Christmas for us starts in June, you know.

I'm talking to Lewis McLean, who is not only very Scottish.

I have a tendency for saying aye instead of yes.

But he's also the managing director of McLean's Highland Bakery in Scotland.

Fourth generation bakery family.

So we originally started baking in the Island of Lewis, hence my name.

But we left there in 1978 to set up our own bakery.

And seeing as how Christmas begins for him in June, he was already deep into the Christmas season when we spoke back in

September of this year.

October will be busy and it will start taking off in November.

Why is he so busy? And why does Christmas start for him in June? Well, it's because McLean's is a producer

of what is arguably Scotland's signature contribution to Christmas, shortbread.

I say arguably because Scotland also has some of the best whiskey in the world, but that's a

discussion for another day. Shortbread is available and consumed year-round in Scotland, just as it is

here in America, but as the Christmas season approaches, the supply and demand equation changes dramatically.

From the summer, it just starts ramping up. Every sort of shop, retail supermarket seem to have, you know, an end with shortbread, tin shortbread, especially. That's quite a big seller. You know, they buy it in September, you know, I think it's one less thing maybe to buy, you know, so they, it's got, you know, usually shortbread will have about a year's shelf life on it, so, you know, you're quite safe to buy it and say, alright, at least that's one, one less thing to buy.

During the busy season, Maclean's produces roughly 70,000 to 85,000 boxes of shortbread a week,

and they're just one of many producers in a large market.

Sweet, crumbly, buttery, what's not to love?

There's a beauty in the very simplicity of shortbread.

It has like five ingredients.

Maybe a couple of more if you make specialty flavors like McLean's does. That includes lemon zest,

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