This as-told-to composition is according to a conversation alongside Kang "Kay" Soo-il, a 39-year-old South Korean national who discontinue his job and traveled, before returning residence to run a farm. It has been edited for dimension and clarity.
Eight years ago, at 31, I was living in a Korean city south of Seoul, and operating as a application developer and decorator for Samsung Electronics. Burned out, I texted my friends, "I'm quitting my job to journey the world!"
Lily, afterward my younker friend, who's now my wife, replied: "I'm additionally quitting my job." At the time, she was working as a escape attendant. The timing was a complete coincidence. We'd known all another since center school, and got rear in touch.
We the two grew up in Yesan, a agrarian town that's concerning a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Seoul. She grew up on her family's ranch anywhere they grew deodeok, or bonnet bellflower. It's a mountain base plant commonly used in Korean cooking. I lived a 10-minute stroll away.
We started courtship in January and were wed by May. A duration following our wedding, we started traveling the world together.
Newlyweds traveling the world
We started in Russia, cut through Europe, and traveled through North and South America for concerning two years from 2018 to 2020. We funded our travels alongside the funds from our work. We spent additional period in Calgary, Canada, since I'd loved it there as a study abroad student. During that twelvemonth in Calgary, we noticed how arrogant the local farmers were of their work.
In South Korea, that benevolent of ambiance doesn't exist. Farming can frequently be viewed alongside a awareness of shame. But since my wife's begetter is a farmer, she's continually taken pride in her roots.
Traveling abroad, Lily noticed that deodeok was unattainable to discover abroad. It's not an component that's extensively exported, and whenever it is, it's rarely cooked the identical way exterior Korea.
Returning to the countryside
During our travels, we additionally came to acknowledge that we preferred the calm countryside towns complete big capitals akin Paris. In 2020, we decided to come back residence and obtain complete my wife's family's farm. It wasn't difficult to get approval from her parents. They were OK alongside it from the start.
Back then, it was called Ssabdari Deodeok. It's a third-generation family-run ranch started by Lily's grandma nearly 45 years ago. At the end of 2022, we launched it as Deodeokmong, or Dream of Deodeok.
Other than assisting out my parents whenever I was young, who grew food on their weekend plot, I'd never really raised a crop from commencement to finish. We trailed her begetter at archetypal to study the basics of farming.
During our archetypal two years, we operated the ranch as usual, but I noticed that we threw out nearly 50% of our create since it wasn't appealing adequate for the market. We couldn't oversee to prolong the endeavor by marketing lone fractional our harvest. We decided to pivot by using these in famous products akin margarine cookies, lattes, and scones studded alongside deodeok.
In 2022, we additionally secured a local authorities small-business support program aid for concerning 100 myriad South Korean won, or concerning $70,000, bought new equipment, and hired a scheme studio to assistance alongside the rebrand and renovation. It took nearly a year, and we're motionless evolving the business, but the program aid changed everything.
Soon, local resorts reached out to characteristic our products in their lobbies. The Hyundai Department Store welcomed us to presenter pop-up markets in Seoul.
Older customers have told me that they affection that young farmers are keeping traditional crops alive. The younger city buyers are likely attracted to our packaging; it's not the customary old-fashioned, medicinal material you discover elsewhere.
My spouse focuses on branding, marketing, and merchandise development. I concentration on planting, farming, accounting, and making the products.
Running a ranch during raising a family
We have a five-year-old female and we're expecting our second kid soon. Honestly, I haven't established the correct balance between parenthood and work yet. I awaken up about 6 a.m., dispatch our female to kindergarten by 9 a.m., work, and whenever she comes residence at 4 or 5 p.m., I concentration on her.
My candid direction to anyone dreaming of quitting their company job to farm? Don't do it!
Farming is so difficult that it frequently feels akin a futile endeavor. But if you've deeply considered your options and won't provision up, test-drive the manner first.
Try living in the countryside for at smallest three months. If you motionless bask the lifestyle, afterward go ahead. And peruse extensively — not fair specialized agriculture guides, but endeavor and branding books. Building a contemporary ranch isn't fair concerning expanding crops; it's as complex as revenue and marketing.
