How Many Skills Does a Gen Z Farming Novice Need to Learn on an Ecological Farm?
I. From Textbooks to the Fields
To some extent, intuition drove the decision. I felt I had at least a passing foundation, since during my university studies in Landscape Architecture I had taken botany modules and learned about plant biology. Yet stepping into the fields for real gave me an entirely different feel for nature and plants.
The farm spans over 80 mu (roughly 5.3 hectares) in total, with just over 20 mu (about 1.3 hectares) dedicated to cultivation. The main workforce consists of two experienced growers and two women. When I first arrived in March, the roadsides were still bare, with only the fields and greenhouses showing any hint of green.
What struck me deeply happened on the afternoon of my very first day. Yuan Qinghua, the farm’s manager at Le Xian Gu, took me on a tour. As we walked past the vegetable plots, he simply plucked pea shoots, Hangzhou bok choy, and kale, popping them straight into his mouth to chew. Back home, you’d rinse market vegetables several times before feeling safe to eat them. Here, however, the transition from soil to mouth happened with such effortless, seamless naturalness.
Later, as I joined the farm workers to clear weeds from the fields and verges, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the names of certain weeds I had forgotten after university gradually came back to me with every swing of the hoe.
What stayed with me most vividly was that in early June, patches of lady’s-tresses began to sprout across the lawns. I had only ever encountered them in books and photographs before. Observing them up close for the first time, I finally appreciated the remarkable order of these little flowers: tier upon tier ascending upwards, beautiful from every angle yet each bloom distinct in its own right. Yet on the lawn, their fate was sealed; they would inevitably vanish beneath the mower. Reluctant to see them disappear, I carefully transplanted over a dozen into pots and positioned them at the entrance to the Five-Senses Healing Garden in the farm’s western section. Fortunately, most settled in beautifully, extending their blooming period for some time longer in their new surroundings.
II. Labour Is Creation
On my very first day, under Mr Yuan’s guidance, I worked alongside a child of another farm member to build a wooden frame from scratch—from finalising the design and cutting the timber to assembling and nailing it together. The farm’s strimmers were also in a constant cycle of breaking down and being patched up. During the busy weeding season, the modest toolshed effectively transformed into a repair workshop, where I would daily spot Mr Yuan bent over his work, tirelessly tinkering away.
One day in April, a fierce gust of wind ripped more than half the roof off the farm’s large wooden cabin. Pooling our efforts, we managed to repair it without enlisting any ‘professionals’. It was my first time climbing onto a roof to hammer in nails. At first, I was too frightened to even scale the ladder. Once I’d got the hang of it, I could navigate up and down with relative ease, though my thighs still trembled from fear.
Looking back on these three months at the farm, alongside the various “repair jobs” large and small, I also took on a wide range of other tasks. When it came to decorating, I helped update and paint the farm’s directional signs, and painted over a few tyres. I also finally got the chance to try things I’d long wanted to do: raising Chinese herbal seedlings alongside the team, helping to transplant young corn and bean plants, making mugwort and mint balm and a homemade mosquito repellent, watching hydroponic seeds gradually sprout, fermenting kombucha, and even steaming buns and baking croissants.
Through this hands-on work, my awareness of the surrounding physical environment sharpened considerably. What stayed with me most was a high-temperature composting system in the western sector of the farm. A loop of water pipes is buried inside it, and the heat generated by the decomposing material warms the water as it flows through. This means the water coming out of the connected tap is hot. At the time, I was struck by how clever the concept and design were. I later found out that because the farm operates on permaculture and natural farming principles, its layout is deliberately designed to foster a self-sustaining cycle of material flow across the site.
III. Days with the Animals
Later on, I began to notice which wild plants they preferred. Sometimes, while weeding the surrounding area, if I spotted a particular grass, I’d detour to feed it to the sheep before returning to my work. Eventually, I started watching the lambs nurse. When they got the milk, they’d wag their tails vigorously with delight—a reaction not so different from that of a happy puppy.
There are indeed a few dogs on the farm. Spend enough time with them and you’ll quickly realise they each have their own distinct personalities. Yet they all share one habit: every morning, when you look out through the glass door, you’ll find them lying just a short distance away. The moment you push the door open, they’ll abruptly lift their heads and trot straight over, tails wagging.
Halfway through the internship, the wild grass within the originally fenced sheep pen had been largely depleted. As the season turned, weeds began to thrive across the rest of the farm, making it necessary to lead the sheep out to graze.
When I first took on this task, I was eager to lead the flock out each morning, only to find myself embroiled in a tug-of-war with several stubborn ewes.
These creatures are remarkably vibrant and full of life. The barriers we erect are often rendered meaningless by their sheer tenacity. The rams snap their tethers time and again to leap into the ewes’ enclosure, while the lambs invariably find a way to squeeze under the fence to nibble on the chilli seedlings in neighbouring vegetable patches. The newly arrived ducks routinely scale the fences we believed would keep them contained, turning up in the roadside ditches just as we’ve concluded they’ve gone missing. Even the raccoon dogs passing through manage to bypass the traps, slip into the chicken coop, and help themselves to a feast.
IV. The Courage to Explore the Future
But the vegetables themselves are wonderful, and it brings genuine joy to know more people can enjoy them. This is why, beyond the daily farm chores, I’ve come to love working the market stall. I enjoy the conversations at the market and that warm sense of fulfilment when people appreciate what I hold dear. It’s a significant shift, considering that for many years prior, even striking up a conversation with a stranger filled me with dread.
The combination of farm and market work seems to have created a space where I could truly open up. I was surprised by this transformation myself. From this perspective, the farm has undeniably offered me a wealth of possibilities. Here, I can openly admit what I cannot or struggle to do, while also testing my limits to see what I can tackle or even master. Before arriving at the farm, I was tentatively searching for my next life chapter without a clear path. I still cannot say I’ve found a definitive direction, but these three months have undoubtedly given me greater courage to keep exploring what lies ahead.
Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme
To date, four recruitment cycles have been completed, supporting over 60 participants in securing placements across more than a dozen ecological farms nationwide, undertaking internships ranging from three months to a year.
Editor: Zheng Yuyang