Intercultural Life
First strawberries of the season were picked today! So once again the floor looks like this in the house. Hugh doesn’t understand my urge to stomp on the strawberries: which I would never do of course! But I’d love to squish them.
Some people love the feel of sticking their hand in a bag of rice. What weird urges do you get when it comes to food? (Please keep comments “clean” haha).
This video shows the farm getting ready for strawberry season (November to May). While other produce is dying off as the weather gets cooler, the strawberry plants are getting ready to produce super sweet strawberries.
Strawberries in Korea are very sweet but my parents-in-law’s strawberries are particularly sweet because they put a lot of effort into making sure they are extra sweet. Some other farms choose quantity over quality so their strawberries are not as sweet: be careful! The strawberries from our farm end up in department stores in Gangnam, but of course the middle man takes a big cut. The strawberries go to market first before department stores. It would be great if there was a way to sell directly and get a bigger profit but it’s not really that possible, because strawberries expire quickly and it’s a whole other business, on top of working on the farm, to do that. We may be selling some directly to some cafes and restaurants who order a lot, but the majority go to be auctioned off and then sent to department stores. The boxes usually have my father-in-law’s name on them too. Sancheong (our region) strawberries are now known to be the best in Korea, sometimes cafes have signs boasting that they have desserts with Sancheong strawberries.
And that’s how strawberries are grown in Korea! To actually grow really sweet strawberries, there are some certain things to do, that not all strawberry growers do. That’s why some strawberries are sweeter than others. Secrets!
Here are the greenhouses and the strawberries! Farms in Korea are very different to farms in Australia. Australian farms are usually very big and even hobby farms are bigger than the size of farms in this rural area. It is basically as many greenhouses as possible crammed onto quite a small piece of land.
Another difference in agriculture in Korea is that even though we are in a mountainous area, all the farming area is flat. People have farmed in Korea for thousands of years so over time these areas between mountains have become flatter. It’s really different to Australia where there has only been farms for about 200 years. Australian farm land can be a lot more rugged.
When I was showing what Mr Gwon is wearing I was going to say he is wearing “thongs” and then stopped because I realied some American viewers may misunderstand…. haha.
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