Have you watched or participated in “Bon-odori”?

It is a dance event hosted by communities all over Japan during “Obon”, which is from August 13th to 16th. At this time, it is believed that spirits of the deceased come back to visit their families to spend some time together. “Bon-odori” is an event to have fun during this time of family reunion as well as to remember and show respect to ancestors and deceased relatives. The spirits most likely join the fun, too. If you ever have a chance to participate in it, don’t be surprised if you see more people than head-counted…

This year we have planted some vegetables as experiment and gobo(burdock) is one of them. While they were small, the leaves were eaten by someone but they survived and were growing well. Roots are what we eat and we are supposed to harvest in the fall before frost. Last week, we noticed that someone was eating the roots, one by one. There is no damage to the plant above ground and seems like someone was eating from underneath. Is it mouse, or mole, we don’t know, but we decided to harvest now. They have a deep earthy flavor and really nice in soup or stir fry. We will grow more next season and hopefully, we can bring to the market.

Potatoes are here! Our potatoes are German butter potatoes, which has dense, nutty, buttery flavor. They are good for baking, roasting, mashing, frying, almost anything. They go well with butter or oil, with herbs such as rosemary, parsley, dill, thyme, oregano… are you hungry now?

One of the easiest and quickest way to cook potatoes are pan-roast with olive oil and herbs. Click here for the recipe of Pan-roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary.

For our farm gate sale this Wednesday at 10am-1pm, we have German butter potatoes(6), cucumber(2), salad mix(6), zucchini(3), kale(4), collard(4), chard(4), yellow and green beans(5), eggplant(3) (Prices are in bracket). We may have small amount of cherry tomatoes, too. 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 4pm – 6pm at AGI hall.

Have a wonderful week!