I did not go on a mission to learn new things about farming, but given my predisposition towards looking for things about farming to learn, I found that I learned much in Korea. The things I learned related to such topics as solar greenhouses, small farms, kitchen gardens wherever there could be a garden, terraced farming, tractor alternatives, and new fruits and vegetables.
In the first city I lived in, Masan, we lived in a relatively tall apartment building. I don't recall specifically, but I'd guess it was about 20 stories tall. One of the very interesting things I saw there was that outside of the apartment building, along the sides of the roads, people that lived in the apartment building would till up any few little square feet of space they could find to plant vegetables. They planted radishes, greens, garlic and other things. The importance of fresh food was real. Many of the people living in the apartment grew up in the country where fresh food was part of normal life. They knew that what they could get at the market was not as fresh, nor as tasty.
Today in many places in the U. S. farmers markets are a big thing, a new thing. In Korea, that was the order of the day. If you wanted to buy food, there were no Albertsons, Safeway's, or Costco's. There were basically open air markets where farmers brought in their products on a daily basis and sold them. Refrigeration was still relatively rare where I lived, so daily purchases at the markets were in order. In Masan we had a man who did our cooking and helped keep the apartment clean. He would visit the market daily. He cooked up some pretty fantasic Korean/American food, all from the daily market, which was effectively a farmer's market.
On occassion, when I would travel between cities, I would inevitably travel through the country. During the cold winter months, I would see hoop houses, or solar greenhouses along the way. When it was getting close to dark, I would see farmers unrolling what I presume were rice straw mats over the top of the greenhouse for a small amount of insulation at night. Winter hardy vegetables were harvested all year long. These included things like radishes, certain cabbages, carrots, etc. These winter hardy vegetables were grown in the late summer and early fall. The solar greenhouses basically acted as a way to hold the good quality vegetables in suspense over the course of the winter where they could be harvested and sold as needed through the winter months. I thought it was very ingenious.
With small parcels of land, and limited budgets, Korean farmers relied on smaller scale technology. For plowing, hauling, and other farming activities that U. S. farmers would use tractors for, the Koreans used what I called a "two-wheeled tractor." These could be attached to implements and trailers. I saw them being used as the family automobile, hauling the family to market in town in the trailer. This too seemed like an approriate technology to me. I learned that bigger was not always better.
As in most Asian countries, rice growing was king. Rice is traditionally grown in a level terraced system. Often these level terraces went up the mountainside. These terraces were flooded for much of the growing season, primarily as a method of weed control. Rice is tolerant of their roots being submerged. Most other plants are not. In Korea, the summer was the rainy season, so accessing water to keep the terraces submerged was not a big problem. The paddies were drained at the end of August and in early September, the rice matured and was harvested. The first rice was a big deal in Korea. It was celebrated. The Korean "Thanksgiving" revolved around the harvest of the first rice. While not subsistence farming, the farming in Korea was close enough to subsistence farming to make me feel and understand the gratitude that they had for the food as the harvest was happening.
I certainly don't claim to have any expertise in Korean farming, the things I saw and learned made a life long impression on me. I learned from their farming techniques and approaches as well as their attitude towards and gratitude for real food.
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