Sep 21

Sep 21 Shine on Harvest Moon

Autumn, Bread Cake Pastry, Cake, Chinese, Musings, Robert Jones

I am very sentimental ….

AMM will attest to this.

If I see a full moon, I’ll stop and stare. And if it’s a Harvest Moon, as it is this evening, I’ll stare for that little bit longer. (AMM will also attest however that I stare at space, cranes, holes in the ground, machinery and people who have no shame.)

I’ll start humming ‘Shine on Harvest Moon’ from the Ziegfried Follies of 1931. It was one of those songs my dad used to play on the piano. He was a very accomplished player and I grew up listening to the songs fo the 30’s and 40’s which he used to play on stage in the music hall in Newport.

I love the music of Harvest Festivals too. My favourite must be ‘Come, Ye Thankful People Come.’ We used to sing it at primary school, with the words, ‘All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.’ Both my grandmothers came from farming communities, and I think they must have passed on that sense of relief of preparations (agricultural or not) before any storms that may come our way.

Harvest music always sounds so sad to me? Autumn must be my favourite season.

It’s also the Autumn Equinox which means a headlong helter skelter towards Christmas.

And … with my more recent experience in mind, it’s the Mid-Autumn Festival as celebrated by at least a quarter of the world’s population.

In China, this means Moon Cakes. Traditionally given to friends, family and clients. These days you can find some pretty fancy upmarket moon cakes as people try to out-do each other.

To my mind - they are not that easy to make, so I shall forego any recipe here … I have to admit that you would also not find me queuing up at the bakery store to buy any. For my tastes, they are a bit heavy. They are normally filled with nuts, bean paste or salted egg yolk. Their crusts can be chewy, flakey or crumbly.

In case you’re wondering how we have already reached Mid-Autumn according to the Chinese, they have a fiendish and highly descriptive list of 24 lunar seasons. And anyway … it’s such a vast country, it’s bound to be mid-Autumn somewhere.

中秋快乐! as they say at this time of year.