In 2021, after a decade as a Beijing drifter, I left the capital for the sake of my mental and physical well-being and returned to my hometown of Shen County in Shandong for nearly a year.
Our Shen County is known as “China’s No. 1 Vegetable County”, with over a million mu (around 66,000 hectares) devoted to growing vegetables and fruit. One-sixth of the vegetables at Beijing’s Xinfadi Vegetable Wholesale Market come from Shen County.
● Xinfadi Wholesale Market is Beijing’s largest agricultural products market by trading volume, responsible for supplying nearly 80 per cent of the capital’s food provisions. Pictured: Xinfadi at three in the morning.
I had assumed that returning home would mean fresh, delicious vegetables – but no such luck! All I could buy in town was the same wholesale produce as at Xinfadi. Gone was the flavour of the vegetables from my childhood, let alone any hope of nutritional value.
I tried to find local ecological farms, but what I found was mostly private orchards or operations keeping a few free-range chickens – nothing doing genuine ecological vegetable and fruit growing.
What if I grew my own?
At its simplest, it could improve the meals of family and friends. At its grandest, it might gradually shift the mindset of neighbouring conventional farmers – away from a dependence on pesticides and chemical fertilisers, towards growing vegetables that taste the way they should. That would surely be meaningful.
So I signed up for Foodthink’s Ecological Agriculture Internship Programme, and spent three months interning at Xiqing Farm, learning ecological growing from the technical farmer Wang Xin.
● Wang Xin began researching ecological agriculture in 2011 and founded Xiqing Farm in 2015. He grows strawberries and a range of seasonal vegetables, hoping to use top-quality soil to produce premium crops. Click the image to read his story.
This experience taught me so much and gave me a great deal to reflect on. Below are some excerpts from my internship diary.
III. 14 Day 1: Forming Ridges
● Xiqing Farm’s strawberry polytunnel. Photo: Xiao P
I arrived at Xiqing Farm at four in the afternoon. The farm has two polytunnels, and together with the open ground in front of them, covers roughly five mu. One polytunnel grows mainly leafy greens, radishes and other vegetables; the other is given over mostly to strawberries. As soon as I stepped inside, the air was thick with the sweet fragrance of strawberries. Xiqing Farm’s star product really does live up to its reputation!
I had heard that growing organic fruit is difficult. Without insecticides and pesticides, how do you control pests and diseases on strawberries?
● The ‘2023 20 Dirtiest Fruits’ list compiled by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) of the US. Conventionally grown strawberries have held the number one spot for many consecutive years, with the highest number of pesticide residues detected. Source: onlineThe organic standard does permit the use of some biopesticides. But Xiqing Farm doesn’t even use those, and the strawberries and vegetables are still growing beautifully – I knew I’d made the right choice coming here to learn ecological farming. Today’s main task was forming ridges in the corn field: first, pull a guideline to keep everything straight, then dig and pull earth from both sides to build up the bunds. Field bunds serve mainly to mark boundaries between plots and to make it easier to channel water for irrigation. Scoop after scoop, I felt a deep calm settle over me.
03.15 Day 2: Fully Ripe Strawberries, Air-Dried Strawberries
Spent the morning in the strawberry polytunnel, examining the leaves and flowers. Wang Xin taught me how to identify and pick fully ripe strawberries: a fully red berry doesn’t necessarily mean it’s fully ripe – you need to look at the seeds. Only when the seeds on the sun-facing side have turned fully red or deep red is the berry ready to pick. Strawberries sold commercially rarely reach full ripeness, because time must be allowed for transport and storage.
● Xiqing’s fully ripe strawberries are truly mouthwatering! Photo: Xiao Yi
Picking strawberries sounds easy, but it’s really a skilled job. You have to keep the calyx intact and avoid piercing the skin – once a strawberry is bruised or punctured it won’t keep, so at first I was too nervous to touch one.
Pulling off strawberry runners, though, was quite straightforward.
A runner is a stem that grows horizontally along the surface of the soil. The lateral shoots at the base have longer internodes, and at each node a leaf, bud and adventitious root can form; once separated from the parent plant, each can grow into a new individual.
To keep the runners from growing unchecked and to lock nutrients into the existing flowers and fruit, the new runners must be pulled out every day.
