On Wednesday Maya and I trekked to Houshajian to check out Emi‘s farm. From the Beigongmen stop on the far NW end of Line 4, we rode the 330 bus for an hour to its terminus outside the northwest corner of the 6th ring road.

我下个星期三去后沙涧看我朋友絵美的农场。去地铁4号线北宫门站然后汽车330号到小村在西北6环。

Emi rents her plot of farmland from a larger collection of farmers mostly associated with Little Donkey Farm, an organic CSA jointly operated by the Haidian government, Renmin University and Green Ground Eco-Tech Center.

絵美的农园是小毛驴农园的一部分。小毛驴农园是一个社区支持农业（CSA）工程经营海淀区政府，人民大学农业与农村发展学院， 和国仁城乡科技发展中心。

Though it felt like the crack of dawn to me, we arrived well after the other farmers had finished their lunch so we took the recommendation of one of the Little Donkey Farmers to eat at at Lu Ya Tian Yuan in a nearby village. Maya asked them to cook up whatever was freshest so we were served a rare seasonal treat of fried squash blossoms accompanied by a lightly fried tree leaf that tasted bitter and somewhat basil-like, along with some exceptionally fresh doufu baicai soup.

我们到的时候，絵美的朋友推荐了绿雅田园，她很喜欢的饭馆。在绿雅田园我们吃了特别新鲜的西葫芦的花，有点苦的树叶，和豆腐白菜汤。

squash blossom / 西葫芦的花

bitter tree leaves / 有点苦的树叶

pigs and (semi) free-range chickens / 猪和自由放牧场的鸡

While Emi tracked down some tools Maya and I scoped out the local fauna. Little Donkey Farm raises pigs and chickens in a relatively free-range/”organic” environment. While I haven’t seen many Chinese farms outside of extremely rural contexts, I imagine LDF’s setup has to be fairly rare and humane for Beijing. I bought some farm-fresh eggs on my way out that taste noticeably better than what I’m used to from Jingkelong, without much of a price hike at all (LDF charges 18元 for a dozen eggs).

小毛驴农园也有猪和自由放牧场的鸡。我在中国没看到过很多农场（只在云南的在非常小村看见过)，可是我觉得小毛驴农园比别的在中国的农场人道。我买了他们新鲜鸡蛋，很便宜的（18元／12个）还有很好吃的。

Most of the colorful summer tomatoes and corn stalks were gone. We harvested some baicai, string beans, green peppers, and radishes from Emi’s plot and fertilized the sweet potatoes, which will be arriving in droves come November. Emi is also working on some carrots and eggplant that will make for a delicious Autumn harvest…

这次夏天的庄稼（玉米，西红柿）都没有。在Emi的小农园我们收割白菜、青豆、绿色柿子椒、白萝卜和胡萝卜，并且给甘薯施肥。今年秋季应该有特别好吃的作物。。。

—–

* This post was originally written 4 September 2010 by Josh Feola, cross-posted from 旁边儿 pangbian’r.