After I started to can jam, I began to feel a certain amount of peace and love in the process. I would go out early in the morning to pick the fruit with my own hands; I washed it; I culled it; I mashed it; I skillfully dodged jam explosions while stirring; and finally, I turned it into something that wasn’t only edible and tasty, but sincerely satisfying. When I open each jar, it’s like delving into my vault of memories from that day: the heat from the sun and stove; the farmers/planters/growers I interacted with; the fear I carried always that I would do something wrong. There’s truly something nice about the continuality of jamming and bread baking; something pleasant about cutting into, or opening something, and knowing that 100%, for better or worse, you are totally responsible for that product.
Now that the canning season is wrapping up, I’d like to turn my attentions more to bread baking. There are so many different types of bread that I want to try out: round crusty breads; nutty multigrain breads; fruit breads; rye breads; and beautifully braided breads like challah or a traditional Hungarian kalács--there just something so striking about braided breads. One day when I was watching Martha Stewart (don’t judge) she had some bread baker who made this stunning round, crusty bread using carrot juice, and I remember thinking that I didn’t know bread could be such a beautiful a color. I’ve been letting my bread lust simmer on the back stove for the past eight months, but now feel it’s time to unleash it in all it‘s carbohydrate laden glory.
I keep getting images of the way my house will smell this fall and winter with fresh bread baking in the over and a pot of homemade soup heating on the stove. While the temperature races back up into the 90’s in the coming days, I’ll find comfort in cozy thoughts of what’s to come.
Photographic proof of my bread baking ways:
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