You know the rest. Except it isn’t Old Macdonald, it’s old Kim or Lee or Park. Everywhere there’s a bit of land that isn’t covered with a home, an apartment building or business, the Koreans have turned into a source of food. I’m amazed at how resourceful they are and able to grow things in the smallest of places.

This guy has turned his smallish front yard into a cattle pen. There’s actually two cows there; a smaller one is laying down in front of the hay bale, it’s brown face just peeking out on the right. Most of the valley, any valley, is criss-crossed with stone walls similar to the one below his farm. I’ve often wondered how many people it took, how many years to build and how many years they’ve been there.

This lush wheat field is just a few 100 meters from my neighborhood. Cheonsang is just a small suburb that is built into the one of the many valleys of Munsu Mountain. Just past the point at which roads would be difficult to build, the farms take over. The wheat field is atop a short rise that makes for a nice green contrast from the stark white highrise apartments in the background. This patch of wheat is no bigger than a bus, but will give some old woman another bowl of foodstuffs to sell on her sidewalk grocery.

Further along the narrow valley, on the more gentle slopes, pear orchards abound. These require some serious infrastructure to hold them up as these are Ulsan Pears. Each pear is larger than a softball and can weigh almost a pound each. Grow a few of those on each limb and you can see why they need reinforcing rods and pipes to hold them up. They’re called Asian Pears back home and they absolutely rock! If you haven’t tried one yet – don’t. It’s better to save your money and get a fresh one here.