Sun-dried shallots

Paradise: when the sun is out and you have a whole square to dry your harvest.

Baaad Pooh

This is what happens when Winnie the Pooh is caught raiding the vegetable garden.

Mui Wo's organic secret

Don Latter from Dragontail Farm holds his Mui Wo Mini Farmers' Market from 10.30am to 12.30pm every Sunday at 13 Rural Committee Road. The produce is picked in the morning from his farm in Luk Tei Tong just down the road so it is as fresh as fresh can be.

Here's a sample of the stuff on sale. I stole a photo when Don wasn't looking. He he...

Don sells organic vegetables, fruits seeds and Dave Sanders and Bing Law's book Growing Food in the City and his prices are really reasonable for organic stuff: HK$15 can get you a huge bunch of sweet potato leaves.

Organic farm

I learnt a new phrase during the Japan tsunami: agricultural polytunnels. And we spotted what looked like some outside Luk Tei Tong recently.

Turns out it was Mabel's Roselle Garden, which sells organic produce.

Mabel wasn't in when we passed by but we'll be back in hopes of snaring those really fresh greens.

Oh oh... someone's in big trouble!

But I guess it's really the fault of the vegetable patch owner for not keeping the fence in good repair.

Tapioca tales

Tapioca always gets bad press. The locals have bad memories of eating nothing but tapioca during the Japanese occupation and the expats have bad memories of soggy tapioca puddings.

But when they're freshly steamed or boiled in lightly salted water, they are delicious.

I bought HK$15 worth of the tuber off the woman by the pier and dined on the woody sweet chunks dipped in brown sugar the whole day. Yums!

Return to the lands

Mui Wo has its roots in farming and fishing. And while fishing may be dying a slow death, at least it looks like farming is enjoying a revival.

We haven't taken a walk by the abandoned fish farms (don't you love the phrase? It smacks of "meet you by the abandoned fish farms, Batman" gags) for a while so we were pleasantly surprised by the thriving vegetable farm that has appeared there.

I bought some pak choy from the woman at the pier at HK$10 a bundle. Wonder if it came from this farm?

Sustainable living fair

We were walking through Chung Hau village when we spotted a huge crowd outside the art place, The Workshop on Rural Committee Road. Local entrepreneur Siu Ming was holding a Sustainable Living Fair.

She was selling organic produce from her garden in Nim Po Tsuen and giving free samples of her roselle tea, a refreshing beverage that's packed with vitamins.

She's also the distributor of So...Soap! which is made in the New Territories by farmers and housewives seeking some extra income for their families. The cakes of soap are HK$48 each and the bottle of bath and hand soap are HK$88 each.

Incidentally, Siu Ming is also going to be conducting classes on beekeeping and how to make organic fertiliser from buffalo poo.

There will be another fair next Sunday at the same place. Details are in Lantau Link.

You can contact Siu Ming on 6020-8829 or siuming@sosoap.com. She speaks English.

Buy local produce

Rub unpeeled beetroots with salt and thyme, drizzle with olive oil and a touch of balsamic vinegar, bung in oven at 200 deg C for 45 minutes... yum!

Feeling hungry yet? This Pui O farm next to the buffalo field has fresh beets for sale: 9261-4472.

By the way, don't throw the leaves away. Boil then up with some sliced pork for a nutritious vitamin-packed Chinese soup.