Cycle 4 – Item 208

1 (Thu) August 2013

The Fatta the Lan

4.0

at the cabin

-Changchon, Seowon, Hoengseong, Gangwon, Republic of Korea-

with the Family, In-Laws, Nanny 8

At the cabin, we’ve started a small garden in the backyard.  My uncle, who runs an actual farm the next town over, set it up a couple months ago.  Since then, my mother’s been doing the maintenance, like weeding and watering.  My father keeps his hands off so as not to deprive others of the pleasure.  On this trip, my in-laws did the picking. The crops grow so fast that a ripe bounty is ready for harvest every week.  Our nanny washed the veggies, just a quick splash to rinse off the dust, no pesticides to worry about.  W and kids did most of the eating.  I took the photos.  Team effort.

The MIL wanted to keep things simple for dinner, so she made various dishes from the veggies.  Good call.

While I’ve always understood the appeal of eating local, even if only for convenience – I’ve tried raising my own herbs to have them readily on hand, but they never made it past the sprouting phase – I never truly appreciated the concept beyond the abstract until now.  Plucked just paces away, moments prior – not merely local, this was on-the-spot – the veggies positively popped with a palpable vim/verve/vigor/vitality/vivacity, by which I mean that they felt quite literally alive.  To use the most notable example, the cherry tomatoes were the sweetest, juiciest, tomatoiest in my experience, beyond imagination, mind-blowing, like swimming in a pool for a lifetime then diving into the ocean for the first time.  We finished them all within minutes of harvest, way before dinner.  I can still taste them, tingling tangy on my tongue.  Life is good.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

(See also RESTAURANTS IN KOREA)