Today, July 7th, is “Tanabata” or “Star festival” in Japan.

It is based on a legend: Vega, god’s daughter and a weaver, and Altair, a cattle herder, fell in love and got married. They were both hard workers but once they got married, they stopped working and started idling away. God was upset and split them apart to the two banks of the Milky Way. (The red star below is Vega and light green one is Altair.) Only once a year on July 7th, they are allowed to cross the Milky Way and reunite with each other.

As a child, I heard this story and believed that the stars would actually move and meet each other. Every year I wanted to see them but July 7ths were either cloudy or I simply forgot and never had a chance to witness…

To celebrate “Tanabata”, people decorate bamboo branches with colorful pieces of paper. They also write their wishes on paper strips and hang them on a bamboo branch, which is said to make the wishes come true.

Cabbages are thriving in our garden right now and what we crave for at this time is “Okonomiyaki”. It is a cabbage based savoury pancake. “Okonomi” literally means “as you like” and you can add anything – meat, shrimps, fish, mushrooms, etc. This is what we had for lunch last Sunday. Click here for the recipe.

Season is changing rapidly. Peas are over except some last batch of snap peas. Cabbages and zucchinis are thriving now. For our farm gate sale this Wednesday at 10am-1pm, we have cabbage(6), snap peas(4), zucchini(2), beet(6), radicchio(5), salad mix(6), komatsuna(4), chard(4), 4 kinds of lettuce (see photos)(4), kale(4), collard(4).(Prices are in bracket). We also have some herbs (thyme, oregano, sage, tulsi) growing in our garden, available to order. Please place an order by the end of Tuesday through sorafarmveggie@gmail.com, or just drop by and let us pick what you would like. Address is 1820 Seymour road, Gabriola Island.

You can also place an order and pick it up at the Wednesday market, which runs at 3:30pm – 5:30pm at AGI hall.

We are going to take a break from baking bread for Wednesdays. We will bring delicious veggies but not bread for Wednesday markets until further notice. If you would like to purchase our sourdough bread, please come to Saturday market, or let us know if you need another pick up arrangement.

Have a beautiful week!