Strawberry - Organic Farm

So Last Tuesday we went to the organic strawberry farm my school always brings the kids to in spring. It looked much better than last time because they had remodelled the site to make it more visitors friendly. It was already a nice place, but now it was even better.

Yes. I have a huge forehead. Get over it. But in all honesty, I think the photo somehow stretched it .... there's literally a good 2 cm more than my real huge forehead. There's more to love I guess?

It's the second blog entry I write about this farm, but luckily, it's the first one I write on this site, so I trust it might make it less redundant and more interesting.

Aiden, Steve, Crystal, Ellen, Ellie ( with her mask to protect against the yellow dust - thank you China ), Alexis, Jaena, Yvonne, Elly

When we got on site with all the kids - actually two kids were missing on the trip, one sick, and one away with her family - I got them to line up to take silly pictures while waiting for the people to lead us to the site. We have beautiful kids.

There is alwasy that thing. When you see kids, they rarely seem as nice as when they are "your" kids. People feel that for their family member, but as a teacher, I get the privilege to feel that way with lots of different kids. I often see other teacher in Korea posting pictures of their kids, and can't help but feel a little indifferent to the singular beauty of every one of those nameless kids... and it makes me sad to know that people looking at my pictures will probably see my kids the same way as I see theirs....

The place we were lead to was the same building as we came in last year, but this time, it was not juste a wodden floor with nothing to it, there was an actual kitchen-counter area all dressed up with pictures of their strawberries.

An insight into the fertilization area of the place, where they use bees to make strawberries come out in winter when there are little flowers to visit. The starberries we picked were in the building on the left side, where the man in red was coming from on the pictures above.

Our babies, again. That picture wall is beside the counter I showed you earlier.

I saw this type of strawberry farm in Japan when I went with my brother before, and I totally fell in love with the idea. Strawberry picking at its best, clean and effortless. And delicious. The plants are laid out on long tables and the dirt at the root of the plants are covered with black plastic. I wish I knew how to do this, it'd be a great idea to bring back to Canada. While I doubt the cold winter would allow us the Asian style winter strawberries, at least that would be less back-straining than our regular strawberry picking traditions....

Beautiful, red, tasty strawberries, that hang loosely from their trees, with the space to grow big, and the lack of dirt inprinted on one side of the fruit for staying on one side too long.

The strawberry flower is my favorite flower. Did I ever mention that? Let roses in the earth, I love strawberries.

Elly left the hagwon after that field trip, but she was really happy on her last day with us, walking around the strawberry paths.

Ellie looking at a strawberry as if it were a golden nugget. And the boys looking in awe at the discovery. I want to be a child again.

Hard to hate her. Yvonne, my favorite. I love this child. She is very clever, but has never let go of her child heart. She is hard to get to work for this reason, because she is still in her own world and enjoys the beauty of the world around her at the same time. I need to get her to finish up things, but I am happy she gives me a hard time doing so, as it shows her spirit is still free in a country where a children's minds are enslaved to sad school desks from age 3.

Alexis the genius. Speaks better than the average American teenager, with as much self-importance and haughtiness, and as much need to share everything she learns. There is none like her.

Ellie is an artist at heart. If it's not worth being pretty, she puts no effort. But shen she does she makes things precious. Just like how she picked strawberries of exactly the same size in her basket.

#strawberrypicking #hangingstrawberries #Korea #teachinKorea