Liu Gang of Little Willow Farm: Precision Management of an Organic Vegetable Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm
Farmers’ Story Collection
Farmers’ Story
Know the people who grow your food and understand what is on your plate
Featured Farmer This Issue
Name
Liu Gang
Age
Born after 1965
Farm Name
Little Willow Farm
Farm Size: 50 mu (approx. 3.3 hectares)
Location: Liqiao, Shunyi, Beijing
Education: College diploma
Farming History: Became a full-time farmer in 2013
Farming Motto: Follow nature’s rhythm and create a natural, harmonious growing environment for plants
Specialty: Delicious seasonal vegetables
Contact: [email protected]
WeChat Official Account: littlewillowfarm
– This is the 020th dispatch from Foodthink –
In January 2017, CCTV-7’s The Supply Side of Your Plate featured Liu Gang and Little Willow Farm.
Liu Gang of Little Willow Farm: Precision Management of an Organic Vegetable Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm
Oral account | Liu Gang, Little Willow Farm
Written and compiled by | Mika
Photographs | Provided by Liu Gang and the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market
Foodthink
Author
Mika
A Taiwanese person living in Beijing. Vegetarian. Interested in food and farming, the environment, health, women’s issues, and animal welfare.
A Little Story About Little Willow Farm:
Foodthink’s Mika was once volunteering at the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market when the reception stall happened to be right next to Little Willow Farm’s. She watched Liu Gang holding a small knife, slicing up freshly harvested sweet corn to hand out to people on site. An older woman took a bite and exclaimed, “How sweet this is!” She immediately dragged her neighbour over for a taste. On another occasion, Mika bought some of Little Willow Farm’s spinach and cooked it simply at home. Her family raved about it, asking whose vegetables they were and why they were so sweet. “He must have put something in the soil!” That is how this article came about—wanting to unveil the secret: what exactly has Liu added to his soil, what effort has he invested, to produce vegetables so delicious and so safe?
This article is drawn from two presentations by Liu Gang. The first was a sharing session co-hosted by the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market and Beijing Design Week at Shichahai on 24 September 2017; the second was a Return-to-Farming Youth Conference organised by the Wotu Sustainable Agriculture Development Centre in Zhongshan on 12 December 2017.
Liu Gang, a Beijing native born in the 1960s, had spent many years working for a Japanese firm. The job was stable, but he wanted a career without a “glass ceiling,” one that would not leave him vulnerable to redundancy, and one he could pursue until the age of 80. After several years of self-study in agriculture, he leased land in Shunyi, Beijing, in 2013 and founded Little Willow Farm. The farm is not large—just over 50 mu—but it is managed with great precision. Production plans are drawn up season by season, maintaining 20 to 30 different varieties of vegetables and fruit each season, while physical and biological methods are used to keep the soil healthy and suppress pests and diseases. Little Willow Farm strictly avoids chemical inputs such as herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, wax, and preservatives, upholding a philosophy of respecting nature and following its natural rhythm, with a constant effort to create a favourable growing environment for plants. Under Liu Gang’s and his workers’ diligent, careful stewardship, the farm has delivered consistent quality, a rich variety of produce, and genuinely delicious ingredients for four years, amassing a loyal following of fans and premium restaurant clients—and “has never made a loss.” It stands as a model of success among new-generation farmers.
Freshly picked vegetables from the field need only a simple seasoning to become a delicious salad, and he kneads dough to bake pizzas for friends in a brick oven he built himself. As Liu says, a farmer who cannot cook well is no good. Using his own produce to create good food is his pursuit.
In fact, Little Willow Farm has long been celebrated by consumers and fellow farmers as a leading example of the “technical school.” Liu Gang himself classifies his farm as “skill-intensive intensive agriculture”—an approach that emphasises the technical dimension of ecological planting and, on that foundation, improves both labour efficiency and land productivity. His most important skills can be explored through the following four areas:
1
Annual Multi-Variety Planting Schedule
Every year, Liu Gang prepares the following year’s multi-variety production schedule in advance. There are two important reasons for this. First, as a professionally oriented, production-focused farm, the most critical task is ensuring a stable supply—at least ten varieties of vegetables must be delivered every week to guarantee variety on the customer’s table. Second, for an ecological farm, growing only one or two crops means that, without the option of using pesticides, a single pest or disease outbreak could wipe out the entire harvest. Diversified planting is therefore an essential method of risk mitigation.
To plan and execute production with greater precision, Liu Gang has divided the farm’s 50-plus mu of land into 30 separate plots, each assigned a code. Taking a single 50-metre unheated polytunnel as an example, he has divided it into 12 zones, each growing different vegetables according to local climate and crop-rotation systems; typically a single tunnel carries four to six vegetable varieties. At the same time, Liu Gang classifies and lists the vegetables he wishes to supply each month, drawing up a detailed sowing plan in advance to ensure a rich selection of vegetable varieties for customers every month.
