers

If you want to take the pressure off this Christmas, Three Seeds at the Fyshwick Markets is offering to do some of the work for you, with Christmas dishes prepared for you to take home. The menu includes pork and veal terrine ($50 a kilogram), sugar-cured ocean trout ($48), a baked and decorated ham ($48 a kilogram), roast eye fillet with a mushroom and white truffle pate ($60 a kilogram), and a rolled turkey breast filled with whisky fruit ($58 a kilogram).

Gifts of local produce

A group of stallholders at the Exhibition Park farmers’ markets have put together hampers of some gorgeous local products. They contain roasted nuts from the Batemans Bay Nut Roasting Company, honey from Honey Delight, chai from Canberra’s Real Chai, organic chocolate from Lindsay and Edmunds, preserves from Black Horse, tapenade from Homeleigh Grove, wine from Four Winds, and coffee from Wagonga. Three options, $49 to $125. On sale at the markets now, or at fourwindsvineyard.com.au

Loss of a top grapegrower

Canberra has lost one of its top grapegrowers with the death of Al Lustenberger this month. Lustenberger, 60, died when the plastic roofing he was standing on while cleaning gutters gave way and he fell. A neighbour of Ken Helm in Murrumbateman, and, says Helm, his closest friend, Lustenberger grew the grapes for Helm’s Premium (the 2012 named by Jeremy Oliver last week as among his top 10 rieslings and top 10 “future classics” of any variety). Lustenberger is a former chef at the Canberra Club (where he met wife Margot) and in hotels, turning to grapes in 1985. In 1999, he and Helm went to Bordeaux, and Helm recounts that on the plane back, Lustenberger said, “I now know how to grow the perfect grape, and your challenge is don’t stuff it up”. Lustenberger was born in Switzerland (he holidayed there with his family just weeks before his death) and Helm says he grew his grapes “like a Swiss crop – they were perfect”. The Premium is made from a north-facing hillside that produces riesling of "outstanding quality and balance". Lustenberger has three children and son Daniel, who lives in Tarcutta, will run the vineyard.