Fresh as can be

The chickens are raised in a big range, where they have plenty of space to run about.

When you are visiting, you can try out a meal made with organic vegetables in the canteen.

They make a braised chicken and brown-braised pork belly slices out of chickens and pigs they feed. The chickens are raised in a very big range, where they have plenty of space to run about. Pigs are raised for at least a year, while most pork elsewhere goes to market in less than six months. Their sty looks clean and the pigs look strong and healthy.

Cherry tomatoes and cucumbers are served raw. They do smell and taste better than those you get in the vegetable market, and fried celery tastes much better here than anywhere else.

Some typical Chinese country-style dishes are fried leek, fried egg and deep-fried Chinese pepper leaf dipped in flour. Even steamed bread tasted better, because it was made with fresh flour produced by farmers.

Another highlight of the meal was the farm's fragrant and delicious homemade bean curd. The farm hires two experienced villagers to make bean curd in a simple mill. They first soak soybeans in water, and then grind the beans to make juice. The remains are soaked in hot boiled water and reground a second time.

They then boil the soybean juice to a seething point, and add brine to thicken the mixture so that it can take shape. The soybean juice was put in a clay urn, and an elderly woman poured in brine little by little, slowly stirring the juice to mix well.