Each season requires a meticulous planting schedule to ensure that more than 20 varieties are in production at any point during the year, giving consumers and restaurants plenty to choose from.
For instance, the pesticide-free growing season for small bok choy in Beijing runs from April to July, so staggered sowing can begin in February; solanaceous vegetables such as tomatoes have a growing season from June to October, so seedlings are raised in successive batches in February and March. Staggered planting spreads the risk of pests and diseases and ensures a steady, continuous supply each week throughout the growing season. Liu Gang sums it up: for CSA farms on the urban periphery, simply listing the crops you intend to grow each season makes it clear which vegetable varieties should be sown and when. This ensures each season produces a sufficient range of vegetables while also giving farm workers clear instructions and boosting efficiency.
Intercropping and relay cropping of different crops.
Trialling different varieties requires stakes and labels for identification.
It may sound straightforward, but because so many varieties are grown, the farmer must understand the characteristics of each one, and in practice it demands a great deal of knowledge, observation, and experience, along with the willingness to reflect on setbacks and mistakes and draw lessons from them. Liu Gang notes that Beijing’s spring is dominated by oilseed brassicas, and the key trait of these crops is that “if temperatures remain below 5°C for more than 700 hours, the plants will bolt.” So if a late spring cold snap arrives and, following the plan, sowing took place in February, the crops might bolt before the April market opening—unsellable. To guard against this, Liu Gang typically takes two measures: first, “covering with cloth to retain warmth”; second, “raising seedlings indoors.” The farm plants seedlings individually in specialised containers, places them in an unheated polytunnel at about 5°C, and lays electric heating in the ground to raise the temperature. The seedlings grow for 30 days, and once temperatures rise in March, they are transplanted to the open field, thereby avoiding bolting.
Recording and mastering temperature is the key to vegetable growing.
Another challenge is that in April, temperatures inside Beijing polytunnels can reach 30°C. If water and fertiliser are applied, the crops grow rapidly. The originally planned harvest window was April to June, but as temperature and moisture rise, growth accelerates. Once the vegetables grow too large, customers will not accept them, and the farm’s actual harvest window shrinks to just two or three weeks. To address this, Liu Gang’s solution is staggered sowing, which both guarantees a steady supply between April and June and maintains the size and appearance that customers expect.
These examples show that for a farm to operate continuously and deliver a stable supply, it must rely on precise production planning, and in the process of drawing up that plan it depends on the farmer’s command of so many aspects of the farm environment—facilities, temperature, humidity, sunlight, and crop growth characteristics. Not a single detail can be overlooked!
Thanks to this meticulous planning, Little Willow Farm has more than 20 vegetable varieties available for delivery every week. Liu Gang lists each week’s produce in Chinese, Japanese, and English in a spreadsheet and sends it by email to subscription customers.
2
Soil Health Management
Liu Gang says that ecological agriculture follows a sequence, and the most important first step is “soil health”—once the soil is healthy, crop roots can dig deeply. But healthy soil calls for more than compost alone; it also requires “solar wellness.””
What is “solar wellness”? In simple terms, it involves two steps:
Step one: After ridging, place well-composted, carbon-rich compost into the soil and pour on plenty of water to seep through.
Step two: Cover the soil with plastic mulch to seal it in.
A diagram of Liu Gang’s own “solar wellness method.”
This process produces two effects. First, water in the soil evaporates during the day and sinks at night; turning the soil from top to bottom distributes the fertiliser more evenly. Second, once the soil’s “accumulated heat” reaches 1,000 degree-days (measured at a depth of 5 cm in the centre of the soil; the daytime temperature should reach 50 °C, and 20 consecutive days amounts to 1,000), the soil generates abundant “natto bacteria” and “actinomycetes,” while grass seeds on the surface are also killed off entirely.
The “solar wellness method,” which originated in Japan, may sound laid-back, but it rests on rigorous scientific principles. First, the main carbon component in compost is glucose; after exposure to sunlight and fermentation, it breaks down into monosaccharides, which further produce alcohol in the soil, thereby corroding seeds (such as grass seeds) as well as pests and diseases. Second, the anaerobic fermentation simultaneously produces carbon dioxide (see the chemical formula below). The gas, trapped under the plastic mulch, expands and loosens the compacted soil base. As a result, at transplanting time the plants are able to send their roots much deeper, absorbing nutrients in a more balanced way.
C6H12O6 (glucose, a carbohydrate) → C2H6O, C2H6O (alcohol)
The two carbon atoms and four oxygen atoms released during fermentation form CO2 (carbon dioxide).
So where, exactly, does the compost material for “solar wellness” come from?
