A day at a Korean Farm.

Last weekend I went on a field trip to Damyang, a smaller rural community about 45 minutes northeast of Gwangju. We did a variety of things, but we stopped at a small organic farm tucked in a very beautiful valey in the mountains. The owners had a variety of crops....absolutely beautiful blackberries. I picked a ton of them and enjoyed eating them for a few days afterward. This lady was the blackberry gestapo. She made sure you didn't pick any unripe ones!
The farm also produced a variety of products but mainly honey, blackberries, tofu and some pastes and powders made from hot peppers grown there.

As many of you know, Phil and I started a bee hive this spring and we now have over 10,000 "pet" bees. We enjoy watching them and caring for them so I was very interested in seeing how the Koreans raise bees. Their bee hives are smaller than ours - only about 1 ft. square. They use paper as a sort of hat which I think is to keep the rain out of the hive.


Phil and I eat a fair amount of tofu. In Korea it is a very common dish and you always see it in a variety of flavors and textures.
While at the farm the owners made a batch of Tofu for us. It was an interesting process. Basically you start with pre-soaked soy beans. These area ladled into a grinder which pumps out paste.


The water for this process comes from a small mountain stream that is running close by this spot. The paste is re-scooped out of the bucket and run through the grinder--THREE TIMES! When the consistency is just right, the paste is transferred to a huge kettle of boiling water. The fire was HOT and the man had to stir it non-stop for over 30 minutes. Bean paste cannot settle and has to be brought to a full boil. The stuff foams up and runs all over the place.


When the tofu has been boiled, it is poured into a bag which is squeezed with a paddle. The liquid that comes out of the bag is Tofu and what is left in the bag is the bean husks and other thick gunk.
The liquid is poured into a box lined with cheese cloth (I think) and it is moved and prodded so the extra water drains through and the curd is left. The end of the process yielded 24 chunks of tofu-each weighing over one pound.



I had never eaten "hot" and really fresh tofu. It wasn't bad...although I prefer it cooked with other things. It was an interesting day and I enjoyed getting out of the city for a short while. It also was very interesting to see how the small plot farmers are doing quite well in this area. This farm was completely organic...something that is new to Korea. I was told that many farmers are thinking of making the change because the produce sells for much more---just like in the US.