Plum Happy - Gwangyang Maehwa Village

 Spring is almost here and I am 'plum' happy! A few of us girls, and strictly a few because we are still under 'no more than groups of four' restrictions, couldn't wait to see the beautiful Maehwa Village. Maehwa means plum blossom. Maehwas symbolize nobility and patience in the Korean culture. They also signal the beginning of spring.

As you can see, they are gorgeous. The maehwas come out a few weeks before the cherry blossoms, but they look very much the same. We were a little trigger happy; they were just starting to bloom.

There is a story about one lady named Hong Ssang Ri who planted these maehwa namu, or green plum trees along the Seomjin River.

The trees began to thrive, and the family developed many items from fermented plums. It currently covers 200,000 square meters and 10,000 trees. Today it is a booming business for this village, taking in over 4 billion won ( $3.6 million US dollars) each year. The village offers green plum medicine, ice cream, alcohol, tea, jelly, soybean paste, red pepper paste, pickled green plums, and more. Hong Ssang Ri has developed over 30 kinds of organic products from the plums.

The tiny little village is lined with murals and mosaics and stories.

Theresa, me, Lulu, Kate

According to legend,  Japanese military forces were threatening invasion along the Seomjin River into northern Jeolla in 1590 when a large swarm of toads blocked them from crossing.  The river is named from this event. 'Seom' means toad and 'jin' means ferry in Chinese. A plaque in the village told of a story about a toad carrying a virgin across the river. It was so exhausted that it died on the bank; the virgin buried it in the garden by the river and held a ritual in its honor every year. This story makes sense that the river is called 'toad ferry.' Apparently there is still a toad mating spot in this area and massive amounts of toads arrive in the spring.

The plums are called maesil. Hong Ssang Ri calls the blossoms her daughters and the plums her sons. Her nickname is 'Mother of the Plum Blossoms' and she brags, "I have more sons and daughters than anyone else in the world." 

Ssang Ri was married at 24, in 1966, and moved here with her husband. She worked hard for her in-laws and wasn't very happy with her life. She contemplated running away on more than one occasion but thought she heard the blossoms whispering, "Stop crying, Mother. You can live here with us." That is why she claims the 100,000 trees are grown with her tears.

When Ssang Ri first arrived, her father-in-law had about 2,000 chestnut trees and a few green plum trees. The family made more money from the chestnut trees at the time because the plums were bitter and the trees were thought useless. There are still a few chestnut tress on the hills. Here is a picture of chestnuts growing on a tree.

They look like little hedgehogs on the ground.

Hong SSang Ri was lonely and thought people would visit the little mountain village in the early spring if there were more plum blossoms to view. After persisting for 11 years, she convinced her father-in-law to switch to plum trees for a living. The taste of green plums is bitter and dry, but she researched and experimented and made the aforementioned products to sell. In 1994 she opened her orchard to tourists with no admission fees. Today over a million visitors come each year. 

Hong Ssang Ri fought two cancer battles in her 20s, had to use crutches for over 2 years due to arthritis in her 30s, and had stooped posture for 7 years after a traffic accident. She recovered from all of it, giving the credit to her organic pear concoctions. Without even completing middle school, she had a vision for her maehwa farm, self-studied all things plum, and created a $3.5 million business after coming back from bankruptcy. She's a pretty amazing woman.

Cheong Maesil Farm has over 2,000 traditional Korean onggi pots (which look like kimchee pots, but they house fermented plums instead of kimchee) where the food, condiments and medicine are created and preserved for six months to a year. The organic acid from the fermented plums has many medicinal uses, such as fatigue recovery, detoxification, and sterilization to name a few. There is even a name in Korean for the area where earthen pots are gathered, called jangdokdae.

Some blossoms are a deep pink, some are white, and some are a light pink. This tree was unique because half the tree was dark pink and the other half was white.

Right in the center of the gorgeous plum blossoms lies a small 80-year old bamboo forest.

The green bamboo and pink blossoms next to each other create a beautiful colorful contrast.

Kimchee/onggi pots can be seen peeking out beyond the bamboo.

Lijee made fun of me because I took a picture of rocks. They reminded me of the story Sylvester and the Magic Pebble that Grandma E used to read to us kids.

In the middle of the hill you will find a bunch of statues. You can barely see this one in the bottom middle of this picture.

Here he is up close.

It is my understanding that there are poems written on these stones with carvings of people. I had a hard time translating and I couldn't find any info on it. I'm assuming at lease one of these is Kim Cheong, the father-in-law and original farm owner.

We stumbled upon a couple thatch-roofed houses near the statues.

This was the feel of this tiny village; an old, stooped over man slowly wandering through the trees, tending his orchard. We saw an older lady walking through and I wandered if she was Hong Ssang Ri.

We finished off the trip by having lunch at the quaintest little restaurant.

They served us a shot of 'wine coffee,' service.

[February 24]

Update:

I went back a week later, with another small group of 3 different ladies, just as amazing, hoping to see more blossoms. There were a few more, but it was still not in full bloom.

We asked someone to take our photo for us. We received posing instructions. When the Koreans tell you how to pose, you do it. The phrase is, "Don't mess with Texas," but I think the original phrase was, "Don't miss with Koreans when taking photos." Mb and I are making 2 big hearts with our arms and Lotte is making a little heart with her fingers.

Mb, Lotte and me

When we got up close to this formation, we discovered it is made of old clam shells from the Seomjin River. It is called jaecheop, which means clean water (fresh water) clams.

That wraps up the maehwas. Next up for spring flowers: cherry blossoms.

[March 5]