The main raw materials Liu Gang uses for his improved compost are fallen leaves and rice straw, rather than the animal manure or nitrogen fertiliser people typically associate with farming. He believes purely plant-based fertiliser has many advantages over animal manure. Most animal manure today comes from industrialised livestock operations, where the animals are generally fed antibiotics and hormones that are excreted before being fully metabolised, accumulating in the faeces and readily contaminating the soil. In addition, in industrialised farming, cattle and pig feed often contains added metals such as copper sulphate and zinc to boost lean-meat yield. However, 90 per cent of these added metals cannot be absorbed and are passed out by the animals, increasing the risk of heavy-metal contamination in the soil.
Fallen leaves spread over the soil surface not only gradually break down into organic fertiliser but also serve the same function as plastic mulch in suppressing weeds and retaining moisture.
On the other hand, overuse of nitrogen fertiliser invites swarms of pests and also raises the risk of excessive nitrates in vegetables. Using fallen leaves to make compost (the composting period typically lasts up to six months) helps maintain soil moisture, suppress pests and weeds, and mimic the natural environment by supplying plants with trace elements. In northern China, burning fallen leaves is prohibited in winter; the farm collects and makes use of them, which is kind to the environment and saves on growing costs. It truly benefits everyone: the state is satisfied, customers are satisfied, and the farmer benefits—what is there not to like?
3
Pest Management
By using compost to improve the soil, Liu Gang has suppressed pests and diseases to the greatest extent; so far, no nematodes have appeared. However, in the farm’s first two years, there were persistent problems with aphids and two-spotted mites. After several years of observation and study, Liu Gang has distilled a low-cost, high-efficiency approach to pest management. First, “learn to observe”: aphids typically first show up on shepherd’s purse flowers, and once they are spotted it signals that the farm’s cucumbers will soon be affected—this is when lactic acid bacteria fermentation solution should be sprayed. Second is soil “moisture management”: aphids tend to appear during dry spells, so keeping the soil adequately moist at the right time greatly reduces their incidence. Third is spraying a homemade protective solution on a regular schedule.
Liu Gang mixes lactic acid bacteria fermentation solution, bicarbonate of soda, and other ingredients to make a plant protective solution, sprayed weekly to strengthen the plants’ natural disease resistance.
The following two are protective solutions Liu Gang commonly uses and that are easy to prepare:
Name
Lactic acid bacteria fermentation solution
Natto bacteria AI solution
Raw Materials
First three rinses of rice water (0.5 L), brown sugar (20 g), salt (2 g)
1. Yogurt (2 L), yeast (200 g), brown sugar (2 kg), warm water (40 L)
2. Natto from various brands (3 packs), warm water (1 L)
Fermentation Method
Leave in a cool place for two weeks. Once the lid is opened and gas escapes, test with pH paper—when it reads 4.2 (acidic), it is ready.
Liquid 1: Keep warm at 35 °C and ferment for one week.*
Liquid 2: Blitz with a high-speed blender, then aerate and expand-culture for three days**.
Mix Liquid 1 and Liquid 2, keep warm for three days, and it is ready to use.
Application
Dilute 200 times and spray onto the leaves.
Dilute 300–500 times; spray once a week.
Shelf Life
A full year
Natto bacteria lose viability within two to three days; it must be mixed fresh each time before use.
*Warming tip: Insert an aquarium heating rod into the bucket until the temperature reaches the low 30s (°C). After one week, once the liquid changes colour, it is done.
**Aerobic fermentation: Place aquarium aeration stones into the fermenting vessel.
4
Daring to Break Convention and Improve Processes
In Liu Gang’s view, some conventional farm-management practices need not be set in stone; what matters most is that they meet the farm’s actual needs. For example, it is generally assumed that after a crop is harvested, all plant residues must be cleared away before fertilising and replanting. In practice, though, piling these organic materials outside the tunnels pollutes the environment and looks unsightly. So since the year before last, Liu Gang has been experimenting with burying the residual stalks in situ in the furrows between the ridges and immediately starting a new round of sowing and cultivation. This approach saves a great deal of labour and also helps maintain soil fertility.
In addition, Little Willow Farm also uses a mini-tiller made by Chongqing Honda. The machine’s advantage is that it can cope with extreme cold and heat alike. Beyond trenching and turning the soil, it can also be used for weeding. Liu Gang notes that the spacing between ridges in his fields is exactly 80 cm, which matches the width of the weeding wheel. Fitting the rotary weeding wheel and making one pass removes most of the weeds; the remainder are then cleared by hand. In summer, doing this every two to three weeks keeps weed pressure well under control. Clearly, judicious use of auxiliary machinery can make fieldwork far more efficient and save the farm on labour.
The Honda mini-tiller Liu Gang uses costs just over 4,000 yuan per unit, boosting production efficiency and reducing physical strain.
Over these years of farming, through platforms such as the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market, Liu Gang has also come across quite a few new-generation farmers like himself. He classifies them into three types: the hobbyist type, the technical (model) type, and the skill-intensive type.
