Green Food From Our Hainan Farm Land 我们农田的绿色食品

Elder brother-in-law TK brought me to see their farm land. The paddy field is quite a distance away. I pillion ride on his motor cycle to the location.

The huge land has been divided into plots for each family in the village. Our plot, which is tended by my second nephew's wife, yields about 1200 katis (600kg) of rice yearly. Besides the family's own consumption, the rest of the grains are fed to the poultry.

My sister-in-law and her second daughter-in-law are the traditional hardworking Hainanese women. They planted most of the crops on our land. They are busy all day, hardly taking a rest.

During my stay, I had a taste of home grown kang kong (water convolvulus), brinjals, bottle gourd, long beans, chives, papaya, tomatoes, sugar cane, sweet potato leaves, bamboo shoots.... etc. No chemical fertiliser is used. Wow.

One afternoon when I woke up from my nap, my nephew went to chop a stalk of sugar cane for me to snack on. It's been a long time since I had fresh sugar cane to gnaw on. It brought back fond childhood memories. I enjoyed chewing on the delightful snack, and spitting them out on the land. haha.....

Love the feeling of picking the vegetables fresh from the land and cook.

Papaya which is 80% ripe was shredded and stir fried. It tastes sweet and it's so tasty with porridge that I ate almost all of it! Both TK and his wife just watched me eat and smile.

TK and his family are very simple folks, they live simply, they eat simply.... they eat whatever they grow and raise from their land. Fearing that I might not get used to the food, the family would visit the open-air market outside the village to buy seafood or pork for me.

TK is a great cook. He can cook tasty dishes from simple ingredients. If I had more time, I would love to stay on longer to learn to cook from him.

大伯一家人热情接待, 煮了很多美味家乡菜让我尝尝。大嫂和她的二媳妇是传统的中国女性, 每天辛勤持家。我们土地大部分的农作物都是她们种植的。她们一整天忙碌，几乎没有空闲的时间。

我们的土地上种植的蔬菜有: 韭菜、蕹菜、茄子，瓠瓜，长豆角，木瓜，番茄，甘蔗，番薯叶，竹笋等....没有使用化肥农药。哇! 好喜欢那种从土地新鲜采摘蔬菜的感觉。

一天我午睡醒来，我的侄子从自家土地砍了一根甘蔗, 把剥了皮的甘蔗砍成一段一段的让我啃。啊! 好长一段时间, 没有吃甘蔗了。我拿起一截，用牙齿用力的咬一口，放在嘴里使劲的嚼。甘蔗汁多味甜, 甘蔗渣就吐在地上, 吃的不亦乐乎。童年的记忆。呵呵。。。

为了我, 大伯还去村外菜市场买海鲜和猪肉煮给我吃。大伯, 大嫂和他们的二媳妇每天为我做饭, 每天都有不同的菜。

大伯很会做菜, 他可以使用简单的食材烹制可口的菜肴。如果我有更多的时间，我很想留在家乡向他学习煮家乡菜。