Organics in China? Slowly, But Surely, Yes

City dwellers become weekend farmers on an organic farm outside Chengdu

I'm mired in deadlines and rewrites, but Dave and I have a new piece up at food and wine website Zester Daily -- which includes a slideshow -- about an organic farm outside Chengdu where we spent an enjoyable -- albeit chilly -- morning last month. The family that runs the farm is part of a budding movement, one that we look forward to further documenting on a return trip to China in the coming months.

Since this is a food blog it bears noting that our visit ended with a home-cooked vegetarian meal that was truly one of the best that we ate in while Sichuan. If you find yourself in Chengdu you can do the same. But you can read about that over at the Zester.

Have a great and delicious weekend, everyone!

Who needs meat? Our visit to an organic farm outside Chengdu finished with a tasty vegetarian meal

Comments

[Life 2.0]

This is an amazing article, both here on Typepad and Zester. Thank you for including the information about Gao and his family, if we are ever in Sichaun and trip will be routed to his farm. BTW, when traveling how do you find accommodations in SEA? Do you wing it or book through an online site?

[Bethia]

I thought you might be interested in this FT article from December. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/fb18611a-e9c9-11de-ae43-00144feab49a.html

[Albert]

happy chinese new year.

[kit]

Thank you for this amazing series of posts on Sichuan and its environs. It is beautifully, truthfully and sympathetically written while still conveying the problems and the hopes of a better China.

[Katy Biggs]

I like the idea of family rents small plots to urban householders - how else to promote a product/concept better than getting them involved? In the latter half of 1980, there was in outskirt Taipei an experimental 'Forest pre-school' - set in a nature environment and promote 'hands-on' approach of education via appreciation of land and nature. It has since developed into an HES (Holistic Education School)- a first alternative grade school in Taiwan. Anyway, at the time of 'Forest', there were several schemes related to the concept and awareness and I remember my brother drove my nephew out of town on weekends to see 'his' fish and vegetables - you paid a fee to adopt family members of 'Nature' and watched them grow. You would be amazed that some urban kids do not know banana grows on trees!

[camille]

Those dishes look amazing! What are they?

[Robyn]

Thanks Life 2.0. We rarely wing it, I don't like to hassle with lodging once I'm on the ground. We have our favorite stays in various cities, or we use something like agoda.com to book.

Thanks Bethia, I saw that when it came out. There are artisan producers all over Asia! I think most pple are aware artisan producers in Japan, but beyond that not so much. I was glad to see producers somewhere else get some press.
When we were in Sichuan we bought some small-batch sesame oil, pressed right in the shop where we bought it. No comparison to anything you can buy off the shelf.

Albert - same to you!

Kit - thank you. There is more to come. We were there 3 wks ... I've barely scratched the surface here!

Katy - interesting. There must be something similar to this, and CSA boxes, going on in Taiwan.

Camille - from very top, clockwise: napa cabbage stir-fried with dried chilies and local leeks, seaweed soup (the broth tasted like fine fish stock!), youcai ('oil vegetable') -- a sort of mustardy, slightly bitter green stir-fried with Sichuan peppercorn and a bit of chili, peanuts fried with Chinese celery (delicious!), broccoli with strips of smoked pressed bean curd, and pea shoots and tendrils with fresh wood ear mushrooms. All eaten with brown rice from the family farm and a couple of interesting condiments. Everything is described in a bit more detail towards the bottom of the article linked in this post. It was a simple, but amazingly delicious, meal.

[Nicolas Laurent]

Hi
I'm gathering informations about organic food in Chengdu on http://www.cdlohas.org
If you have any others related informations, please let me know. Thanks
In France, I used to develop CSA partnership. I was also the key-note speaker at last monday Green Drink about food safety issues and organic farming.
Nicolas