● A strawberry plant sending out runners, alongside the runners just pulled off.
I had thought Xiqing’s strawberries were already the pinnacle of the strawberry world. Today I tried an air-dried strawberry – the aroma and sweetness were somehow twice as intense. Absolutely stunning.
Air-dried strawberries are similar to air-dried apricots: perfectly ripe berries that were missed during harvesting and have dried naturally on the plant. Underripe strawberries don’t taste good, and overripe ones have a poor texture and can’t be picked for sale – but after natural air-drying they develop a whole different character. These air-dried strawberries, impossible to find in the shops, are perhaps a little bonus of farm life!
III. 16 Day 3: Transplanting Corn Seedlings
Sticky sweet corn is another star product at Xiqing Farm. Customers at the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market say it’s delicious boiled or grilled.
Wang Xin has been growing corn for eight years. As with his other crops, he experiments with different varieties and management methods, hoping each year’s corn can be a little better than the last.
● Xiqing Farm’s sticky sweet corn.
Today we transplanted over a thousand corn seedlings and experienced the full process: opening furrows, spreading fertiliser, setting the seedlings, and watering. The details matter – getting the spacing right, the fertiliser rate, the planting depth, and raking the soil level before watering.
The soil in the corn plot is so soft you can dig a hole with your bare hands. While transplanting the seedlings, I was amazed by the white root hairs on the roots.
It is only when the soil is healthy that crops develop white root hairs. With chemical fertilisers or poor-quality compost, you won’t see such vigorous root hairs.
Wang Xin explained that chemical fertilisers are water-soluble and exist in ionic form. The plant’s primary and lateral roots can absorb ionic fertilisers directly, so root hairs aren’t needed. But under organic cultivation, water-soluble nutrients are scarce, so the plant relies on its fine roots to break them down and extract enough nourishment.
● The white root of a corn seedling, ringed with a circle of fine white hairs – these are root hairs. Source of root hair diagram: Wikimedia CommonsI had naïvely assumed that you could simply grow delicious vegetables without pesticides, chemical fertilisers or herbicides. These few days have shown me the difficulties of ecological growing and the high demands it places on the grower, and I feel a little lost. 03.17 Day 4: Understanding Plants, Understanding NatureToday we picked strawberries, pulled runners and harvested vegetables. There are aphids in the strawberry patch; the affected leaves feel sticky. Wang Xin said the leaves are covered with aphid eggs farmed by ants, because ants love the sweet honeydew excreted by aphids. But he doesn’t think ants are a bad thing. On the contrary, he considers them part of the farm’s ecosystem.
● Aphid shells and ladybird larvae on a strawberry leaf.
To control aphids, Wang Xin introduced harlequin ladybirds to the farm. Since then, seven-spot ladybirds have appeared too. Even ladybirds can’t completely keep aphids in check. Wang Xin says that when temperatures rise in early spring, aphid populations surge before the ladybirds have arrived. During that gap, the strawberries simply endure, running on their own nutrients until the ladybirds show up.
A strip of grass is left alongside the strawberry polytunnel, too, to create a small habitat that provides shelter for all kinds of insects and helps keep pests and diseases in check.
● Strawberry rows alongside a grass strip by the polytunnel are less affected by pests and disease, and the plants are healthier. Photo: FoodthinkThe greatest lesson today is this: ecological balance is the very foundation of ecological farming, far more important than any technique alone. You must understand plants, and you must understand nature. Whether it’s biodynamic farming, natural farming, permaculture or any other school of thought, the ultimate goal is to restore ecological balance in the soil and the fields, letting crops grow as naturally as possible.
03.20 Day 7: Fruit Thinning, Loosening the Soil
To improve strawberry quality, we’ve been thinning fruit and flowers every day – removing misshapen berries, weak fruit and weak blossoms. Clearing away weak flowers reduces nutrient drain and encourages the plant to prioritise feeding the berries that have already achieved fruit set, resulting in larger, more uniform and more nutritious strawberries.
