In most places in Asia, the Mid - Autumn Festival is so on this week. Most countries celebrate it as a thanks giving for the rich harvest and for some - honoring the autumn moon. South Korea is having their Chu Seok, China is probably having their Mooncake festival and Japan - their Tsukimi.
We, in Holland however, have it already - all started since last week and I went to one of them. I went to the Organic Gardeners Organization's Harvest Festival - where it wasn't just gardening, fresh harvest and partying I got but a whole lot more of the Netherish'/ Dutch's culture, food and arts and some sort of a Roman period reiteration.
This is what greeted us when we got there. A whole array of shops and a great lot of organic gardeners and happy guests.
I first went to the bread and soup shop since it was lunch and scored myself a spiced spelt bread and a chicken soup. I saw these coconut shells and thought they'd serve the soup on it but it turned out that it was just for display.
Next to it is a poppertjes shop. Poppertjes are Netherish' traditional teeny tiny pancakes that are cooked on teeny tiny iron mold pans. Hub bought one and the lady stuffed flags on them. That's how the Netherish/Dutch eat their finger foods - always with a flag toothpick. She warned us that it was hot but before she could even finished talking I've already stuffed one in my mouth and started blowing on it because it was really burning hot.
Next to it is a teeny tiny green house of what seems to be alfalfa growing inside it.
Take a peek at what it looks like inside it.
I love the details that its artist put together in it. These teeny tiny barrels filled with garlic cloves, the gardening tools on the other side and the gnome with all those boots and wooden shoes. They're just too cute to not be noticed.
Next to the stall where the poppertjes are being sold - is demo of how apples were juiced back then in the Roman period. With this machine - a man holds a lever on it, turns it around and the mill-like thing at the bottom grinds the apples and makes the juice.
They gave us both a glass and explained that those were from organic apples they've adopted that had already bore fruits this year. The owners of the apple trees happen to run out of space in their public garden to grow the apples so they adopted them, took care of them and profits from the harvest as well. I noticed these two glass containers waiting to be filled and caught the sight of a bike parked in the orchard just behind the stalls and stuffed toys hanging on the trees.
The stuffed toys are clues for a sentence puzzle children would have to solve by going around the Roman garden, the orchard and the stalls for letter and clues like this.
I went to one of the stalls that sells spices and herbs and saw these hanging decors of dried garlic and wheat.
A woman dressed on a Roman costume approached the vendor and I couldn't help but notice her outfit so I took and good look and asked here where so got that costume when all of a sudden a man dressed up as a knight pulled her and told me I can't just talk to her empress. Agast, I didn't know what to say and an old guy standing beside us explained that - they're on a role play during the whole festival and women in the Roman period were not allowed to talk so the guy did what he did. " Really? I sure am glad I existed in this time"; I blurted out.
I lost hub in the crowd and a bit later he came back with these two gnomes.
I looked for the stall that sells them and found a whole array of hand crafted gnomes and tea light holders beautifully arranged on their stall.
Then I also saw these two guys rolling what seem to be empty honeycombs into candles. They explained that bees have had a huge role in providing night lights way back. Among the crowd I noticed a lady holding what seem to be a cart.
When I went closer, I saw that she's actually sellin' tea or coffee. It was a summery day but pretty windy and chilly turns out some of us could use some. So that's how tea and coffee used to be peddled before.
Later on I realize that there were kids dressed in Roman outfits and they look so cute. And that kid's wearing the traditional Netherish/ Dutch wooden shoes! So cute!
And so are some adults and I struck a pose with the emperor and his men.
A harvest party is no harvest party without the fruit of the grounds. Here are a few of what's left being sold since the rest were all sold out.
Some men were making the traditional Netherish dish - "zuurkool" their own version of coleslaw just sour. They explained that this is how they do it - traditionally - using such a huge scrape board - that has had the guy's hand sliced for sometime. I haven't tried it though .
We thought it was all just stalls and demos of how they used to do things way back then but when we checked out the stall at the end far from where the apple juice was being made, we saw another row of stalls selling Kurdish and Turkish food and the thought of baklava -made me hungry. We bought Kurdish spinach roti instead . Every food booth offers FREE TASTES. This is a traditional Netherish/ Dutch gesture when selling food. I love that about them!
I went to the store across from the Kurdish food stall and found kids Chess sparing with some adults. One of them is even a girl. How cool is that ?
This boy was nailing it till he lost his queen - a very important character in chess! Turned out - they have adults chess on Mondays and kids chess training on Fridays. I'm loving the Organic Organization the more! It's not just gardening they are into - chess, too! I'm not very good at chess, I'm better at Chinese checkers but if you have a regular sparing practice - then - practice would help improve. I ate my Kurdish spinach roti watching the game. The boy lost - but he played a heck of a chess game! It was awesome to watch!
I noticed what seemed to be two old trash cans with wood burning in it tended by some teens.
Curious, I took a look. It was actually an oven!
The very last stall is from a group of boy scouts and cab scouts who were letting us make our own pizza. We could choose to have salami, ham, bacon, tuna, pineapple, cheese , paprika and mushrooms for toppings. These were one of their costumers happily and patiently waiting for their pizza to get cooked. Takes 15 minutes to get to do that.
Hub and I made ours, too. I put mushroom, pineapple and paprika on mine - not much of the cheese for me - they make me windy. Hub on the other hand had a tuna, plenty of cheese, paprika, a bit of pineapple and mushrooms. All for 1 euro.
It was such a wonderful and educational day. I went home with a very full tummy and a bag of organic zucchinis and cucumber. And this tomato, the lady selling the pumpkin soup gave me one. The very moment we got in the house, the heavens poured. Whew! Thanks God it waited till the Harvest Festival is over.
How about you? How do you guys celebrate Mid Autumn Festival in your part of the earth? This is just one way of doing it in Arnhem. Almost every month, festivals and gatherings take place in this bitcoin city. If you would like to know how else do we have fun on this side of Europe ...
HAVE A WONDERFUL MID - AUTUMN FESTIVAL TO ALL WHO CELEBRATES IT!
