August in New England already begins to taste like the beginning of Autumn. This time of the year when fruits and vegetables are ripening in the last rays of summer's sun, Farmer’s Markets are held all over the place.
In the church car park near where I was living at Connecticut University, 5 or 6 local farmers hurriedly put up street stalls to sell their home-made produce. Corn, strawberries, peaches and home-made bread are some of the items on sale.
In America bread is not the same as what we in Japan would think. Anything baked in a square tin is called bread. Cranberry Bread baked with lashings of summer cranberries is something I often bought and enjoyed. Indeed something I would have liked to have called a `cake` not `bread`!
Cranberry is just like the name suggests, it is a member of the berry family. It is a shiny crimson red berry just slightly larger than the Rohdea Japonica that is well-known in Japan. It is found in large numbers in the northern area of New England. They are as beautiful as jewels but are hard and sour to eat. That's why they are used in cakes... I mean, breads!
Mix together eggs, butter, sugar and flour. Add to this the ruby-red cranberries and walnuts. This help make it mellow. Pour all this into a loaf tin and bake in the oven. When you begin to smell the sweet-sour fragrance of the cranberries it is just about done.
Sun-ripened cranberries develop their flavor even more in the heat of the oven. Even the hardest of the cranberries doesn't resist the blade of the knife upon cutting a freshly-baked loaf. The fresh sour after-taste helps bring together the fullness of the rich sweet bread.
Farmer's Markets disappear in the twinkling of an eye with the start of Autumn. Try some cranberry bread in the last embers of summer - it is perfect with tea, English or herb! Slice the bread into thick slices to match the flavor. And if you look close enough at the leaves on the trees outside the window you may notice them starting to change color.
|
Back to Top