Confessions of an Organic Consumer: Seeing the Farmer Through Weeding (Part 2)
Previously (to read "Part One," please click here):
…….At Yinxuan's stall there was a wide variety of agricultural products. Brother Huang Minghan brewed tea and invited us to sit and chat, while Sister-in-law Huang was highly skilled, making all kinds of processed agricultural products according to the season: tea plums, high-mountain oil chrysanthemums, roselle, handmade black sugar, ginger mother sugar, bitter tea oil, sulfur-free daylily pickles, and so on. Every one of these processed products was made from raw materials they grew themselves. As a strict organic consumer, I naturally had to ask clearly, "Is all your produce organically grown?" Brother Huang's answers often left me confused; it seemed to combine conventional farming, organic farming, and natural farming. What was going on?……Taking advantage of this busy farming season, I made a strong effort to explore this topic in depth with the Huang couple, wanting to understand the farmer's heart.
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The first time I came to Yinxuan, it was to harvest organic oil chrysanthemums. The weather was bad, and everyone wore raincoats to pick chrysanthemums in the rain. The fragrance of those blooming chrysanthemums, the chrysanthemum oil clinging to my face and hands, made taking part in this farm work truly lucky.
The second time I came to Yinxuan, it was just before the spring tea harvest, and the Huang couple were weeding by hand, and they let me join in. Conventional tea gardens generally apply chemical herbicides (at first glance it looks like a dried lawn that has been burned by fire, very common in the East Rift Valley), and no manpower is needed for weeding. Brother and Sister-in-law Huang said they were very foolish, because chemical herbicides harm the land, so they would rather endure sun and rain and use knives and hands to weed, letting the grass fertilizer enrich the soil (that is, grass cultivation). So where were they conventional? In the chemical fertilizer applied once a year, and the low-level pesticide spraying once a season to prevent pests and diseases.
About the weeding experience last time in the tea garden with low-level pesticide use, I had especially strong feelings about it - although the weeds were vigorous and the soil was soft, I did not smell the fragrance of grass, did not feel the fragrance of the soil, and there were no moving creatures in the ground (no bugs or snails). I always felt something was missing, a kind of sense of loss.
Based on my understanding of the Huang couple, I did not doubt at all that their amount and frequency of pesticide use were absolutely far lower than those of ordinary conventional farmers, so there was no need to worry about pesticide residues. But as someone who truly supports organic farming, I kept asking, "Wouldn't it be better not to use pesticides?" It turned out that two years earlier, Brother Huang had already set aside a small plot and switched to natural farming to grow tea (no pesticides, no fertilizer). The yield was low, so the price was high (I could not bear to buy it, but tasting it was truly superb). His main distributor of more than ten years could not represent high-priced organic tea (that is, the sales channel had not yet been established).
In order to prepare for next week's summer tea harvest, Brother and Sister-in-law Huang had to clear the weeds that had grown as tall as the tea trees. They had already been working in the rain for three weeks. I, who had come to join the fun and help pull weeds, was only on my third day today. The couple divided the work and cooperated, cutting down the dense weeds and turning them into green manure. Brother Huang carried a brush cutter weighing more than ten kilograms, cutting down the tall grass between the rows of tea trees and clearing a path for the tea pickers to walk through; I was in a group with Sister-in-law Huang, pulling weeds on the tea trees and under the bushes to make it easier for the tea pickers to pick tea leaves.
Sister-in-law said, "This season, because the rain has not stopped, we really could not find a suitable time to spray (spraying in the rain not only has no insect-repellent effect, but the pesticide will flow directly into the soil and harm the land. The couple could not bear that). The insects have bitten the tea leaves full of scars, and next week's tea harvest is destined to be very low. I also do not know whether the main distributor is willing to take the tea." There was not the slightest helplessness in her expression. Optimistic as they were, they saw the heavens as granting their food; if the tea leaves were not beautiful, they would keep them for themselves to drink.
I accompanied Sister-in-law Huang row by row to remove weeds from the tea trees. Sister-in-law bent at the waist and knelt on the ground to move forward, her whole body almost buried under the bushes. She said that every day from morning to night she knelt on the ground, thanking the land, kissing the land, and that farmers' knees were all worn out. Was this not the most truly practical way of loving the land? I was speechless. They had indeed already done the greatest thing they could at this stage, cherishing Mother Earth who had raised them.
The rain was sometimes heavy and sometimes light. Although it was not very comfortable for my body to be stuffy inside a raincoat, while farming and chatting with Sister-in-law about farmers' gossip and listening to the touching behind-the-scenes stories of Hualien Good Things Market, I did not find pulling weeds too hard.
Perhaps because the humidity and cold on the mountain were heavier, by this morning my nose would not stop running, and Sister-in-law told me to go back to the tea hut to rest first. I stuffed my nostrils with tissue and continued the farm work. Sister-in-law asked me, "Do you feel that you are very stupid, coming to help farmers pull weeds with no salary?" As an urban person like me, how should I explain to a farmer the happiness we get from being close to the land among the mountain forests and seas of clouds, the joy of having our souls nourished, often still happy long after returning home. No wonder urban people popularized paying to experience farm life, which made farmers who had squatted in the fields all their lives find it very strange.
Only when the tissue could no longer hold back the nasal mucus, which gushed out like a fountain without end, did I leave early. After lunch, Brother and Sister-in-law hurried out with the team again and told me to rest at home. Watching the heavy rain outside, I cherished and worried about the couple completing their progress in the rain. (Staying indoors, my nose stopped running. I really am an urban hothouse chicken with no stamina.)
Before I ate organic, I, who loved cooking, always bought vegetables at the traditional market. A big bundle of vegetables was ten or fifteen yuan, super cheap. I could not finish it alone and often let the vegetables rot in the refrigerator. Anyway, they were cheap, and I could just buy more. After I started eating organic, because organic ingredients were astonishingly expensive (conventional ingredients were sold by the jin, while organic fruits and vegetables, and toxin-free chicken, pork, and shrimp were priced by the gram), I became very careful with food, almost never ate out, and had to finish cooking and eating all the expensive vegetables, meat, and fruit in the refrigerator.
Getting close to farmer friends, their cheerful simplicity, their perseverance in defending the land despite harsh weather, made the preciousness of organic ingredients no longer just the money I took out, but even more because of the farmers' sweat and true feelings.
I want to tell you the difference in my feelings between weeding this time and last time - this time the tea leaves were indeed a bit ugly, but the weeds finally gave off fragrance, and the strange smell left on my face from pulling weeds last time was gone.
To judge a person you must look at the heart. I am very happy to know you, who are sincere toward people and the land. I wish you smooth tea picking and tea making!