Learning the ways of the farm

My VPN has decided to be wonky at the farm, so let's see if I can write well enough to keep your attention without pictures! This post will not reflect my capabilities of written imagery, as it was meant to have pictures, so don’t look for my wordsmithing until the next post ;-)

05-22: Thursday
Ducks and hens produce 12-20 eggs a day! Hard to eat them so fast, so we give some as gifts to neighbors. Not enough to sell them, but too many for just us!

One of my projects is to help manage the Aquaponics area. I transplanted a bunch of basil into little cups with foam to float in water that flows in from huge fish tanks full of tilapia. The water has tons of nutrients and fertilizer from the fish waste. Cool sustainable system!

I had to go back to Shanghai to register with the police. This is protocol, nothing alarming, but it's definitely not well understood or known by travelers. Luckily everything went very smoothly and I didn't get fined for registering late; I was supposed to register within 24hrs of arriving in China!

Luckily Beat and Kevin had to go to Shanghai anyway because there was a Green Initiatives event that night. They invited me to tag along and I'm very glad that I did! Learned about some pretty interesting ideas. Afterwards we ate at a little hole-in-the-wall spot that had fantastic dumplings.

05-23: Friday
Went to the BioFach conference with Beat. It's an organic food conference and I was surprised at how large the organic presence is here! Lots of oils, baby milk formula (cuz of a big problem several years back), tea, mushrooms, etc. Even some hydroponics systems! Was really interesting to see, and free entry!

Lunch at a constantly busy restaurant, and for good reason! Delicious xiao long bao, some kind of Shanghainese baked bao, and cold noodles with caramelized green onions.

Came back to the farm and spent some time with little Diudiu. Huahua, the white pup, is super shy and will barely come near ppl. We'll work on that :-)

Bummed you can't see the pictures!! Not sure how to remedy this, so I will just try to write better :-P

Verdura, day 1

On Tuesday I got picked up by the Kevin, an American guy who does the Shanghai sales of the Verdura farm. We met up with the van where I met Summer, a Chinese girl, and a Chinese guy, Chenyong (sp?). We dropped off several coolers of microgreens to a restaurant on the Bund. Was really cool to see the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant and soak in the smells of their prep work :-D

Took only about an hour to get to the farm in Fengxian, south of Shanghai. Was greeted by 4 dogs, 2 are puppies, and they were all very sweet. I will be at this farm for the next 6 weeks! I'm sharing a room with Summer and Kevin, although Kevin lives in Shanghai and doesn't usually stay at the farm. Beat (pronounced Bay-ot), is an older Swiss guy who manages the farm. He is in charge and also lives in the house. The rest of the workers are Chinese and don't stay at the hhouse. There are oonly about 8 of us total!

Ate spaghetti, cabbage, and hard boiled duck eggs for dinner. We all went to bed around 9pm because work starts at 7am! I was surprised to have no trouble falling asleep that early :-P

Verdura - My intro to the farm!

Farm lunch

Microgreens! 

 

Diudiu

Lily

Summer

Ice cream with chopsticks! 

Dancing with doggies

Gangnam style

Shanghai, day 3

Woke up late. Mosquitos were super annoying last night, and we don't even know where they were coming from cuz we're on the 8th floor! Keith and I were going crazy at 4am and we finally put some insect repellent on our ears (cuz we kept hearing them buzzing) but we still got bit up! They are incredibly persistent here! 

Walked around Fudan University to get some lunch. Had Szechuan noodles that weren't particularly spicy, but my entire mouth was tingly. I thought I was having a mild allergic reaction hah. My cousin later told me that those noodles are famous for being tingly! Their name means numb and spicy! 

Went to my cousin's economics class which was really interesting. The professor is Taiwanese and there were a total of only 8 students (including me). Was interesting to sit in on the class and the professor was very laid back and engaging. 

Went back to Keith's apartment and I made him and his roommate my grandmother's Chinese noodle dish. Some friends came over and we drank chrysanthemum bai jiu, which is a very strong alcohol here. They took me out to Mural, a salsa club, and we had a great time! Makes me laugh how popular Latin dancing is in Asia! 

Shanghai, day 2

Spent the day with Li Jun, my tour guide from when I was in China in 2009. I met his wife, Ola, who is Polish and also a tour guide, and their two daughters Asia (pronounced Asha) and Zuzia (pronounced Zoojah). Asia is 4 yrs old and has no limits to her energy! Zuzia is 2 and can be very moody. Both girls are highly adorable and I had a lot of fun with them :-)  

Walnut drink

Cut up bamboo shoots for soup 

Hong shao rou (red cooked pork) 

Shrimp (still alive when put in the wok!) 

Sautéed pink and green leaves, emits a pink sauce, very pretty

Delicious strawberries

Li Jun's cooking was FANTASTIC, and I'm so lucky he let me watch him while he was making some of the dishes! I hope to be able to watch a lot more Chinese cooking so that I can learn the ways :-D 

We all took a walk around the apartment complex to exercise the dog and girls. Wore out little Zuzia, but of course not Asia! 

It was sooo nice talking and catching up, the hours just flew by! Before I knew it, it was dinner time and they invited me to stay for hot pot. I looove hot pot, and after making sure I wasn't overstaying my welcome, we enjoyed some more time talking together. So so tasty, and such an easy meal to throw together. I definitely need to utilize my hot pot at home more when I get back! 

It was really nice to bounce ideas off each other and just share perspectives on everything from work to families to similarities and differences to kids to food to travel and just life in general. Li Jun and Ola were so open and hospitable, it was really touching how sweet they were. Even though Li Jun and I only spent 10 days together 5 years ago, I've always felt close with him. When he was recounting his time with me, he said he always felt like I was from China and he would forget that I was American heh. I kept telling him in 2009 that I would come back and here I am!! They talked about possibly coming to the US in the future to do a road trip and I can't wait to be his unofficial tour guide and return the favor!