Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884

This Side of the Pond

Notes from an Uprooted Englishwoman

I was for some reason discouraged from clambering on the bouncy castle at the Pumpkin Patch festival this weekend, and I was apparently “too old” for the pony rides. Even so, I had a lovely time perusing squash and watching a clever man make shapes out of stretchy balloons.

I’ve always enjoyed the fall, even before I was introduced to the idea of pumpkin spice. The temperatures are cool enough to enjoy the outdoors (I can’t help it, I’m still a delicate Brit when it comes to sun), the land is covered in calming golds and reds and the harvest is ready to be stored.

This is farm country, so it has never surprised to see canned beans, bottled salsa and basket upon basket of apples at this time of year. Something about those tenderly grown goods makes my heart swell, and always has, because the produce may be different, but the reasons to be thankful stay the same wherever you are.

Back home, we celebrate the earth’s bounty each year in the form of Harvest Festival. There were fewer horse and cart rides, at least in my own experience, but just as much eating, drinking and merriment.

I’ve heard it suggested that Harvest Festival in modern times is as close as the UK gets to our own Thanksgiving. Apparently, the early settlers brought the idea of harvest thanksgiving across the ocean and it transformed over time into the turkey extravaganza we all enjoy here today.

Meanwhile, back in the old world, we’re still sticking to the ancient timing we’ve always followed (and we still keep hold of our turkeys until Christmas Day). The timing difference is down to the pagans many centuries ago, who scheduled their festival calendars according to the Harvest Moon.

The Harvest Moon is the full moon that falls closest to the autumn equinox, so named because its light allowed farmers to work into the night to gather their ripened crops. It’s usually somewhere around the end of September, but we’re getting there earlier this year – September 13 and 14 for our hemisphere.

Harvest Festival itself is meant to be celebrated on the closest Sunday to the Harvest Moon. Though it’s been going on since long before Christianity (even the name comes from the Old English “haerfest”, meaning “autumn”), today it is championed mostly by the church and culminates in St. Michael’s Mass (or the Feast of the Archangels).

The celebrations include church services, farmers’ markets, the making of corn dolls or hares using the final sheath of the harvest and huge, decadent feasts, often with roast goose as the main dish. As it’s intended to be a reminder of all the good things God provides, many churches also take the opportunity for a food drive.

The bounty of harvest is piled high to be distributed to those who need it most. In more rural parts of the country, it’s common to see baskets of fresh eggs, swathes of corn and wheat, freshly baked bread and more, surrounded by fresh flowers and stacks of tinned goods.

I have memories of trotting up the aisle of my own church with a can of tomatoes in one small hand and a package of soup in the other. I was still quite short at the time and I remember feeling immense gratitude to the adult who helped me put them at the top of the pile without having to mountaineer there by myself.

As it’s precisely the right time for one of my favorite harvest recipes, I thought I might share a very British way to make use of all the apples ready to drop from our local orchards. This particular version is straight from my home county and is pretty much our official dish: Dorset apple cake.

This recipe was intended for British bakers, so you may need to adjust for altitude (you can do this by reducing sugar slightly, adding a little extra butter and/or increasing oven temp by up to 25 degrees).

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and grease and line an eight-inch round tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl, mix together eight ounces of self-rising flour with two teaspoons of cinnamon.

Add four ounces of unsalted butter and rub into the flour using your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in four ounces of light brown sugar, then beat in an egg followed by six to eight tablespoons of milk until you have a smooth, thick batter.

Peel, core and dice eight ounces of cooking apples, stirring them into the mixture along with 3.5 ounces of dried fruit. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin, leveling it out and sprinkling two tablespoons of Demerara sugar over the top.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden in color and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool further.

The cake can be served warm as a dessert with cream or ice cream or stored in an airtight container as a snack. You probably won’t need too large a tub, though, as it seldom lasts much longer than an afternoon.