● Flowers bloom in their own time, so the fruits end up all different sizes. Conventional growers often use plant growth regulators to make small berries bigger and big berries even bigger. Photo: Xiao Yi
Shoppers who prioritise appearances may not know that Xiqing Farm’s misshapen berries are sweeter, thanks to a plant’s nutritional compensation effect – like this strawberry, which grew into a fan shape. Wang Xin suspects its deformity was caused by the cold snap last November.
That said, there are many reasons fruit can grow misshapen. Conventional fruit may be deformed due to improper use of plant growth regulators, radiation, pollution, or pests and diseases. So not every ugly duckling is a tasty swan.
● Xiqing Farm’s very first fan-shaped strawberry. Source: Xiqing Farm
The afternoon’s task was ploughing. Ploughing means breaking up, loosening and levelling the soil by turning it over, breaking the clods and opening it up, so that seeds can breathe and grow easily. When breaking up the soil, avoid leaving any smooth, compacted surfaces, as they prevent air from penetrating and damage the soil structure.
Wang Xin says that the higher the organic matter content in Xiqing Farm’s soil, the darker it looks – and the healthier it is. When the soil is in good condition, you will usually see a soil aggregate structure.
● A soil aggregate structure is a rounded cluster of tiny mineral particles and organic matter bonded together. The surface of each aggregate is water-repellent, while the spaces between them allow water and air through. The soil feels like a sponge to the touch.
III. 24 Day 11
The morning’s work was still pulling strawberry runners. Today I focused on observing pest and disease damage. Besides aphids, Xiqing’s strawberries also have spider mite damage and powdery mildew.
● A strawberry leaf colonised by spider mites; a strawberry fruit affected by powdery mildew.Wang Xin keeps stressing the concept of ecological balance. Pests and diseases on strawberries are always present, but as long as the soil is healthy enough and the ecosystem robust enough, they won’t erupt on a large scale. A small amount of yield loss is perfectly acceptable. I recalled Wang Xin mentioning that last winter, the carrots he grew outside the polytunnel were a third eaten by blind mole rats; birds in the polytunnel peck away at some of the strawberries too.
As I said before: to do ecological farming, you must mentally accept these losses.
03.27 Day 14: Weeds
Today’s main task was weeding the corn field. The tiny weeds were barely visible, which is precisely the best moment to hoe. Young weeds are easy to pull; once they grow larger and send deeper roots, they become very difficult to clear.
Soil moisture matters too when weeding. Wait a day or two after watering and check: if your weight doesn’t sink the ground when you step on it, the soil is ready for weeding.
● Weeding the corn field.How many times you weed depends on the situation. Take Xiqing Farm’s corn: once the seedlings reach about knee height and can coexist with the weeds, there’s no more need to weed. This is very much in line with how natural farming deals with weeds. The species of weeds that grow in a field have a great deal to do with soil temperature and the surrounding environment. Remember: weeds are a vital part of a farm’s ecosystem. If an ecological farm has no weeds and the ground looks spotlessly clean, that deserves a big question mark.
03.29 Day 16: Carrots
In the morning, I planted cucumber seedlings and thinned the carrot seedlings. Just a week later, the carrots had changed enormously – growing much faster than I’d expected, with wonderfully vigorous growth. Looking at them already makes you hungry.
● A striking contrast between carrot seedlings.
III. 30 Day 17: PGS Visit
● Wang Xin answering questions from consumers. Source: Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market
In the morning, the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market organised a Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) visit for consumers to come to the farm. Wang Xin gave the visitors a detailed introduction to the farm’s general situation and the finer points of strawberry growing.
What struck me most was Wang Xin’s awareness of climate change and how he responds to it. Normally, the Spring Festival is when Xiqing’s strawberries hit their peak season, but this year production was very low, because the extreme heat in September and October last year had killed a lot of strawberry seedlings, and a cliff-drop in temperatures in November forced many plants into dormancy, pushing the strawberry season back by several months.
Wang Xin therefore made a special point about climate forecasting. Growers are best advised to make projections early in the year, draw up production plans, and respond proactively within their means – rather than waiting until problems arise before trying to solve them.
