My childhood memory of Christmas is decorating a tree, and eating a strawberry shortcake with my family.

Christmas is not a national holiday in Japan. They say that only 1% or less of the population are Christians. Most of the people celebrate Christmas with no religious meaning attached.

So, how all the celebration started? At first, it was celebrated within a small number of churches and foreign settlements. Then, around 1900, some department stores started to decorate their windows and sell gifts for Christmas and that was how it was spread to general public. In 1910, a cake shop called “Fujiya” invented “Christmas cake”, by using American shortcake as a base and modifying it to suit Japanese taste.

In 1974 KFC started to promote chicken as “Christmas dinner” in place of turkey.

I didn’t know, until I came to Canada, that typical Christmas dinner is turkey and Christmas cake is fruit cake…

On Saturday after the market, we made salad with three kinds of radicchios. This time of the year, radicchios are tender and mild, perfect for salad. With chopped walnuts, it was a very refreshing and satisfying side dish.

As always, we will send out a separate email on Tuesday about availability for Wednesday pick up.

This is our last week for market before break. After Dec. 20, we will be back on Jan. 31. To stock up some of our bread, please pre-order through sorafarmveggie@gmail.com or click the link to order form below. Here is the market schedule of this week:

• Island Roots Farmers’ Market: Beban Park, 2300 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, 3 – 6pm on Wednesday
• Christmas Market: AGI Hall, Gabriola, 10am – 2pm on Saturday

Have a beautiful week!