Growing what we eat, ourselves

Days of instant noodles and digestive pills

Those were days of making instant noodles because cooking felt like a chore, and heating frozen food in the air fryer. Spicy, heavy food made my stomach churn, and wheat especially didn't agree with me. I often took digestive medicine and painkillers, and once I hit my thirties, my digestion noticeably got worse. It was a time when I was thinking hard about food itself.

My husband's words

One day my husband said: "Prices keep going up, and it feels like food will get harder to come by. I'm not sure we can trust imported food. What if we farmed ourselves, grew what we eat, and sold it to people too?" He's a tidy person who never touches junk food or anything he doesn't trust. The moment I heard it, I was sure.

The two of us at the tangerine orchard.

Three standards we set

Since we were farming to feed ourselves, the principles came quickly.

And so, to Jeju

We weren't from Jeju, we didn't come from a farming family, and we didn't have savings to fall back on if the farming didn't work out. People around us said "that's amazing," but inside they may have wondered "how are they going to make a living?" Still, arriving in Jeju felt good. The sea and the mountains were close, the roads were relaxed and there was a big yard.

What was farming in happy Jeju like? Were we as happy as you'd expect working in nature, or was it starting from scratch with bare hands? That story continues in the next post.

Looking back now — the three standards we set then are still the ones MIEDEN FARM uses today when making produce and products.