Agriculture of Korea
A look at the traditional agriculture and gardens of Korea.
Location: North Korea; South Korea
Staple Crops of Korea
Historically, Korean society valued farming as the most honest livelihood of peasants. Domesticated rice, the staple crop, arrived from China around 4,000 years ago. It was not widely cultivated, however, until the Iron Age, around 400 BCE, to the Three Kingdoms period. The cold climate of Korea made earlier adoption difficult. Even in later centuries, Korean farmers only harvested one crop per year. They quickly mastered rice paddies, constructing enormous terraces on the slopes of mountains.[1]
Before rice, hardier millet and sorghum were the staples of Korean agriculture. They continued to be grown in areas not suitable for rice. Hemp was another major crop raised for clothing and industrial uses. Over time, Koreans farms saw the introduction of potatoes, soybeans, cotton, ginseng, barley, corn, and wheat.[2][3] Rice, however, remained most important of all. A study conducted in 2011 found that 28 percent of the average Korean's daily calories came from rice.[4]
Korean Teas, Fruits, and Orchards
In addition to grains and vegetables, Korean farmers also grew fruits and teas. Melons, apples, peaches, pears, chestnuts, oranges, and strawberries are modern favorites. Many fruits have only been successfully raised in recent decades, thanks to greenhouses.[2]
Green tea, on the other hand, has been grown in Korea since 828 CE, when it was first planted by a Tang dynasty envoy. It came to be closely associated with Buddhist temples during the Goryeo dynasty. Other teas made from fruits, ginseng, and wild plants were available to commoners. Green tea remained a luxury item through the Joseon period.[5]
Ornamental Gardens in Korea
Away from the fields of the countryside, Korean nobles decorated their homes with ornamental gardens. The most lavish belonged to the palaces of kings and emperors, hidden away from the public until recent times. Unlike similar Chinese gardens, Korean horticulture focused on natural beauty. Wilder landscapes symbolized harmony with nature instead of mastery over it.[6]
Bibliography
Mun Hue Heu and Huhn-Pal Moon, "History of Rice Culture in Korea" in Rice: Origin, Antiquity and History, ed. S. D. Sharma (Enfield: Science Publishers, 2010).
Donald Neil Clark, Culture and Customs of Korea (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 105-121.
Michael J. Pettid, Korean Cuisine: An Illustrated History (London: Reaktion Books, 2008), 27-67.
Sunchul Choi, John Dyk, and Nathan Childs, The Rice Market in South Korea (United States Department of Agriculture, 2016).
Pettid, 123.
Clark E. Llewellyn, "Korean Aesthetics, Modern Direction" in Korea Style, Marcia Iwatate and Unsoo Kim, eds. (Boston, MA: Tuttle, 2007), 8-28.
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