- The hobbyist type is someone driven by passion, who grows vegetables for their own consumption without calculating profits and losses;
- The technical type also has a passion for farming, but will either hire technical experts or follow someone else’s production methods; within this category, further distinctions can be made by scale, energy input, and growing method;
- The skill-intensive type involves low capital outlay, intensive use of labour, the ability to develop one’s own tools, and continuous improvement. Little Willow Farm is a representative example of this type. This also shows that entering agricultural production is no overnight achievement; to maintain a farm’s sustainable development, new-generation farmers must diligently and tirelessly acquire knowledge, develop skills, accumulate experience, and keep refreshing their techniques.
So it turns out that while ecological agriculture may appear to have a low barrier to entry, it is in fact not only labour-intensive but absolutely technology-intensive as well. Achieving a healthy cycle of development and sustainability is far from as simple as most people imagine!
Over the years, Liu Gang, who is highly proficient in Japanese, has read and studied a large number of Japanese agricultural books. That stack, half a person tall, has all been turned into the farm’s productivity and delicious vegetables!
In 2013, Beijing TV’s Fortune Stories featured Liu Gang, the “lo-ha farmer”.
Want to meet Liu Gang? He attends the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market every week. Follow the market’s WeChat official account, CountryFair, and you’ll get to see Brother Liu and other farming friends at the Farmers’ Market!
Scan here
Follow
Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market
If this article hasn’t quite given you your fill and you’d like to know more of the technical details behind Little Willow Farm, keep following Foodthink. We will be revealing more of Brother Liu’s labour-saving, high-efficiency vegetable-growing secrets:
- How to make your own seed-raising mix;
- A simple, efficient method for sowing maize;
- The three types of fertiliser used when transplanting chilli seedlings;
- An illustrated guide to making your own plant protection spray.
Our thanks to the Fertile Soil Sustainable Agriculture Centre for compiling and sharing this. More to come.
Farm
– About the Farming Friends’ Story Collection –
Farming is probably the most important profession in the world. Without farmers, we would have no food. Yet they remain the most invisible group of people. The urban–rural divide and the lengthy supply chain have turned food into a commodity on a supermarket shelf, with the producers behind it and all production information entirely erased, leaving consumers with no way of knowing.
Practitioners of ecological agriculture (including organic agriculture in the strict sense) represent an even more “marginal” and little-known group within the farming community. Beyond the intensive management and labour the agricultural techniques themselves demand, they typically also face sales pressure, market surpluses or shortages, capital squeeze, and even unregulated competition from fellow practitioners… In an era when large-scale, monoculture chemical agriculture reigns supreme, these small-scale ecological farmers stubbornly go the other way. Each carries their own intricate, bittersweet blend of experiences — “farming” is, like life itself, full of ups and downs.
Foodthink hopes to sketch out the experiences and ideas of those working in ecological agriculture through the Farming Friends’ Story Collection series. Whether through oral accounts, third-person perspectives, or pieces created by the farming friends themselves, our aim is to help people get to know these food producers, understand where their food comes from, and recognise that agricultural growing takes a wide variety of forms around the world. We also hope to encourage interested readers to go a step further in befriending the farming friends, choosing the ingredients that best suit their needs, and supporting their work.
– Recommended Reading –
↑ Click the text to read the full article
– You Might Enjoy These Articles –
The Right Way to Tackle Smog? Support Ecological Agriculture!
Rooted in the Soil, Free as a Bird — A Homecoming Youth’s New Year Vision
How Do Delicious Strawberries Come to Be? Peek at Crazy Farmer Wang Xin’s Field Secrets
Schools and Development of Natural Farming and Organic Agriculture in Japan
Part One of the Japan Food Dispatch: Nakado Farm — The “Sturdy Backbone” of Japan’s Mountain Dairy Farmers
Part Two of the Japan Food Dispatch: The “Miracle Cow” and the Cattle Farmer in the Land of Ama
Part Three of the Japan Food Dispatch: Permaculture in Japan: A Lifestyle That Doesn’t Exploit Humans or Nature
A New Path for Seed Protection: Escaping the Corporate Whale, Rekindling Public Value (Part 1)
A New Path for Seed Protection: Escaping the Corporate Whale, Rekindling Public Value (Part 2)
Future World Foodie’s Guide (Part 1)
Future World Foodie’s Guide (Part 2)
American Mega-Farm “Invasion” of Britain Sparks Controversy
What’s So Good About Organic Farming? Can It Feed Us?
New Research Finds China’s Organic Farming Generates 2 Billion Yuan in Annual Environmental Benefits
Slow Thinking After Slow Food: Speaking for Farmers or Endorsing Commercial Capital?
Why Should Food Be Slow? They Gave These Answers at the Slow Food Congress