● Climate forecasting is inseparable from a grower’s day-to-day awareness of the weather. Every afternoon, what time Wang Xin drops the polytunnel’s thermal cover and how far down he lets it go all depend on his judgement of that day’s temperature, humidity and light.All well and good in theory, but it’s hard to follow through when your understanding of agriculture and climate is limited. The best place to start is training yourself to notice the subtle changes in the weather and the farm environment. 04.07 Day 25: Raising Tomato and Okra Seedlings● I water the tiny seedlings in their nursery pots.
Besides pulling runners, today I also potted up seedlings for tomatoes and okra. The main ingredients for the seed-starting mix are soil, peat and compost. Wang Xin says there’s no rigid formula – the key is to feel it in your hands and adjust until the texture seems right.
I also cleared the weeds from a small patch of ground in the corner in front of the polytunnel. The first thing I noticed while weeding was how incredibly soft the soil was. That spot hasn’t been planted for four or five years, and Wang Xin said that’s exactly the kind of soil suited to no-till.
● The little corner in front of the polytunnel that hasn’t been planted for four or five years. Source: Xiqing Farm on WeiboNo-till is a newer cultivation approach compared with conventional ploughing. The idea is to minimise soil disturbance – avoid ploughing as much as possible, leave the residue of the previous crop in place, or allow a cover of weeds to build up. In short, reduce tillage to just enough to get seeds to germinate. No-till helps preserve soil structure and enriches the insect and microbial life within it, but it has its own conditions of suitability. Not every piece of land or every crop can go no-till, and it’s not as simple as just throwing straw or weeds on top as mulch.
04.13 Day 31: The Importance of Timing
These four rows of corn are visibly shorter than the rest. They were all planted at the same time – the only difference was that the soil loosening came two days late, yet the gap is obvious. The lesson: timing is everything in farming.
04.24 Day 42: Herbicides and Buffer Zones
In the agricultural park where Xiqing Farm sits, Wang Xin is the only grower practising ecological methods; most neighbours farm conventionally. One of them, a fellow who grows commercial strawberries, often comes over to urge us to use herbicide to “lay the land to waste”. I had seen the aftermath of a plot that had been “sealed off” like that: every last Japanese hop and shepherd’s-purse plant, dead and withered. Even the farmers themselves avoid grazing their livestock near a strip treated with herbicide. Can fruit and vegetables grown with herbicides and pesticides truly be healthy?
So ecological growers must establish buffer zones to shield their land from the influence of surrounding conventional farms. EpilogueThe three months flew by. Watching the corn, tomatoes and watermelons I had planted slowly flower, set fruit, grow and ripen, I couldn’t help exclaiming: they look so beautiful! That the earth can produce so much food – it’s truly magical!
● The tomatoes are turning ripe – so beautiful!● The watermelons are growing slowly. So soothing!● After waiting three months, I finally got to eat the corn I grew myself. So fragrant! So sweet! So delicious!
Seeing the healthy state and growing conditions of the crops, and tasting the fragrance and true flavour of the food, have all strengthened my resolve to pursue ecological farming.
During my time at the farm, Wang Xin taught me a great deal and helped me sort out my direction for the future. Next, I plan to set up an ecological apple orchard back home, hoping to grow the fragrant apples I’ve longed for – the ones with the taste of childhood.
Foodthink contributor | ChaoyanFoodthink’s second-cohort ecological farming intern. Undergraduate degree in automation; a Beijing drifter for ten years, now planning to start an ecological farm back home.
About the Ecological Farming Internship Programme
At the start of 2023, Foodthink announced the recruitment for the second cohort of the “Ecological Farming Internship Programme”. In the end, 21 internship partners were passed the screening for the second cohort. They have since been gradually placed across 9 ecological farms nationwide, embarking on internship periods ranging from 2 months to 1 year. Our aim is to connect young people who wish to pursue ecological farming with established ecological farms – enabling the former to acquire practical farming knowledge and skills, while also codifying and passing on the experience of veteran growers, and helping to address the shortage of skilled labour on farms. We welcome your continued interest in the Ecological Farming Internship Programme!
Unless otherwise noted, all images in this article were taken by the authorEditor: Zeen
These four rows of corn are visibly shorter than the rest. They were all planted at the same time – the only difference was that the soil loosening came two days late, yet the gap is obvious. The lesson: timing is everything in farming.
Foodthink contributor | Chaoyan